Page 58 of Thunder with a Chance of Lovestruck

Henry came running down the stairs with his shaving kit. “I have it now, and I just checked in on Astria. She’s nearly out cold. Torid is telling her a story about the time he ate a group of demons when he was in the sixth hell dimension.”

Amice laughed. “Of course he is. I bet she’s loving it.”

Henry nodded. “She is.”

I grinned. Sounded about right.

Henry touched his cheek lightly and glanced at Amice. “She gave me a kiss and told me that she’ll forgive me one day.”

“For what?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I’m not entirely sure. She was half out of it when I just checked in on her. She put her arms out to me, I hugged her, and gave her a kiss on the forehead, telling her good night, then she mumbled the thing about forgiving me one day. What do you suppose that was about?”

Amice’s lips trembled as her eyes moistened. “She probably nodded off before you got in there and had a dream. You know three-year-olds have very active imaginations. I’m sure it’s nothing. I’m all set. Let’s get on the road.”

ChapterTwenty

Rachael

I checkedthe clock on the wall, feeling a little foolish for buying into Amice’s claim that Drest would be showing up at the manor even after I expressly forbid it. Just in case, I’d taken her suggestions and acted as if I was about to have a hot date for the night.

I was wearing some of the lingerie she’d gotten me for my last birthday. I’d gone with a lavender silk chemise that was easily hidden under my dress. A pair of matching lace bikini panties completed my undergarment choices.

The dress I had on went just past my knees and had a ruffled plunging neckline. It was in a color the catalog had claimed to be dusty turquoise green. It looked better in the picture, but it wasn’t horrible. I’d paired it with two-inch heels. I was incredibly dressed up to be sitting around by myself for the night.

There were still a few minutes to spare before Amice’s hour guess was up, but I wasn’t holding out much hope that Drest would show.

I drummed my fingers on the kitchen table, ignoring the cup of tea I’d made myself. What was I thinking? I had someone special in my life. Someone I was about to embark on a new journey with. Robin deserved better than me sitting around with freshly shaven legs in hopes a man I had a crush on made an appearance.

Guilt ate at me.

“This is ridiculous,” I said, realizing then that talking to myself was equally as silly.

No sooner had the words touched the air when I heard something rustling on the back porch. My breath hitched as I stood quickly. My hand went to my chest as fear shot through me. I stood quickly.

Drest wouldn’t use the back door, would he?

I didn’t like being jumpy, but the last few years had made that part of my reality. Robin had insisted I talk with a professional about it all and they’d helped me come to realize I was dealing with the aftereffects of trauma. It was something I was learning to cope with, but I still wasn’t exactly comfortable in the manor even though it was the home I’d been born and raised in.

Nile had tainted its memory, hanging body parts from hooks in the basement. An area I flat-out refused to venture into again. It didn’t matter how many times Henry tried to set my mind at ease, telling me that he’d personally seen to the cleanup and then had brought in professional cleaning teams to wash away any traces of the horror that had been there.

I still had nightmares about what we’d uncovered.

I was on the verge of dismissing what I’d heard as nothing more than the wind when I heard it again. This time it sounded as if one of the metal trashcans’ lids had fallen.

A soft laugh bubbled up from me more out of nerves than anything else. It was probably raccoons, and I was acting as if my uncle was going to come barreling through the back door to make good on his promise to kill me and then resurrect me. He was tucked safely away from the public and from me.

Additional rustling sounded from the area, and I headed for the hallway, in the direction of the back door. My plan was to chase off any raccoons that might be in the trash cans to avoid an even bigger mess come morning.

As I walked by the study doorway, I glanced in, my stomach tight as my mind toyed with me, making me think Nile might really be there. That he’d somehow managed to find his way out of the facility for the criminally insane and was back in Tarrytown.

As much as I wanted to laugh off the hysteria, there was a small grain of truth in it all. Nile had found his way out of handcuffs and had managed to get me alone in the courtroom. There hadn’t been any answer as to how that had occurred. Everyone simply pointed a finger at the person next to them. All I knew was that had Drest and Robin not come when they did, my uncle would have killed me.

With bated breath, I glanced into the study, prepared for the worst. Relief raced through me when I saw no one was there. A smile touched my lips as I realized my brother had put the study back to the exact way our father had kept it while he was alive. A black-and-white photo of Henry holding me when I was Astria’s age was framed on the desk near a leather ledger. I was looking at Henry as if the man could hang the moon. At that age, I really believed he could.

Another black-and-white photo was next to it. This one was of Amice. She was holding Astria, who was around the age of two in it. They were both in white, holding lilies and looking beautiful.

Henry wasn’t always the best at expressing his softer side. It made my heart swell seeing that he kept us all close to him while he worked.

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