Forever: A Novel of Good and Evil Love and Hope Read online

  13

  “YOU WANT TO TELL ME what that was all about?” Darci asked when she joined him outside on the sidewalk. “You left a bit abruptly, didn’t you?”

  “The kids,” Adam said. His voice was so harsh that she could barely understand him. “I didn’t know that they were still using children.”

  “‘Still’?” Darci asked. “What does that mean? Still? You never mentioned that these people ‘used’ children. What do they use children for?”

  “Only they know. Once the children disappear, they’re never seen again. Or if they are, they don’t remember what happened to them. You ready to leave this town?” he asked as he started off in a stride too swift for Darci to be able to walk beside him.

  Running, she moved next to him. “What children forget? How do you remember this? I don’t remember reading anything about any children in the research I saw.”

  “Probably wasn’t in there,” Adam said, still walking so fast she had to run to keep up with him. “Do those moles of yours connect into a shape?”

  “I have no idea. To tell the truth, I’ve never paid much attention to them. It was more, ‘There are moles on my hand,’ not, ‘Wow! I can’t believe that I have moles on my hand!’ Will you please slow down?”

  “Sorry,” Adam said as he slowed his pace. “It’s late so you must be starving. What do you want to do for lunch?”

  “Eat and talk. I want you to break down and tell me absolutely everything you know about these witches, and about Camwell, and especially why you were so upset when Susan Fairmont said that some children had disappeared. Don’t you read what’s on milk cartons? Don’t you get those flyers in the mail that show photos of missing children? Children go missing every day.”

  “And that should make me callous to what happens to them?” he said, his face and voice showing barely controlled rage. “Because thousands disappear every year, should I not care?”

  Darci was looking at him hard, and he could feel that she was using her mind to calm him down. Part of him wanted to yell at her that she’d given her word of honor not to use her power on him, but another part of him was grateful for the soothing effect she was having on him. He didn’t even mind the sharp pain her concentration was causing in his left shoulder blade.

  They didn’t speak again until they reached the rental car. By the time Adam started the engine, he was feeling much calmer and he wanted to lighten the mood. “I saw a little tavern on the way here. The sign said that the building had been there since 1782. Like to go there for lunch?”

  “Love it,” Darci said, leaning back against the headrest. “Maybe it will look like a pub in England. Have you ever been to England?”

  “Many times,” Adam said as he backed out of the parking space. Right now she was looking drained. Had what Susan told them done that to her? Or had calming him down taken her energy? He knew he should lecture her about breaking her word, but he couldn’t think clearly when he was consumed with rage. He knew that because he’d spent a great deal of his life too angry to be able to think.

  So maybe not mentioning that she’d just broken her word was the cowardly way out, but Adam couldn’t bring himself to chastise her.

  “Putnam says he’ll take me to England after I give him a son,” Darci said. “One week in England. But he said that if I have a girl first, I get two weeks in Nebraska. In August.”

  Frowning, Adam pulled onto the road. “When this is finished, I will take you to England. For six weeks. And I’ll spring for country-house hotels. They cost a fortune, but they’re worth it.”

  “Tell me everything about the country,” Darci said, her eyes closed as she leaned back against the seat.

  Adam saw that she was still holding the watch case in her left hand. Would she release it to take a shower? “What do you want to hear about first?”

  “About Cambridge. I heard it has fabulous bookstores and the colleges there are beautiful. And I want to hear about Bath. I’d like to see— Oh!” she said, sitting upright. “Could we stay one night at Clarendon? It’s terrifically expensive.”

  “Yes,” he said. “Clarendon. For three nights. The best room will be yours.” Smiling, he pulled into the gravel parking lot of the little tavern, and they went into the restaurant.

  But once they’d ordered the prime rib and had been told that it would take a while, Adam was feeling so much better that he made yet another attempt at a joke. Darci was thinking really hard, not with that look that she wore when she was subjecting him to her True Persuasion, but as though she was thinking about something with all her might.

  “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” he said in a jovial manner.

  Darci looked up at him. “I don’t have any hope that you’re talking about sex, so you must mean that I’m to show you or tell you my thoughts.”

  Adam gave a sigh. Had he always been this bad at humor? He seemed to remember having made people laugh in the past. So why did most of his jokes fail to make Darci laugh? “Darci, about this . . . this sex business,” he began awkwardly.”It’s not that I’m not attracted to you, it’s just that....”He trailed off.

  “That what?”

  “I think it’s better if we keep a strictly employer-employee relationship between us. We should make every attempt to keep personal feelings out of this.”

  “That makes sense,” she said. “So, tell me, does sleeping in the same room together come under this employee-employer relationship? What about picking me up and twirling me about? How about—”

  “Okay, you’ve made your point.”

  “There’s another reason you keep me at arm’s length, isn’t there?” she said, squinting at him as though she were trying to read his mind.

  “Just ten minutes ago you were talking about the children you and Putnam are to have together, and now you’re—”

  “I have to marry Putnam, yes,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean that I can’t—”

  “What does that mean?” Adam snapped. “Why do you ‘have’ to marry him?”

  “Why else does a woman have to get married?” she said, looking up at him and batting her lashes. “I’m carrying his child.”

  Adam didn’t smile. “You don’t want to tell me the truth, do you?”

  “And what makes you so sure that I’m not telling you the truth?” she snapped at him.

  “Because you’re a....”Trailing off, he looked away.

  “I’m a what?” she asked, cocking her head at him, very much wanting to know what he wasn’t saying.

  “You’re a real pest, is what you are. Why don’t we confine our talk to the business at hand and stop getting personal?”

  “Sure,” Darci said, then looked down at her silverware on the table.

  They were in a booth that was a bad copy of something from England, what an American thought an English pub should look like, and the tables and seats were out of scale for Darci. The table was so high it was level with her collarbone. Right now, with her chin down, she looked about ten years old.

  On the other hand, her hair was beautiful, and Adam very much wanted to take her hand in his. Actually, he’d like to kiss the soft white skin and—

  “So when do you think your father will get here?” he asked to get his mind off that train of thought.

  Darci’s head came up and she was smiling, as though he’d finally made a joke that she could laugh at.

  “What?!” he asked.

  “You just said that we were to have no more personal talk between us, but in the next sentence, you ask about my father. It just struck me as funny.”

  “You know me, Make-a-Joke-a-Minute Montgomery,” he said, then when Darci gave a good laugh, he wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or annoyed. But something about Darci’s laughter was infectious and he found himself laughing with her.

  “Okay,” Adam said. “No more talk of a personal or business nature. Let’s talk about travel. Where else do you want to go besides England?”

  “Isn’t that p