Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
“It’s all right.” I hug her to me. “We’ll be here for you the whole way.”
She snuggles against my neck. “I know. Thank you.”
Edith gives me a sharp look. “Thank you for saving my granddaughter. You were a good choice for a handyman. I figured you knew your way around a gun.”
I raise a brow. “What?”
Edith laughs. “You think I don’t know you?”
Her gaze is positively calculated, and I feel as if I’m seeing her–the real her–for the very first time. It makes me speechless.
“What do you mean, Grams?” Charlie asks.
Edith laughs even louder. “Rowan here–though he makes a halfway decent handyman–is nothing of the sort.”
Charlie looks up at me. “What?”
I didn’t expect to have to come clean so soon. Charlie’s already been through a lot, but Edith has forced my hand. “She’s right.” I take her hands in mine. “That was a front.”
“Not a front anymore. You’ve stuck around for far too long. I think you secretly love being my handyman.” Edith picks up her knitting needles and starts click-clacking them on Dudley’s tail. He seems used to it, though, because he just sighs and rests his chin on his paws.
“I’m confused.”
“He’s a treasure hunter. Looking for your father’s lost diadem.”
“You know about the diadem, too?” I gawk at Edith.
“Of course I knew.” She peers at Dudley’s tail. “This new yarn sure is finicky.” She continues, “Why did you think I gave you all the hints about the ghost in my wall? Silly man. I figure the main jewel from the diadem would make a nice engagement ring for my Charlie.”
Charlie covers her face with her hands. “I can’t … This is … What is happening right now?”
“Charlie?” I gently pull her hands away and hold them in mine. “It’s all true. But everything changed when I met you. I tried to keep going, to keep plotting to take the diadem and run, but I couldn’t. Not when you were here. Not when you were all I could think about. The diadem doesn’t matter to me. You do. I swear it, Charlie. You’re the only thing I care about. I don’t care if you take that diadem and pawn it.”
Edith snorts. “I already told you what to do with it, young feller. Now it’s getting close to midnight. Get on up there, the both of you.” She points a needle at the ceiling.
“This is too much.” Charlie shakes her head.
“Wait till you see the diamond, then get back to me.” Grams chuckles. “Go on, now. The both of you.”
Charlie stands, her eyes dazed, and I lead her up to Grams’ room.
The ticking has already started. I can hear it clearly.
“What is that?” Charlie sits on the bed, her gaze on the wall.
I drag a chair over and climb into it, then feel around on the wall above the closet. “If I’m right, it’s a time-activated safe. I suspect the mechanism is supposed to be totally silent, but with age and the constant settling of this house, it’s gotten noisy.” The ticking speeds up. I keep feeling around on the wall, then stop when my fingers pass over a small round indent.
I push on it, and the wall clicks, a square panel falling back and moving to the side, revealing a small compartment with a dial on the front.
“I feel like this is one big hallucination.” Charlie rubs her eyes.
I check my watch. “Ten seconds.” Jumping down, I take Charlie’s hands and pull her with me, then help her up into the chair. “Watch.”
The time ticks down to nothing, then the dial rotates and clicks to a stop. “Open it.” I put my arm around her waist. “What’s inside is yours anyway.”
She lifts a trembling hand and grabs on to the dial, then pulls. The door gives, and inside is wealth beyond imagining, but I can only look at the priceless woman in my arms and watch as her eyes light up. She’s the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen and worth far more than any treasure, no matter the cost.
EPILOGUE
CHARLIE
“Where have you two been off to this time?” Grams clicks her knitting needles as Dudley chases her ball of yarn.
“A short trip to Switzerland.” I hand Grams a little curio piece of a mountain village.
“Oh, this’ll look nice with the others.” She points to the mantle in the sitting room where several kitschy cute souvenirs sit. “I went to Switzerland back in the seventies. Ruined a few men there for life.” She laughs.
“I don’t doubt it. You Devereaux woman are a force to be reckoned with.” Rowan stands behind me as I place the Swiss village just so.
“Any additional plans?” Grams asks.
“Yes.” I look over my shoulder at Rowan.
He grins and kisses my forehead. “Go ahead, Bunny. I know you’re dying to tell her.”
I squeal and hurry over to Grams, sitting across from her on the squeaky sofa.