Chapter 16
Derrick walked up the steps to the castle, wondering how many staff he would have to go through before he encountered the earl himself.
At least he was coming in the front door this time instead of picking a lock on one of the side doors, disarming the alarm system, then breaking into Epworth’s inner sanctum.
This was, he had to admit, much more pleasant.
He glanced at Samantha walking next to him and suppressed a smile. She definitely needed to get out more. He wasn’t sure she was going to be able to wipe the look of astonishment off her face anytime soon.
“Weren’t you here recently?” he asked politely.
“I was,” she managed, still gaping at the house in front of her. “Not that you’d know.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because it was Oliver who followed me.” She looked at him then. “I can’t imagine you own green shoes.”
He started to speak, then laughed a little. “You’re very observant.”
“Occupational hazard.” She looked up at the palatial country house in front of them. “And last time I didn’t get in the house. Just the gardens.”
“Well, if we have time, we’ll do both. I’m sure Lord Epworth will be so pleased, he’ll give us access to anything we want.”
She took a deep breath, then looked at him. He was slightly surprised to find she wasn’t so much gobsmacked as she was uneasy.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Are you sure he won’t throw me in jail?”
“You are directly responsible for rescuing his lace from under a planter,” Derrick said easily. “We’ll just spare him the details of where that planter was or how the lace got under it in the first place. You’re safe.”
She looked up at him. “You don’t really believe in time travel, do you?”
He smiled and paused in front of the door. “We’re here. Let’s see if they let us in.”
“I think it was all just a big delusion,” she said. “Maybe those mushrooms were giving off hallucinatory vapors we didn’t notice.”
“Believe that, if it makes you feel better,” he said cheerfully, then lifted his hand to knock. Before he could, the door was opened and Lord Epworth’s social secretary stood there.
“Oh, Mr. Cameron,” he said, looking as nervous as if he fully expected the axe to fall on his neck at any moment. “I hope you have news. His Lordship is beside himself.”
“Not to worry, Mr. Stevens,” Derrick said. “I think we have very good news indeed.” He gestured toward Samantha. “This is Miss Samantha Drummond. She is someone I believe His Lordship will be very happy to meet.”
Stevens’s look of unease didn’t abate much, but perhaps at the moment any movement away from a nervous breakdown was a good thing.
Derrick ushered Samantha inside before him, then walked into the hall and tried not to sigh.
It wasn’t a sign of envy because he had his own spot to land when he finally managed it and it suited him perfectly.
He also wasn’t unacquainted with places of grandeur and splendor.
But the house they were in was truly exceptional.
He might have actually indulged in a bit of envy if he hadn’t known what it cost Cameron in worry to keep his own castle out of the hands of the tax man.
He didn’t envy Lord Epworth that worry multiplied by the number of rooms and the prime location.
“Let me see to your things,” Stevens said, motioning for staff to come collect Samantha’s wee suitcase and both their backpacks. “If you’ll follow me?”
Derrick surrendered their gear without worry, then nodded and walked with Samantha behind Lord Epworth’s secretary.
“This is amazing,” Samantha said, staring up at the ceiling.
“It is,” he agreed.
“And that was a pretty good client voice you just used.”
He smiled in spite of himself. “I only trot it out on special occasions.”
She looked at him. “I hope he’ll be happy.”
“I think he’ll be thrilled.”
They were led into the earl’s private study, or rather, Lord Epworth himself opened the door at the knock and welcomed them inside. He didn’t look quite as uneasy as his secretary, but close.
He insisted on introductions before business, which almost made Derrick smile. Good manners, in his experience, generally won out over interest in possessions among those whose company he didn’t mind keeping.
They were invited to join the earl in front of a fireplace that was somehow unsettling for its emptiness.
Derrick shook off the impression with difficulty.
After all, things were going his way. He’d recovered the missing lace.
The embroidery had been delivered without difficulty and neither he nor Oliver had seen any thugs on the trip north.
He was planning to return to London, get Samantha on a plane, then do a little snooping of his own into the activities of the Cookes. What could possibly be wrong?
Well, he was getting ready to send Samantha Drummond out of his life, but that surely shouldn’t have bothered him any.
