One Magic Moment(9)
Author: Lynn Kurland

 

Tess didn’t react to his name; she merely nodded and remained where she was. John supposed she would have stood there all day if he hadn’t taken her by the elbow and drawn her away from the spot she seemed to be rooted to.

 

“’Tis raining out,” he said, guiding her toward the great hall.

 

“I don’t mind the rain.”

 

“You will when you catch cold,” he said.

 

She didn’t argue. She simply walked with him across the courtyard and up the steps to the hall door. It opened, as if they’d been expected, and John looked up.

 

And gasped.

 

He realized immediately that Tess not only had a sister, but a twin sister at that, only the woman standing there looking at him—again as if she’d seen a ghost—could not have been more different. Tess had obviously walked the hallowed halls of University long enough to take on its conservative mores. Her sister had apparently been frequenting more—how could he say it politely?—unbuttoned venues.

 

“Peaches, move.”

 

John watched Tess’s sister step back unsteadily and hold the door open. Tess looked up at him.

 

“Care to come in?”

 

“I’ve things to do,” he said, then he released her and backed away before he could find himself sucked into that hall and into something he could tell already he didn’t want to get involved in. He had a sense about that sort of thing.

 

“Thank you for bringing me my card,” Tess said quietly.

 

He nodded but didn’t look at her again. He turned and strode purposefully across her courtyard and out the gates, forcing himself to merely walk calmly, though with definite purpose. He had things to do, important things, things that didn’t involve looking at a woman who made him want to run like hell the other way.

 

He hurried back toward the life he’d been so comfortable in that morning.

 

Odd how it didn’t seem as welcoming as it had before.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3

 

 

 

Tess rubbed her arms as she stood in front of the roaring fire in her great hall. She’d built that fire herself an hour ago, which she imagined the former owners of Sedgwick hadn’t needed to do, but her staff hadn’t arrived yet and she was freezing.

 

Paranormal activity did that to a woman, she supposed.

 

She didn’t like to get lost in the past unless it was the past past where some Plantagenet or other was king, but she found herself powerless to stop herself from reliving the events of the previous afternoon.

 

There she’d been, standing innocently in her courtyard, getting rained on, when she’d realized someone was watching her. She’d known without looking just who it was, but that hadn’t made it any easier to face him and not feel a little faint.

 

And that hadn’t exactly come from his good looks, truth be told.

 

She remembered taking her card from him, remembered asking him his name—an unnecessary and unsurprising exercise if ever there had been one—then listening to his car drive off into the distance. Then she had simply stood at the door of her hall, watching the rain fall softly onto the grass, dirt, and cobblestones of her courtyard. She had wondered, very briefly, if her sister Pippa had ever stood in just that spot and watched another de Piaget lad walk away with all due haste.

 

She imagined that that de Piaget brother had walked away with a great deal more reluctance.

 

Peaches had, quite wisely, said nothing, but that could have been because her cell phone had chosen that moment to ring and she’d gone off to do business. By the time she’d finished, Tess had been on her way to bed. Peaches had given her a hug and said nothing.

 

Tess had known that wouldn’t last. She looked to her right to find Peaches standing next to her, clad in yoga gear. She cleared her throat, but that didn’t go very well. She tried again.

 

“That’s the new owner of the garage in the village,” she croaked.

 

“Was it?” Peaches asked. “I don’t suppose you got his name.”

 

“John de Piaget.”

 

Peaches nodded thoughtfully, not looking terribly surprised. She glanced at Tess. “You’re shaking.”

 

Tess couldn’t argue with that. “Can you blame me?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“I think I’m either hallucinating or having a nervous breakdown.”

 

Peaches put her hand on Tess’s forehead. “Well, you’re not feverish.”

 

“I don’t think a fever’s part of either.”

 

“You’re probably right.” She shivered. “He can’t be who he looks like.”

 

“That was my first thought as well, but I’m not sure how long we’ll manage to cling to it.”

 

Peaches looked at Tess assessingly. “Are you heading back to the village for another look?”

 

“When hell freezes over,” Tess said without hesitation. She had to take a deep breath. “I’m going to go into London to pick up a book or two Andrew found for me.”

 

“Taking the first train available?”

 

“When escaping uncomfortable things, it’s always best to get an early start.”

 

“Things will look better when you get back,” Peaches offered, “or they might just look different.” She shrugged. “Sometimes, that’s all you can hope for.”

 

Tess turned and looked at her sister steadily. “Do you think that things are going to look any different later? With him, I mean?”

 

“I doubt it, but what are you going to do about it? Ask him a few pointed questions about when he was born? Let him know that his brother Montgomery married your younger sister?”

 

“We don’t know he’s Montgomery’s brother.”

 

Peaches rolled her eyes. “He couldn’t look any more like our charming brother-in-law if he were Montgomery, which we know he isn’t. They have to be twins.”

 

“You and I could be having a joint hallucination,” Tess said, grasping desperately for any excuse—reasonable or not—to discount what was staring her in the face.

 

Peaches only looked at her steadily.

 

Tess shivered in spite of herself. “I don’t think I want to see him again.”