Chapter Twelve #2
“I’m not hurt, but I’m sad you didn’t think to ask me.
I’m right here, and at one time, you believed in me.
So yes, it kind of emasculates me when you think my brother can do it, but I can’t.
I know I was hurt, but I worked damn hard to get back here.
I just don’t know why I continually put in the work to be stronger, if you won’t give me a chance to hold you on my shoulders.
I hate the gym, but I go daily to lift and get stronger. ”
Oh, boy.
He was right.
Again, she helped create the worry she had. More times than not, she treated him like a child who needed to be protected instead of trusting he knew his body. They’d had a big fight about that, and here she was, back there again.
Yep.
That was a foul on her behalf.
So, she readjusted.
“Can you lift my ass up there?” she asked. “So, I can get a closer look? Please? There’s a cookie in it for you,” she said, trying to sweeten the pot, and also heal a hurt she caused.
That’s when they heard it.
They weren’t alone.
“What are you two doing?” Michael asked, eating half a sandwich.
They both jumped.
“Jesus,” she said. “We’re checking out the painting, and can you not creep in a HAUNTED CASTLE? Are you absolutely insane?”
He laughed.
“I mean, it wasn’t haunted two days ago, Ceit two-point-oh, so…”
Well, he had a point.
Or so they kept telling her that.
It wasn’t her fault her face set all this off again.
Michael pointed.
“What were you about to do?” he asked, holding out his sandwich for her to take a bite.
She declined.
“I’m into cookies, but thank you,” she said. “I’m good.”
Instead of questioning that, he kept chewing as he waited for her to answer his question. He and Graham had been fooling around, and he had gotten hungry, so he came down for something to eat.
That’s when he heard talking.
At first, he believed it was the castle, but it sounded like Elizabeth, and he hoped she wasn’t sleepwalking again.
She explained.
“I need to get up closer to the painting, and I don’t see a ladder. I’m not going to be able to sleep until I see what’s poking at my brain.”
Michael laughed.
“Uh, Ethan, and that’s not your brain he’s poking,” he joked.
The man laughed.
Later, he would be doing just that, but much lower.
“That’s why we’re here.”
Well, he could help her out.
Michael put his sandwich down, and motioned for her to head his way.
“I can get you up there,” he said. “Hop on,” he said, crouching.
As he did, Ethan stood there, and his heart hurt. He’d not gotten the chance to take her up on her request, and now, it appeared he wouldn’t be able to.
Because another man was going to help his wife.
Again.
Yeah, that sucked.
Only, Elizabeth recalled their conversation. So, she brushed his offer off. There was nothing she wanted more than to rebuild that bond with Ethan after time and neglect had eroded it away.
“Actually, Ethan is getting me up there. Hold my robe,” she stated, taking it off so it wouldn’t get tangled around his head or her legs.
Michael was worried.
“Are you sure his back can handle that?” he asked, like he wasn’t right there.
The man said nothing, because he didn’t have to. Elizabeth handled it.
“Yeah, and then, he’s going to rock my world, so he should stretch before so he doesn’t get a Charley horse. We don’t need him freezing up during showtime.”
At her words, Ethan laughed.
His wife was so off-the-cuff that it was three days beyond entertaining.
This was the wildcard he’d married almost sixteen years ago.
“Are there dick exercises? I thought just using it was sufficient. Maybe someone should have told me that about thirty-five years ago when I started using it to impress the ladies.”
Elizabeth winked at him.
“We’ll go over that later. For now, husband, get me up there.”
As he sat in the chair, she climbed onto it behind him and then sat on his shoulders. Once she was in place, Ethan stood up and carried her toward the fireplace.
The whole time, Michael spotted them. The last thing he wanted to do was report to Gene that he’d let them get hurt. That would probably not end well.
“Don’t. Fall. Into. The. Fire,” Michael warned, punctuating each word because it was important they didn’t do that.
It wasn’t easy letting the man handle it.
Michael was accustomed to guarding. Now, he was playing spotter.
As for Ethan, he was good.
Elizabeth didn’t weigh much, and it made him feel better knowing he could still carry his wife around like this.
Like he used to.
Her faith in him made him want to have even more faith in her. Going forward, he wanted a return to their early days, where it was them against the world.
AS.
A.
TEAM.
Elizabeth got closer, and as she did, she was at eye level with the painting.
Well, more like with Ceit’s boobs.
And that’s when she saw it.
“Her necklace is a heart!” she admitted. “It’s shaped like a freaking heart, Fred!”
Below her, Ethan laughed.
“Good catch, Daphne.”
Only, they didn’t get to say more. Behind them, they heard footsteps.
“I heard talking,” Gabby admitted. “I couldn’t sleep,” she admitted.
