“That’s what they don’t like about me.”
“Foolish women.”
“I agree,” he said.
They didn’t sleep much. They woke at midnight, both hungry, first for each other and second for food. They satisfied the first one right away, then Jared put on trousers and Alix slipped on his shirt and they went downstairs to the kitchen. To their delight, the fridge was full of leftovers from the picnic. Cold crab salad, chicken slices, bread, four kinds of cookies. But as nice as it was to find the food, it also meant that while they’d been upstairs someone had come into the house. Alix didn’t want to think about what they might have heard.
“Now you see why I never leave underwear on the kitchen floor,” Jared said, his mouth full.
“Does that mean you’ve had a lot of practice in leaving undies on the floor of your great-aunt’s kitchen?” she asked primly.
“Not mine. Hers,” Jared said. “Aunt Addy’s. I had to pick it up often.”
Alix laughed at his joke. “So what were you like as a kid? Other than kind and generous?”
“Do you think that because I gave you some old Legos? I was protecting my inheritance. Aunt Addy let you play with things that should be in a museum.”
“Speaking of which, maybe tomorrow I could see the papers about Valentina.”
Jared stopped with a fork full of food on the way to his mouth. “Say that name again and the ghost arrives.”
“Are we talking of the beautiful Captain Caleb? Then I’m on board.”
“What is it with you and so-called beautiful men today?”
“There’s you and who else?”
“Good catch,” he said. “First Lexie’s boss and now my grandfather.”
Alix’s face lost its smile. “You’ve mentioned him before. Maternal or paternal? Still alive?”
“If I remember correctly, I changed that reference to Aunt Addy.”
“So you did.” She looked at him and could see that he wasn’t going to say any more. “Could I see the papers?”
“Sure. They’re in the attic. Can I stand on the floor and watch you climb up those steep stairs?”
“With or without undies?”
Jared’s look made her shove the last bite in her mouth. Without a word spoken between them, they jammed the rest of the food back into the fridge and ran up the stairs to the bedroom.
r />
An hour later, Jared suggested that they try out the big bathtub in Victoria’s room.
“I don’t think I looked in her bathroom. Please tell me it isn’t green.”
“Then I’ll have to be silent,” Jared said.
Groaning, Alix let him pull her along the corridor to her mother’s ivory and green bathroom.
In the hallway, Caleb was smiling.
Chapter Fifteen
“Alix? Are you here?”
The voice was familiar and comforting and seemed to come from far away. She snuggled against Jared. Light was filtering into the room so it was day, but she had no intention of getting up. With the way she felt, she might stay in bed forever.