Read Online Legacy of Lies by Jane A. Adams - Free Book Online

back at work either, she thought.
    Alec sighed. ‘I think if we had doubts before about Rupe being in trouble they’ve now been well and truly swept away. I’ve got to get to the bottom of this, Nomi.’
    â€˜I know.’
    â€˜But if you want to go.’
    â€˜Right. I’m really going to clear out now, aren’t I. You know me better than that.’
    He reached out and squeezed her hand again. ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘But I don’t want you in any more danger.’
    â€˜I’ll be fine,’ she said. ‘I’m not keen on being on my own in strange places just now, but apart from that …’
    â€˜You think I’m going to leave you alone ever again?’ Alec half joked. ‘You can’t be trusted. Trouble magnet, that’s what you are. Always have been.’
    Naomi smiled but she could hear the anxiety in his voice and her own mind replayed the violence the men at Fallowfields had exhibited. What would have happened, she wondered, had they been given time to break down the study door?

Nine
    N aomi’s head was aching but she was beginning to feel better. A shower, a change of clothes and the promise of a late lunch helped in that regard.
    They had checked into the hotel that Marcus had taken them to and considered themselves lucky to get a room this time of year. Alec had gone downstairs while she finished dressing, to order lunch and try and remember what the wine had been called. He hadn’t wanted to leave her, even in the safety of the hotel room, but Naomi had insisted. She knew she had to be alone, just for a few minutes, to get back her nerve. The longer she put it off the harder it was going to be. Alec would come back up and escort her downstairs but she needed that few minutes alone just to prove to herself she still could.
    Behind her she heard Napoleon shift and snuffle. He was lying contentedly in a patch of sunlight that flooded in through the bedroom window. ‘Don’t get too comfortable,’ she told him. ‘You’re not staying up here on your own. I’d come back and find a hole eaten in the bedspread.’
    Napoleon beat his heavy tail on the floor and grumbled to himself. ‘Well, no, I’ve never actually known you to eat bedspreads, but there’s always a first time.’
    She fumbled for her eye shadow and applied it carefully, blending the two shades, and smudging the lighter one away into nothing. A tiny piece of masking tape stuck to the compact reminding her which was the darker of the two green-grey shades. She had given up wearing make-up for quite some time after the accident, but her sister had insisted she learn how, sitting with her in front of the mirror because that was the way she had always done it before the accident, and coaxing and coercing her into trying out new shades and methods. Naomi was truly grateful for all the fond bullying her sister and her friends had done, though at the time it had seemed so terribly hard and so unfair. Now she applied her ‘face’, as her sister called it, with almost as much confidence as she had in her sighted days and, with a bit of practise, she had even mastered lipstick, and recently had begun to trust herself to apply the richer, deeper shades that went so well with her dark hair.
    Alec opened the door and announced himself. ‘It’s me. You ready, love?’
    She nodded and stood up, turning to face him. ‘I look OK?’
    â€˜You look great.’ He inspected her as he always did. She was still slightly paranoid about going out in badly matched clothes. ‘I like the new eye stuff.’
    â€˜Thanks. Thought I’d try something new. I’m starving.’ She called Napoleon and allowed herself to be escorted downstairs. ‘We should tell Marcus what happened,’ she said.
    â€˜I tried to phone him, but just got some woman who said she was looking after the shop today and he’d be back this