Then, she saw what they were doing.
And clearly lost her mind.
“BITCH! ARE YOU INVESTIGATING WITHOUT ME, DAPHNE?”
From where she sat on Ethan’s shoulders, that made Elizabeth laugh.
How could it not?
Had anyone else in the world called her bitch, under any other context, she would have punched them in the face. This was clearly not one of those moments.
To Gabby, ‘bitch’ was a term of endearment.
And to her, too.
“What the heck?” Gabby asked. “When the team rolls out, they get ALL of the members!”
Elizabeth was honest.
“I couldn’t sleep, and Ethan and I wanted cookies. This was a side quest. More importantly, the necklace is a heart!” she said. “Bitch.”
Gabby laughed.
Apparently, they had new pet names for each other.
“Uh, okay,” Michael stated. “Congrats. You still have shape recognition after all those hits to the noggin.”
She sighed.
“Guys, she told me in my sleepwalking dream, that I needed to find her heart, and then we could break the curse. That’s a HEART! I just found a heart! That’s not going to be a freaking coincidence!”
Holy shit.
Gabby got closer.
“Me next! I want a look!” she said.
Unfortunately for Gabby, her husband walked into the room just as she said that, and he wasn’t having it.
“Gabriella! If you think you’re riding some dude’s shoulders in the middle of the night, who isn’t me, you’ve lost your mind!”
She giggled.
“What was I thinking?” she asked.
To avoid Gabby missing out, it was time to get it down. There was no way she was sitting on her husband’s shoulders. That was her domain, and she wasn’t sharing.
So, Elizabeth lifted the frame, and it slid off of the rail it had been on, and it was NO easy task.
“Well, Graham wasn’t kidding. That didn’t fall off on a whim,” she said, handing the painting down to Gabby.
Then, she slid off Ethan’s shoulders, and he caught her body against his.
“Next time, sit the other way on my shoulders,” he whispered in her ear, knowing she’d get it.
Holy shit.
That sounded like the best plan ever.
She cupped him through his pajamas, and someone was turned on.
Yeah, her too.
It was clear that this little adventure together had been the perfect way to find each other again, because Ceit’s heart wasn’t the only thing that had been lost.
Only, she had to focus.
“It’s definitely a heart,” Gabby said. “Elizabeth is right.”
The woman laughed.
“Gabby, I can spot a heart in the wild. Again, we determined that I know my shapes. That shouldn’t shock you. I do have kids who draw pictures.”
She giggled.
“Not what I meant, but I’m sure you can. If that’s what she was talking about, how do we find it?”
She was curious.
“Anyone see it in paintings after she died? Or maybe with her sister? Since she picked up the fake-wife duties after her sister’s death? Or did it disappear when she did?”
Gabby considered it.
“I don’t remember seeing it in any pictures, or with her sister,” she admitted. “If this was Ceit’s portrait, originally, and she’s wearing it with her finest things, it would seem her sister would do the same.”
Finn agreed.
“Same, Lass. Why do you ask, Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth was thinking all of this out, and she had a sneaking suspicion she knew where it had gone.
“Well, then, what if her greedy father took it before he killed her, or after? You mentioned that he needed the money, and that’s why he married his daughter off to Duncan.
I’m sure jewelry would bring in cash. If he was willing to kill his own daughter, I doubt he’d scoff at stealing from her, too. ”
That was feasible.
Gabby was curious.
“Who gave it to her?” she asked. “Because Duncan wasn’t into the ladies, and I doubt he’d spend that kind of dough back then on that necklace. If he wasn’t the giver, and her father was hard up for cash…”
That was a damn good question.
“Did you find it with her body?” Elizabeth asked. “When you dug her up?”
They shook their heads.
“No. She was in the dirt without it. Her casket rotted, so she would have been with the necklace if she was buried with it, right?” Michael asked.
“I’m not into forensics, but that seems logical that metal doesn’t disintegrate.
Then again, I got my GED and went into the military right out of the orphanage. ”
Elizabeth knew that meant one thing.
It had to be taken.
But by whom?
Like any investigator, she began going back over the possible suspects.
“Did you find it with Oison? You said he was killed by his other daughter, so that means it can only be a few places. Oison, Ceit, or Cathrine. I don’t think Duncan would want it. She wasn’t his love.”
That was very true.
Finn was honest.
“We didn’t really look in the box with his skeleton.
We found him, nailed the lid back on, and then dug a hole on the property to calm the ghosts down and get it out of here.
Tony got the skull scans before we did all that, but then we dumped Oison in a grave so he wouldn’t haunt the house.
We didn’t take his bones out or any of the scraps of material that were on them. ”