Eliza wasn’t really surprised by his outrage. “As they are large enough to store a body, why not a mummy?”
“There is not a mummy in one of the crypts,” Garretson insisted.
Eliza arched an eyebrow. “Are you so certain?”
“Yes!”
“Does that mean you visit the cemetery often and would know?”
Garretson opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and frowned.
“When was the last time you visited the ancient cemetery?” she asked.
“Not since my parents were buried,” he answered quietly. “I see no need to visit graves.”
“Truly? I adore cemeteries.”
“You would,” he answered dryly.
“As you have not returned in fifteen years, then anything could have been hidden within,” she offered.
“We have a groundskeeper as well as gardeners who would have alerted me if a mummy had been left in a crypt,” he argued.
“They go inside each?” she questioned, though Eliza doubted that a mummy would be left in a place where it might easily be discovered if another person needed to be buried, and assuming the crypt would be used.
“There is no mummy in the cemetery!”
“You are likely correct,” Eliza agreed and sipped her tea. “Can you make the same claim of the caves?”
“Yes!”
“Does that mean you have explored them recently?”
Garretson narrowed his eyes and glowered at her. “Not since I was twelve and sent off to Eton. However, my brothers, at least Silas and Asher, had likely explored them before Asher was sent off to Eton, which would have been around 1803, though I doubt Silas would have gone alone. Therefore, had there been a mummy, it would have been discovered by my younger brothers.”
“The mummy was taken in 1804.”
“Eliza…” there was an edge of warning in his tone, but Lucian said nothing further. Could he not think of a threat to use against her?
“There is also an abandoned mine,” she offered, not to be deterred from her quest. She had been looking for that mummy for thirteen years and would not stop until she searched the entirety of Wyndhill Park. If it was not here, then she would be forced to give up because the only clues she had led to here.
“There is no mummy in the crypts, caves, or the mine!” he nearly yelled. “Cease searching for it.”
Chapter13
They’d enjoyed sucha pleasant meal and now they were once again arguing because Eliza was stubborn and infuriating.
Lucian had intentionally questioned her about the caves because he knew that it would likely become an argument. He just hadn’t anticipated how frustrating her questions would be. More demands and accusations that he did not know everything about Wyndhill Park.
The audacity!
Dinner had been far too pleasant and the conversation warm. He had enjoyed dining with only Eliza as they spoke on various matters and shared stories and a future flashed in his mind of the two of them always sharing the table and the house.
He wanted her, but it was a mirage for they were so different that in time it would be impossible for them to get along for more than a day.
She should have given up her search for that mummy years ago. He understood the intrigue when she was younger, especially after he heard the tales of her hunts for vampires, ghosts, and witches while a student at the Wiggons’ School for Elegant Young Ladies. She’d been a girl then and Eliza was now a beautiful woman and should have set such nonsense aside, only to be used in her novels.
“If you are so certain that the caves do not contain the mummy, then why don’t you take me to them and show me?” Eliza demanded.
