As they pulled up, the front the door opened and an older couple came out to meet them.
Evie turned to Anthony. “You know I am completely out of my element. You are going to have to help me not make a complete fool out of myself. Please.”
He stopped the car and turned to her, framing her face with his hands. “Breathe, la mia belezza. Everything will be fine. I’ll be right here with you.” He gave her a light kiss before opening the door and getting out.
Evie got out of the car more slowly after Anthony had opened it for her and followed him to where he was giving the lady a big hug. With his arm still around her he turned around to introduce them. “Evie, this is Eugene and Louise Sutton. Gene and Lou, this is Evie Taylor.”
“Nice to meet you both. Thank you so much for allowing us to come out here.”
Lou waved her off. “It’s no problem, love, we miss having younger company. Besides we haven’t seen this scamp in a long time.” She slapped his arm. “Way too long.”
Grinning he said, “Not my fault. But I’m here now, even though we can’t stay too long.”
“I’ll take what I can get. Now why don’t we get you two settled? Dinner is almost ready. Come, come.” Lou turned and walked back into the house. Evie started to follow but stopped when Anthony and Gene didn’t immediately follow.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be right there. I just need a moment.”
*
Anthony hated leaving her alone even for a minute, but he wanted a quick private word with Gene. “Is she going to be fine with this?”
“As fine as anyone can be. We never stop hurting or remembering. It’s just the times in between, when the pain is unbearable, stretches a bit as the years go by. But they aren’t as frequent.”
“I can’t believe everything that has happened. I’ve always felt bad for what happened to Natalie, but now, I feel it’s all my fault she was killed.”
“Son, you can’t think like that. It’s not your fault. This individual is sick and twisted; he was bound to focus on someone. Bad luck it was you.”
“I’ve got to catch him Gene, this can’t go on.”
“No, it can’t. Now let’s go in before that young lady wonders what happened to you.”
*
Evie spun in circles looking around the huge room. It was filled floor to ceiling, two levels, with books. She felt like a kid in a candy store. Rushing to one of the shelves she didn’t notice Anthony and Gene walk into the room. Carefully taking a book out, she laid her hand over the cover and closed her eyes. Opening the book, she moved it up to her face and breathed in deeply. She jumped when Gene started talking.
“There’s nothing like the smell of a book is there?”
“No, not at all. Look at all of this!” She spread her arms wide. “I could live in this room for years and never come out.”
When Evie’s sparkling eyes met Anthony’s, it seemed like everything else faded into the background and it was just the two of them. Unspoken desire flowed between them. She took an involuntary step toward him, but the spell was broken when Lou touched her on the arm.
“Come on, dear, I’ll show you your room and then we can sit down to eat. Anthony, I’ve put you in the old room you used to stay in.”
“Thank you. If you don’t mind I’d like to make sure Evie is close by me. You completely understand why, of course.”
“We understand more than you think.” Lou said with a soft smile. “I’ve already put her in the room next to yours.”
“Wonderful, we’ll get changed for dinner and be down,” Anthony said.
Walking into her huge room Evie was once again awed. She was scared to touch anything, but she couldn’t resist running her hand over the old wood. There was such history all around her. As soon as she was alone, she started opening doors to see what was behind them. She stood for a few minutes staring at the unbelievably luxurious bathroom before moving onto the last door.
Opening the door she gasped. Standing there was a naked Anthony.
“Oops.” Quickly she closed the door and leaned back on it. “Oh holy hell am I in trouble.” Hearing his laugh from the other room, she kicked the door in frustration. Immediately she dropped to the floor and checked to make sure she didn’t damage anything. Seeing everything was fine, she sat down and stared, knowing he was naked behind the door, wanting to open it and get lost in him.
*
Jeremy smiled as he got in the car and sped away from Anthony’s home in London. Sometimes it was just too easy.
*
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Evie asked as they entered the attic.
“No, I really don’t. But if we learn something new, then it will all be worth it.”
Stopping she looked around. “There is so much up here. It’s huge!”
“Yes, hundreds of years’ worth of history up here. Lucky they are organized. The deeper you go, the further you go back in time.”
“OK, where do we start?”
“Just right here. They said they boxed up all of Natalie’s stuff and it should be here.”