The Villa by Nora Roberts

Author:Nora Roberts [Roberts, Nora]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2008-10-02T04:00:00+00:00

Part Three

The Blooming

Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like;

Friendship is a sheltering tree.

—SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

~•~

Chapter Sixteen

March roared across the valley on a raw and galloping wind. It hardened the ground and rattled the naked fingers of the vines. The dawn mists had a bite that chewed through the bones. There would be worries about damage and loss until the true warmth of spring arrived.

There would be worries about many things.

Sophia stopped at the vineyards first, and was disappointed that Tyler wasn't stalking down the rows examining the canes for early growth. She knew the disking phase was about to begin, weather permitting. Men with disk harrows would pulverize and aerate the soil, breaking up the crusted earth, turning the mustard plants and their nitrogen into the ground.

For the vintner, the quiet of February blew into the busy and critical month of March.

Winter, a fickle white witch, held the valley. And gave those who lived there too much time to think.

He'd be brooding, of course. Sitting up in his office, she imagined as she changed directions for the house. Going over his charts and logs and records. Making some notes in his vintner's journal. But brooding all the same.

Time to put a stop to it.

She started to knock on the door. No, she decided, when you knocked it was too easy to be told to go away. Instead she opened the door, pulling off her jacket as she stepped inside.

"Ty?" She tossed the jacket over the newel post and, following instinct, headed for his office.

"I've got work to do here." He didn't bother to look up.

Until moments before he'd been at the window. He'd seen her walking through the rows, changing her angle to aim for the house. He'd even thought about going down and locking the door. But it had seemed both petty and useless.

He'd known her too long to believe a lock would keep her out.

She sat across from his desk, leaned back and waited until the silence irked him enough to speak. "What?"

"You look like hell."

"Thanks."

"No word from the police yet?"

"You're just as likely to hear as I am."

True enough, she mused. And the wait was making her edgy. It had been nearly a week since Margaret's body had been found. On the floor by a table set for two, with an untouched steak on the platter, candles guttered out and an empty bottle of Merlot.

It was that, she knew, that continued to prey on Tyler's mind. The other place had been set for him.

"I spoke with her parents today. They're going to take her back to Columbus for the funeral. It's hard for them. For you."

"If I hadn't canceled—"

"You don't know if it would have made any difference or not." She got up to go to him. Standing behind him, she began to rub his shoulders. "If she had a heart condition no one knew about, she could have become ill anytime."

"If I'd been there—"

"If. Maybe." Feeling for him, she brushed a kiss on the top of his head.

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