“That’s the house falling apart around me.”
“A couple of the accidents can be accounted for as just an old house, but not all of them.”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit melodramatic to credit simple accidents to a murderous plot?”
“Not really, no. Especially if you think about the so-called accidents that happened during the last week. Every single one of those could have been engineered to happen to you.”
He pursed his lips. “The shooting incident.”
“Exactly. Because as I’ve said numerous times, I did not shoot you.”
He took note of her narrowed eyes, and decided tomove on. “I know you don’t like Lisa, but I believe that’s taking animosity a bit too far.” He wondered how he could appease Mercy, and yet dissuade her from this line of thinking. He might not be overly fond of Lisa, but that didn’t mean he was going to accuse her of trying to do him in.
“How do you explain this, then?” she asked, waving at the floor.
He thought for a few minutes. “Coincidence.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“It’s an old house. Things shift in it.”
“Not trapdoors from their bases. No more than lights in hidden passageways.”
“Are you implying that Lisa is the one who has been going through the passages?”
She shrugged. “Possibly. Probably. But I’m not sure about that. I mean, it makes sense if she’s looking for something.”
“For what?”
She bit her lip again, distracting Alden from the seriousness of their conversation. He wanted her in bed, his bed, all warm and pliant, and offering up her lips for him to nibble on. “That’s a good question. I’m willing to bet you that she found something in the house papers that says there’s something in the passages. Or in the smugglers’ tunnel. Maybe an old treasure, or an old master painting, or an important historical document worth a fortune, or... oh, I don’t know. Something worth a ton of money.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s very likely. According to the documents given to me at the sale, the Baskerville family fortune has declined since the day the house was first built. If later generations knew there wassomething valuable hidden by earlier ancestors, they surely would have found it and used it to fund the estate.”
“Well, it has to be something,” Mercy insisted, waving her hand toward the hole. “Why else would Lisa be doing this?”
“We don’t know it’s Lisa.”
“Fine, whoever is doing it.” She took a deep breath, which again distracted him. He did so enjoy watching her breasts. And touching them. And tasting them. “All of this leads to the fact that I don’t think the house is as dangerous as you say it is. Although I think it’s a good idea to get Lisa out of here, since that’ll limit her reasons for being in the house.”
He stretched out on his belly, and told Mercy to get back. “Just in case more of the floor goes,” he said, slowly inching his way forward toward the gaping hole. It took him almost forty minutes, but by the time he’d completed first one circuit of the damage on his belly, then another on his feet jumping up and down to test the floor, he had to admit that Mercy’s idea about a trapdoor had merit. “Although who would place a trapdoor right in the middle of the gallery is beyond me.”
“Dunno, but I bet there’s something about it in Lady Sybilla’s papers. Dammit, why did Lisa have to show up and take that job away from me?”
Alden said nothing other than telling Mercy he’d put a temporary patch over the floor. She helped him haul some two-by-four boards he’d remembered seeing tucked away in one of the basements, and with a few nails, he made the hole safe from anyone else stepping through it.
By the time they returned to his room, he was tired,sore, covered in dirt, dust, and cobwebs from the basement, and very much desirous of giving Mercy the attention she so obviously deserved. But first, the last comment she’d made about Lisa reminded him that he’d been keeping a secret from her, one that he was no longer comfortable hiding.
“So... about Lisa,” he said, opening the door to his bedroom, and gesturing her in.
“Yes? What about her?”
“There’s something I haven’t been forthright about. That is to say, I did tell you about it, but I didn’t go into detail.” He coughed, suddenly self-conscious, a fact that made him swear to himself. He’d been getting better the last few days, so much better.
“Oh?” Mercy crossed her arms over her chest, her body language unmistakable. “And just what is this deep, dark secret concerning Lisa that you’ve held from me, the woman with whom you like to play Nancy Drew Visiting Ned in a Sleazy Motel?”
Alden would have laughed except he was now a bit concerned about the ire visible in Mercy’s eyes. “Lisa coming here wasn’t happenstance.”
“I gathered not. You said she was a blind date.”
