“And none of them are as skilled as you at being a finder.”
He glanced down at Vanessa. Had she just complimented him?
“Or me,” she quickly added.
Crisp snorted. He should have known that Vanessa couldn’t simply flatter him and leave it at that.
Vanessa bit her bottom lip as she had done yesterday before she asked for a kiss and Crisp tried to prepare himself for her next question, which most likely had to do with what had occurred the evening before.
She scrunched her nose, studying him, then opened her mouth to speak, but closed it without uttering a word.
“What is on your mind, Vanessa?”
His tone came out harsher than he intended, and she pulled back.
“Nothing” She glanced about. “Should we begin inside or out?”
For a moment Crisp almost apologized for his tone but didn’t because he did not wish to encourage further conversation. He needed to remember that Vanessa was not for him.
“The others are inside,” Crisp said. “We’ll look out here.” He then strode off and Vanessa trailed behind as they looked at every blasted door on the estate. At least those that could be seen from the outside but found neither the blue door nor the ruby. But the worst part was that Vanessa had said nothing to him, nor had he spoken to her.
They’d never had silence stretch between them. At least not an uncomfortable one. They’d always conversed from the first moment they met and until today.
Vanessa wished she knew what she’d done to earn his anger.
Or perhaps he was simply in a foul mood for no reason.
Was it because of last night? Crisp had turned distant as soon as he admitted that he would have been jealous.
Did he regret the confession?
Of course he did because he had told her to forget it.
Should she mention it?
What if he didn’t wish to discuss it?
By the way he was walking ahead of her, it appeared Crisp didn’t want to discuss anything.
Should she have been honest? Should she have admitted to being jealous?
Would it have changed anything?
Just because he’d been jealous didn’t mean anything would have changed between them, and she was too afraid of her heart being broken.
But she couldn’t let this uncomfortable silence remain. It would ruin the rest of the house party. But what did she say?
No matter how much she tried to think of something, words eluded her and by the time they reached the terrace, without finding a blue door, the two had walked in silence for over an hour.
This wouldnotdo.
The guests who had gone inside were coming out. “Did you find it?” a pretty, little miss with big blue eyes and curly blonde hair asked Crisp.
“No. Did you?”
“No, but if you haven’t found it then it can’t be out here.”
A gentleman came up and pulled the miss away from Crisp. “Let him find out for himself what is inside.”
