Grace frowned. “What brought this up?”
“I found some dresses that someone sewed and hid away. I’m not sure how long ago. Forty years, at least, I’d guess. I don’t have enough information to talk about the details yet.”
Both Grace and Audrey had no immediate memory of anyone who could fit Phoebe’s vague description but promised to check their records.
The two elderly women smiled suddenly, pointing as Noah came into view out among the bird feeders. Audrey said, “He’s as good-looking in his own way as Dylan, don’t you think?”
Grace concurred. “You can tell he’s a master fencer. He has the poise of a swordfighter.” She glanced at Phoebe. “He told us he helped you make pesto yesterday.”
“We had to do something with Olivia’s basil,” she said, suppressing any reaction that might alert Grace or Audrey that something was up between her and Noah.
He entered the sunroom through a set of French doors and greeted the two Rivendell residents before turning to Phoebe. “We do keep running into each other, don’t we?”
“It’s a small town.” She got to her feet, noticing that gray clouds were moving in from the west. “I should get going. Grace, Audrey, good to see you.”
Phoebe quickly left the sunroom and got almost to her car when Noah caught up with her. “Where’s your car?” she asked him.
“I don’t have one. Olivia said I could borrow hers, but I walked into town and then out here.”
Phoebe stopped abruptly. “You walked?”
He smiled. “It’s something to do.” He pointed up at the threatening sky. “I didn’t think about the fact that it rains more often here than in San Diego. Looks as if we’re expecting a downpour.”
“You don’t worry about getting kidnapped walking around on your own? Not because Knights Bridge is a dangerous place, but given your—” She waved a hand. “You know what I mean.”
“I do, and I don’t worry about kidnappers, no. I take reasonable precautions and I don’t advertise my whereabouts. Besides, who would pay the ransom if I was the one snatched?”
His tone was reassuring, not at all dismissive. Phoebe imagined he’d gotten over any surprise or disappointment he’d felt at discovering his Edwardian princess was one of Olivia’s friends from Knights Bridge.
Feeling more at ease, she opened her Subaru door. “I can give you a ride back to Carriage Hill if you’d like. I’m done for the day. My assistant, Vera, will lock up the library.”
“A ride would be great, thanks,” he said.
Phoebe got behind the wheel and waited as he came around to the passenger side. He settled next to her and snapped on his seat belt. She started the car, wondering if she’d flat-out lost her mind.
She tried to think of something innocuous to say. “We’re supposed to get scattered thunderstorms this evening. You don’t have many thunderstorms in San Diego, do you?”
“We don’t.”
“Have you heard from Dylan and Olivia? Do you know how she likes it out there?”
“Dylan and I spoke last night. It was early evening in San Diego.” Noah’s tone was unreadable, as if deliberately so. “He and Olivia had just come back from a walk on the beach.”
“That sounds so romantic.”
“Yes, it does,” Noah said quietly.
Phoebe felt his gaze on her and wished she hadn’t mentioned romance. She drove out of the Rivendell parking lot, then turned toward the village. She heard a rumble of thunder in the distance. “A front’s moving through,” she said. “I won’t mind saying goodbye to this heat and humidity.”
A fat raindrop splattered on her windshield, then another. Lightning flickered, followed immediately by a clap of thunder. By the time she pulled in front of Olivia’s house, they were in the middle of a downpour.
Phoebe looked at Noah next to her. “You don’t have an umbrella or raincoat. Anyway, you don’t want to get struck by lightning. I don’t mind waiting until the storm’s passed. It’ll probably be just a few minutes. Rain’s one thing but lightning…”
“Lightning can hurt,” Noah finished for her, with a smile.
She switched off the engine and watched the rain stream down the windshield. It made the car feel even smaller. “At least there’s not much wind,” she said. “I’m glad you didn’t walk back here in this weather.”
“I’d have ended up playing Scrabble with Audrey and Grace until the storm passed. They’d have beaten me for sure. I’ve never had the patience for word games.”
“For a lot of other things, though.”
“Yes,” he said.
She’d meant his patience for his work with NAK but something in his tone made her throat catch, made her think about his patience as a lover. She flashed on him bearing toward her at the masquerade. He’d moved with purpose and intention. Not patience. Patience, she thought, was something different.