“Don’t encourage him.”
“He seems like a very nice man,” Ellen said.
“The best of men,” Gray added. “Now, if we could focus?”
They walked over every inch of the lower floor and then climbed to the next. It was in the storage room that Ellen saw the tall, narrow bookshelf. “This is where I was in my vision. I’m sure of it.”
Gray looked around the room, and then moved to the bookshelf. It was full. Ellen joined him as he began removing books off the shelf and searching through them and behind.
“Oh my,” she whispered as they started taking them from the bottom, and she saw the small box. The top had scuff marks and was clearly well used.
Once they had the shelf cleared, Gray wiggled the board, and it came out in his hands, then the next above it.
“Do you think George kept things in there like his precious books?”
“Money too perhaps.” He tried to open the lid, but it was, of course, locked and made of very sturdy wood. He muttered something beneath his breath. There was a keyhole but no sign of a key.
“What?”
“Can you get my cousin from the steps outside the bookshop and bring him up here please, Ellen.”
They were crouched beside each other, his face inches from hers.
“Why?”
“My father and his uncle both had many things they locked away in desk drawers and boxes. Ramsey perfected the art of being able to open them with these metal picks he got from a blacksmith.”
“Right. Well, I’ll collect him then.”
“Are you laughing at me, madam?” His eyes were dark and fringed by long lashes that a woman would envy.
“Of course not.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Well, you do like control and things to go the way you like them to go, and when they don’t, it irks you.”
“Irks?” His mouth was inches from hers now.
“Annoys?” The word was breathless. “I don’t think you should kiss me in here.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
“You’re very likely right, but with you this close, it is hard.”
She eased back.
“Get Ramsey, Ellen.”
She rose, and then ran down the stairs.
“Slow down or you may fall!”
“I won’t!” She jumped the last two and hurried to the door. Opening it, she found Ramsey on the bottom step, eating.
“Hello, Ellen.”
“Can you come? Gray needs you.”
