Chapter 3

I spent the next few days learning the purpose of and how to use the equipment that Nora had purchased in preparation for our taking on the paranormal.  I found it both interesting and frustrating.  There were gadgets for almost everything one might imagine, such as electromagnetic detectors and thermometers.  Apparently, ghosts use electricity to help them manifest and, when they do, the temperature in the room will change even if you can’t see them.  Being a skeptic at heart, I found the equipment both interesting and amusing.

Although she insisted that she was up to task, I was adamant that we stick with our original arrangement of her handling the office affairs and me doing the investigations.  The last thing that I needed was for Nora to freak out if I uncovered ghosts in the Havershaft attic.

Fully armed with my newfangled paraphernalia and fairly confident that I knew what to do with it all, I trekked on over to Cecil’s home at about seven o’clock in the evening.  I was of the frame of mind that, since evening was when all the commotion occurred, it was the best time to investigate what was causing it. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

When I took the liberty to just go to the house without calling first, Henry answered the door and informed me that Cecil was not at home.  He led me into the sitting room and asked me to wait while he informed Archie that I’d come.

It wasn’t more than a few minutes later before Archie glided into the room with the same, smooth gracefulness that his brother displayed.  “Good evening, Esmerelda.  What a pleasant surprise.”

I looked at him with confusion.  “I came to begin the investigation.”

His eyes went wide with dismay. “He did not tell you?”

“I’m not sure,” I hesitantly replied.  “Tell me what?”

“The attic locks itself from the inside at this time of night.  We have never been able to enter it in the evening,” he said with an apologetic tone as he looked at the case that I’d dragged along that contained all of my paraphernalia.  “He should have told you.  I feel terrible that you ventured out on such a blistery night.”

I shook my head and smiled.  “I work at night quite often.”  Then, I added, “Although, I’ll admit that it’s colder than the dickens outside.  I’m very ready for spring.”

“My dear woman,” he chuckled. “Winter has only just begun.”

“I’m still ready for spring,” I said with a grin.

“How about a brandy to help warm you up?” he asked as he made his way to the slender, medium sized, ornate, and very antique looking liquor cabinet at the opposite side of the room.

“Perhaps one to take off the chill,” I said as I watched him open the double doors of the top part of the cupboard before pulling down its drop front to set the brandy glass on so that he could pour the amber liquid into it. “Then, I’ll head back home.  If I don’t have to work tonight, I think I’ll treat myself to an evening of good reading and a hot bath.”

“That sounds like a plan,” he said as he handed me a double brandy.

“I’m surprised that Cecil left out the fact that the attic locks on its own,” I mused aloud.  “That’s a pretty significant piece of information.”

He scowled.  “My apologies for the inconvenience.  I am afraid that my brother can be a bit absent-minded.”

Realizing how my comment sounded, I quickly stated, “It’s no inconvenience.  I’m just surprised to discover this.  I can’t imagine why that door would jam shut at a specific hour each night.  That’s so odd.”

“Unless it is being locked by a supernatural force,” he said.

Still more comfortable with the mundane side of private investigating, I added, “Or a person.”

He looked at me long and hard. “My brother tells me that you are a paranormal investigator.  Yet, you are not really a believer, are you?”

I shook my head. “It’s not that I don’t believe.  It’s just the last thing that I’ll go to after I’ve exhausted all other plausible explanations.  Besides, paranormal encompasses a good deal.  It’s not just about things that go bump in the night.”

He smiled. “A woman with a sensible side.  I like that.”

I laughed as I tossed back the rest of my brandy. “You say that like it’s an anomaly.”

He chuckled as he took my empty glass for me and made to refill it.  When I lifted my hand in a gesture to let him know that I didn’t want any more, he said, “Let us just say that it is something that I have seen little of in my days.”

He walked me to the door and helped me on with my coat.  When he saw me remove the soft, ballet house slippers that I’d brought with me in order to slip on my winter boots, he said, “That is a very considerate custom and the first that I have seen since we moved to this country.”

“I’ve been trying to detect where you and Cecil are from,” I mused as I pushed my foot into a boot.  “I’ve been meaning to ask.”

“We are from a small country called Basque.  Our native language is Basque, but, because our little homeland borders both Spain and France, we speak all three languages,” he explained.

“As well as English,” I added.

He nodded.  “It has created an unusual accent, has it not?”

“It’s a nice sounding one,” I said with a smile that I hoped came across as friendly and not flirtatious.

His dark eyes twinkled with either amusement or delight as he gave a slight bow of his head. “Thank you.”

Feeling suddenly self-conscious, I grabbed my case of paraphernalia and headed out the door with the promise of returning the following afternoon.  The trip home was only a few minutes long, so I was still brooding over whether or not he’d perceived my complement on his accent as being flirtatious when I pulled my car up the driveway.  With my mind so preoccupied, I didn’t notice Killian’s car parked on the far side of the extensive parking area in front of the carriage house.

Laughter and warmth greeted me as I bounded into the house to escape the cold.  Since she’d expected me to be gone through most of the night on my investigation, Nora raced out of the parlor to find out who’d entered the house.  Roger and Killian were hot on her heels.

“What are you doing home?” she guiltily asked as she stole a look over her shoulder in Killian’s direction.

“I certainly wasn’t expected, now was I?” I hissed as I removed my coat and boots.

“Actually, no, you weren’t,” she said. “What happened to the investigation?”

