“Bad readings?” she asked as she turned to her ER kit and began removing nonessential items.
“No, they’re all normal. The storm has passed. We should be able to make good headway today. If we…”
As his voice faded, Elodie glanced over and found him staring at the pile of clothes and toiletries strewn about at her feet.
“Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up later,” she assured him. Closing her lightened kit, she set it on her back. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yes.” Gabriel hauled his attention away from the floor with obvious difficulty.Really, it’s not that much mess,Elodie grumped, glancing at it herself—
And saw the silk and lace drawers draped lasciviously over a telescope.
Her heart gave a little wail and hid itself under a blanket of embarrassment. Her brain reminded her that she’d spent much of yesterday walking around in almost identical drawers for all the world to see, but this oddly did not help. Somehow, the garments seemed more salacious off her body. The pink bows at either side of the lace trim appeared to wink at her.
Oh God, I need coffee,she thought. Black, black coffee. Coffee so black it would make midnight seem like noon. Coffee that was actually vodka. She strode for the door at the same time Gabriel did. They very, very carefully did not collide. Gabriel gestured for her to precede him, and Elodie clicked her tongue.
“Really, ‘ladies first’ isn’t always the kindness you think itis,” she told him as she exited. “A burglar could have been lurking out here and I’d have walked directly into his clutches.”
“Hm,” he said in a manner that fired her up more than several cups of coffee would have done.
“However, it seems a burglar has already been, and has stolen your vocabulary,” she commented snarkily.
“I’m flattered you think what I say is valuable.”
“I don’t think about you at all.”
“Whereas I think about you constantly.”
Elodie’s heart stammered at this pronouncement, but before it could get too excited, he continued: “Such hypervigilance is not good for one’s mental well-being but has proven necessary. I can only be thankful I have a doctorate in disaster studies.”
“I wish my own doctorate was in medicine,” Elodie muttered, “considering you give me a headache.”
“How fortunate then that you never think of me.”
Elodie glanced back at Algernon’s bedroom door, which they had passed while preoccupied with each other. “I suppose we should wake the redoubtable Mr. Jennings.”
“Redoubtable?” Gabriel said disbelievingly.
“As in, I have doubts about him repeatedly.”
Gabriel’s expression suspended between disapproval for this shocking mutilation of language and amusement over its cleverness. Elodie smirked at him, and the expression immediately crashed into a frown. “We should wake him,” he agreed. “After all, we might need something to throw into the mine shaft to test the magic.”
Algernon was not in his bedroom, however. They found him instead in the inn’s lobby, pacing back and forth. Huddledin a Mackintosh coat and woolen cap despite the fine weather, he held a cloth-covered basket in one hand, his suitcase in the other. Seeing them, he jumped with fright.
“Is everything all right?” Elodie asked.
“Oh, no, no, no, no, no, of course it is,” he said, and gave a tremulous laugh.
“That’s an awful lot of ‘no’s for a ‘yes’ answer,” Elodie commented wryly.
“Ha ha. I’m just waiting for you so we can go out to the trove site, that’s all.”
Elodie frowned with mild confusion. “You’re taking your suitcase with you?”
“Oh, no, I just brought it downstairs because…if…This is our breakfast.” He held out the basket. “Shall we go? Hurry, now.”
He turned to the door, and behind his back Elodie and Gabriel exchanged a glance of approval (Elodie) and mild disapprobation (guess who). Perhaps Algernon Jennings wasn’t such a cowardly wretch after all. He pulled open the door—
“Eee!”he squeaked, dropping his suitcase.
