out of the study altogether, since he had no idea how to put the wall and case back together. Which, with all the books on the floor, would take some time, even if he did. He scooted back out, shoving at books again, when a bright beam of light flashed into the room and skimmed over its contents, before pinning him to the spot as he shielded his eyes.
“How very…Humpty Dumpty of you,” Emma said from her stance in the doorway.
Great. Just great.
“Hey,” he said, with feigned enthusiasm, “you found a flashlight.”
She stepped just inside the door. “Bedside drawer in one of the guest rooms.” She patted the pocket of her fleece vest. “Extra batteries, too.”
“Could you lower the beam a little?”
“Oh, sorry.”
Unfortunately, she both lowered it and shifted it slightly to the side. The side with the gaping doorway to the secret room.
“Whoa. So that’s what that ‘I’ll be damned’ was all about.” She moved in closer, careful to pick her way over and around clumps of books. She stopped about ten feet away, when the tumble of books completely blocked her path. And his exit. “Did you know about the hidden room? Is the door what triggered the avalanche?”
“No, and, sort of.” Sighing internally, he accepted his fate as gracefully as possible, and pushed himself to a stand. Fortunately, everything seemed to work and he didn’t feel any noticeable injury.
She kept the beam of light on the open doorway, but the high-powered flashlight illuminated a fair amount of the room, making it easy for Trevor to pick his way through the books to her side, while also neatly blocking her view of the newly found hidey-hole. He had no idea what was in there, but no way was she going to search it before he did.
“Why don’t we head back upstairs? I’ll tackle all this in the morning.”
“You don’t want to see what’s in the room?”
“Whatever it is, it’s been there for some time and certainly won’t be going anywhere before morning.”
“But—”
“I wouldn’t mind tracking down a bathroom with a medicine chest, preferably one stocked with some kind of pain reliever.” Which wasn’t entirely true, he felt fine, but it certainly sounded plausible enough. He paused behind her and shifted his body in a way that indicated she was supposed to turn in front of him and lead the way out. One thing he hadn’t counted on was all that curly hair, and that fresh scent that seemed to linger on her, combining to weaken his already vulnerable state.
She held her ground, and he found himself unwilling to do anything more aggressive to move her. Well, he was having aggressive thoughts, but they had nothing to do with bodily removing her from the room. More like removing things from her body…Maybe he was wrong about needing something for his discomfort. He needed something much stronger than an aspirin, however. Preferably something shaken, not stirred. He was stirred up plenty already.
“Emma, please, can we just—”
“Why were you looking for candles in a bookshelf?” she interrupted.
A quick look at her face told him she wasn’t just making casual conversation. Her expression was more like Jack with a tasty piece of rawhide; determined and single-mindedly fixated. She wasn’t going to be easily misdirected.
His respect for her grew, even as his brain worked quickly to find some way out of this latest round. She cut him off before he had a chance to figure out a solution.
“What is it you don’t want me to see?” She quickly flashed the light past him toward the room.
He had to curl his fingers in to keep from reflexively grabbing for the flashlight and thwarting her attempt at discovery.
Then she was lowering the beam, and looking directly back at him. Any other time, he’d have been drawn in by the way her eyes got darker when she was serious, the way her lips pursed, making the bottom one look almost bee-stung. So at odds with her strong cheekbones and jawline. Which shouldn’t surprise him. Everything about her was at odds with him.
“What are you really looking for?” she asked.
He opened his mouth, but she cut him off, again.
“And don’t try to talk me in circles, okay? You’re here looking for something. And it’s not an alternate light source. You wanted me out of the way when you left me upstairs earlier, you wanted me out of the way when you sent me candle hunting, and you want me out of the way right now. You’ve done