Magnificent Folly (9 page)

“May I join you?” Gunner asked. “I must be getting more decrepit than I thought. Your daughter really put me through a workout.”

“You don’t look worn out.”

Gunner dropped down beside her. “I’m a fantastic actor. Do you think I’d let that little kid know the older generation can’t keep up with her? Now, though, I’m ready to let Andrew take the punishment for a while. Is there any coffee left?”

Lily poured him a cup from the thermos and held it out to him. “Black?”

He nodded as he took the cup. “I’ll have to
make you some real coffee sometime.” He sipped the hot liquid gingerly. “I prefer it with cinnamon and ginger.”

“How exotic. Is that how they drink it in Sedikhan?”

He nodded. “Exotic is only how you perceive it. Once you get used to anything it becomes homey and comfortable.” He looked down into the depths of his coffee. “Sedikhan is a good place to live. You’d like it there.”

Lily stiffened. “Would I?”

“Quenby does. It took her a little while to get used to it, but she wouldn’t live anyplace else now.”

“I’m glad she has a happy life there.”

Gunner sipped his coffee. “So am I. My job is in Sedikhan, and I’d hate to have to leave it.”

Lily turned to look at him. “Would you really give up your career for her?”

“Of course. I couldn’t be happy if Quenby weren’t happy.”

“You must have an extraordinary relationship,” Lily said thoughtfully.

“Quenby is an extraordinary woman.” Gunner’s face softened as his gaze traveled to his wife. “She’s warm, loving, honest, and absolutely reliable.”

“I can see how she must have been a wonderful nanny for Andrew. Cassie’s already crazy about her.”

He nodded. “As I said, she’s extraordinary.” His gaze shifted to Lily’s face. “And so is Andrew.”

“Henry said he was remarkable.” Lily made a face. “But he’s certainly evasive. I don’t even know what he does for a living. He says he fixes things.”

Gunner smiled. “He certainly does.”

“But he has so much time off.”

“Actually, every day since he’s been here he’s worked all morning at that small hospital down the coast. Andrew usually tries to help out wherever he can, and heaven knows there are enough people who need him. Didn’t he tell you?”

“Hospital?” She frowned. “No, he didn’t.”

“I’m not surprised. Andrew doesn’t talk about his work.”

Lily threw up her hands. “Now you’re being as mysterious as Andrew. I’m beginning to think you’re both CIA or something.”

Gunner laughed in genuine amusement. “I guarantee you’re wrong on that score. Neither one of us has anything to do with an undercover agency.” His smile faded. “However, Andrew’s work can be very dangerous on occasion, and he needs all the support we can offer him.”

A chill gripped Lily. “What kind of danger are you talking about?”

“I shouldn’t be talking to you at all.” He drained his cup. “It’s Andrew’s place to tell you about his work.” He met her gaze directly. “But I’d like to say that there are a great many people who have put their lives and more than their lives into Andrew’s hands, and he’s never failed them.”

“More than their lives?”

He nodded gravely. “Trust him, Lily. He cares a great deal for you.”

“Did he ask you to speak to me?”

“Andrew fights his own battles.” He grinned. “And now I have to pry my wife away from your daughter and take her home before she decides to kidnap Cassie. Just look at them together.”

Lily’s gaze went to Quenby Nilsen, whose face was illuminated with joy and affection as she laughed at Cassie. “I hope you and Quenby will come again soon,” she said impulsively. “I work in the mornings, but most afternoons we come down to the beach.”

“We’d like that,” Gunner said. “Andrew’s been keeping the two of you to himself for far too long.” He lifted his hand in farewell as he started across the beach toward Andrew, Quenby, and Cassie.

Their lovemaking that night was wild, erotic, and nearly brutal in its intensity.

Andrew couldn’t seem to get enough of her, and Lily found herself responding on an equally primitive level. They came together time after time, until exhaustion finally overtook them and
they could only lay clinging to each other, breathing in short, harsh gasps.

