Carla Neggers - The Mist

Fresh out of college, Justin was the youngest of the Rush brothers, working in Dublin for at least the next six months. His sensitive mouth and dreamy navy-blue eyes were from his mother, but his tawny-hair and square jaw were all Rush.

He eyed Lizzie’s backpack, her walking shoes tied to the strap by their laces. She’d brushed the mud and dung off them as best she could, but he wasn’t impressed. “Those shoes, Lizzie. Do you want me to toss them?”

He hadn’t had Rush frugality drilled into him by their Whitcomb-Rush grandmother the way she had. “You don’t think they can be salvaged?”

He peered at them. “What did you do, tramp through a pasture? They’re filthy inside and out, and, no, I don’t think they can be salvaged.” He shifted his gaze to her. “Where have you been?”

“A stone circle in West Cork.”

“In a gale?”

“The best time.”

She smiled and started up the half-dozen steps to the lobby, but he grabbed her muddy pack from her. “Excuse me, ma’am, but carrying luggage, even luggage that smells like a barn, is my job.”

“You’re not supposed to comment on whether a guest’s luggage is old, ripped, cheap-”

“Covered in sheep manure?”

“I think it’s cow manure.”

“Terrific,” he said without enthusiasm.

When they reached the lobby, quiet and softly lit this late, Lizzie felt herself start to relax. She was back on familiar ground and just wanted to sink into one of the comfortable chairs angled in front of the fireplace.

Justin was staring at her bloodied knuckles now. “What did you do, get into a brawl in your stone circle?”

“I discovered that Beware of Bull signs are posted for a reason.”

Technically it wasn’t a lie. Her cousin looked skeptical, but there was no need to involve him or anyone at the hotel in her problems, or to give them any information that the garda or the FBI might decide they wanted.

She retrieved her room key from the front desk and turned to Justin. “I’ll take my bag upstairs myself. If anyone asks about me, say I’m in Las Vegas. No. Not Vegas. My father’s there. Rome. Tell them I’m in Rome.”

“How is Uncle Harlan?”

“Losing at poker last I spoke with him.”

“He wouldn’t know what to do with a winning hand,” Justin said. “I can have your shoes cleaned overnight. Try, anyway.”

“Thanks, Justin, but I’ll hang on to them.” Lizzie pushed a hand through her hair, still tangled from the wind and her fight with Michael Murphy. “Do you happen to know if a Brit named Will Davenport is scheduled for a late check-in?”

“Lizzie…”

She could see from her cousin’s expression she’d guessed right. Justin would be on top of all guest arrivals. “When he gets here, call me, okay? He’s British. Tall, blond.”

“We’re talking about Lord Davenport, right?”

“You know him?”

“We’ve never met. His younger sister’s a wedding dress designer in London. Lady Arabella Davenport.”

“How do you know these things?”

He grinned. “I’m the bellman. I know everything. Lady Davenport designed the dresses for a wedding here this summer. Mum was visiting then, and you know how she is.”

Lizzie did, indeed. Her aunt loved anything connected with fabrics and design, especially if it involved hotels or weddings. Preferably both. “She put you through an analysis of every stitch?”

Justin gave a long-suffering nod. “It would help if you’d hang out with her once in a while and let her talk to you about these things.”

“I adore Aunt Henrietta, but talking wedding dresses-”

“Better than taking on an Irish bull.”

Lizzie pictured Arabella Davenport’s older brother walking into the quiet pub before her fight in the stone circle. Whatever his sister’s talents, Lizzie was certain that his didn’t involve weddings. As controlled and polite as he’d been, he’d clearly arrived in the little village on Kenmare Bay prepared to do battle. But she suspected he arrived everywhere prepared to do battle.

She shook off the image. “I’m wiped out, Justin. I’ll see you in the morning.”

She got two steps before her cousin spoke again. “Did Lord Davenport have a role in muddying your shoes?”

She glanced back at him. Perhaps because he was the youngest, or so much his mother’s son, Justin had a tendency to see more than most people in a similar position would see. “It’s a long story.”

“With you, Lizzie, it always is.” He sighed. “I’ll call when your Brit gets here.”

Should her circumstances call for a quick exit, Lizzie’s one-bedroom suite was conveniently located on the second floor near the stairs. She brought her backpack into the bathroom and set it on the tile floor, where any crusts of dried mud and manure that fell off would do the least damage. As she stripped to her skin, she fought back images of whipping her pack against Michael Murphy’s assault knife…of the drooling, snarling black dog…of the swirling fog and mist.

Instinct and training had taken over the moment she’d realized she wasn’t alone in the stone circle, but now, in the familiar surroundings of her favorite hotel, she could finally let down her guard-at least until Lord Davenport arrived. But she and Keira Sullivan had come close to being killed a few hours ago. Would Will have arrived in time to save them if she’d failed?

A moot question, Lizzie told herself as she pulled on a cuddly hotel robe and tied it tightly around her waist.

She went into the beautifully appointed living room of the suite and ordered a full Irish breakfast from room service. Her blackberry crumble was long gone, and she was starving. But she resisted ordering brandy, or a martini.

She sank onto the sofa and grabbed a deck of cards off the coffee table, an antique she and her aunt had bought two years ago at an estate sale in County Clare. Each of the hotel’s thirty-seven rooms was individually decorated, as much as possible, with furnishings and objets d’art from Ireland.

Against her father’s objections, Lizzie had spent eighteen months working at their Dublin hotel, loving every minute. She and her aunt had crawled through countless Irish galleries, choosing Irish paintings, pottery, sculpture, glasswork, throws and whatever else caught their fancy. Lizzie recognized a copper vase they’d found at a gallery in Kenmare. It was fashioned by a contemporary Irish metalworker but reminded her of the old mines where Keira’s story of the stone angel had originated.

Lizzie moved the copper vase and a stack of books on Ireland aside, creating space on the table, and dealt the cards into four piles of thirteen each for a game of bridge. She sorted the hands and counted up the points, then silently bid each one as if she didn’t know what was in the others. She produced an offense and defense and played the game. Flipping one card after another, keeping track of aces and kings and trump cards, scooping up winners and losers. The process anchored her mind while allowing it the freedom to roam.

She had to have her thoughts in order before she made the call she knew she had to make.

The offense won. She dealt another hand.

Her breakfast was delivered by a longtime employee of the hotel, an older woman who didn’t ask why Lizzie was having breakfast at such an hour. She set the tray on the coffee table, and when she left, Lizzie debated eating her meal, taking her bath and going to bed. She could postpone her call and tell Justin to never mind and not to let her know after all when Will Davenport arrived.

Instead she buttered a chunk of brown bread and took a bite as she got out her disposable cell phone and dialed a number she’d received in a terse e-mail last summer. She’d called it only twice before, preferring to stick to e-mail whenever possible.