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“Ah, yes,” he said, glancing up over the top of his reading glasses at the label on the folder. “That’s the one.” He set down the journal he’d been reviewing and lifted the file from my hands. I turned and started back across the room, but he called me back.
“Liam, my boy,” he said, “there’s a note here about an artifact? What’s this?” I turned back and found him holding up a scrap of paper by one corner.
“Yes, well, sorry, sir. I meant to tell you, I’ve started cataloging the artifacts in the attic room upstairs. I created an index and have been cross-referencing the index with notes in the relevant files.”
“Dead useful, that.”
“Yes, well, I thought it might help a bit.” I had my own reasons for creating the system, but he didn’t need to know about that.
Oscar shook his head and placed the paper back into the file. “With your help, we’ll be done with this in no time.”
“Well, sir, at the very least, I expect you’ll spend quite a bit less time banging your shins on crates while hunting about in the clutter upstairs.” Which was precisely what I’d been doing when Evelyn appeared. Not that it could be helped; nearly every room in the house was packed with artifacts covered in a thick layer of dust.
“Quite.” He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose and bent his head over the file.
I started back toward the filing cabinet. Cute niece or no, I had a mountain of artifacts to sift through and less time than Oscar realized to complete it in. The museum exhibit was the least of my concerns.
“Liam,” he said.
I stopped walking. “Yes, sir?”
“About my niece…”
I sighed.Here it comes, I thought. The speech about keeping my hands off his precious, brilliant, and beautiful niece. I turned to face him and pasted an innocent look on my face, as though I hadn’t been imagining her tight body under that tank top and shorts.
“Yes, sir?” I asked.
“I know I’ve been keeping you busy these past months with all this cataloging.” He removed his reading glasses and tapped them against the file folder.
“Yes, sir.” I nodded and kept my face blank.
“And I do so value your help,” he said.
And now the lecture.
“But I think I can spare you for a few days if you’d be so kind as to show my niece about town.”
I had just opened my mouth to reassure him that I’d keep my hands to myself. But, as my brain made sense of what he’d said, I quickly shut my mouth and raised my eyebrows. “Sir?”
“I’d like her to enjoy her holiday, and I’m fairly certain she’d enjoy spending time with someone closer to her own age. Vivian and I are too old to know what you young people do for fun these days. If she had to spend all her time with us, I’m sure she’d be bored, and Vivian is quite concerned that Evelyn enjoy her stay.”
“Oh. Well. I see.” This was certainly not what I had been expecting.
“I’m sure it won’t be much trouble.” He adjusted his reading glasses and looked back down at the file.
“Of course, sir. If you think she’d enjoy that.” I did my best not to sound too eager.
“I do.” The corner of his mouth twitched, but he didn’t look up from the file.
I took a few tentative steps backward in case he decided he had more to add.
“That will be all for now, Liam. Best get some sleep.” He shooed me with his hand but didn’t look up again.
“Yes, sir,” I said. “I’ll just tidy up the kitchen, then be off to bed.”
The professor didn’t respond, so I took that as agreement and collected my empty mug, which gave me a plausible excuse to return to the kitchen. My luck couldn’t possibly be so good as to find her still sitting there. My heart beat faster as I pushed the door open, but the kitchen was empty.
I set the mug in the sink and glanced out the window as I washed up. The gardens were barely visible in the moonlight. They contained the usual for an historic manor. Manicured hedges. Rosebushes. Gravel paths dividing patches of grass where Vivian’s chickens would be pecking about come morning. Not bad for a country estate. It didn’t hold a candle to Mum’s garden at home, but it wasn’t shabby.
