Heroes Are My Weakness(112)

The men came to his side, pushing her out of the way and dragging him to clean air. Only then could she see what he’d brought from the burning house. What he’d gone back inside to rescue. Not the cat at all. Two red suitcases. He’d gone back to retrieve her puppets.

Annie could barely absorb it. Theo had gone back into that inferno to rescue her silly, beloved puppets. She wanted to scream at him, kiss him until neither of them could breathe, make him promise never to do anything so foolish again. But he’d broken away from the men to get to his horse.

“My fairy house!” Livia screamed. “I want to see my fairy house.”

Jaycie tried to quiet her, but it had all been too much for the four-year-old, and she was past reasoning. Annie couldn’t do anything for Theo right now, but maybe she could help with this. “Did you forget?” She touched Livia’s flushed cheek and drew her face close. “It’s nighttime, and the fairies might be there. You know they don’t want people to see them.”

Livia’s small chest shook as she sobbed. “I want to see them.”

So many things we want that we can’t have. The fire hadn’t gotten as far as the fairy house, but the area had been badly trampled. “I know, sweetheart, but they don’t want to see you.”

“Can you—” She hiccuped. “Can you bring me in the morning?” Annie hesitated too long, and Livia started to cry. “I want to see the fairy house!”

Annie glanced at Jaycie, who looked as exhausted as her daughter. “If the fire is out and it’s safe,” Annie said, “I’ll bring you in the morning.”

That satisfied her until her mother started making plans to spend the night in town. The wailing began again. “Annie said she’d take me to see the fairy house in the morning! I want to stay here!”

A hoarse male voice spoke from behind them. “Why don’t the three of you spend the night in the cottage?”

Annie swung around. Theo looked as though he’d emerged from hell, blue eyes blazing from a soot-blackened face, cat cradled in his hands. He held Hannibal out to her. “Take him with you, will you?”

Before she could say anything, he was gone again.


BARBARA DROVE ANNIE, JAYCIE, AND Livia to the cottage. Annie deposited Hannibal inside, then went to retrieve the two red suitcases from the truck bed. Everything else that she’d stored at the house was gone: her clothes, Mariah’s scarves, and her Dreambook. But she had her puppets. And, pressed between heavy cardboard in the bottom of each of her suitcases, she had the Niven Garr drawings. Far more important, Theo was alive and safe.

An explosion of sparks lit up the night like the devil’s sideshow.

Harp House had fallen.


ANNIE GAVE UP HER BED at the cottage to Jaycie and Livia and slept on the couch herself, leaving the studio for Theo, but by early morning, he hadn’t returned. She went to the front window. Where Harp House had once lorded it over all of them, only plumes of smoke rose from the ruins.

Livia appeared in the pajamas she’d had on the night before and rubbed her eyes. “Let’s go see the fairy house.”

Annie had hoped the four-year-old would sleep in after last night, but the only person still in bed was Jaycie. She’d also hoped Livia would forget about the fairy house. She should have known better.

She gently explained that someone might have accidentally stepped on the house during the fire, but Livia wasn’t having it. “The fairies wouldn’t let that happen. Can we go see it now, Annie? Please!”

“Livia, I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed.”

Livia screwed up her face. “I want to see!”

By evening, Annie would be back on the mainland, and instead of leaving behind a child with happy memories of her, she’d be leaving behind a disappointed one. “All right,” she said reluctantly. “Get your coat.”

Annie had already dressed in a pair of Mariah’s too short pipe-stem trousers and a black pullover. She added the foul weather jacket that smelled of smoke and scribbled a note to Jaycie. As she herded Livia outside in her coat and pajamas, she remembered she hadn’t given her breakfast—not that much was left in the kitchen. But when she suggested they eat first, Livia refused, and Annie didn’t have the heart to argue.

Someone had parked Jaycie’s Suburban by the cottage. Annie fastened Livia in her car seat and drove off. Theo’s car was parked near the top of the cliff where it had been last night. She parked behind it and helped Livia out. Keeping a tight grip on the four-year-old’s hand, she walked with her the rest of the way to the top.

The gargoyles and the stone turret had survived, along with the stables and garage. But nothing was left of the house except four brick chimneys and a section of staircase. Beyond the ruins, she could see the ocean. The house no longer blocked the view.

It was ironic that Livia spotted Theo first, since Annie hadn’t been able to think of anyone else. Livia broke away and ran to him, the cuffs of her pajamas dragging. “Theo!”

He was filthy. Unshaven. He wore a too-small navy jacket one of the men must have lent him, and his jeans were ripped at the calf. Annie’s heart constricted. After all he’d been through—all he had to do—there he was, crouched in the mud, rebuilding Livia’s fairy house.

He gave the little girl a smile so weary it drooped. “The fire made the fairies mad. Look what they did.”