‘What was that?’ she asked, slipping her hands through the arms of the shirt.
‘You don’t want to know.’
‘I do, or I wouldn’t have asked,’ she corrected.
‘I said, “Please no more grey...please no more grey”.’
Summer pulled up short. ‘No more grey?’ she repeated.
Theron turned and she sent him a glare, but not before she saw his eyes snag on the yellow dress hanging in the wardrobe, next to a vivid green one from the same shop. A look of deep longing passed over his features. It was so strong Summer blushed, as memories of the dress, how he had taken it from her body, what he had done to her crashed through the mental barriers she’d placed around that night.
‘You shouldn’t wear any more grey. Or black.’ He shook his head, as if awkward. ‘You should always dress in colour,’ he said, nodding to the two dresses in the wardrobe. ‘I’ll be in the library.’
With that he turned on his heel and disappeared, all trace of his gentle laughter gone.
Biting her lip, Summer made her way into the library after eating the toast he’d brought her. Okay, one piece, but it counted, she told herself. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of what he’d said about her clothes. If she was honest with herself, she knew they needed to have a proper conversation about exactly what kind of relationship they had and would have in the future. But all that could wait. The diamonds—her mother’s health? Thatcouldn’t.
He was leaning over the table she had sat at last night, studying the map, and she had a sudden image, half memory, half wish, of him behind her, the heat of his skin against hers, as if they had been cheek to cheek. Unconsciously, she raised her hand to her face and he looked up, something passing across his gaze, making her drop her hand. His eyes went to the scarf, back to her face and down to the map without a word.
Awkwardness. She hadn’t felt it before...before the kiss.
‘So you’ve searched the east wing and you don’t think it’s in the central secret passageways?’ he asked, still not looking at her.
‘Yes. But, even so, there must be one final clue to the precise location because the secret passageways stretch for miles.’
‘Well, I think you’re right. And I think I know what it is.’
‘What?’ she demanded, rushing to the table, staring at the map and the necklace that seemed strangely placed over it.
‘Can you see these faint gold lines?’ he asked, nudging one of the four gold chains attached to the interlocked pendant. Summer nodded as she saw the finest of gold lines on the map. ‘If you line up the chains with the lines then the pendant hangs, not in the centre of the map as you might expect, but here, amongst the west wing secret passageways.’
She leaned over to where he pointed, trying to focus through the scent of cedar from his aftershave, making her lick her lips. He pointed to where the pendant hung. The block handle of the key formed by the two intertwined necklaces created a large rectangular hole through which the chains threaded, allowing the entire key to sit flat against the map. However, the rectangular shape also had a circular cut-out, showing a small and very specific section of the map.
Summer moved the necklace out of the way to see where on the map it had pointed to, but there was nothing there. She tried again, but still she couldn’t see anything but the secret passageways that had always been on the map.
She threw up her hands in frustration. ‘There’s nothing there!’
‘With all the hidden journals, the secret maps and the far-flung corners of the world that your sisters have had to travel to, I hardly believe there would be a giant “X marks the spot”.’
He was so calmly rational about the whole thing she wanted to scream.
‘You’ve read Catherine’s journals a million times. She must have said something in them about the final part of the treasure hunt.’
‘It’s not a treasure hunt.’
‘It kind of is.’
She huffed herself into a chair, wondering why she was fighting this so hard.
‘Summer?’ Theron asked, coming to crouch in front of her. ‘After all the searching and all the stress of the last two months, it’s completely understandable to fear that it might all come to nothing.’
Summer angrily wiped at the tear that told them both he was right. She clenched her jaw against the threat of any more tears. ‘I’m not this person, Theron. I am rational, deductive, sure.’
‘And why is it not okay to be the opposite of those things?’ he asked gently. ‘Why can’t you be all those thingsand...this?’
‘Because I’m not the emotional one. That’s Star. And Skye’s the one in control. So...’
‘So, then you are the best of both,’ Theron announced as if it were as simple as that. She looked at him and wondered how he could see her as the best of anything. She’d been nothing but trouble since she’d entered his life and couldn’t see how she’d be anything less for the rest of it. ‘In the meantime, I can’t believe that your great-great-great-grandmother would be so meticulous as to plan all this for it to completely fall apart at the end.’