Authors: Stella Cameron
When he reached her, wrapped an arm around her, he couldn't pull her with him.
Her hair was caught in a drain. Running on instinct, he found a central screw, jammed a thumbnail into the groove and turned. She swung sluggishly against him. He raised an arm and surged to the surface.
Dragging her from the pool, he gripped her middle and let her hang forward, slapped the middle of her back while water poured from her mouth and nose.
"Call Medic 1," he yelled, stretching her on her back. "Maryan! Call Medic 1!"
He heard the babble of voices as the others approached. "Come on," he muttered, lifting Bliss's chin. "Come on, sweetheart."
He brought the heel of one hand down in the middle of her chest, tipped her chin even higher—and her eyes opened. She reached for his wrist with fingers that couldn't hold on.
"Oh, my God," Sebastian said when her breath crossed his face. Gradually her eyes focused. "Bliss, you almost drowned. Oh, thank God!"
He registered three pairs of ankles nearby but could only look at Bliss.
"Still want the medics?" Ron asked.
Bliss coughed and said, "No." She rubbed her scalp and tried to sit up. "Caught. I couldn't unscrew it."
"What happened?" Maryan asked in a voice that trembled. "We were all in the water. Playing around. She was right behind us."
"Drain," Bliss gasped. "I tried to unscrew it."
Sebastian frowned. He picked her up and carried her toward the house.
"I bet she turned the screw the wrong way," Ron said, hurrying along beside them. "Geez, I didn't even notice she wasn't with us anymore."
Grim suspicion sickened Sebastian. "You wouldn't think her hair would go underneath unless the screw was loose, would you? It should have come free as soon as she moved. Makes you wonder how the screw tightened down again."
Vague threats. An "accident" that almost killed Bliss. An accident that had killed Nose. Sebastian observed the preoccupied way Bliss pushed strawberries and cream around her dish and figured she was mulling the same thoughts.
The colorful melee of people at the fair streamed through the
lengthening shadows. She'd insisted she was fine, insisted getting out and having some "fun" would be the best medicine— for both of them. Her face was still so pale.
They sat at a table in the driveway between a multistory car park and the massive block of Bellevue Square's shops. Stalls of arts and crafts ranged the rest of the drive and stretched throughout the lower level of the car park.
"You don't really want that, do you?" he asked.
Bliss pushed her paper plate away. "I thought I did."
"Sweetheart, would you just let me get a doctor to check you over?"
"No."
He suppressed a smile. "I wish you'd say what you mean. Okay, no doctor. But that was quite a shock you had."
She nodded. "You, too?"
"Oh, I guess you'd say I was shocked." Leaning toward her, he framed her face. "I nearly lost you just when I've finally found you again. How shocked do you think I was—am?"
Her eyes grew larger.
Sebastian kissed her. "I vote for a speedy marriage, then we get away from here for a long honeymoon."
"I thought you had a business to run."
"I do. And I can run it from anywhere in the world."
"I have a business to run."
"You know how to use a phone, too."
She looped her arms around his neck, studied his mouth, and brushed her own slowly back and forth over his lips.
"Mmm. I think we need to go where we can be alone."
"We're going to do that." Her voice was husky. "But I do want to see Lennox. And take a quick look to make sure there's nothing at the fair I can't live without."
"You're the only thing I can't live without."
"Ooh, you know how to make sure I can't think straight anymore."
"Good." He stood and offered her a hand. "Let's find your friend Lennox's stuff, then go home."
"You're being very nice to him."
"No I'm not. I want him to see us together. I'm human. I want to gloat a bit."
She punched him playfully. "You're rotten."
"How well you know me."
By the time they found Lennox, Sebastian had bought Bliss a tiny, pottery water garden, a coat made of bright yellow hand-woven silk, a wooden, heart-shaped box so smooth its opening was invisible, and a set of twelve prints of Seattle she'd paused to admire.
"No more." She laughed up at him. "I hate everything else at this fair. There isn't another thing I want."
"Good," he said, and spotted two rows of brass buttons on a navy-blue blazer. Lennox Rood stared hard at Sebastian and he was reminded of the old saying about looks that might kill. "Here's your buddy, Lennox," he told Bliss.