“Why?” she asked when she’d gained enough breath to speak. “Something’s … different.”

He didn’t look at her as he rolled away from her and began to dress. “Did I hurt you?”

“No.” She slowly sat up. “Did you mean to hurt me?”

“No!” He turned to look at her in horror. “Lord, no, I’d never want to hurt you. I
couldn’t
hurt you.” His lips twisted in a mirthless smile. “I suppose you don’t believe me, after what just happened.”

“I wasn’t exactly fighting you. I think … I … I liked it. I was only curious. It seemed out of character, and you were upset with me this afternoon.”

“That doesn’t mean I’d become violent.”

“But you don’t deny—”

“I wasn’t angry. I was frustrated.” He located her nightgown and handed it to her. “I’m still frustrated, dammit. You won’t see what we have together, and we’re running out of time.”

She froze. “You have to go away?” She moistened her lips with her tongue. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. I knew you couldn’t stay forever.” She pulled the nightgown over her head and settled its cotton folds around her hips. “After all, you have a job to return to, and Cassie and I will be going back to San Francisco in a few weeks anyway. Maybe it’s just as well that—”

“It’s not just as well,” Andrew interrupted with barely controlled violence. “Stop backing away from me, dammit. Face what we have together. It’s not sex alone that draws us to each other, and it’s not Cassie alone either.”

Lily hurriedly stood up. “I have to leave.”

“Listen to me, Lily.” Andrew’s face was set and stern in the moonlight as he rose to his feet. “Time has been against us from the very beginning. I can’t let it keep separating us.” He kicked the beach rug at his feet. “Lord, I haven’t even slept in a real bed with you. We’ve never sat down at a table for a meal or done any of the intimate, commonplace things men and women do together. I go back to the cottage and see Gunner
and Quenby together and I want what they have so badly that it twists inside me and makes me—” He broke off and drew a deep breath. “It’s been too long. I can’t take it anymore.
Tell
me what the hell you feel for me.”

“I don’t know. Do we have to talk about this?”

“Yes,” he said flatly. “I know you want me. I know you like me. What else do you feel? Do you think about me all the time when you’re not with me? Do you want to protect and cherish me? Because that’s the way I feel about you.”

Lily could feel the tears sting her eyes. “Andrew, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Then don’t hurt me. Tell me you care for me. I know damn well you could if you’d lower those barriers and believe I’m not a bastard like Baldor.” His voice became a whisper of urgent persuasion. “You don’t have to give me your complete trust now. Just give me a little today and then a tiny bit more tomorrow and then a little more the day after that.” He smiled with an effort. “Maybe in a couple of decades we’ll finally get there.”

Sweet Mary, he looked so unhappy. She had never meant to hurt Andrew, yet there was no question she had done so. Pain swept through her, and she took an impulsive step forward. “Andrew, I
want
to trust you.”

“Well, that’s a start, anyway.”

She took another step and was in his arms, pressing her tear-wet cheek to his chest. “I don’t want you to go away,” she said. “It would hurt me if you left me.”

His arms tightened around her. “Another giant step,” he said thickly. “Since I’ve already established that I don’t want to hurt you, I guess I’ll just have to stick around a while longer.”

Joy exploded within her. “But you said you’d run out of time. I don’t want to interfere with—”

His lips moving on her own were hard, sweet, hot. “Interfere. Lord, sweetheart, interfere!”

She broke free from him and took a step back. “I’m … I’m not promising anything.” She was almost stammering, she realized in disgust. “You must do as you think best.”

“You’re shying away again.” A radiant smile lit
his face. “But we’ve definitely made a breakthrough, my love.”

She smiled back at him, feeling young, exhilarated, and brimming with hope. Great heavens, how long had it been since she had felt like this? “I believe we have at that, my lo—” She stopped.

He nodded understandingly. “One day at a time. A little today, a little more tomorrow. You can do it, Lily.”

