She glanced away from his gleaming jade eyes toward the cluttered desk. “Did you find something interesting among Lord Peregrine’s books?”
He kissed her briefly before he let her go and wandered across to a side table. “No. He can sell the lot at auction with my blessing.”
“Then what is it? Is there something in that box?” She’d noticed a small wooden crate on the desk. The piles of books had hidden it from her when she first came in.
He poured two glasses of claret and passed her one. “There is indeed.” He took a sip. “Open it.”
His eyes gleamed with pleasure, as if he offered her a special treat. She tried not to find his enthusiasm endearing. It was a losing battle.
She swallowed a mouthful of wine and set it aside. She knew Ashcroft watched her with an unwavering stare, but she kept her gaze on the box. The lid was loose. Beneath it, she found straw.
Carefully, because she’d seen boxes like this at Cranston Abbey, she shifted the straw to reveal something hard and round wrapped in light blue silk.
Ashcroft balanced one hip on the side of the desk with an elegant insouciance that made her heart beat faster. “My dealer sent it over this morning.”
Trying to ignore her lover’s attractions, she lifted the object from its packing. It was heavy and about the size of her hand. Slowly she drew away the silk.
And gasped in wonder.
“She…she’s beautiful.”
“Yes, she is.”
The alabaster head stared back at her with sightless eyes. The face was perfect, unmarked, although it must have been many centuries since the unknown artist had carved it. Diana had the same feeling of complete rightness she got when she saw Cranston Abbey. The sculpture was a flawless work of art.
“Is she Greek?”
Ashcroft stepped closer and reached out to run a finger across the elaborate pattern of plaits that formed the woman’s coiffure. The tenderness of his touch was so familiar, Diana trembled as if he touched her instead of the carving. “A Roman copy, I think. First century, my dealer says.”
“She has an extraordinary expression.” Diana couldn’t take her eyes from the sculpture. The stone lips were parted on a breath. The wide eyes under their defined lids surveyed eternity with unstudied poise.
“It’s as if she’s about to speak.”
“And she speaks the truth,” Diana whispered.
Unlike the living woman in this room. The statue’s pure beauty was a silent chastisement.
Diana blinked away tears. Stupid to be so moved by a carving. But her emotions were so close to the surface these days. She was trembling, and, for safety’s sake, she passed the sculpture to Ashcroft. Something about the way his big, graceful hands closed over the head, holding it safe, stabbed at her heart.
Good Lord, she needed to snatch some control. She drew a shuddering breath, hoping Ashcroft wouldn’t notice how on edge she was.
“Thank you for showing her to me.” She was grateful that her voice emerged with only a slight wobble.
“The minute I saw her, I had to have her. Whatever the price.” His gaze fixed on Diana and seemed to convey a message that went further than his words.
“She’s a worthy addition to your collection.”
In the still hours of the night, he’d told her about the wondrous objects he’d amassed. He’d tried to coax her into visiting his house to view the artifacts, but she’d resisted, although her heart had ached to see the collection. More, she’d longed to share his pleasure in the beauty. A pleasure she heard in his voice whenever he discussed some ancient artwork.
It always came back to one thing and one thing alone. Her endless fascination with the man she deceived.
A smile she couldn’t entirely interpret curved his lips. “She’s more than that.” He held the head in front of her. “Don’t you see it?”
Puzzled, Diana inspected the marble carving. She saw a beautiful young woman with a high forehead and large, wide-spaced eyes, a straight nose, a voluptuous mouth. Her jaw was delicate but firm and her neck long and slender until it ended in a brutally jagged edge. Once she had been complete. She was no longer. But what remained was breathtaking.
“She’s a fragment.”
“Yes,” he said with a hint of impatience. “But look more closely.”