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It was the weapons that secured her attention.
“You have a Spanish Toledo Fencing Epee and Foil Sword pair,” she whispered, rushing to the wall to inspect them. They were beautiful. “What year?”
“Nobody knows, but they’ve always been in the castle and the castle was completed in 1880.”
“How was this castle built in 1880 and you have such massive windows?” Spending most of her days in a basement command center, she adored these windows and light-filled spaces.
He smiled. “That was my mum’s doing. Almost twenty years ago now. Nobody was thrilled with the construction project, and she got some grief about ruining the original structure, but she said, ‘Tell the preservation junkies this is my home and I need light! I don’t tell them what to do in their home’.” His smile grew. “They knocked out a lot of walls to put in all these windows.”
She nodded. She savored his lyrical accent as he spoke. His affection for his mom was evident in his voice as well. It made her like him more and realize how lacking her family life and past were. She turned her attention back to the weapons display. Her gaze left the stamped designs on the handles of the fencing swords and rose to the absolutely gorgeous relic above. A French rifle she’d only seen online.. You have a Fusil model 1866?”
“You know your weapons.”
“Oh, you have no idea. The Fusil, otherwise known as the Chassepot, is a bolt-action military breechloading rifle that became famous during the Franco-Prussian war.” She blushed. She sounded like an encyclopedia. “I love weapons. It’s kind of an obsession.”
His gaze was even more appreciative than it had been moments ago, and it had been pretty sweet moments ago. This gaze made her weak in the knees and in even more danger of falling for this man.
“That’s impressive,” he said softly, staring at her as if she were the priceless relic.
Macey had never had any man look at her like that, but especially not a devastatingly handsome man, a prince, who felt like he could be her soul’s other half. She wanted to ease in and kiss him again.
They stood facing each other, gazes locked, for a long time. Macey hardly dared blink, not wanting to break this spell.
Then his phone buzzed in his pocket.
Spell broken.
It was for the best. They each had their duties here, and falling for each other wasn’t anywhere on the list.
CHAPTERFOUR
Ray spent the afternoon with Macey. They went over every bit of information he had compiled about his mum’s murder and the notes threatening T. Macey asked questions about the curse as it related to the case.
He didn’t share that he and his brothers, especially Curtis, had been searching the mountains near their family cabin for what the storybooks claimed was the cure to the curse. None of them believed in it, but just in case … Finding the fabled cure might save one of their future wives, and Curtis spent most days riding a dirt bike or hiking anyway. The caves they’d met him at this afternoon had turned out to be another dead end. The past six months had felt like everything in his life was a dead end … until Macey.
No. She was a dead end for him too.
He focused as he and Macey delved into files on every member of the palace staff, his mum’s friends and extended family, anybody who might have had the access or opportunity to take her—or lure her—down to the icy lake in the middle of a freezing January night. She spent some time creating some sort of computer program that would analyze data from all angles and feed her reports based on artificial intelligence. By morning, she was confident she’d know things about everybody that she ‘shouldn’t know.’
The subject matter was serious and of the utmost importance to him, but he’d gone over it so many times in the past six months—with Jensen, with his dad, with T, with Curtis, with Cordon, with outside investigators he’d hired—that had to be why he was completely distracted by Macey’s clean scent, by any little brush of her hand or her arm against his, by her deep-brown eyes framed with a curtain of wispy lashes, her appetizingly pink lips, the way her laughter lit up the already sunlit room.
It was her laughter that really tugged at him. He and his brothers liked to tease and laugh, and Kiera made everything brighter, but his mum had been the one who was always laughing. He missed his mum’s laughter, and he absolutely loved Macey’s sweet, unassuming laugh generated by any remotely funny thing he said.
Her stomach growled, and he said, “Is there a bear behind me?”
She burst out a laugh, and he felt his chest expand. He’d heard how handsome, tough, and brave he was from many women, but to make Macey laugh made him feel like he was ten feet tall.
“In all the travel and the excitement, I haven’t eaten since Sutton’s jet this morning.” She smiled beautifully, as if nothing was amiss.
Ray startled. He and T had eaten trail mix and granola bars for a quick lunch as they’d driven the side by side down the mountain paths back to the castle around one this afternoon. He and Macey had downed water and juice from his mini-fridge as they had talked and went over information, but he didn’t realize she hadn’t had lunch. He should’ve asked. What a fail on his part. His mum had taught him better.
“Macey, please forgive me,” he said. “You’re my guest; I have to take better care of you than that. Please let me know if you need anything and don’t go hungry needlessly. We can go to the family’s living area and search through the fridge and cupboards or down to the kitchens. Our head cook, Grace, would love a chance to meet you and feed you.”
“I’ll be just fine until dinner.” She waved a hand and smiled. “This afternoon has been so …” She met his gaze and breathed out, “Exhilarating. The last thing on my mind was food.”
Ray’s heart raced. They both knew searching through information and combing through files was not ‘exhilarating.’ Her cheeks turned pink.
They were seated side by side, and Ray found himself leaning closer. A door opening and closing had interrupted them from kissing on the staircase. Cordon had interrupted them from kissing in the hallway. His phone had interrupted them from kissing earlier. Would something interrupt them now? Besides his own conscience?
