Greta bustled past him to stand face-to-face with Leslie.
“We are delighted to see you, my dear. If you’d refused to come, everyone would have understood,” she said. There was real concern in her soft gray eyes, the kind that made Leslie feel the ache inside again, but she needed to get past all that. And really, it had been sweet of Greta to find a special way to welcome her, Brad and Professor Layman on their arrival. Greta had been blessed to be born with not just the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth, but with a whole array of cutlery. Her ancestors had been fur traders on a par with the Astors. She was a born-and-bred New Yorker who truly loved her city and its history, and because of that ardent love, she was acknowledged as a major—if not the major—power in the field of restoration and archaeology.
“I love this city, and I’m privileged to be invited to work this new find,” Leslie told her cheerfully.
“We all are,” Brad said quickly, then flushed. “Well, the professor is history, but Leslie and I are both very pleased to be respected enough to be asked back.”
“Well, you’re both not just talented,” Ken Dryer said, “you love the city. You know the city.”
“And it’s so kind of you all to be here,” Leslie said, smiling. “I thought the professor and Brad would be helping me settle in quietly, but it looks like we have a dinner party to attend.” She tried to sound enthusiastic.
“Oh, just us and the caterers,” Greta said. “I had to do something.” Then she cut to the chase. “Oh, Leslie…do you really want to stay in the house? Sleep in it?”
Leslie smiled dryly. “I’m dying to stay here,” she assured Greta.
“But you won’t stay?” Greta asked Brad, sounding disapproving.
Brad shrugged, opting to answer lightly. “Sadly, Leslie has made it clear that she would prefer not to sleep with me.”
Greta wasn’t amused. She frowned.
“Sorry, just teasing,” Brad said quickly. “I have an apartment in Manhattan. Leslie’s place is out in Brooklyn, so it’s more convenient for her to stay here,” Brad said.
“I can walk right over to the dig,” Leslie explained. She smiled, trying to put Greta at ease. “Honestly, Greta, I love this place. I don’t blame what happened on a house. I want to be here.”
Greta stared at Professor Laymon. “And you’re not staying, either?” she demanded tartly.
Layman looked acutely uncomfortable. “Greta, we’ve talked, and this is Leslie’s choice. I have a home here, too,” he explained. He lifted his hands, the very image of brilliant but helpless.
Greta shook her head, her soft, short silver hair bobbing around her attractive face. “Oh, dear,” she murmured, still unhappy. “There’s no guard on duty, you know, except for when the house is open to the public. There’s an alarm system, of course. State-of-the-art. But the Historical Society can’t afford full-time security.”
“A state-of-the-art alarm system is much better than what I have in Brooklyn,” Leslie assured her. As Greta looked back at her, trying to smile, Leslie realized that the woman had set up the whole party just to keep her from being alone for as long as possible. She had to lower her head and smile. Then she lifted her eyes. “This place is fantastic. I loved it from the beginning. And I understand that the damage has been completely repaired, that you can’t even tell that…that anything happened. So…how is the tourism thing going? Do a lot of people come see the place?”
“We actually had to have crowd control when it first reopened,” Ken Dryer said. He smiled as he spoke. He always smiled. Wheaten-haired and handsome, like the boy next door all grown-up, with an ability to spin any situation, he was perfectly suited to his position, but Leslie always felt, despite how nice he had always been to her, that he was just a bit oily, as well. What his real thoughts were, she seldom knew. She had heard that he had political ambitions, and she was sure that on the political trail, he would charm an audience without ever really saying anything substantive about the issues.
“Crowd control?” Brad marveled.
Robert cleared his throat uneasily. “There’s nothing like an…event to draw crowds.”