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Arlanced to the side and sat back, drawing her attention to the fact that their food had arrived She sat back as well to aze on Ar up Annie had obviously disturbed him As if he had assumed all this time that her death had been an accident, but Eshe&039;s question had raised some doubt in hih It could mean that he knew or suspected that his wives&039; deaths weren&039;t the accidents they appeared to be, which would explain the way he had withdrawn fro to shelter theer that appeared to plague those who loved him

Before Arht have suspected those words had been a slip and that he knew the deaths of his wives weren&039;t accidents because he&039;d caused them, but he hadn&039;t even been around when two of them had died He&039;d been several days&039; ride away at court when Susanna died in that fire, and Althea had been hours away in Toronto with her parents when she died in the hotel fire

The knowledge made Eshe shake her head with bewilderment She had no idea why Lucian had worried for even a ht have been behind the deaths of his wives She suspected it had to do with his twin brother, Jean Claude The man had treated his fa the lives of uilt over his not having seen and put a stop to his brother&039;s bad behavior and supposed he was now deterlad to be able to tell him that his brother couldn&039;t have been behind the deaths However, this meant she now had to look elsewhere for answers

Eshe tried to think where she should next look as she picked up her fork and knife and cut into the rare steak she&039;d ordered, but forgot the question and nearly moaned aloud at the burst of flavor in her otten how good food could be Actually, Eshe acknowledged, it wasn&039;t that she&039;d forgotten, but that the food had begun to lose its flavor after Orion&039;s death, as if her taste buds had slowly died and left everything bland and uninteresting She was definitely glad to have theain, Eshe decided as she next tried a bite of the stuffed baked potato

They ate in silence at first, Arhtly distracted, and Eshe herself busily trying to think where she should turn her attention and questions next It seeht be behind the deaths had been in Ar time, and also had to be relatively close by They were halfway through the meal when she finally asked, "So is there anyone else I should know about who comes to the far she thought he hadn&039;t heard her question, but then he said, "Paul and Mrs Ramsey were the only mortals who came around Of course, Paul won&039;t be a problem now"

"Will you replace hi he&039;d had even less sleep than she that day as he took over the work Paul norone to bed at all

"Not right away," Ar a sip of wine He sed it and then added, "I&039;ll wait a couple weeks"

Until she was gone, Eshe suspected Lucian had told him she would be there for about teeks, and she supposed he wanted to wait until she was gone to bring in a newwhat they were that way But it alsoin his life longer than that The fact rather bothered her

Eshe took a sip of her oine and forced her , "What about immortals? You must have visitors on occasion Old friends you&039;ve known since England, or new ones you&039;ve nes and John?"

Arnes and John come around once in a while, usually once a week or so to see how I am and check in"

"Check in?" she asked curiously

He smiled wryly "I&039;m the only family they have They were Susanna&039;s brother and sister, mortal like she was until they were turned The rest of their faone as well So I&039;m all they have"

"Hoere they turned?" Eshe asked with surprise, and then her eyes widened with alarm "You didn&039;t turn theh "Brother or not, Lucian would have had ainst our laws"

"Oh" Eshe let out a relieved breath, but asked with confusion, "So did they turn out to be life mates for other ih and set his knife and fork down to pick up his wine After taking a drink, he explained, "Susanna was very fond of her brother and sister She, not unnaturally, didn&039;t want to leave them behind, and introduced the, hoping they would turn out to be life mates for one of them But, of course, ere a lot h to attend"

Eshe nodded in acknowledgment Before the advent of blood banks they had been forced to feed off mortals Essentially, they&039;d had to bite their friends and neighbors or servants and peasants Having too many of their kind in an area hadfed on and had raised the risk of discovery To avoid that, they had spread out across the land, allowing only one or two iood-sized area It was how her father, Castor, had ended up in Africa and met herto find them mates," Armand continued "I kneasn&039;t likely, but felt sure that in ti theuessed

Aret the chance to Shortly after ere nes, became ill I suspect now that it was leukeot word of her illness and traveled to the convent to visit her"

"Convent?" Eshe interrupted with surprise

"Yes She was a nun," he explained quietly

She felt her eyebrows rise at the knowledge that Susanna had been trying to find an iestured for him to continue

"The convent wasn&039;t far from our hoht before she returned with a vibrantly healthy Agnes in tow"

"She turned her?" Eshe guessed soleri one and having only one child every hundred years and so on, and rather than watch helplessly as her sister died, she used her one turn to save Agnes"

Eshe nodded silently Most immortals saved their one turn to turn a mortal as a life mate However, Susanna already had a life ht die and she ht need that turn someday to turn another life mate in the future Fortunately for her, that day had never come Or perhaps it was unfortunate for her, since the only reason it hadn&039;t coht aside, Eshe asked, "And John?"

