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He wasn’t letting go.
“I have sleeping pills. You’re taking one tonight.”
“Oh, it’s Doctor Alcott now, is it?”
He tipped his head to the side. “Shall I ask Lou?”
Bah!
“You fight dirty,” I groused.
“You can’t even imagine.”
I rolled my eyes.
Finally, he pulled me to the workbench.
I looked to Sam. “Hey, after breakfast, can you show me where my car and key fob are?”
“Sure,” Sam answered.
“Going somewhere?” Ian asked.
“No, but if you keep annoying me, after I murder you, I’ll need a clean getaway.”
Lou gasped.
Bonnie and Sam chuckled.
Harriet and Rebecca giggled.
But Ian?
Ian busted out laughing.
Ten
THE VIOGNIER ROOM
After Sam showed me where my car was (tucked between a black BMW and a sleek, British-racing-green Jaguar, which I hoped was Ian’s, and down from a white Mercedes coupe, another BMW, this one silver, and ending with a muddy Land Rover), he also instructed me on how to get into the lockbox where all the key fobs were held.
I then told him I needed to take in some air, and I’d make my own way back.
He took off at a jog to the house, and I stood outside the garage, which was quite a clip away, tucked under the swell of a small hill so, even if it was huge, you couldn’t see it. Not too far beyond it, and even farther from the house, were some stables.
Although I loved horses, I didn’t head that way, nor did I go to the formal gardens at the back of the house beyond the Conservatory, which sprawled across the rear two strikes of the cross.
I made my way around the western side of the house.
The chill in the air was immense. It stung my cheeks, and I was glad I took a minute to run upstairs to grab a scarf and some gloves before Sam and I set out.
I noted immediately that, along the years, the Alcotts had tamed the forest and the moors around where the fortress had been placed. On the horizon, you could see trees, and beyond those, heather and the romantic swells that were part of what made Britain.
But on quite an expanse around the house, it was cultivated lawns and carefully placed trees, paths leading to shaded benches or through vine-covered arbors, with intermittent tall urns that had been turned out because winter was coming, but I suspected in the summer they tumbled with flowers and greenery.
Like the house, the estate around it was extraordinary.
Perfect.
