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.
In time, he found a chair and helped himself to it. His shoulder was substantially better thanks to Sunny’s miraculous concoctions of herbs, but he was more tired than he cared to be. It was actually rather lovely to simply close his eyes and know that he wasn’t responsible for the safety of either himself or anyone he cared about, however temporarily.
Not that he cared about Samantha Drummond, of course. If he were to choose a woman to be fond of, he certainly wouldn’t have chosen her. He wasn’t moved by her ability to charm and delight an old man who loved antiquities. He definitely wasn’t ready to become fond of her because of her laugh that sounded as if she honestly hadn’t used it all that often and wasn’t quite sure how it might come across. He was not interested in a woman who couldn’t seem to stop fingering cashmere, or who had spent more time than necessary promising him she would repay him, and who had simply looked at him, mute, when he’d assured her for the dozenth time that repayment wasn’t necessary.
He wondered what her life had been like as a slave to her mother.
He knew he shouldn’t have been wondering, but since the odds of seeing her again were virtually zero, perhaps he was safe.
He realized that at some point he had dozed only because he woke with a stiff neck. Lord Epworth and Samantha were still going strong, discussing the intricacies of Elizabethan lace making. He remained still, not wanting to disturb them whilst they were having such a wonderful time.