“Yes.” Standing there, with her gaze lingering on the strength and gentleness of his face, she could almost believe the formula could work, that Andrew could make it work. “Maybe I
can
do it, Andrew.”

S
HE HAD HEARD
something.

Lily fought her way from the depths of sleep to half waking. The sound in the living room had not been loud, but it should not have existed. Cassie? Maybe Cassie was ill or had gone to the bathroom.

The whisper of sound came again, now just outside her bedroom door.

“Cassie?” she called, struggling up on one elbow. “Are you all right, baby?”

No answer. The sound had stopped.

Perhaps she had only imagined the noise, she
thought drowsily. She started to settle back on her pillows. Then her eyes flew open as she went rigid with fear. She had called out, and the sound had stopped. Someone knew she was awake and was trying not to arouse her suspicions.

The sound had been a footstep!

A burglary? How had a thief gotten inside the cottage? She was sure she had locked the front door when she had come back to the house that night. Sweet heaven, why was she worrying about the
how
s and
why
s? There was someone just outside her bedroom door!

She rolled over in bed and carefully pulled open the drawer of the bedside table, her ears straining to hear any trace of sound outside the door. Nothing. But someone was still there. She could
feel
it.

She took the pistol out of the drawer, slid off the safety lock, and swung her feet to the floor.

The footsteps started again.

Lily froze, her hand clutching the butt of the pistol. She would wait until the thief came into her room, and then—

But he was not coming toward her room. The
sound of the steps was fading as he moved away from her door.

He was going toward Cassie’s room.

No! She was out of bed and halfway across the room in the instant of realization. She threw open the door and flicked on the wall switch.

“Get the hell away from her, damn you!”

The man who whirled away from Cassie’s door was a little over medium height, dark-complexioned, with a scar slashing down his right cheek. Ugliness. Not only of the body, but of the soul. The impression of malice overwhelmed Lily even as his startled gaze fell on the pistol in her hand. “You don’t understand.” His words were thickly accented. “Put down the pistol.”

“The hell I will. Get away from that door and sit down over there.” She gestured with the pistol to the high-backed easy chair across the room. “We’ll see what the sheriff says about this little burglary.” She stepped from the doorway of the bedroom in the direction of the telephone on the pine end table by the couch. “I understand the authorities are very hard on thieves and vandals
in beach communities. You may go away for a long—”

Pain!

Her head exploded into shards of agony.

“The child. Get the child,” said a guttural voice behind her. Pain again, this time in her right temple.

Darkness.

From where she lay on the floor Lily could see the door of Cassie’s room thrown open wide, the rumpled covers of the bed, the door of the closet ajar. Cassie. She had to find Cassie.

Cassie was gone.

Lily turned her head, and a bolt of agony made her blind and dizzy. Her stomach heaved with nausea, and she lay very still, trying to get the strength to make a new effort. Why had they taken Cassie?

She forced her eyes open and saw the gun on the floor beside her. She reached out, her palm closing on the butt of the pistol. Why hadn’t they
taken the gun? Didn’t they know she would go after them? She couldn’t let them take her little girl.

She struggled to her knees and then waited for a fresh wave of pain to pass. The next attempt put her on her feet.

The telephone. She had to call the sheriff.

She staggered the few feet to the table and picked up the receiver. Dead. The phone was dead. They must have cut the wires.

She wished she could think. She lifted her hand to rub her temple, and it came away wet. Blood. She gazed at it curiously before wiping her fingers absently on the skirt of her nightgown. What could she do now? She didn’t even know how long they had been gone or how long she had been unconscious. They might be a hundred miles away and traveling farther with every passing second. She was too weak to try to walk the ten miles to town to get the sheriff. She had to find someone to help her.

Andrew.

But he had said their cottage was a half mile
from the crest of the cliff, and the trail up to the summit would be at least another quarter mile. She couldn’t make it.