Calder Promise (Calder Saga 8)

“Are you?” Laura countered, giving his statement another meaning. “I’m not sure about that yet.”

He drew his head back, a wariness leaping into his eyes. “What’s this? A game of hard-to-get?”

“You misunderstand.” She lightly ran her fingertips under the lapel of his suit jacket. “I’m not really hard to get, but I am very hard to keep.” Laura caught the startled look that flashed into his expression as she turned back to face the others.

At that moment, Tara spoke. “I’m really curious to see the rest of the house. Would it be rude of me to ask if you could give us a tour, Sebastian?”

His attention was on Laura, and she knew that he had noticed her talking to Boone. With an effort he shifted his focus to Tara.

“Not at all,” he replied, smoothly gracious. “We could go now if you like.”

“Wonderful.” Tara immediately returned her nearly empty coffee cup to its saucer and stood.

“You can count me out,” Max stated. “I’ll go up to my room instead. I’ve got some papers to go over. Touring houses is women’s stuff, anyway.” He pivoted his wheelchair around and pointed it toward the doorway. It started forward, then stopped as he fired a look at Tara. “If it isn’t late when you come up, stop by my room. There’s something of mutual interest I’d like to talk to you about.”

The request caught Tara off guard, which showed in her failure to immediately respond. “Of course, I will,” she said, recovering her aplomb. “And I doubt I’ll stay up very late.”

“Good,” Max said with an emphatic nod, and the motorized wheelchair carried him out of the room.

With eyebrows raised, Tara glanced at Laura. “It obviously must be business. I doubt if it’s anything serious.” She lifted her shoulders in an eloquent shrug of unconcern and looked to Sebastian. “Shall we begin our tour?”

“By all means,” Sebastian agreed. “The small sitting room is just across the hall. We might as well begin there.”

After the somewhat stiff formality of the main sitting room, the smaller one had a definitely cozy and more casual air. With its eclectic mix of furniture styles, patterns, and colors, and an artful scattering of unrelated objects, it was a room that made no pretense about its purpose: to be a comfortable spot for the family to gather.

From there it was on to the music room, with its collection of instruments that had all been played by one member of the family or another. Tara took a turn at the grand piano and pronounced it in need of a tuning.

A ballroom took up much of the west wing’s first floor. It was essentially bare of furnishing except for a few chairs hugging the wall, and its air had that stale, musty smell of a room that had been unused for years. Sebastian explained that he had been a lad of nine the last time the family had entertained on such a grand scale.

In addition to the library, there was a gentleman’s study for conducting the estate business and an east-facing morning room for breakfast. Sebastian showed them another room that he said his mother had used as her office. Then he opened a double set of doors that admitted them to a game room, complete with card table, dartboard on the wall, and billiard table. Boone gravitated immediately toward the latter.

“This is a beautiful table.” He ran a hand over the smooth slate top, then stepped back to give it an overall look and glanced at Sebastian. “Do you play pool?”

Helen laughed at his question. “Billiards is a passion with the whole Dunshill family.”

“Do you play, too?” Boone frowned, not entirely certain what she meant.

“I do,” she said with a proud and smiling lift of her head. “In fact, I even won one of our family tournaments a few years ago.”

“Quite a few years ago,” Sebastian inserted dryly.

“How about we have a game?” Boone suggested, a challenge in his eyes.

Not immediately answering, Sebastian turned to Laura. “Do you play billiards?”

“I have played, but my skill is strictly that of an amateur,” she admitted without apology.

Helen promptly spoke. “We could play partners, Sebastian, and she can be on your team.”

The implication that Sebastian was that good was not lost on Boone. Laura caught it, too. “I’m game if you are,” she told Sebastian

“Why not?” He seemed amused at the prospect of the two of them against the world.

Laura sensed Boone’s displeasure with the arrangement. But she also knew his combative nature wouldn’t allow him to pass up the opportunity to compete head to head with Sebastian.

“I’ll rack ’em up,” he said and laid the triangle on the table, then set about collecting the billiard balls.

“As interesting as the outcome of this game might be,” Tara said, “I think I’ll leave you all here and go see what Max wants to talk to me about. Have fun.” She lifted a hand in farewell and exited the room.