She spun around and hugged the man!
Lennox enjoyed every damned second. He hugged right back and smiled over her head until she stepped away.
Sebastian stuck out a hand and the other man shook it— limply.
"Sebastian and I are getting married," Bliss said happily. "I wanted you to know. I wanted to be the one to tell you."
The man deserved admiration. His smile barely slipped before he transformed it into a grin. Within seconds he was pressing one of his paintings on them. "An engagement gift." Sebastian had the fleeting thought that they might actually have to display the gifts they received from Bliss's oddball friends— at least if there was warning that they intended to visit.
"I'll wrap it for you," Lennox said, and Sebastian felt how the man welcomed a chance to look somewhere other than at Bliss.
She examined a profusion of brilliant windsocks trailing from wires and all but brushing the ground. "Hah! Look at this one. A big, pink pig."
Sebastian looked.
"I hate it." Bliss laughed. "I certainly don't want it!"
"Could you hold that corner," Lennox said of the brown paper he was using to wrap a painting entitled, Sea Music, for reasons Sebastian couldn't determine.
Several minutes, and numerous pieces of tape later, he juggled packages and took the latest one beneath an arm. "Thanks," he said, with all the warmth he'd could muster. "Will you visit sometime?"
Lennox clicked his jaw from side to side and nodded. "Sometime. Take care of her."
"I wouldn't dare not to." Men certainly lined up to look after Bliss.
He turned to leave, but didn't immediately see her.
She emerged from the forest of windsocks, clutched his elbow and hurried him away with only a brief, "bye," to poor old Lennox.
"I think we'll have to leave," Sebastian told her. "I don't think we can carry anymore."
She waited until they were out of sight of Lennox's stand before stopping and pulling Sebastian to face her. "We've got trouble. Big trouble."
"It'll be all right." He refused to believe Ron or Maryan had tried to drown Bliss. "We've just had a bunch of rocky times to go through. We'll get away and everything will be fine."
"I'm not so sure. I just got another of those damn warnings." Pallor made her eyes an even darker shade of blue. "He told me to stay away from you. Again."
Sebastian screwed up his eyes. "Who told you? When? We were—"
"You were busy with the painting. It only took a few seconds."
"What?" People bumped them in passing. "What only took a few seconds?"
"Pulling me backward into those windsocks. Covering my mouth, and telling me you were bad for my health."
"I don't believe this."
"Believe it," Bliss said, and drew several long strands of white silk and silver thread from her neck.
Officer Ballard tucked his pen back into his pocket. "Very interesting."
Very interesting and I think you 're a nut case, Bliss thought. Sebastian had insisted upon calling the police and having them send someone out to talk to them at the Point. Evidently Ballard had inherited the dubious honor of dealing with what he probably considered nuisance calls relating to Bliss. At least the man had told them the police thought some curious spectator had probably found Nose's camera, then become scared and disposed of it in the back of Sebastian's truck.
"I'll go back to the station and file a report," Ballard said politely.
"I want Bliss watched," Sebastian said, while she raised her eyes to the ceiling. She could almost hear Polly and Fab breathing on the other side of the kitchen door while they listened. "She's been threatened and she's been hurt. There aren't going to be any more risks taken. If she's not with me, she's to be watched by you people."
"We can have a car drive by now and again," Ballard said.
"I didn't say—"
"Sebastian! Please. You can't expect the police to spare men to watch me all the time."
"Then I'll hire someone."
"Better make sure he keeps away from that bluff," Ballard said mildly.
"I don't find you funny." Sebastian didn't sound as if he found anything funny. "From now on, until we get to the bottom of this, you'll be with me, Bliss. Understand?"
"How exactly are you hurt, miss?" Ballard asked.
She touched her neck. This time the threads from her scarf had been applied over the collar of her shirt. "He yanked on my neck. There aren't any marks."
"Right. Like you already said."
"This afternoon she almost drowned in my pool."
"Really?" Ballard's impassive expression changed a little. "You didn't mention that."
"It was an accident," Bliss said. "I caught my hair in a drain."
"I see."
"No you don't," Sebastian said. "She should have been able to pull free."
"But she couldn't?"