“Cecil neglected to tell us that the attic door locks on the inside at night,” I explained with a good deal of hostility in my voice as I ploughed past all three of them and headed for the bar that Killian had set up and we’d continued to maintain after he left.  “I can’t do anything until tomorrow.” I looked directly at Killian while addressing Nora.  “How long has this been going on?”

“I came without invitation,” Killian explained in a gentle tone.  “I didn’t know that you wouldn’t be home and I wanted to have a word with you.”

I raised a brow?  “Oh? What about?”

He looked at Nora and Roger. “If we could speak in private?”

I poured a short brandy and sat down in the nearest chair. “I’m fine right here.”

Nora cleared her throat. “Roger and I were just going to go do something, anyway.”

“Like what?” I asked.

She glowered at me with daggerous eyes.  “It’s private.”

“I didn’t think that anything that went on in this house was private,” I snipped.

“Are we in a mood, or what?” she snapped right back. Grabbing Roger -who looked to be quite amused by the drama that was unfolding in front of him- by the hand, she said with a forceful tone, “Come on,” as she practically dragged him from the room.

Killian sat down on the end of the sofa that would bring him closest to me.  We sat in silence for a considerable length of time before he finally broke it.

His voice was soft and timid as he said, “I need to apologize for the way that I left.”

 “Ya think?” I said with dramatic emphasis as I took a sip of my brandy.  I’d chugged the one that Archie had given me and didn’t want to drink this one too fast as well.  I wanted my faculties to be clear while he was in my house.

“It was just that I’ve developed feelings for you,” he continued.

“Really?” I said with an incredulous laugh. “You could have fooled me.”

“It isn’t easy loving a woman who is in love with and married to someone else,” he complained.

I watched as he ran his fingers through his hair.  It was a habit I noticed that he always did when he was upset or nervous about something.  I found it to be a sexy action.

“Screwing me in the linen closet and then moving out without telling me isn’t much of a way to show love,” I hissed.  “In fact, it’s quite the opposite.”

“How do you think Lance would react if he knew what we’d done?” he asked.

My eyes went wild with anger.  It didn’t matter that I’d worried over the exact same thing for a considerable length of time.  The fact that he had the audacity to throw it in my face infuriated me. 

“You’re suddenly worried about my husband?” I bellowed with outrage. “Or, are you looking for a way to label me so that you can justify your actions?”

He vigorously shook his head. “Neither. I swear.  It’s you who I worry about.  What I did was wrong.” He scowled and pursed his lips. “No, it wasn’t wrong.  It was right and wonderful.  The timing was wrong.  You’d just been kidnapped and killed a man.  You were in a vulnerable state.  I shouldn’t have taken advantage of it.”

“Did it ever occur to you that, perhaps, I wanted what we did right then?”  I asked.  “That, maybe, it was exactly what I needed?”

“But, Lance…,” he began before I interrupted him.

“Is centuries away with no sign of us ever being back together again,” I said. “This may surprise you, but I’m lonely and, well, I happen to have feelings for you too.”

“You do?” he said with an air of hope.

“That doesn’t change that fact that what you did was a dick move,” I snipped.

He nodded.  “It was.”

“I thought that we were friends, if nothing else,” I said with a sad tone. “When you moved out, you took our friendship with you.  That was excruciatingly painful.”

“I didn’t think about that until I’d calmed down,” he admitted.  “I had myself so worked up about what we did in the linen closet that I didn’t think about the repercussions or even how it would affect you.  I’m so sorry.”

“I love Lance and I will probably always love him,” I admitted with surety. “He is my husband who is not just miles away, he’s centuries away.  You, on the other hand, were here and very real.  I won’t be made to feel guilty for wanting to share my feelings and my body with you.  I won’t.”

“You shouldn’t,” he whispered as he moved to kneel in front of me.  “I miss you, Esmerelda.  I had no idea what type of void I’d feel when I moved out.  I was just so set on doing the right thing where your marriage was concerned that I didn’t think about our friendship.”

“It’s a pretty mess, isn’t it?” I asked with a sarcastic chuckle as I stood up and moved past him to refill my brandy glass.

He came up behind me and gently placed his hands on my shoulders.  My knees threatened to buckle from the thrill of his touch.  I was lonely, true, but it was more than that. I loved my husband, but I also loved this man who’d become my friend.  It may not have been in equal measure, but it was strong for both, none-the-less.

I gave him no fight when he pulled me back against his chest and rested his chin on the top of my head. “I’ve missed you more than words can say.  It’s like you’ve become a part of me.  When I left, it was like I left a piece of me behind.  If I can’t have you as a lover, at least let me have our friendship back.  Please.”

I gently, and hesitantly, shook my head. “I’m not sure if I can do that anymore.”  Turning in his embrace so that I was facing him, I looked up into his beautiful eyes.  “We’ve crossed the line from friendship to lovers.  I don’t know if I can step back again.”

“I love you, Esmerelda,” he whispered. “Tell me what I need to do to keep you in my life.”

“Nothing,” I whispered back.  “Let’s just do nothing and see what happens.”

He wrapped me close and hugged me to the point that I had to ask him to ease up so that I could breathe.  Laughing at his overzealousness, we fixed ourselves a few brandies and sat down to discuss the case that I’d taken on.  I was surprised at how quickly we fell into the pattern of friendship.  It felt like old times again.