"About a nes hones had left the convent and cary at first, and it took some extra persuasion to calm him"

Eshe could tell by Armand&039;s expression that what he meant by "extra persuasion" was that he&039;d cal their special abilities They had several of them Immortals could read the minds of uarded, but they could also wipe the hts or even new memories in their minds

"He stayed about a week," Armand continued "And then the day before he was supposed to leave we all went on a hunt, and he took a terrible tumble from his horse He broke his neck I don&039;t think he would have survived the night if Agnes hadn&039;t used her one turn on hi that while the woman probably hadn&039;t considered it at the tie sacrifice But then so had Susanna when she&039;d turned Agnes, and indeed, as it turned out, so had Arained a life otten to enjoy her for long before he&039;d lost her

"John went hoht him to hunt and fend for himself, but it was only a matter of weeks before he returned," Armand continued and explained, "Susanna&039;s father was a baron too, but John was a second son with no likelihood of inheriting the title or property He asked to work forso many of our kind in one place, especially since Susanna was pregnant and there would soon be five of us, but Susanna begged me to let him stay and in the end I said yes"

"And they stayed on after Susanna died?" Eshe asked

"Yes Agnes was a great help raising Nicholas, and John was my second When it was time to move on, I took them with me, and then the next time and the next By the time I followed the rest of the family here to Canada, I didn&039;t even ask if they wished to join nes and John ith you, why didn&039;t Agnes raise Thomas as she had Nicholas?" Eshe asked curiously "Why did you send Thouerite?"

"They weren&039;t with me anymore by then," he explained "They both ht be unco ht as nee should have time to ourselves, and she said she wanted to visit the old country"

"England?" Eshe asked

Arland and they visited old haunts and then toured the rest of Europe They returned to Canada when they heard about Althea&039;s death, but by then I&039;d already sent Tho hines have helped raise him as she did Nicholas?"

"I considered that," Arnes to just thrust my son on her, especially when they made it plain they didn&039;t plan toto buy their own little farh they could visit, but not be a bother, John said I realized then that he&039;d probably wanted to move out and have his own place for centuries, but had felt in sorines if she would mind, but then I went to visit Thoed helplessly "It seeuerite He called her Ma and hardly seenize me"

Eshe considered that and then commented, "I&039;m surprised Althea&039;s parents didn&039;t want to raise him themselves"

"They wanted to," Armand admitted "But they decided to move back to Europe for a while after Althea&039;s death I think they wanted to escape the bad uerite&039;s I could at least visit him on occasion, but I&039;d never have seen him if Althea&039;s parents had taken hines and John were Susanna&039;s brother and sister and they were in Europe when Althea died, but returned and have lived nearby since after learning of her death?" Eshethem off the suspect list They&039;d hardly have killed their own sister who had loved thenes And they had been in Europe when Althea died in the hotel fire

When Armand nodded, she asked, "But they&039;ve lived in the area since then? Close enough to visit and such?"

"Yes John learned fro up farms like I did I think he owns five or six now himself and rotates from one to the other every ten years like I do But all of theh away from each other that he isn&039;t likely to run into people froh that&039;s becooes on," he added solemnly "People tended to stick to their ohen we used horse and buggy, but the reater the risk of running into people froed as they have"

"Will you have to start buying far hoould deal with the threat of being recognized by mortals from the past

Armand was silent for a minute, his eyes on his now-empty plate, and then ad out of far"

Eshe raised her eyebrows "Really?"

He nodded "Perhaps it&039;s ti to Canada and I find "

"Do you have any interest in so else?" she asked curiously

"I&039; to university,medicine or science"

"All finished here, I see," their waiter trilled cheerfully, appearing at the end of the table to begin scooping up their empty plates "Can I tempt either of you with dessert?"

