DARCY had been holed up in his father’s office in the barn for nearly a week, toiling late into the night, organizing, sorting, trying to make sense of everything. Occasionally Clementine would bring him a meal or a cooler with beer in it, but he’d then shoo her off so he could focus. Every time she tried to bring up whatever it was that had happened between him and Edouardo, Darcy just put up a hand and said, “Enough.”
This time she showed up with two plates of pasta and a bottle of wine and decided to try from a different angle. “So, I thought we could chat over supper,” she said. “I’ve been experimenting in the kitchen and—”
“I thought you’d learned your lesson about that when you caught that wild boar that you were trying to roast on fire.”
She laughed. “Clearly you’ve been missing out, brother dear,” she said. “My cooking skills are progressing to practically edible at this point!”
“From the smell of it, I’d say you’ve surpassed that. Thank you,” he said, digging his fork into his bowl as she poured them each some wine.
“Flattery will get you everywhere,” she said. “Except helping you in here. After all, you had an assistant at your command, but you must have been a dreadful boss because she’s not returned since day one.”
Darcy shook his head. “Off-limits conversation,” he said, poking around his bowl at some unidentified meat-type bit. “What is this? It’s quite tasty.”
“Tofu,” she said, beaming.
“Tofu?” he said, spitting it out. “What in God’s name is that doing in my food? I’m a human being and I need my meat.”
“Says who?”
“Says everyone,” he said. “I need protein, and I like my protein to come from something I know, like a cow. Or a pig. Or a chicken.”
“I just thought I’d prove to you that sometimes you don’t always know what’s best for you,” she said. “After all, this tofu... Well, it provides you much of the same nutrition you’d get from that wild boar I burned. That is, had I not burned it. But it’s so much better for you.”
“Why do I think there’s a lesson in this somewhere?” He shifted his eyes side to side as if she was going to drop some other surprise on him next.
His sister laughed. “No worries. I haven’t got any other surprises here. Except perhaps these biscuits I brought along for dessert.” She pointed to her basket. “But I noticed that lovely friend of yours, Caroline, seems to have disappeared and hasn’t been back since that first day. And I’ve also noticed this dreadful silence seems to have descended over you and Edouardo. And I can’t help but think there’s some correlation.”
“I said I don’t want to talk about it.” Darcy’s eyebrows furrowed, and he looked ready to kick a dog or something.
“I saw these really adorable pictures on Facebook the other day,” she said, ignoring him. “They were taken several days ago. In fact, I think the same day that she was here and then left so abruptly. Caroline and Emma and Isabella were in the vault. There were all sorts of pictures of them wearing the jewels. And then this one picture of Emma and Caroline wearing tiaras. Caroline was wearing that famous Egyptian asp crown. The piece that one of our ancestors brought back from his travels long ago. Remember that story?”
Darcy rolled his eyes and stuffed a particularly large forkful of pasta into his mouth.
“I think it’s really interesting, considering he brought it back to Monaforte for the woman he loved, a treasure from his exotic adventures,” she said. “And then when she died suddenly, he couldn’t bear to see it ever again, so he asked the king if he could give it as a gift for the Monafortian crown jewels. Funny coincidence, that.”
Darcy ignored Clementine, instead reaching for the basket. “Did you say there were sweets in here somewhere?”
Clementine hit her forehead with the heel of her hand. “God, Darcy, are you that dense? Do you really not see any linkage? Of all the jewels in that vault, she puts on the Weltenham Asp?”
“Please, Clem, are you going to be dragging a crystal ball in here next and predicting we’ll have ten children and a home in the country?”
“That’s easy,” she said. “You’ve already got the home in the country. And I know you’re not crazy enough to have ten children, so I’m going to go with two. An heir and a spare, as they say. Even though that really only matters if you’re a prince.”
“Are you absolutely mad?”
“Darcy, wake up and smell the coffee. Even a dying bloodhound could have smelled the chemistry between the two of you.”
“Dying bloodhound? Back to the drawing board in metaphorland, C?” he said.
“Oh, you know what I mean,” she said. “Clearly she’s crushing on you, and considering I’ve never known you to stick with anyone for more than a few hours, I could just tell this one wasn’t part of Darcy’s Revolving Door of Love.” She made air quotes just to dig it in deeper.
Darcy choked on his sip of wine. “Please tell me you didn’t just say that to me. My own sister. Good God.” He pretended to stab a dagger into his chest.
Clementine looked up and fixed her eyes on her brother’s. “Darcy, we’re all sad that Dad has passed. It’s not going to be easy to get over it. But it sure won’t do you a whit of good to deny yourself happiness as some sort of penance. It’s not your fault he died. It’s not my fault he died. It just happened. You’re still entitled to your life, you know? It’s not your job to just fill the gap and move onward. I hope you know that.”
Darcy shook his head. “It’s far more complicated than you realize, Clem. It’s just not going to happen.”
Clementine growled at him. “All right, fine. If you’re not going to give it a go, then maybe it should be Edouardo. After all, that Egyptian Asp crown and all. It needs to be some man from our family.”
“Oh, ho, ho. Edouardo?” he practically shouted. “Spare me that. And don’t even mention her name around him or you’ll get an earful. Trust me on that.”
His sister’s eyes widened, and she drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “Oh, really? I could tell Edouardo wasn’t quite keen on opening up our home to anyone right now.”
“That’s the understatement of the year.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Darcy shook his head. “Nice try, Clem. I know you think you can woo me with food and maybe liquor me up with some good wine, but I’m not biting this time. What happened between my brother and me is going to remain there.”
Clementine stuck out her lower lip and pouted. “That’s so not fair. I’m always left out of the good stuff around here. I want to be included.”
“Trust me, my dearest sister. You do not want to have any part of this one. It’s not for you to know.”
Clementine got up to leave. “Fine. Maybe I’ll just have to go pry Edouardo’s lips open with some whiskey and see where that gets me.”
Darcy tried to catch her as she raced out of the room, but she was down and out the barn before he had a chance.