The fire department came quickly and doused the rampant flames, but not before the front porch fell in. Tomorrow they could comb through the ashes and see if anything was salvageable, but from the looks of it that was doubtful.
Thomas’s leg has been treated. He moved easily now, but Darcy imagined there must still have been some pain.
She, too, had been to the EMS vehicle. Fortunately, the stitches in her forehead had stayed intact and she’d gained nothing worse than a few bruises. She sat now on the front bench of his buggy, where Thomas had wrapped her in heavy blankets. But she couldn’t stop shivering. Mostly from the cold, she told herself. And perhaps a little from residual fear. But she also knew it was from Thomas, from his gentle touch. From his kiss. She could feel it still as he breathed against her. He’d tasted sweet, like apples. His beard had brushed against her chin. He had kissed her. And she didn’t know what to make of it. If anything...
She watched Thomas while he talked to the firefighters, the police and the EMS team. He moved with self-assurance, seemingly unruffled by the chaos that surrounded them. A man of great strength, both physical and emotional. A man she hardly knew really, but who’d agreed to help her through this nightmare with no hope of getting anything in return but this headache of problems and a bullet through his leg. And he had kissed her.
A kiss she really needed to forget about. Thomas couldn’t possibly be interested in her romantically. No way. He was so...Amish. And she was not. The kiss was just one of those things that happen in an intense moment. That was all. Nothing more.
What she really wanted to concentrate on was the Bible, envelope and key they had found in Jesse’s highboy. She was too anxious to open the envelope to wait for Thomas to be able to join her. He probably wouldn’t care.
Darcy picked it up. She slipped a finger through a gap between the flap and the top edge and ripped it across the top with her finger. There was a single sheet of paper inside. She opened it to find a typed letter with an old photo tucked inside. Another Polaroid—the exact picture Jesse had shared with her weeks ago. Her as a small child, with both of her parents. But this was clearly the original as opposed to the copy, on regular printer paper, that Jesse had provided. The photo had yellowed and faded with age. But there she was being held between the mother and father that she never knew. Darcy turned her attention to the letter and read.
It is not destroyed, but hidden where only the righteous and pure of heart may find it. These places hold the answers and the beauty and the destruction of the responsible.
After those cryptic words, there were two quotes that didn’t make any sense to her.
Darcy shook her head as she read the letter through a second time, her heart sinking into her gut. Then she folded the paper back around the photograph and slipped them back into the envelope.
“How are you holding up?” Thomas appeared at the side of the buggy.
Darcy nearly jumped from her skin. She had not seen him walk over. “I’m fine.”
“We can go home now.” He climbed into the buggy beside her and pulled up the brake. His leg brushed against hers and the contact sent a shiver up her spine. She scooted over an inch to make more room for him.
With a couple of clicking sounds and a light tap of the long leather reins, his horse set off in a fast high-stepping trot.
“How’s the leg?” she asked.
“It’s nothing. I’ve had worse from falling off a horse.” The warm sound of his voice resonated deep inside her.
“When we get home, Nana can you fix a hot bath. She also makes the best apple pie in the world.”
“A bath sounds nice. But what would I change into?”
“Abigail may have something else for you to wear. And you can borrow something from Nana in the meantime. It might not fit but you can’t stay in that.”
Darcy pulled the blankets tighter around her torso and forced a smile. “It’s funny how after being trapped in a fire, I now can’t seem to get warm.”
Thomas didn’t respond. Immediately, Darcy wished she had worded that differently. He’d shared his coat with her the day before. He didn’t have a coat on now, of course. It had burned in the fire as had her wool wrap. So it sounded like she’d meant for him to put his arms around her again. Ugh. Why did a kiss make things so awkward?
Darcy cleared her throat. Time to move on to another topic. “It’s a real shame about the cottage. Did Jesse have insurance?”
“The Amish don’t—”
“Have insurance... Of course you don’t.” Darcy pressed her lips together. “Then how does Jesse get medical care?”
“The community has funds put away for such things. To cover unexpected costs such as Jesse’s hospital bills, or for when a house burns down or gets damaged in a storm.”
“That’s amazing. You really take care of each other.”
“Isn’t that what we should do? Help those that we love?”
“Well, yes, it’s what people should do. But trust me, I don’t think too many people actually do it.” Then again what did she know? She hadn’t exactly grown up in a normal loving home. In any case, she didn’t want to talk about. “I opened the envelope.”
“I thought you might.”
Darcy shrugged. “I didn’t understand any of it. It was very cryptic. Some quotes. A weird message at the top. And a picture inside. It was the original of the same picture he gave me a copy of when we first met—him and me with my mother when I was little.”
