Page 95 of The Curse of Indy Moore
“Are you having that hard of a time writing it? Then let me start for you.” He took the quill and, in his elegant writing, put down the first line.
I want to travel across the seas.
“How do you know if I want to do that?” I asked.
“You were staring at those boats like you wanted to get on one.”
“They’re big and different and interesting. Doesn’t mean I want to sail.”
“Who said anything about sailing? If you stay here, we can go wherever you would like.”
“We?” I echoed, feeling that smile he had put on me so effortlessly of late.
“I will take you anywhere in the world, Miss Moore, if you would allow me the opportunity.” He brushed a strand of hair behind my ear, and his fingers stayed there. “I will buy you the jewels you feign not to adore. The envies you have had all your life, I would fulfill.”
“Why?” I whispered, imagining all the moments I got my hopes up, all the times I let someone fill the void, only for them to leave it deeper, darker, emptier.
His hand stayed there, caught in my hair, when all I wanted was to feel him. I thought he would give me that, that he leaned in just a little, that his eyes strayed to my lips, wanting to know what it was like to feel his.
He hesitated, lingering there, then fell away. “Finish up this list today. We don’t have much time to spare,” he said and walked to the door. “We’ll be waiting in the foyer.”
He was gone, leaving me wanting, confused if I misread the situation, and greedy, so greedy for his touch and his voice and all he had to offer. If I could spend a thousand days, a thousand years, a thousand lives in Ivory House with him, I would, and what a thought that was. So, I held the pendant and thought that over and over as I stood.
“That was interesting,” Miss Beamy declared from the bed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I opened the closet; the suitcase sat open, my old clothes within. On the rack, there were dozens more, and even four new dresses that Mr. Hawthorne shouldn’t have had the time to enchant, and yet he had.
Laughing, I picked one after the other to hold against my chest and admire in the mirror, thinking of all the places we could go in them.
“Very interesting,” Miss Beamy laughed.
“Stop that,” I muttered, grabbing a darker dress that matched Mr. Hawthorne’s cloak. Maybe it was silly, but if I was going to lose myself today, I wanted to be a little silly.
After I got dressed, Miss Beamy hopped off the bed to rub against my leg.
“Good luck,” she said. “Come home soon.”
“Did he tell you he invited me to stay?” I asked while kneeling to pet her.
“No,but I suspected he would.”
Leaning over, I kissed her head while holding the pendant. “I’ll be back.”
In the foyer, everyone waited. The professor didn’t say goodbye, she just hugged me. “We’ll have much to talk about when you return. You may be the star of my next book, if you are open to it.”
Sniffling, Otis tried to keep on a brave face while hugging me so tightly my sides ached. “I’m not crying because I’m worried. These are toys of joy. I simply cannot wait for you to return. There is so much we can do, so many places we can go. I’ll have a list of suggestions made, and we can go over them.”
“I’d like that very much.” I kissed his cheek before accepting Mr. Hawthorne’s arm.
We took the same path out of Ivory House as we did when we first met, but this time, we walked arm in arm. Mr. Hawthorne gave me a slow once over that put far too much warmth in my cheeks.
“I like the dress you chose,” he said with a knowing smile.
“Thank you for making more. I know you’ve been busy.”
“I’ll lose more hours of sleep for you, Miss Moore.”
