The Curse Breakers

by Denise Grover Swank

  His eyes lit up. “I assure you that this is something that interests me. I could see more of these things for myself.”

  I tried to hide my own excitement. If David was here more often, that meant I wouldn’t be doing this completely alone. “But what about your job?”

  “I spoke with someone at the foundation this afternoon about setting up a sabbatical at the archaeological site for the fall semester.”

  The blood drained from my face and I felt light-headed.

  Worry flooded his face. “Does that upset you?”

  I shook my head.

  “Talk to me, Ellie. Did I overstep my bounds?”

  “No. The opposite. I can’t believe you might actually be here to help me.”

  “It’s not official. I still have to get permission from the foundation and the university, but I suspect it will all go through.”

  “I don’t know what to say.” I looked up at him. “Does this mean you’ve made a decision?”

  “I promise, I’ve given the proposition extensive consideration, but I knew this morning that I would accept.”

  “I don’t want you to do this because you think I don’t have anyone else to help me.”

  “I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t part of the reason, but the biggest reason is that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’ve read and studied the texts, but this is my chance to see everything firsthand. It’s a historian’s dream.”

  “But it’s dangerous. I might not always be able to protect you.”

  “Did it ever occur to you that I’m worried I might fail you? My first task—a huge one—has been unsuccessful so far. I haven’t found Ahone’s symbol yet. My friend didn’t find anything before he overnighted the books to me. At this moment, you’re no safer than you were before you met me.”

  “You might find it yourself when the books arrive tomorrow.”

  “I hope so. And like I said, I’ve sent out word to a few colleagues. But we should also step up the search for your father’s notes.”

  I leaned on the counter. “Myra remembered something this morning. She said that Daddy had started scribbling notes the week after the curse broke. And at one point he showed her this old ring he said I needed. She thought he was being delusional at the time, but she realized that it might be important. She said he told her I needed time.”

  “Time for what?”

  “I don’t know and neither did she.” I closed my eyes. “I wish I’d been around more that week to ask him questions instead of putting all my trust in Collin.”

  “Ellie, you had no idea he’d betray you, and your father had full-blown Alzheimer’s. Of course you were counting on Collin to help you.”

  “Well, look where it got me.”

  He reached over and covered my hand with his. “You did what you thought was right. You can’t go back and change anything, so stop beating yourself up about it. All you can do is move forward, and I’ll help you anyway that I can.”

  I looked up into his warm hazel eyes. “Thank you.” I’d always wondered if I could trust Collin, right up until the end. But David didn’t seem to have any ulterior motives. Still, I didn’t trust my own judgment. I pulled my hand from his. “I need to start cleaning the rooms upstairs. I’m behind after talking to Tom.”

  “But we have dinner plans.”

  “Oh,” I said, flustered again. “I thought that was to talk about you helping me.”

  “We still have to eat. And after hearing you tell what I suspect were a bunch of half-truths and lies, I’d like to get to know the Ellie Lancaster who existed before hell broke loose.”

  “Well . . .” I wasn’t sure getting close to David was a good idea.

  He sensed my hesitation. “And I’ll tell you all about growing up as the son of a famous barrister.”

  My eyebrows lifted. “Your father’s famous?”

  “I guess you’ll find out tonight.” He winked. “Why don’t you get your work done while I see what I can dig up about the Ricardo Estate.”

  I locked eyes with him. “You caught the coincidence there too?”

  “I did. It could turn out to be nothing, but a collection of sixteenth-century English and Native American objects disappearing around the time the curse broke is highly suspicious.”

  “Especially since Collin is somehow tied to it.”

  He turned serious. “Agreed.”

  I went upstairs to start working, feeling guilty about not telling David the entire truth about my connection to Collin. Since he was putting his safety on the line to help me, he had a right to know that I had bound my soul to Collin’s. Still, I wasn’t ready to tell him. I could barely admit the truth to myself.

  I cleaned all the rooms, leaving my old room for last. I told myself that I’d grown up in there, so there was absolutely no reason to be afraid of it now. But the moment I stepped over the threshold, the hair on my arms stood on end. I made the bed and dusted off the dresser, shifting a stack of books to the side. The title of one of them caught my eye: The Head in Edward Nugent’s Hand.

  It was David’s. David was staying in my old room.

  I froze with my hand on the book, telling myself it didn’t mean anything. There were four available rooms up here, so it wasn’t that odd that David was staying in this one.

  When I finished an hour later, I found David at the dining room table in front of a legal pad and his laptop, lost in concentration, a pair of reading glasses perched on his nose. He looked up when I paused in the doorway.

  “All finished?”

  “Yeah. Did you find anything?”

  “Not much more than we already know, but I’ll keep digging. The collection was set to go to auction three weeks ago. The police appear to be baffled by how it was stolen. There was video surveillance, but it doesn’t show anything untoward. It’s rather odd that I hadn’t heard of it, given that the collection contained Native American antiquities. I’ll ask some colleagues to see if they’ve heard mention of it.”

