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"No, you’re not You’re kissingyour fingers along my spine like that…"

"I should stop"

"No," he said huskily, taking hold of her face and staring into her eyes "What better way could there be to figure out--" he paused to kiss her "--as going on in the minds of a pair of lovers…than to be a pair of lovers?"

"I like your logic," she whispered And proceeded to show him just howthe warh the an to buzz on the bedside table

He scra hi up Has so happened?"

"No, but Sean thinks he has the solution to the painting"

"Really?" He sat up Beside him, Allison stirred underneath the sheet He s a hand on her hip to reassure her that nothing else--like another horrific accident--had taken place

"So what is it?" he asked Logan

"It’s not the painting"

"Pardon?"

"He looked at the painting frohts Studied it in every way he could without ripping into the canvas--which is just canvas--or taking the whole thing apart And when he was done, he said he had the answer There have to be two paintings Soht for the eyes and perhaps some kind of recorder to terrify people or divert their attention He believes that whoever is doing this sos"

Tyler rubbed his eyes "We’ll hurry back"

"No rush Yesterday was uneventful We went through all the records we could find on the Leigh family--Allison’s branch--and there was nobeen adopted But there was a son listed as having been born to one of the young Leigh wives in June of 1778, around the time Lucy Tarleton was killed and just before the British evacuated Philly We can still disinter Lucy and do soht on thethat Allison is a descendent"

"I don’t think we should let Cherry know," Tyler ly again--or he hoped it was reassuring--but didn’t explain

"What did you learn?" Logan asked

"We’re discovering there are a lot of holes in the history that’s been taught We don’t have the whole picture yet, but I do think Lucy was pregnant--and she had Brian Bradley’s child, not Stewart Douglas’s What we haven’t figured out is who spirited the baby away and who killed Lucy Tarleton It doesn’t make any sense for Bradley to have done it"

"Unless he was afraid of being branded a traitor by the British"

"Not to be cynical, but reitimate child would have been par for the course on the male side, especially for an aristocrat The female would be branded the whore If a British officer, who held power in Philadelphia at the tiht’ve been seen as a ho-hu at him, but then she sht badly of hi on," Tyler said, "I believe he was a good soldier and I don’t believe he was a ‘beast’ By military standards, it was a sound tactic for the British to take Philly I see Bradley as a military man I don’t see him as the kind of man ould kill a woman he loved--a woman who had just borne his child"

"What about her lover?" Logan asked "Stewart Douglas"

Tyler shook his head "I doubt she and Stewart Douglas were ever really lovers, although they were likely engaged," he said "We have copies of the letters I don’t think Stewart Douglas killed her, either, but I don’t know enough about hiuy--and a scared one He left his place for a cabin in the woods He didn’t tell anyone where he’s going except for his daughter, andhim out of town No one followed him," Tyler said "I’h The office was trashed and Standish received those strange calls yesterday, the ones fro maybe he has reason to be and we should take some action"

"Can you have Allison try to reach hients to watch over hi Allison back to the house By the way, not a ghost has stirred here Well, except for Julian Mitchell He’s ‘keeping guard’ by haunting the entry--and falling asleep on the sofa That is, when he’s not following Jane around"

"I’ll have Allison call Standish right away," Tyler said, "and then we’ll get so to eat and head back to Philly"

He ended the call and as he looked over at Allison, he felt a treh hi next to her Against the hotel’s snohite sheets, her hair truly was the color of a raven’s wing, so dark it was touched by a cast of blue Her eyes were as bright and clear as the sky--and seemed as deep as a sun-kissed sea It wasn’t just that he found her arousing, which he did, but that being with her see froood relationships he’d had--the relationships, not the casual nights--didn’t compare with the way he felt now He couldn’t re her beside him and he would never not want her beside hi her eyes on his when she woke, or feeling her warmth