She glanced at the fax machine, remembering Fiona's icy tone, then looked at the chunky alarm clock ticking loudly on a shelf behind the shopkeeper. It was twenty minutes to eleven o' clock. Decision time.
"Can you tell us where the cottage is?" Sebastian asked. He looked back at Amy, taking her hand and squeezing it, reassuringly.
"I s'pose so, I'm not sworn to secrecy or owt, and I knew one of you London types would come after him eventually. Heard about it on the news. But I do have my living to earn." He leaned both hands on the counter and looked at them expectantly.
Sebastian whipped his wallet out of his back pocket. "While we're here…" He smiled, and winked at Amy. "We'll take a bottle of that port you recommended. In fact, make it two. We can't arrive at Quentin's empty handed now can we?"
Amy blinked. It was really happening, things were happening at last.
"And champagne, if you have any, we may need to celebrate," Amy chipped in, unable to contain her smile.
The shopkeeper began to move at the sort of impressive pace that had hitherto remained unseen, beaming heartily to himself.
Her stomach grumbled, loudly.
Sebastian grinned at her. "I'd maybe better get us a snack to cover for the absence of breakfast?"
"Best barmcakes this side of York," the shopkeeper announced, gesturing to a dome-covered tray behind the counter. "The wife makes them."
"He doesn't miss a trick, does he?" Sebastian whispered.
"No, and lucky it is for us."
He nodded at her remark, looking at her with warmth and affection.
She knew yesterday that she loved him. Now she could see the answer in his eyes. Sebastian really did care about her.
She reached into her bag. "I'll go outside and phone my senior…I'll
explain the situation." With him looking at her that way, even talking to Fiona was somehow insignificant now.
"Tell her you've got your scoop. I'll get some food and the directions," he whispered, then grabbed her as she turned away, phone in hand.
"What, oh—"
His kiss was hurried but full of passion, making her blood rush and her heart trip. He drew her up against him for a moment, before he patted her on the rump and nodded his head at her, smiling. "You got your lucky break. You found him."
Yes, I found him, she thought, looking into his eyes, her heart racing.
Chapter Sixteen
Sebastian watched Amy, proudly, and hopefully, as she walked up the path toward the ivy-covered cottage. She glanced back over her shoulder at him and put her hand on her chest, pausing. "I'm nervous now."
"You'll be fine."
"What if he wants to be left alone, I mean…he didn't come out here to the wilderness to have journalists banging on his door."
"Remember what we discussed on the way over here. Explain the concerns about his unexplained absence. We happened on him by chance, didn't we?" He winked.
She turned to him and on impulse ran back into his arms. "Thanks, Sebastian, for everything."
Her upturned face had an unnerving affect on him. The way it fired all his cylinders was no surprise, not now, not after it happened every time she looked at him. He was getting used to it. It was the rest that unnerved him, the concern he felt, the pride and the affection. To see her winning with this task she had set herself warmed every fiber of his being. He smoothed back her hair.
"Do I look okay?"
"You look terrific, you always look terrific, but you especially suit the bed tousled look."
Her eyes widened, her hands quickly attempting to pull her clothes into some sort of order.