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Or perhaps she did

He watched therooundy to acco?" he inquired

"You bet," she told him

They sat down to eat She tried to be casual She talked about Aidan’s sht words but he wasn’t really listening

The deep darkness of night began to lift

He stood, stretching "Well, that was delicious We should try to get a little sleep" Jade nodded She started to pick up the dishes He caught her arm, and his deep brown eyes touched hers

"We’ll get the a jump in her heart, in all her senses

Her husband was an expert lover

A vastly experienced one, but

He loved her, and she kne deeply, and the past didn’t matter at all

She followed him up the stairs, her hand in his And at the foot of the bed she shed the robe she had wrapped around herself In seconds she felt his hands upon her bare flesh, and as always, it was as if she was set afire, as if sheelse mattered in the world at all

No ht, always, she felt his eyes, liquid fire, traveling over her, into her

And in the end, always, she would be amazed that she could still feel such passion, tiold, and sometimes, after the volatile climax seized, seared, and sated her, the brilliance would fade to black

Finally, exhausted, she slept in peace

He lay awake, and when he was sure she was completely into a world of dreams, he rose

He closed the curtains, and went down the stairs, then down again, into the basement

He kept a computer there He started toward the desk, deterainst it He found his place in the dark coolness of the lowest section of the house

There he closed his eyes

And receded into the depths of his , and his health hter a bone-crunching hug He didn’t go on and on welco her, he just said her naed him back

Then, of course, there were the inevitable kisses, one on each cheek, and he held her out at ar her

He was a handsoe He’d never lost his hair It was thick and snohite glinting silver in the light His eyes were incredibly blue, and though his features eathered and worn, there was a nobility in his facial structure that gave hi," she told hi him back to his library chair "And you look wonderful But you have to be careful, you know You have to rest And not go about throwing away tooat her skeptically "I’ very well And trust me, I’m extremely careful of my health I intend to live until well, you know, until I reach a ripe old age A riper old age"

He had been going to say soht I intend to live until it was as if heto live until he was done Until so dude of only sixty," she assured hi the coe of his library desk, looking at the old voluht to the chase "What are you up to? Ann is upset because you want her to go down and find out what’s going on at a dig in the village" His s rueful "She thinks I am a demented old man"

"No, she would never think that But she is worried"

"I have to knohat is happening there, and Ann has resisted me, andwell, thank God you’re here!" He spoke the words so fervently that Tara immediately understood her cousin’s concern "What is it about this dig?" she asked

"I have to knohat they’re after And what they’ve found"

"A bunch of old bones, I would i up the crypt of a deconsecrated church"

"I have to know exactly what they’re digging up I need the plans to the crypt I need to know if the professor has other scholars working on the project, who, just exactly who, is involved I believe that the work must be stopped And if I don’t have all the inforo for me You must be randchild thinks I a my mind If I am not careful, others will see that I am locked away That can’t happen"

"Grandpapa, you are a scholar A well-known author"

"An author of fiction Of far-fetched tales"

"With trees," she reminded him