Page 20 of Savage Blooms
Or maybe not.
“I was looking for you,” Adam said to Nicola. “You look like you had an adventure.”
“Just a little one,” Nicola said, shooting a glance to Finley. Finley was staring very studiously at the patterns on the floor, but Adam caught that glance.
Finley, God bless him, tried to salvage it.
“Will that be all, sir?” he asked, probably desperate to storm back to his cottage and chop wood or scowl intoa book or jack off or do whatever else it was Finley did to calm himself down.
“Oh, jig’s up, Finney,” she said, using his childhood nickname just to add a little salt to the salve for his wound. “No need to pretend on my account any more.”
“You told him?” Finley demanded, thrusting a hand out to Adam as though Adam was the one who had transgressed boundaries out there on the grounds, not Finley.
“He figured it out himself,” Eileen replied. Finley would be humiliated if he knew Adam had seen him whipping Eileen the night before and, more importantly, that was information she might want to leverage strategically at a later date. Besides, if he was worried about people watching he might hold back with her, and that wouldn’t do at all. “Very bright, this one.”
“Figured what out?” Nicola asked, looking between Finley and Eileen and then, very pointedly, to Adam.
“Listen,” Adam began, spreading his hands in a helpless gesture, “none of this is any of my business—”
“Eileen and I are romantically involved with each other,” Finley said in an admirable display of nerve. “We have been for years.”
“Oh,” Nicola said, giving Finley a wounded look, her rosebud lips pursed. To her credit, she didn’t look sad, only insulted. Eileen always thought women were at their most beautiful when in the throes of orgasm or righteous indignation, and Nicola wore rage very well. “You didn’t mention that.”
“Sorry,” Finley said, miserable as a raincloud. Eileen wanted to press on that discomfort like a tongue worrying at a sore tooth, just to see if he would squirm, but she resisted. There would be time for that later, when they were alone.
“Nicola, duckie, why don’t you come over here and sit next to me?” Eileen asked, patting the sofa cushion next to her. Nicola made no move to sit. “There’s no need for silly secrets any more. We’re all among friends here.”
“That’s a bit of a stretch,” Adam muttered. Eileen could feel him withdrawing the tentative trust he had extended like a vine recoiling from the scorching sun. She would have to try harder to win him over.
“There’s no reason we shouldn’t all get along,” Eileen insisted, polishing off her whisky. The next drink she poured was water, so Finley wouldn’t nag her.
“There’s also no reason Nicola and I should believe you,” Adam said, standing and dusting the crumbs from his jeans. He looked resolute in his leaving, which made panic spike in Eileen’s chest. He couldn’t go, not now. If she had to tie him to the stair banister to make him stay, she would do it. “We appreciate your willingness to help. But, at the risk of sounding rude, this whole thing is starting to feel a little strange. It’s obvious that you two have something going on that we’ve intruded on, so I think it’s best if me and Nicola head off.”
“But if you go now you’ll never find out what yourgrandfather knew,” Eileen said, on her feet before she realized she had stood.
Adam didn’t reply. He just crossed to Nicola and talked to her in a quick, low voice, as if making a plan or asking if she was all right. She chattered back at a level Eileen couldn’t hear, looking nervously to Finley and then Eileen.
Eileen threw a desperate glance Finley’s way, as though to say,Do something.
“Nicola saw something,” Finley blurted, and though it came out rushed, Eileen could tell it wasn’t a lie. “Out in the woods.”
“What do you mean?” Adam asked, giving the other man a dismissive once-over. “Nikki, what’s he talking about?”
“I don’t really know,” Nicola said, a startled gleam in her eye. “It was there and then it was gone.”
Now, she had Eileen’s full attention. Eileen took a step towards Nicola and Adam stepped in front of his “friend”, instinctively shielding her with his body.
A questing white knight, indeed.
“Can you try to describe it?” Eileen asked.
“We were out by the ocean,” Nicola said. “I saw a person in the trees, or… Something shaped like a person. I couldn’t quite make out the face. But it was there, and it was watching us. I couldfeelit watching me just as much as I could see it watching me. And then it turned and it just disappeared. And I mean really disappeared; I didn’t even blink.”
Nicola’s voice shook slightly, either with fear or with elation, or some heady mix of both. Eileen reminded herself to breathe, to not pummel the Americans with too much strangeness at once. But this was a boon; she couldn’t have devised anything better than Nicola seeing something out there with her own eyes.
“I saw it too,” Finley offered. “Just for a moment. But I’m sure.”
“Nikki, come on,” Adam said. “You aren’t serious about this, are you? What did he tell you when you were alone together? Did he convince you that you saw something?”