  “Okay.” I hesitated. “I wonder if we should skip dinner and just look for Daddy’s notes and the ring.”

  He pulled off his glasses and set them on the table. “I’d agree with you if I didn’t know that they were closing the site early tonight, and Myra offered to cook the team dinner.”

  My mouth dropped open. “Myra’s cooking?” Before Daddy got sick, they used to host dinner parties all the time. Myra was a fantastic cook; she just hadn’t done any entertaining in years.

  “Forgive me if I’m overstepping my bounds, but I think there might be a connection between her and Steven.”

  “What?”

  He held up a hand. “It’s nothing really. Not yet. But I can see that there’s something there.”

  “But isn’t Steven married?”

  He shook his head. “No, widowed.”

  I sagged into the door frame. “Oh.” I could understand his appeal for Myra. He was an attractive man, and for several years Daddy hadn’t been the man she’d married. I was the last person to judge her. It just felt strange to think of her with someone else.

  “I think Myra’s invited a few other people too, so it will be a full house. We’d have no hope of finding anything with so many people around.”

  I bit my lower lip, jumpy with anxiety. Now that I had confirmation that Daddy really had hidden information around the house, I was eager to find it. But David was right. It would be better to wait. “Okay. But I want to start tomorrow. After we visit the colony site.” I swept a few stray strands of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail from my face.

  “Why don’t you go get ready, and I’ll take you to dinner. When do you want to go?”

  I didn’t want to take a shower, and it was too humid to do anything with my hair. Besides, it wasn’t like we were going on a real date. “Forty-five minutes?”

  “Okay.” He grinned. “I’ll pick you up then.”

  I drove my car home, mulling over everything I’d learned in the past twenty-four hours. I
was sure I was missing something, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I washed my body off with a washrag, checking out the mark on my back in the mirror. It had faded quite a bit in the last day. I figured I had a couple of days at most. The thought filled me with terror, but I had to believe that David would find something.

  No. It was time for me to depend on myself. I would find a solution and David would hopefully contribute. I’d start searching the house for the notes tomorrow. Daddy would have wanted me protected, so Ahone’s mark had to be in his notes somewhere. I tried to ignore the fact that he hadn’t recognized the mark that had been passed down in Manteo’s line from Keeper to Keeper.

  David showed up exactly on time, wearing khakis and a short-sleeve button-down shirt, open at the collar. He looked more handsome than ever. My stomach did a little flip, and the look of appreciation in his eyes made me suck in my breath. I suddenly worried that he might be interested in me for something other than our professional relationship.

  I had to put a stop to that.

  His eyes scanned the pale green sundress I’d pulled on and then landed on my face. “You look lovely, Ellie.”

  “Thank you,” I murmured as I let him in. “I just need to grab a pair of shoes.”

  David followed me inside while I went into my room. When I emerged, bending over to slip my feet into my sandals, he smiled. “Have you figured out where we should go?”

  “Yeah.” I gave him directions to a restaurant on the highway to Nags Head. When we arrived, we were told there was a ten-minute wait, so we sat at the outdoor bar in the back of the restaurant, overlooking the sound. We ordered drinks and watched the water in silence as I tried to figure out how to handle David’s possible interest in me. I couldn’t afford to offend him.

  Other than Drew—Claire’s fiancé and my own friend since we were all kids together—Collin was the first man I’d spent time with without pursuing a romantic relationship. That intention had lasted all of a few days. Now here I was committing to a long-term working relationship with a very attractive man, and I wanted to keep it platonic. I snuck a glance at him. Could this really work, or was I just fooling myself?

  David kept his gaze fixed on the sound. “How did things suddenly get so awkward?” he said after a while. “I can tell you’re anxious. You described what’s between us as a professional relationship, so why don’t you just think of this as a business dinner.”

  He’d caught me watching him. “Sorry. This is all new for me.”

  “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just thought it might make working together easier if we were better acquainted personally.”

  I released a long breath. “Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry I’m so edgy.”

  “You’re dealing with a lot right now. No one can blame you for feeling anxious.” He studied me for a moment. “If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”

  “Twenty-three.”

  He stiffened slightly. “You’re not much older than my students.”

  My brow wrinkled in confusion. “You make yourself sound ancient. You said you were in your early thirties, right?”

  “Thirty-one.”

  I snorted. “I have a dress older than that.”

  He laughed. “Isn’t that supposed to be my line?”

  I glanced over at him and grinned. “You have dresses tucked into your closet?”

  His face flushed.

  “I never took you for the blushing type, Dr. Preston,” I teased.

  “I never used to be until I met you.”

  Our banter eased the underlying tension, and after we were seated at our table, we spent dinner finding out about each other’s lives, avoiding anything to do with the curse by unspoken agreement. We couldn’t discuss it much in public anyway, and although I instinctively knew I could trust David, hearing more about him made me feel better about our alliance. Our lives up until now had been nothing alike. While my father was regionally known for his Lost Colony expertise, David’s attorney father had gained national attention before David’s birth, representing a victim of the South London race riots. Consequently, his upbringing was more Downton Abbey, while mine resembled Hart of Dixie. Still, I felt a connection with him that I couldn’t explain. Maybe David was right about fate. Maybe we were supposed to work together. And dinner made me feel better about his possible attraction to me. He’d been a perfect gentleman all night, completely professional. I assured myself I’d imagined his interest.