He listened to her make small talk with Lord Epworth about his roses.
She was obviously used to flattering crusty old keepers of special collections because she charmed him without an effort.
Derrick supposed that had little to do with her change in wardrobe, though sending her polyester with Emily for deposit at the local charity shop had surely been liberating.
Perhaps it was that brush with Elizabethan England that had changed her.
Or perhaps it was just that instead of looking at her as a thief, he was looking at her as a woman.
“Historic textiles?” Lord Epworth asked, his ears perking up. “What a fascinating subject.” He paused, then frowned. “There is a woman from the States who specializes, I believe, in Victorian antiquities—”
“Louise McKinnon?”
He smiled. “Yes, that is whom I’m thinking of. I have one of her books on Victorian silver that I found fascinating.” He looked at her closely. “A relative?”
“My mother.”
“Of course, I should have realized the connection. Are you an aficionado of all things Victorian as well?”
Samantha shook her head. “I prefer things of an earlier vintage, actually, and I’m not overly fond of silver.”
“I have a very large collection of textiles you might be interested in, then,” Lord Epworth said. “Perhaps you’ll indulge an old man his pride in his treasures and come have a look when we’re finished with our business here.”
“I would love to,” Samantha said. “I understand you have a very large collection of remarkable things.”
Derrick could see Lord Epworth’s distress, but he knew the man fairly well and knew what to look for. The old man smiled, though that perhaps cost him quite a bit.
“Well, it’s less than it was, but I have great hopes that Mr. Cameron has some news for me that will eventually remedy that.”
Derrick had spent a good part of the train ride north trying to convince Samantha to be the one to hand over the lace, but she had consistently refused.
He hadn’t been willing to argue with her, so he had finally agreed to do the deed himself if she would keep the lace safe in her messenger bag once they reached the castle.
He looked at her, then accepted the lace that had been wrapped carefully and placed inside archival plastic. He handed it over without comment.
Lord Epworth took it, closed his eyes briefly, then looked at him. “Is it whole?”
“Yes, Your Lordship.”
Lord Epworth bowed his head. He finally took a deep breath and looked up. “How?”
Derrick nodded toward Samantha. “She had it slipped to her without her knowledge, discovered what she had, then had the good sense to hide it until we could safely retrieve it and return it to you.”
Lord Epworth reached for Samantha’s hands and held them briefly. “I don’t know how to thank you—”
“Oh, I think Derrick is being too kind—”
“No, I’m sure he isn’t—”
“Well—”
Derrick listened to them fall over each other verbally for several moments whilst Lord Epworth was in raptures over his recovered treasure and Samantha was trying not to take any credit for its return. He himself simply sat back and let them have at it.
“And you were house-sitting for this couple,” Lord Epworth said finally, in disbelief. “Do you care to identify them?”
Samantha looked Derrick’s way. “Do I?”
Derrick leaned forward. “An investigation won’t be forthcoming, so perhaps it’s best to simply suggest you don’t have any more house parties with actors for another few weeks.”
There was a reason the man still had his house and all his property. It took him less than a minute to mentally run down his guest lists and apparently narrow it down to the appropriate suspects. He looked at Samantha.
“And you were working for this couple that we won’t name.”
“My brother Gavin knows them,” she said helplessly. “I don’t think he has any idea who they really are. I certainly didn’t have any reason to be suspicious of them.”
“Well,” Lord Epworth said, “you certainly can’t go back there now. Let’s go put the lace where it belongs, then we’ll discuss a few things.” He rose. “Come with me, friends, and we’ll examine my new security system.”
Derrick smiled to himself as he walked behind Lord Epworth and Samantha down the long hallways toward the earl’s sanctuary.
He paused with Samantha for a moment whilst the earl stepped aside and spoke briefly with his secretary, then smiled to himself as Lord Epworth offered Samantha his arm and escorted her the rest of the way.
Derrick had been there in that inner sanctum more than once, but still he felt the pull of things that hadn’t been created in the current century. He looked at Samantha to see if she would put her foot down and announce that she wanted nothing to do with anything of a vintage nature.
She was pulling on curator gloves right along with His Lordship.
Derrick declined a pair, content to simply watch the other two enter the fray.