Garden of Lies(95)

Ursula looked at Lilly and Otford. “Would you mind giving us a few minutes alone while we clear up some rather personal matters?”

Lilly shot to her feet. “Not at all, dear. Take your time.”

She swept across the room to the door. Otford hurried after her.

Ursula faced Slater across the low coffee table.

“You, sir?” she said. “Afraid of answers? Forgive me, but I find that difficult to believe.”

“Believe it.”

“Perhaps it’s just as well you did not seek the answer in your labyrinth,” she said. “Some things must be done face-to-face.”

He smiled. It was one of the rare smiles that banished the darkness from his eyes. He reached for her hand. She gave it to him. He drew her out from behind the coffee table.

“I knew the day I met you that you were the one I would love,” he said.

It was her turn to be stunned. “Did you?”

“Why the devil do you think I employed you to assist me with cataloging those damned artifacts? I have no interest in them. As far as I’m concerned, the British Museum is welcome to haul away the whole lot. All I cared about was finding an excuse to keep you near me.”

Joy rushed through her. She was suddenly weightless.

“You hired me because you were in love with me?” she whispered. “And to think that you tried to tell me that you were not a romantic man.”

“Some answers are inescapable,” he said. “You are one of them.”

She smiled. “Do you think that will be a problem for you?”

“More in the nature of an amazing discovery. It occurs to me that in this case, one question leads to another.”

“What is that?”

He smiled his slow, deep smile—the smile that revealed the truths and the passions that smoldered inside him. He framed her face in his powerful hands.

“Will you marry me, my love?”

“Are you quite sure you don’t want to walk your labyrinth first with that one?”

“Your answer is the only one that matters,” Slater said.

“The answer is yes.”

She could have sworn that she glimpsed the glitter of tears in his eyes. Alarmed, she tried to step back.

“Slater?” she whispered.

“That was the answer I needed to hear,” he said. He looked very satisfied. “So, once again I find myself taking the third path.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“That day on Fever Island when I found myself entombed, I realized I had a choice of three paths. There was the Path of War and the Path of Vengeance. I chose the third path.”

“What was it?” Ursula asked.

“The Path of the Lovers.”

She smiled, gripped the lapels of his coat and stood on tiptoe to brush her mouth against his.

“What made you choose that Path of the Lovers?” she asked.

“It was,” Slater said, “the only one that seemed to offer hope.”

He wrapped her close. His mouth came down on hers and she gave herself up to his kiss and the future.