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‘Me?’
‘Yes. You’ve gone quite pale,’ she stated before marching off, patting down her clothing as she went.
‘Stop!’ he commanded, regretting it the instant she turned with a raised eyebrow. ‘Don’t give me that look,’ he growled. ‘You emerge from ahole in the wallas if it were nothing, and I don’t have a right to know what’s going on?’
‘A right? No. You don’t have aright. But if you wouldliketo know, you could change your tone, lower your voice and ask nicely.Thatmight work.’
He stared after her for a moment, floored. Althaia had been the one and only woman to put him in his place and he couldn’t shake the feeling that she would have definitely been on Summer’s side.
‘Can we start again?’ he called after her.
He could have sworn he heard a huff of laughter.
Summer rested her head against the tiled wall of the shower as water rushed over her head, neck and shoulders. She’d done her best to keep the surprise from her face as Theron had found her emerging from the hole in the wall. She’d been on her way back from searching the last of the secret tunnels in the east wing when she’d caught her shoulder on a bit of protruding battening which had knocked her centre of gravity and she’d fallen against the hole already there from Elias’s search and it had collapsed. She’d managed not to fall, but the mess it had created was impressive.
She eased out the kink in that same shoulder as she reviewed her progress. So, the jewels weren’t hidden in the east wing’s secret passageways. Summer had now thoroughly searched all of them. The ones around the main section of the building appeared to be more functional, serving as shortcuts through the building, which left just the secret passageways in the west wing.
She had the map from Skye, could only hope that Star was close to retrieving the key...but none of it would matter if she couldn’t locate where Catherine had hidden the jewels.
But the look in Theron’s eyes kept bursting in on her thought processes. Unwanted but determined—just like the man himself. He’d been worried about her—because she hadn’t missed that. She couldn’t have missed it. It had shone from his—admittedly angry—eyes, but the worry was what had pinned her heart.
He’d stayed last night, which was more than she’d expected of him. He hadn’t browbeaten her, ridiculed her or threatened her last night. Not that she’d expected that of him—or at least not what she knew of him from their time in Greece before he’d kicked her out.
She sighed in defeat. She owed him an explanation at least and, in all likelihood, a lot more. But before she could change her mind, she turned off the shower, dressed and went to find him.
He was looking out of the large library window, his profile outlined by morning sun, the rest of him cast in shadow. His profile made her heart soar inexplicably. She hadn’t realised how lonely she’d felt in the last few weeks in the estate on her own. But, if she were honest with herself, she’d felt it ever since returning from Greece. There was something about Theron that had made her feel...seen. Briefly, at least.
He turned and for just a moment she felt the burn of his gaze, the power he had to simply light up her body as if she were hackmanite, left to glow in the dark even in his absence. And then he blinked and she shivered.
‘It’s a long story,’ she said, half hoping he’d tell her to skip to the end.
‘I have time. And breakfast,’ he said, pointing to the table, where fruit, toast and tea were all gathered. Her stomach growled at the sight and she realised she’d forgotten to eat that morning. He smiled wryly, snared an apple before taking a seat.
She sat in the opposite chair, swept her legs up under her and picked at the buttery toast. ‘Just before I went to Greece, Mum had been diagnosed with stage three cancer. We were waiting to hear back on the treatment plans.’
‘Summer, I... I’m so sorry.’
She nodded, gritting her teeth against the wave of nausea that always came when she thought of her mum’s illness. It swept at her ankles and feet, threatening to topple her sense of up and down. But, strangely, Theron’s words anchored her. Their sincerity surprised her and touched her. ‘Thank you.’
‘Is that why you were looking for Kyros?’ he asked.
Her stomach churned, making the nausea acidic. She pressed a hand against her sternum to hold it back. ‘I didn’t...it wasn’t like that.’ She shook her head, fearful that he believed she was trying to replace one parent with another. ‘Kyros wasn’t a backup or—’
‘Summer.’ His tone was firm but gentle. ‘That is not what I meant. At all. I know that’s not what you were looking for.’ The way he said it, the current that swirled beneath his tone, pushed back the ache just enough for her to feel thankful that he didn’t think the worst of her. She breathed, but it was full of sadness as she remembered the fresh hurt laid over the rejection of both Theron and her father.
‘When I came back from Greece, we found out that the treatment Mum needed couldn’t be offered.’
‘Why not?’
‘Different areas in the UK have different access to certain treatments. We didn’t live in the right area for the treatment she needs.’ She shook her shoulders free of the tendrils of hurt and fear that still reached for her now. And if she concentrated she could hear the tick-tock of time running out. Every time she thought of her mother, the illness, it prompted a wave of helpless fear that made her need to find the jewels feel like claws scratching at her ankles.
‘That’s...’ the look on Theron’s face was incredulous ‘...barbaric.’
She nodded, agreeing with him completely. ‘Just over two months ago, Skye got a call informing us that our grandfather had passed away. We never knew him,’ she said quickly, forestalling his sympathy, ‘and I don’t think I would have wanted to. He clearly wasn’t a pleasant man, having cut his daughter from his life and financial support. Still, he left me and my sisters the estate and everything in it—on one condition. That we find the Soames diamonds that have been missing for over one hundred and fifty years. No one searching for them had discovered their hiding place in all that time.’
‘But you have?’
‘Sort of.’ She nodded. ‘We uncovered a collection of journals, a photograph and a necklace hidden here in the library. In the journals was a coded message, explaining that our great-great-great-grandmother had hidden the jewels from her undeserving husband after her marriage.’