  By the time we left the restaurant several hours later, I was sure that contacting him had been the right decision. But I also realized the risk we’d taken. The sun had set while we were at the restaurant.

  As we drove home, I told David to park at the inn and I’d walk home.

  “I’m not sure that’s such good idea.”

  I scowled. “It’s far more dangerous for you to be outside after dark than it is for me.”

  His face tightened and he gripped the steering wheel. “I want to suggest something, but I’m worried you’ll take it the wrong way.”

  “Okay . . .”

  “Until you get your new tattoo, I don’t think you should be alone after the sun sets.”

  “Myra wants me to move back in with her, but I just can’t make myself do it.”

  “I understand. I can’t begin to fathom moving back in with my parents.” He laughed, but it was hesitant.

  “Besides, my room is currently taken.” I wasn’t about to tell him that I’d discovered that he was staying in it.

  “That’s not what I’m suggesting.” He glanced at me. “I’d really like to stay at your apartment with you.”

  I froze. “Oh.”

  “I’d sleep on the sofa. You would be in your bed.”

  It was tempting. But it would be so easy for me to begin to rely on him. I needed to learn to rely on myself. “David, that’s really sweet, but I don’t think so.”

  “Ellie, I assure you I have honorable intentions.”

  “If anyone else said that to me, I’d laugh. But I know you mean it.” I put my hand on his. “I think we need to take this slow. Even if it is a professional relationship.” As I said “professional,” I realized that touching him was contradictory. I removed my hand and put it in my lap.

  “You’ve called it that twice now. Is that how you see it?”

  I shrugged. “I’m not sure how to classify it. How would you?”

  “A professional relationship sounds so cold and calculated. I have a feeling we’re going to get to know each other fairly well. We’re going to need to trust each other. I’d like to call it a partnership.”

  It all sounded like semantics to me, but he was right. We needed to define exactly what we had here. “Okay, you’re right. I like partnership. But we need to make rules too.”

  “Okay.” He seemed hesitant.

  “I’m in charge since I’m the Curse Keeper and have the power to actually do something to these things. You’ll have to trust my judgment.”

  “Is that an absolute rule, or can we have a healthy debate if I disagree?”

  I bristled. “Is that how I’m coming across? Dictatorial?”

  “No, Ellie. You’re right. We need to lay the ground rules. But I need to know if I can present a contradictory opinion if I disagree.”

  “Of course. I value your opinion, David. If I didn’t, you wouldn’t be here.”

  He nodded.

  “But if we’re in a dangerous situation, I need to know that you’ll listen to me first and argue later. If we come face-to-face with Ukinim—and I’m sure we will—I can’t worry about you going rogue and putting yourself in danger.”

  David didn’t answer for several seconds, staring out the windshield. “Okay.”

  I released the breath I’d been holding.

  His eyebrows rose. “You were worried I wouldn’t agree?”

  “Let’s just say I know someone else who wouldn’t.”

  “Okay,” he said softly. “What else?”

 
I leaned my elbow on the window. “That’s the only one I have.”

  He kept his eyes on the road, but I saw the cords in his neck tighten. “I have a few.”

  Surprised, I dropped my arm and sat up straighter. “Okay.”

  “This will only work if we’re completely honest with each other.” He turned to me for a second, his eyes burning bright. “In all things.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means you can’t hide anything from me to protect me, even if it’s just my feelings.”

  “You think I’m going to hurt you?”

  “Not intentionally, Ellie, but we’re both coming into this with past experiences, and it’s easy to see that you’re still hurting over that wanker.”

  Collin.

  His hand tightened on the steering wheel. “He’s the other Curse Keeper. We’re bound to cross paths. If he wants to let the release of the spirits run its course as you say, he’s not going to appreciate my involvement.”

  I turned my face to the window. “Well, the two of us are history.”

  “It may be over between you two, but he’s still going to be around. He’s still marking your door and threatened to kidnap you to protect you, for Christ’s sake. It’s safe to assume that his involvement is far from history.”

  My anger ignited. “Do you want him to stop?”

  “God, no! Not with your mark almost faded. You need the protections on your door to be as strong as possible.”

  I rubbed my forehead, suddenly exhausted. I didn’t want to talk about Collin, let alone think about him. “I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”

  “I’m telling you that if a situation arises where you’re faced with telling me the truth or sparing my feelings, I need you to tell me the truth.”

  What did David foresee that I didn’t? We weren’t emotionally involved. I couldn’t imagine a situation where my actions would hurt him unless he really did have an interest in me other than our agreement. But I was lying to Myra and Claire to protect them, so perhaps he had a point. “Okay. I promise.”