Lacybourne Manor (Ghosts and Reincarnation #3)(101)
Author: Kristen Ashley

It all came down to love.

At this fervid pronouncement, Colin glanced her way but Sibyl kept her eyes carefully averted. She hadn’t shared her feelings for Colin with Colin mainly because she had no clue as to his. He certainly acted loving but being loving and being in love were two different things. With everything else going on, she couldn’t cope with being in love with a man, a wonderful (albeit hopelessly irritating) man, her soulmate, the one she’d been searching for a lifetime and having that love be one-sided.

When no immediate assertion that true love was glimmering in the very air was made by either Colin or Sibyl, Marian demanded to settle protection spells on them the minute she felt up to it, which, by her estimation, was the very next afternoon when they arrived back from Heathrow.

Sibyl dutifully promised to be at her house as Colin gazed at the two women, making no promises of his own, his expression carefully blank.

After she’d given Marian’s cheek a kiss, Sibyl left with Colin to find her family.

They walked down the hall together and she tried to act casual and steady her rapidly beating heart when Colin laced his fingers in hers.

“You don’t believe her,” Sibyl noted as she watched him out of the corner of her eye.

“It’s nonsense,” Colin stated firmly.

She stopped, tugging at his hand to halt him too as she saw her family with Angie at the end of hall.

“It makes sense,” she defended her friend.

He shook his head slowly but his lips were twitching. “You think it makes sense that some unknown entity is stalking Beatrice and Royce’s souls through eternity?”

“What do you think it is?” she demanded in exasperation.

Before he spoke, Colin turned so that his back was to her waiting family and hiding her from them. “I don’t know what to think. I’m prepared to believe, just barely and only because of the dreams, that we’ve been drawn together by something that goes beyond lucky coincidence but not that some unknown person has murderous intent simply due to a longstanding curse.”

She felt her stomach lurch hopefully at the words “lucky coincidence’ but she hid it by querying, “Okay then, who do you think it is?”

His shoulders stiffened and all humour fled. “Sibyl, you haven’t…” He stopped and dragged his hand through his hair in agitation and she saw, with some surprise, it was because he was trying to find the right words. After some thought, he continued, “I’ve not exactly led the life of a choirboy. My family is wealthy but the kind of wealth I have comes from…” He stopped again and finished shortly, “I’ve made enemies.”

“You think it’s someone you’ve wronged who’s doing this? And, if so, why would they shoot Mallory and attack my toss pillows?” she asked.

“Not someone I’ve wronged, I wouldn’t say I wronged anyone, though they might not think of it that way,” Colin answered.

Losing patience, Sibyl cried, “You’re talking semantics and I’m talking decimated toss pillows!”

His amusement came back as quickly as it faded; he put his hand to her jaw and muttered, “Sometimes, you’re too adorable for words.”

Her eyes narrowed on him as she grumbled, “You can’t distract me with flattery.”

“At least I tried,” he replied, still in fine humour and she glared as he turned around again, and, with a gentle pull on her hand, they headed back down the hall and she noted, later, that he never answered her.

Apparently, she thought with disgust, he could distract her with flattery.

Promising to see Angie the next afternoon, if not sooner when Scarlett checked on Marian, they all left. They went to Brightrose where Colin instructed everyone to pack in preparation for Heathrow the next day. He also demanded that Sibyl pack much more than an overnight bag.

“Why?” she asked.

“You’re moving into Lacybourne,” he answered, completely calmly.

At his words, Sibyl’s eyes bugged out as her family drifted around them to take in what would undoubtedly be a fiery show.

“I’m not,” she defied.

“You are,” Colin stated.

“I am not.” She nearly stamped her foot.

“Until these men are caught, you’re staying at Lacybourne. The alarm hasn’t been installed at Brightrose and, even if it were, I don’t want you here by yourself… at all.”

“I have a business here,” Sibyl pointed out.

“We’ll move that to Lacybourne as well.”

As her eyes were as wide as they could open, her brows shot up.

“You’re… you can’t… I…” she spluttered then immediately digressed to an eight year old and turned her eyes to her father and whined, “Dad!”

“He has a point,” Bertie said quietly.

This time, her mouth dropped open.

“Pack your bags Sibyl,” Colin ordered.

She swung from Colin back to her father and tried again by repeating, “Dad!”

“Pack them, Sibyl,” Bertie stated in the fatherly tone that, all her life, she could never oppose.

“Bertie, I don’t think –” Mags decided to wade into the fray.

“Quiet, Marguerite,” Bertie demanded.

At that, all three women’s mouths dropped open (or, more to the point, two as Sibyl’s was already gaping).

Even so, they stomped up the stairs with dire mutterings that consisted of such words as “overbearing”, “chauvinistic” and “tyrannical” but still, they packed.

None of this affected Colin or Bertie in the slightest.

Colin went to Lacybourne while they packed, taking Bertie with him and coming back with the BMW and the Mercedes. They packed the cars to the brim with bags, pet supplies, the food that might spoil in the fridge and all were hauled to Lacybourne.

Then, as if the day couldn’t get worse, they arrived at Lacybourne to see it crowded with cars.

It was National Trust Saturday at Lacybourne Manor.

They dragged in their bags without incident, putting away the food and leaving the other luggage in the study which, since it was Colin’s personal office, was off-limits to National Trust visitors. Upon leaving again to head out to a late lunch, some of the tourists who’d been in the house stopped and gawked.

“Oh my gawd!” a large American woman with dyed-black hair and nicely tailored clothing shrieked. “It’s the couple from the portraits.”

“Brilliant,” Colin muttered, starting to assist Sibyl into the BMW and his tone stated he didn’t find it brilliant at all.