“Done?”
A strange look flashed across Maria’s face, erasing any sign of her humor. “Pardon. What he was going to do, that’s what I meant. You see, Tessa… she was it for him. No one could stop him from chasing her when she left Hamlet, not even me. Why try? Lucas loved her from the beginning.” She set her fork down, shoved her plate away. “You know them both, yes?”
“A little. They were my neighbors in—”
Maria cut her off with a wave of her hand. “You know them. Did they marry?”
Grace thought of the gold band on Tessa’s slender ring finger. And she remembered how insistent Tessa was that Lucas didn’t want Grace to gossip. But was it gossiping when it was his sister who was asking after him?
She was the only child of a pair of only children. She had no aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no siblings. She also had no idea what she was supposed to do.
“Um—”
“And let me guess: Luc didn’t want me to know.”
From the way Tessa made it sound, he didn’t want anyone to know.
“I—”
“Dimenticalo. Forget it, sweetie. I’ll get it out of them when I drag those two back to see me again. Still, I see that Tessa’s been very coy with her e-mails.”
Grace blinked in surprise. “E-mails? I thought there wasn’t any type of internet here.”
“There’s not. No phones, either, like I said back in your room. It’s the way we like it in Hamlet, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t take advantage of technology when we need to. There’s a library in the next county, not too far from here. It suits me.”
“Oh.” Grace shook her head. “Sorry. That makes sense. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just—never mind.”
“Hmm.” Looking over the table at her, Maria set her chin in her hand, her piercing blue eyes searching. Grace held her breath. She wasn’t altogether too surprised when Maria said, “You running from something, sweetie?”
It was a good thing she gave up on the rest of her meal. That astute comment, said so simply in Maria’s lilt of an accent, would’ve had her choking again for sure.
Well, it wasn’t as if she thought she’d be able to hide it forever. She’d hoped, but experience told her it wasn’t possible. It might’ve taken Monica weeks before she confronted Grace about her troubles. Maria knew in minutes.
Moment of truth, Grace thought to herself, and she nodded.
Maria pursed her lips. “You gonna tell me what it is?”
Would she believe her? Tucked away in the small town, odds were that Maria had never heard of Tommy Mathers before. But was she willing to bet that a woman who occasionally left Hamlet and visited the library had never heard of the wealthy and powerful Mathers family? It was like assuming she didn’t know who the president was, or what terrible things were going on in the news. Just because they were secluded, didn’t mean they were ignorant.
And Grace wasn’t so naive to believe that she’d escaped Tommy forever. Maria was kind, and she was sweet, and there was no way she was going to risk anything happening to Lucas’s sister.
“I—I can’t. Not yet.”
Maria was quiet for a moment. She picked up her fork, twirled some more of the thick strands of fettuccine. After popping it in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully, she said, “When you can, you will. I understand. And I understand even more why Lucas would send you here. Grazie, Grace. I feel better now.”
Grace didn’t know what to say to that. She opened her mouth, floundered, stared.
Maria took a sip of her water. “Welcome to Hamlet.”
If it were anyone else, he’d have them on a different floor. But Boone wasn’t only his bodyguard, or even just a trusted employee. He’d known the other man for twenty years, and worked with him closely for more than half that. Tommy considered him his right hand. A part of himself. He needed Boone nearby, almost as much as he needed to have Grace right beside him again.
He banged on the connecting door.
“It’s open.”
Of course, it was. Tommy might choose to lock his side of the connecting suite if he wanted some time alone. Boone—used to Tommy’s capricious nature—knew better than to test him by shutting him out. One of the requirements of the job was that he was always on the clock. Whenever Tommy needed him, he had to be ready.
Tommy strode into Boone’s suite, slamming the door behind him in agitation.