“Yes, well...” He cleared his throat and wished desperately he could dash to the shower, where he’d have privacy to hide. “It’s kind of like that. You see, I have a sister-in-law.”
“So?”
She wasn’t making it any easier. For some reason, that fact eased some of his strain. It was because she loved him that she was so irate over the subject of Lisa. “She fancies herself a matchmaker. She’s not that I know of, but that’s what she believes, and my brotherhumors her because she’s pregnant. A few weeks ago, she promised she had the perfect woman for me, and would send her down to help at Bestwood.”
Mercy didn’t say anything. Her expression hadn’t budged, either.
“And that’s who Lisa is,” he finished lamely. “She’s the woman my sister-in-law thought would be perfect for me. That is why Lisa has been so... aggressive... in her attentions toward me. She assumed from what Alice—my sister-in-law—told her that I’d be just as interested in her. But I’m not.”
Mercy shifted her weight, her eyes losing some of their sparkly ire, turning more watchful than angry. “And that is because...?”
“Because you love me,” he said matter-of-factly. He felt that the sooner Mercy faced up to that, the sooner they’d be in bed doing all those wonderful things to please each other. “Well, that’s part of it. There’s also the fact that you are enticing, and intriguing, and sexy as hell, and I can’t think straight when I’m around you. So why don’t you get into bed, and after I have a quick shower to wash off the worst of the dirt and dust, I’ll join you and we can let Nancy have her way with Ned.”
She pursed her lips, thought for a moment or two, and then said brusquely, “I think I’ll pass on that offer. Nancy isn’t so desperate for Ned’s attentions that she has to put up with him being an asshat.”
Alden gawked at her. “But—”
“No thanks, Alden. Seriously, if I wasn’t pissed enough about that whole shooting thing and the fact that you think I’m lying about it—no, don’t say you’re not, because you keep bringing it up—then I’d be more than a little miffed that you’d jump into bed with me whenyou thought your potential match was on her way here. Yeah, yeah, I know when we first met, you had said that there was a blind date coming out, but you acted like you didn’t want to see her. At least you did until Lisa got here, and now you’re all shades of defensive about her.”
“Are you... jealous?” Alden couldn’t think of any other reason Mercy was acting so unreasonably.
“No, of course not! Maybe. Just a little, but that’s certainly understandable, given the situation. I mean, what were you going to do if it turned out you liked Lisa better than me? Just dump me? Tell me I was a warm-up for the main action? Send me back to my mousey room without so much as a backward look?”
“Your room, and indeed this entire floor, have been demoused—”
“Faugh!” Mercy said, evidently having read one too many historical novels in her day, and marched out of his room, making sure to slam the door behind her.
“She loves me,” he told the still-vibrating door. “She’s jealous, and angry because deep down she knows it’s her love for me making her that. She’s just a little resistant to that fact. But she’ll figure it out in the end.” He strode to the bathroom, purpose filling him with every step. “And if she doesn’t, I’ll make sure she gets the help she needs to realize just how much she wants me. And needs me. And can’t live without me.”
Pot, kettle, black,a distant part of his mind said softly.
He ignored it. He had more important things to do than sit around and be introspective.
Chapter 15
Iwas of half a mind to go to the gatekeeper’s lodge with the others, but decided after helping them haul all of Lady Sybilla’s belongings to her new quarters that close confines with Lady S. and the others was the last thing I needed. It took Fenice, Lisa, Vandal, Alden, and me combined a total of three hours to get all of Lady Sybilla’s things moved.
“Tell me again why she’s not just taking an overnight bag like the rest of us,” Fenice groaned when we lifted an upholstered recliner onto Vandal’s truck.
“Alden said she wouldn’t leave without everything. Thank god Adams got the loose stuff into boxes.”
“I can think of about a million other things I’d rather do tonight,” Vandal said, passing with two cardboard boxes, which he loaded beside the chair.
“I think that goes for all of us.” I stretched and thought about telling Lady Sybilla just how unreasonable she was being, but decided it wasn’t worth it.
We struggled on. The others took their things (which were easily packed) as well, but they didn’t need help with that.
“You’re sure you and lover boy don’t want to stay with us?” Fenice asked, having picked one of the bedrooms at the lodge for her own. “If the house isn’t safe—”
“It’s safe enough,” I snapped, instantly feeling bad because it wasn’t Fenice’s fault I was such an idiot. “Sorry, I’m just cranky tonight. I think the house is perfectly safe, but thanks for thinking of me. Us. Oh, hell, just ignore me, I’m being an idiot.” I left with a quick wave.
“The whole issue with Alden aside,” I said to myself as I marched up the drive to the house, a flashlight picking out the potholes along the way, “if I had to be that close to Lisa, I’d be sure to punch her somewhere impolite. The murderous she-devil. Hussy she-devil. Murderous, hussified, obnoxious she-devil.”
I passed Alden, hauling a flat-screen TV on a dolly, as I entered the house, but said nothing. He had a confused air about him, as if he couldn’t understand why I was upset. I paused at the door to the house, half wanting to run back after him and explain my feelings, but since I didn’t even understand them, I figured it was better if I just kept to myself. “Especially if he thinks I’m crazy in love with him. Ha. I scoff.”
I held on to that and assorted other dismal thoughts while I undressed, and got into the bed in my room, now thankfully sans rodents of any sort.
“Boy, it’s lonely in here,” I said aloud a half hourlater. I’d been lying in the dark, staring up at the ceiling, dimly aware of noises coming from Alden’s room next door, half hoping to hear the silent swoosh of a letter being pushed under my door, but nothing appeared. Not even Alden at my door begging me to come to bed with him. “Lonely and quiet. So quiet I can hear house noises. Like that. That sounded like a footstep in the hall, but I know everyone but Alden and me are gone, and he’s sure to have locked up.”