Eshe sat back in her seat to avoid his ar her breast as he reached for her plate, but shook her head As lovely as dessert sounded, it had been years since she&039;d eaten Centuries even She had already stretched her sto she would probably burst Literally

"No thank you Just the bill," Ar at the waiter Apparently he hadn&039;t , and fro it hadn&039;t been accidental

Eshe didn&039;t doubt he&039;d read the waiter&039;s ht, but didn&039;t bother to read his thoughts herself She had lived a long tiot a bit disheartening listening to their baser thoughts after a while She didn&039;t knohy, but a mortal male could completely and utterly love one wo lustful thoughts about others that got caught in his vision range It lad she was an immortal Immortal mates, at least when they were life ht think another woman was attractive, but they wouldn&039;t act on it, because it siood as it ith their life es in that an immortal could be incredibly lonely between life mates and that centuries and even millennia could pass before another was found, but the benefits of the shared pleasure and utter trust totally outweighed the disadvantages

"Shall we?"

Eshe glanced to Arht the bill had arrived, and he had dropped several twenties in the black folder it had co a smile, she nodded and slid out of her side of the booth to stand, surprised to find herself a little unsteady on her feet

"You need more blood," Armand murmured, his expression concerned as he took her ars at least before co in rather than just the one"

"I&039;m fine," Eshe assured him "I just probably shouldn&039;t have had the wine" The alcohol wouldn&039;t have made her drunk, but it would have made her nanos work twice as hard to re up the blood she did have flowing through her veins She could use a top-up

Armand ushered her out of the restaurant and to the pickup He saw her inside, and then left the door open as he moved to the back of the pickup to the special cooler there A s of blood for her

"Is this enough or should I grab another?" he asked as he passed them to her "You probably need three or four, but I know it&039;s unco to consume them under the dashboard so no one sees"

"Two is fine," she assured his "I can have , he stepped back and closed the door, then moved around to slide into the driver&039;s side

They were both quiet on the ride hos to her mouth and couldn&039;t talk, and then once those were empty, she simply didn&039;t knohat to say to break the silence She was terribly aware that they were headed back to his house, his empty house where they would be alone and could finish what they&039;d started earlier The thought was like a great huge boulder in theof rew ue seemed to swell in her mouth, unable to form words even had her mind been able to come up with any

She was so wound up with anticipation that the ing out the door and hurrying for the house She was deteret inside before he could touch her or say or do anything thataround in the front yard, and then passing out there for the animals to eye curiously

Once in the house, however, she stopped running and turned in the hall to wait for Ar at a much slower rate He also didn&039;t appear to be in the sa his face, concern wrinkling his eyes, and his lips were a firaze

Ar her length with a hunger that was visible in the silver fire in his eyes, and then he forced his eyes away and said, "I need to check on the animals Then I have to muck out the stalls and such"

"What?" Eshe asked with blank disbelief

"I&039;ll probably be out all night There&039;s a lot to do now that Paul&039;s gone," he continued, turning in the open door in preparation for leaving "Mrs Ramsey isn&039;t in on Thursdays so your sleep should be undisturbed I&039;ll see you when you wake up"

He then walked out, leaving her staring after him with amazement That was it? After the pro while shopping, he was just going to leave her high and dry and go play with his animals?

Eshe snorted at the very idea If that hat he thought, Ar, she decided firlance down at herself, she quickly pushed off her leather pants, struggling a bit to get theh the door and out onto the porch in just her knee-high black leather boots, and the white satin baby doll and pantiesonly to pause at the top of the steps Aruess it&039;s true that you can take the girl out of the city, but not the city out of the girl, huh Eshe? &039;Cause that sure as hell isn&039;t farave a start at that comment from the darkness and turned sharply to peer toward the end of the porch where it had conized the man who unfolded himself from the rocker he&039;d been seated in andhere?"

"Lucian sent me to watch your back," Justin Bricker said, his teeth flashing white in the darkness as he grinned "I can tell you appreciate the thoughtfulness"

"Thoughtfulness htful bone in his body More likely the knowledge that I can&039;t read Armand made him decide he should send someone to be sure I didn&039;t let that affect my work"

"You can&039;t read Armand?" Bricker said with surprise, and then blew out a silent whistle "Well, that cos nicely, doesn&039;t it?"

When Eshe merely scowled, Bricker shifted his attention to what she earing Looking her over, he asked, "So is this the latest fashion in far?"