“Ah, here is your treasure.” He showed Dougless a small yellow-white box, beautifully carved with figures of people and animals.
“This is ivory?” she asked in wonder as she handed him the papers, then took the box. She had seen boxes like this one in museums, but she’d never touched one. “It’s beautiful, and it’s a wonderful treasure.”
Nicholas laughed. “The box is not the treasure. That lies inside. But wait,” he said as Dougless began to open the lid. “I find I am greatly in need of sustenance.” He shoved the papers back into the cabinet as though he never wanted to see them again. Then he took the box from her, opened the tote bag she’d purchased, and slipped the box inside.
“You’re going to make me wait until after you’ve eaten before I can see what’s inside that box?” She was incredulous.
Nicholas laughed. “It pleases me to see that the
nature of woman has not changed these four hundred years.”
She gave him a smug look. “Don’t get too smart, or did you forget that I have your return train ticket?”
She thought she had bested him, but as she watched, his face changed to softness, and he looked at her through his lashes in a way that made Dougless’s heart beat a little faster. He stepped forward; she stepped back.
“You have heard,” he said, his voice low, “that no woman can withstand me.”
Dougless was backed against the wall, her heart pounding in her ears as he looked down at her. Putting his fingertips under her chin, he gently lifted her face upward. Was he going to kiss her? she wondered, half in outrage and half in anticipation. Anticipation won out; she closed her eyes.
“I shall seduce my way back to the hotel,” he said in a different tone that made Dougless know he’d been teasing her—and he’d known exactly how his warm looks would affect her.
When her eyes flew open and she straightened up, he chucked her under the chin as a father might do—or as the gorgeous private eye might do to his soppy secretary.
“Ah, but mayhap I could not seduce a woman of today. You have told me that women now are not as they were in my day,” he said, shutting the little secret door. “Alas, this is the day of women’s . . .”
“Lib,” she answered. “Liberation.” She was thinking about Lady Arabella on the table.
He looked back at her. “I am sure I would not be able to charm a woman such as you. You have told me that you love . . . ?”
“Robert. Yes, I do,” Dougless said firmly. “Maybe when I get back to the States, he and I can work things out. Or maybe when he gets my message about the bracelet, he’ll come for me.” She wanted to remember Robert. Compared to this man, Robert seemed safe.
“Ah,” Nicholas said, starting for the door, Dougless inches behind him.
“Just what is that supposed to mean?”
“No more, no less.”
She blocked him from leaving the room. “If you want to say something, say it.”
“This Robert will come for jewels but not for the woman he loves?”
“Of course he’s coming for me!” she snapped. “The bracelet is . . . It’s just that Gloria is a brat and she lied, but she’s his daughter so of course Robert believed her. And stop looking at me like that! Robert is a fine man. At least he’ll be remembered for what he did on an operating table instead of on a—” She stopped at the look on Nicholas’s face.
Turning, he strode ahead of her.
“Nicholas, I’m sorry,” she said, running after him. “I didn’t mean it. I was just angry, that’s all. It’s not your fault you’re remembered for Arabella; it’s our fault. We see too much TV, read too much National Enquirer. Our lives are filled with too much sensationalism. Colin, please.” She stopped where she was. Was he going to walk away and leave her too?
Her head was down, so she wasn’t aware that he’d walked back to her. Companionably, he put his arm around her shoulders. “Do they sell ice cream in this place?”
When she smiled at that, he tipped her chin up and wiped away a single tear. “Are you onion-eyed again?” he asked softly.
She shook her head, afraid to trust her voice.
“Then come,” he said. “If I remember rightly, there is a pearl in that box as big as my thumb.”
“Really?” she asked. She had forgotten all about the box. “Anything else?”
“Tea first,” he said. “Tea and scones and ice cream. Then I shall show you the box.”