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“I have a favor I’d like to ask of you.”
“Oh?” Ames’s eyebrows shot up as he cocked a hip and leaned against the wall. It was no wonder Patrick Pepper adopted this man into his family—Ames had the curiosity to fit in well.
“My sources inform me that you are skilled at lockpicking,” Nick said, doing his best to affect nonchalance.
“I may be,” Ames answered skeptically.
“Splendid. I have need of your services if you would be willing to help me. It is time sensitive, you’ll understand. I have a surprise for Giulia.”
Ames watched him a moment before delivering one concise nod. “I am free right now.”
Perfect. The man followed Nick as he turned toward the stairs and the west wing.
Ames shot him a guarded look as they mounted the stairs. “So she told you, then?”
A prickle of dread gathered in Nick’s stomach and he banished it with a clearing of his throat. “I am not sure. What should she have told me?”
Ames halted in the corridor. “That she is leaving with me after the ball.”
“Oh.” Nick felt the air rush out of his lungs in one fell swoop. “No, she did not tell me.”
Ames glanced sheepishly away. “Sorry, mate. I thought you knew when you said that it was time sensitive.”
“Right.”
Panic rose with each step they took closer to the tower. Was that why she’d grown so distant? It did not make sense. What had gone wrong during their lemon tart kiss to incite a desire in the woman to leave?
They arrived at the alcove, the urgency to see Giulia—to talk to her—clawing at Nick’s chest. He felt all the more eager to do this for her. He gestured toward the thick, ironclad door. “This leads to a staircase and another door with an ancient lock. I am not sure what is up there. It might be nothing but an empty room. But Giulia has been trying to solve this mystery since she arrived here, and I want her to be the first one to open it.”
“I understand.” Ames shot an arm out and stopped Nick before he ascended the stairs. “Listen, for what it is worth, she is not leaving to be with me. I am only taking her home, to care for her as I promised her father I would do. But I am still marrying Jo.”
That was a funny name for a woman. “Of course.” Nick brushed off the man’s hand and tried to appear as though he did not care that his heart was being ripped from his chest and torn to shreds. Why should he, anyway? She was leaving him.
No wonder she had been avoiding him so thoroughly.
When they reached the locked door at the top of the stairs, Ames crouched down, lifting the lock and letting it drop with a heavy thud against the door. He let out a low whistle, shooting Nick an unsure glance before pulling a knife from his boot and getting to work.
“It’s a shame, really,” Ames said as he jimmied the knife back and forth, methodically moving it in a way that appeared random but was most likely a very practiced art. “She is really flourishing here.” He paused for a moment and glanced at Nick. “That was always her gift, you know.”
Nick had not known that, but it did not surprise him at all.
Ames returned his attention to the lock. “No matter where we landed, Jules would acclimate right away and make it a home. She would put forth an effort to get to know the people and everyone loved her. It is probably why Patrick had always been comfortable leaving her behind on all of those excursions. He knew she would always be fine.”
“Fine, maybe. But that does not lessen her need for consolation or reassurance.”
“Reassurance? Little Jules? No.” Ames shook his head decisively. “If there is one thing about Jules I know to be indisputable, it is her ability to thrive. She is very comfortable in her own skin.”
Nick grunted, focusing through the arrow slit in the stone wall at the expanse of land that would one day become his. How could a man that claimed to know Giulia her whole life, know her so little? Of course she needed reassurance; everyone did. The woman’s own mother had abandoned her at the tender age of four. She had not needed to be left alone on various continents with strangers while her father and friend left for the real adventures. She had needed extra love, extra support, and extra reassurance that she was cared for, that she was needed.
A click reverberated off the walls in the narrow, curved stairwell and Ames looked up, triumphant. The padlock hung on the door open, and Nick felt a surge of excitement flow through his veins.
They were likely to find a storage room full of covered furniture and old, tattered portraits of ancestors long forgotten, but that was irrelevant. He was finally going to watch Giulia open the door. Her eternal optimism made even the mundane activities exciting.
They turned in unison and descended the stairs, parting ways as they reached the foyer once again.
“Shall I fetch her for you?” Ames asked.
“No, she is busy. It can wait another hour or so,” Nick said, thanking the man again before heading off to drink his tea. The last thing he wanted was for Ames to be around when he took Giulia to the tower. This was their mystery, and they were going to open the door alone.