“Where was that picture taken?”
“I don’t know exactly,” she said.
“Maybe it’s important.”
Darcy frowned. “Thomas, I know you’re trying to help me and I appreciate it more than you know. More than I’m showing you, but... I should just go. We should just call Agent Danvers—”
“Agent Danvers? Don’t you mean Agent Ross?”
“Come on, Thomas,” she said. “You were nearly killed today. I’m just putting all of you at risk by staying here. I can’t keep doing that.”
“I don’t think that man today was hunting you,” Thomas said. “He was looking around the house. And he definitely didn’t mean to set it on fire. That just happened in the scuffle—”
“In the scuffle of him shooting at you.”
“Well, now that the house is practically destroyed, I don’t think they will be back again. They don’t know where you are. And they wouldn’t even recognize you if they did.”
“Do you think Jesse had some of the art stashed away there, in the cabin?”
“If he did, then it’s gone now or at least damaged.” Thomas shook his head. “But no. I don’t think there was any artwork there. The FBI team would have found it. Plus, if Jesse did keep all that artwork, I don’t think he would have kept it nearby.”
“Kind of like how he had the photos in a box all the way out at the well?” she asked.
“Yes, but the pictures aren’t worth anything. Paintings worth millions of dollars? Well, you would think he would have put those somewhere really secure.”
“Like a vault.”
“Right,” he agreed. “Anyway, don’t call Agent Danvers. At least not today.”
“Okay, I’ll see what McClendon and Agent Ross have to say. I just don’t want to put anyone in danger. I mean, look at you.” She glanced down to his wounded leg. “Does it hurt?”
“This isn’t your fault, Darcy,” he said. “None of this is. Just remember that.”
His voice was full of emotion, but for what she wasn’t sure. For her? For Jesse? For the destruction of the cottage? For the discovery that someone he loved was a thief?
He was right. Nothing about this situation was her fault. But that wasn’t the only thing she was thinking about. She was thinking about Thomas. Was she starting to have feelings for him? Her heart was pounding. Darcy had to remind herself to breathe.
“Would you let me have a look at it? The letter, that is.”
“Of course you can. You’re the one who found it. And you’re right. We should show it to Agent Ross.”
“Good. I’m glad you agree because I already called him and told him about it.”
* * *
For someone who’d been attacked and nearly burned to death, Darcy was amazingly resilient. He liked that about her. Actually, Thomas liked a lot of things about Darcy Simmons. He liked her small frame and her huge round eyes, especially now that he could see them in all their natural beauty, uncluttered by dark makeup. He liked her quick mind and her outspoken opinions.
What he didn’t like was that she didn’t like to talk about God. He didn’t like that she didn’t understand that some people were willing to help one another without expecting anything in return. He didn’t like that she was going to leave. Which brought him to the real doozy that he didn’t like—that he’d kissed her. Of course, that was his fault, not hers.
A rush of emotions flooded through him at the thought—emotions he would repress and ignore, as they had no possible hope of further development.
Anyway, the kiss had been just an expression of thankfulness that God had saved them from the fire. That He’d delivered them once again from a dangerous intruder. Right. Thomas swallowed hard. Although holding her close might have filled him with a feeling that was not exactly thankfulness. Not that Thomas wasn’t thankful, of course—he was. But he knew what had really happened. He had gotten caught up in the moment. That’s what had happened. And what a moment it was...
“You must be exhausted,” he said, forcing his thoughts in a different direction.
“I would imagine no more than you are,” she said. “Thomas, what if the letter and the pictures and the key all lead to nothing? What if Jesse never wakes up? What will we do?”
A sadness swept over Thomas at her words. He wanted to reach over and draw her close. But he couldn’t. He wouldn’t go there again. Anyway, thankfully they were home. Nana was standing on the front porch looking at them like they were a pair of teenagers that had stayed out too late.
“I have been waiting and waiting. I heard all those sirens,” she began. “And I saw smoke. What were you all doing over there? I thought it was going to be just a small investigation. You know Jesse wouldn’t like all these people rummaging through his belongings...”
There was a distinct pause as they got close enough for Nana to see the condition they were in and then Nana started again. “Oh, my! What has happened to the two of you? You’re covered in soot and it smells like—”
“The cottage caught fire,” Thomas announced.
“With the two of you in it, from the looks of it.”
“Wait until you see his leg,” Darcy said as she climbed out of the buggy.
“Thanks for that.” Thomas eyed her as she jumped down. There was a twinkle of mischief in her stormy gray eyes. Ja, he liked that about her, too.