full. As we reached the door, it swung open. I expected to see Humphrey rushing out to help us but was surprised when Smith stepped out in bare feet and took Penny from my arms.
“Allow me.” He cradled her closely, kissing the top of her forehead. “Hello, beautiful.”
His words, directed at our daughter, stung, and I immediately shrugged them off. Of course, he would call her that. She was beautiful. Penny was the prettiest baby I’d ever seen. It was completely normal.
“Waiting for us?” My eyes raked over him. He was in an old pair of jeans and a loosely ribbed sweater. I spotted his dirty boots in the tray next to the door.
“Just finished up and saw you were on your way back,” he said smoothly, leaning to give me a kiss.
I frowned. “Saw?”
“You were coming down the drive,” he said, but his eyes didn’t meet mine.
Smith was lying to me. I knew it as surely as I knew that I loved him—that he was my soul mate. The lie squeezed my heart, like it wanted to be seen for what it was. I just didn’t understand why.
“How did it go?” he asked in an even tone, so perfectly calculated I wondered if he’d been planning this moment in his head all day.
“He gave me drugs.” I held up the pharmacy bags. “They’re going to fix me.”
“That’s all?” He sounded disappointed, and I wondered if he’d expected me to come back as a Stepford wife, suddenly prim and pleasing and poised.
“I’m supposed to take walks and ask for help,” I bit out with a tired smile. Before I could finish, the door chime interrupted us. Smith had Penny and Nora had disappeared to put away her things, so I answered it just as Humphrey arrived to do the honors.
The detective who’d overseen the investigation into our cellar was on the other side. I shot Smith a quizzical look.
“The family is all here. I do believe you’ve added one to your number,” he said in a jovial tone.
It took me a second to realize he was talking about Penny. I’d been pregnant the last time he was here. “Come in.”
Humphrey looked even more put out that I’d invited the detective inside the house, and he bustled up, offering to take his coat.
“I only came to speak with Mr. Price.” He waved off the assistance. “But if this isn’t a good time…”
“No, it’s fine,” he said.
I held out my arms to take the baby, wondering what this was about. Smith passed Penny to me before leading the police detective into the sitting room. He turned and smiled before he reached for the pocket doors that separated the space. As they slid shut, closing him off to me, I realized Smith wasn’t just lying to me.
He was keeping secrets.
20
Smith
“I am sorry to disturb you,” Detective Longborn said, taking a seat on the sofa. He glanced around the room and nodded appreciatively at the holiday decorations. “It’s nice to see this house with some life in it again. It’s been a long time since anyone celebrated Christmas here.”
“Thornham is a family home again,” I said in a tight voice. Longhorn’s timing couldn’t have been worse. Not only had I forgotten to mention to Belle he’d be stopping by, he’d done so right as she was telling me about her doctor's appointment. Given how difficult it was to get her to open up these days, I couldn’t help being concerned that my window to hear the details would be closed when I was done here. I didn’t want to have to press Nora for information. I’d already slipped up and nearly admitted that I’d asked the nanny to send a message as soon as they were on the way home today.
“You said you had an update for me,” I prompted, ready to get Longborn talking.
“Yes, but I’m afraid it’s not good news.”
I stopped, my eyes wandering to a nearby brass bar cart and the crystal decanter sitting on it. I’d chosen to give up drinking a year ago. Since then, I found myself breaking that promise on more than one occasion. Generally, I did so out of a sense of social obligation. I couldn’t help thinking that a detective delivering bad news about the bones in my basement was just such an occasion. “Drink?”
I half expected him to refuse, given that he was clearly on duty, but he nodded. Maybe, that’s how things were here. It wasn’t as though Briarshead had a high crime