“I told you he was a god-rotting bureaucrat,” Grandpa said, walking into the room. “Vultures feeding on honest men.”
Kate left the treasure without another look and ran to hug him, then Larry, who came in just behind him.
“I’m sorry, Kitty Kat,” Larry said, hugging her close. “I never should have brought you into this. I didn’t know that Farnsworth was crazy. I caught him as he was coming up from a night dive with Mingo. Farnsworth said if I went to the authorities, he would frame Grandpa and me for the theft and make it stick. He said he had a lot of connections and you know Grandpa’s reputation.” Larry shrugged. “Then Farnsworth learned that Cameron was coming and told me I’d better have a nice set of books to show or it was over.”
“It’s okay,” she said, hugging him again. “But if you sign another contract without me, you’re on your own.”
“Um . . .” Larry said.
“You weren’t the first,” Taylor said. “This was not the only time that Chatham has stolen from an ongoing project. As far as such things go, it was a rather elegant sort of theft. Whether on a land dig or an ocean salvage, Farnsworth arranged for costly artifacts to disappear. The project itself ultimately is written off as a failure. In the case of more than a few contractors, assets were seized on the pretext of breach of agreement. Chatham was good at finding companies that were on the ragged edge of survival, getting them to sign hopeless contracts, and then ruining their reputations when the project failed.”
“Are the solicitors finished wrangling yet?” Holden asked.
“Yes.” Taylor turned to Kate. “As someone explained to your family earlier, the previous contract has been torn up with the assent of all parties. A new one has been signed.”
She winced and looked at Larry. “This time I will kill you.”
Taylor laughed. “The contract was negotiated by Holden’s solicitors, who are fiercely competent. The treasure will be priced at fair market value, which will be determined in excruciating detail. After expenses, which have also been negotiated and agreed upon, Moon Rose Limited will be paid half the market value of the treasure, plus the cost of replacing the Golden Bough. The salvage of the wreck of the Moon Rose will continue at Crown cost, under your brother’s guidance and Holden’s occasional oversight.”
“Holy crap,” Kate said, eyes wide. “Are you pulling my leg?”
Grandpa laughed around the pipe stem clamped between his teeth.
“More nuggets of slang to add to my collection,” Taylor said, smiling. “No, I’m not pulling your leg or any other part of you. Holden’s solicitors are a fearsome lot.”
She stared at the man who had been questioning them for a week without a single break in his correct armor until this morning. “How long has Chatham been screwing over his government and everyone else?”
“At least twelve years,” Taylor said. “We are still digging, I assure you.”
“Nobody knows how to steal like a god-rotting bureaucrat,” Grandpa said.
“Vultures,” Larry said.
Grandpa walked over to look at the treasure. Larry followed to stand beside him. The family connection showed in both posture and familiarity.
“How did Chatham get away with it so long?” Kate asked Taylor angrily. “Surely there is some oversight in that bureaucracy.”
Taylor hesitated.
“Connections,” Holden said. “The failure of some of Chatham’s projects was chalked up to incompetence. He was kept on, but he knew he would never rise further than he had, even with his family’s influence.”
Quietly the Donnellys speculated about the worth of one piece or another.
“What made this time different?” Kate asked. “Why did they listen to us rather than Chatham?”
Holden looked uncomfortable.
“Holden’s connections,” Taylor said. “His family has a long military tradition and considerable wealth from commerce during the salad days of the British Empire. When Chatham chose Holden to be an incompetent dive supervisor due to his injury, Chatham had no idea that Holden was one of ‘the’ Camerons.”
“Enough,” Holden said.
Taylor gave him a sideways look. “One cannot help the family into which one is born.”
“One tires of the subject,” Holden shot back.
“This one doesn’t,” Kate said, confronting Holden. “When, if ever, were you going to tell me about your apparently illustrious family?”
“When I had my ring upon your finger and not a moment before. My family is large and can be intimidating. They have been terribly keen on the subject of my marriage for the last few years. I have not. Then I met a woman courageous enough to overcome her nightmares and lovely enough to stop my heart.”
“Does this paragon have red hair?” she asked softly.
“Like sunset,” he said, then whispered against her ear, “and freckles I’ve yet to taste.”
Grandpa looked up. “You have the real treasure,” he said to Holden. “Make damn sure she doesn’t slip through your fingers.”
“That is entirely up to her.” Without looking away from her turquoise eyes, Holden said, “Taylor, please take everyone but Kate and close the door behind you.”
“Yes, sir. Come along, gentlemen. There is a salvage dive to plan.”
Grandpa and Larry looked at Kate.
“Shoo,” she said. “I’m a big girl now.”
When the door closed, Holden reached into his pocket and took out two gold rings.
“With the blessing of the British government, I had these made from a bit of money chain from the Moon Rose,” he said. “Will you take one, and me?”
She let out a long breath. Her eyes sparkled with laughter and tears and her throat was tight with emotion.
He waited for her to take the ring that gleamed so softly against his palm.
“The writing inside,” she managed. “It’s elegant and beautiful, but I can’t read it. What does it say?”
“Let the lover be.”
“Yes,” she whispered against his lips. “Let the lover be.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ELIZABETH LOWELL’s exciting novels of romantic suspense include the New York Times bestsellers Dangerous Refuge, Beautiful Sacrifice, Death Echo, The Wrong Hostage, Amber Beach, Jade Island, Pearl Cove, and Midnight in Ruby Bayou. She has also written New York Times bestselling historical series set in the American West and medieval Britain. She has more than eighty titles published to date, with more than 24 million copies of her books in print. She lives in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with her husband, with whom she writes novels under a pseudonym. Her favorite activity is exploring the western United States to find the landscapes that speak to her soul and inspire her writing.
WWW.ELIZABETHLOWELL.COM
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/ELIZABETHLOWELLFANS
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ALSO BY ELIZABETH LOWELL
Dangerous Refuge
Beautiful Sacrifice
Death Echo
Blue Smoke and Murder
Innocent as Sin
The Wrong Hostage
Whirlpool
Always Time to Die
The Secret Sister
The Color of Death
Death Is Forever
Die in Plain Sight
Running Scared
Moving Target
Midnight in Ruby Bayou
Pearl Cove
Jade Island
Amber Beach
CREDITS
AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH © BY SIGRID ESTRADA
COVER DESIGN BY MARY SCHUCK
COVER PHOTOGRAPH OF WATER BY PHILLIP GRAYBILL / GETTY IMAGES
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
NIGHT DIVER. Cop
yright © 2014 by Two of a Kind, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-213282-6
EPub Edition MAY 2014 ISBN: 9780062132840
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