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‘I wanted to save as much of the old glass as I could, but some of the pieces were too badly damaged. So, rather than try to reproduce them, I replaced them with new glass.’
‘Arrested decay?’ Megan immediately got what he’d been trying to do and Jaye smiled. ‘I like that. It’s honest.’
‘In a place this old you either have to strip everything out and start again, or you have to live with the irregularities.’ Jaye liked the irregularities.
She nodded, looking up at him. Her face was pale in the moonlight, her eyes wide. Jaye wondered whether she would object if he asked whether he could kiss her.
Or maybe he should just do it. She seemed
closer now, and that definitely wasn’t a trick of the light. He was surrounded by her scent, and could almost feel the warmth of her body against his.
‘Oh...’ She gave him a startled look, and Jaye instinctively moved back. Her hand flew to her wrist. ‘My bangle. I think I’ve lost it.’
He brushed away the impulse to tell her that the bangle didn’t matter, and that he’d buy her as many new ones as she wanted, if she’d only stay in this moment with him. The look of dismay on Megan’s face told him that the bangle did matter.
‘I’m sorry... It’s really precious to me. It was given to me by the people I worked with when I left Africa.’
‘Do you remember where you last had it?’ This wasn’t just a chunk of silver, it was suddenly as important to Jaye as it obviously was to Megan.
‘I...’ She thought for a moment. ‘I took it off when I was with Tim in the snug... I didn’t want to examine him while I was wearing heavy jewellery.’
‘And you left it there?’
‘I think so. I must have done.’ She shrugged, trying to cover her dismay. ‘I dare say it’ll be safe enough. I can go and look for it first thing in the morning.’
‘There’s no point in worrying about it all night. We’ll go and find it now.’
* * *
Megan hurried towards the front door of his apartment, apparently quite prepared to go out into the night wearing just her dress if it meant she might find the bangle. Jaye turned her around, taking her hand and leading her to the back of the entrance hall.
‘This is a bit quicker.’ He grinned at her, unlocking the door that led to the narrow servants’ corridor and ushering her through to the concealed door at the other end, which opened into the main part of house.
‘You’d hardly know this was there.’ She ran her fingers along the mouldings that disguised the door.
Jaye nodded. ‘It’s how the servants used to appear out of nowhere and then disappear again. But it’s the best way of getting around the house.’
‘Do you have lots of secret passages like this?’
‘A few.’ He led her downstairs to the kitchen, flipping on the light.
Megan hurried through to where Tim had been sitting, looking under the table while Jaye moved the chairs. Then she got down on her hands and knees to scan the floor. ‘There it is. Look, under the sideboard.’
She tried to reach under the heavy piece of furniture, and frowned in exasperation, hitching her dress up a little to give herself more freedom of movement. Jaye moved her to one side, feeling a moment’s regret as her hemline slipped back down to her knees, and reached under the sideboard.
His fingers touched the bangle, and it rolled a little to one side. He reached a little further, and got hold of it.
‘Thank you.’ Her face was shining as he put it over her hand, back onto her wrist. ‘I don’t think I could have gone to sleep not knowing whether I’d lost it.’
The last thing that Jaye wanted to do right now was sleep. He wanted to kiss her, but that probably wasn’t anywhere on the agenda that Megan seemed to have planned so carefully for her life. He wasn’t anywhere on that agenda.
‘Is there another secret passage? That’ll take us back?’
She’d already seen the one that ran back to his apartment. But her bright excitement made Jaye feel like a boy again. A boy who knew every inch of this house, and who had often left his bed in the middle of the night to explore it when his friends came to stay. A boy who hadn’t been afraid of the reaction it might provoke, and who had just enjoyed sharing the excitement of the house’s secrets.
‘You want secret passages?’ He gazed into her shining eyes. ‘Your wish is my command, milady. Maybe not in those shoes, though.’
* * *