"If I'd been a few seconds longer going after her we might not be having this conversation."
"Ah. So you think someone tried to drown Ms. Winters?"
"They absolutely did not," Bliss said. "It was just one of those freaky things. You're too jumpy, Sebastian."
"That's not what you said at Bellevue Square."
"It's what I'm saying now. Someone put that silk around my neck, Officer. Like I told you, it's the second time it's happened and I don't know why. I'm not frightened by it because I think that's what this person wants. I just think it's a good idea for the police to be aware of these events."
"Right." Ballard brightened considerably. "Absolutely right. And we'll be keeping an ear open in case you need us. You just let us know, Ms. Winters."
"I will," she told him. "I certainly will."
"/ certainly will, " Sebastian said venomously when Ballard had left. "The truth is that unless you're dead, they aren't going to do anything."
"Don't say that! You frighten me."
"Oh, love." He enfolded her in a big hug. "I'm sorry. This has been a helluva day, is all."
"I hate it when you—"
"Swear?" He chuckled into her hair. "Yes, I know. It's still been a helluva day."
"Woman from the Arts Commission on the phone for you, Bliss," Liberty said from the kitchen doorway. "Says it's something about grants."
"Ooh!" Bliss leaped away from Sebastian. "Sit right there on the couch. Grants are a language I speak fluently."
She left him and ran to pick up the kitchen phone. "Hi! Bliss Winters here."
"It's been a long time," a woman's voice said. "I owe you some explanations."
Bliss looked up, and through the window. "Who is this?"
"Can we meet? Just the two of us?"
The voice wasn't familiar.
"If I thought anyone else would know, I couldn't come. It'd be too dangerous."
"All right," Bliss said slowly. "We can probably meet."
"I'm doing it for Sebastian. I owe him that much. You won't tell him, will you? If you tell him I won't feel I'm finally free of the guilt."
Bliss bowed her head. "I won't tell him," she said, knowing now who she was speaking to.
"This is Crystal."
Twenty-five
"Little Point," Polly said.
"Appropriate," Fab responded, her face folded in concentration. "But it doesn't make the point, does it?"
Bliss and Vic chuckled.
Polly wrinkled her nose and said, "She doesn't even know she made a funny."
"Mm," Fab said, but she grinned. "Pretty little funny, if you ask me. But we can't call the place Hole Point if Sebastian's getting the hole filled."
Bliss's full attention wasn't on the discussion. She'd successfully persuaded Sebastian to go to his office to take care of some European business, but timing would still be close if she was going to keep her appointment with Crystal and get back before he did.
"No Point," Vic said triumphantly. "Hole Point today. No Point tomorrow, when Sebastian's filled the hole with concrete."
"He isn't doing it himself," Liberty reminded him.
"Shit!" Vic said. He scowled at her. "Do you have to pick on every word I say?"
The twins burst into a flurry of motion, clattering clean dishes into cupboards.
Liberty's cheeks had turned bright red.
"Vic"—Bliss stared at his angry face—"Liberty didn't mean anything. You're so touchy. And you don't appreciate her." Her
palms sweated. This confrontation was overdue, but that didn't make it easier.
He looked away. "I appreciate Liberty. She's the best. We're all a bit shaken up by so many changes, so fast."
"That's right," Liberty agreed. "Come on, Vic. I've got to work for a while."
"Yeah. Me, too."
The instant the twins were left alone with Bliss, they talked excitedly about the interviews they were to have at Raptor. Bliss half-listened, showed enthusiasm in most of the right places, and worked out how she'd get to her meeting with Crystal.
"Can I come in?"
The sound of her mother's voice startled Bliss. She swung around to see Kitten already walking into the kitchen.
"I know I should have called, but I don't see enough of you, darling." She didn't meet Bliss's eyes. "So I decided to take a chance on finding you at home." Her voice broke and she rushed to fall into a chair at the kitchen table and bury her face.
Bliss was aware of the twins slipping quickly from the lodge and closing the door softly behind them.
"Has something happened, Mom?" Bliss asked awkwardly.
Kitten's hair was as perfect as ever, her powder blue outfit as impeccable as ever, but her shoulders heaved, and her sobs tripped Bliss's heart into a runaway rhythm.