A Gift from the Past by Carla Cassidy Read Free Book Online Page A

clue was, ‘Red is the color of my true love’s hair. If you figure this out, the money is there.’ And the last one was, ‘The roots of fire and ash yield sweet fruit. If you find this place, you’ve got the loot.’”
    He shot her a quick glance and saw her chewing on her bottom lip, a habit of hers when she was in deep concentration. “That’s the one that made me go out to the Dragon Tree yesterday morning,” he said.
    She nodded. “Me, too. I remember how the kids used to talk about how the wind whistled throughthe leaves and I figured maybe it sounded like a banshee.”
    â€œAnd the leaves turn bright red in the autumn, so that would fit with the second clue.” He smiled at her. “The Dragon Tree was a smart guess.”
    â€œYeah, unfortunately it was wrong,” she replied wryly. She shifted positions and her thigh made contact with his. She quickly moved to break the contact, but not before he saw the slight flush that reddened her cheeks. She rolled away from him and onto her back, putting several additional inches between them. “So, any other ideas?” she asked.
    He had other ideas all right. He had the idea to lean over her and capture her rosy lips with his own. His fingers itched with the idea of tangling in her hair or cupping the warmth of her breasts. He entertained the idea of kissing her, touching her, caressing her until her soft gray eyes darkened to the dark smoke of passion.
    Desire, rich and hot, flooded through him, creating an ache deep within that he hadn’t experienced in years. It shocked him and threw him mentally off-balance.
    He rose from the blanket, feeling the need for some distance. She looked at him in surprise. “What are you doing?” she asked.
    â€œGoing for a walk. I think better when I walk. I’ll be back in a little while.” He headed out toward a jogging path, wondering why in the worldthe woman he’d come to divorce still managed to fill him with such depths of emotion.
    Â 
    Claire blew out a sigh of frustration and sat back on her haunches. She was on her knees on the floor of the basement of City Hall, surrounded by box after box of old documents, newspapers and miscellany from the past.
    Bertha Bellew had been a one-woman historical society and had made an attempt at organizing the material, but unfortunately Bertha had passed away several years ago. Since that time, the old records and documents had been shuffled and reboxed and rearranged without much regard.
    She’d already gone through two boxes of items and had found nothing from the year 1856. At this rate it would take her months to find out anything about Sarah and Daniel Walker and she certainly didn’t want Joshua hanging around for months. It was bad enough that he’d already been in the house for almost a week.
    Six days, to be exact. Joshua had been in the house for six days and never had Claire’s nerves been stretched so taut. His presence seemed to have taken over every corner of the house. His scent seemed to have permeated the nooks and crevices of the very structure itself.
    There were times when they were all together in the evenings, that she almost felt as if it were fiveyears ago and Joshua had never left her. And that irritated her more than anything.
    She pulled herself up from the floor, deciding it was time to pack it in for the day. It was almost dinnertime and even though Joshua had insisted that he would be in charge of the evening meal, she couldn’t remember a time he’d ever cooked anything substantial in the past.
    Tomorrow morning the new clue for the treasure hunt would appear in the morning paper. She wanted to get a good night’s sleep so she could get up bright and early to read the latest clue.
    As she walked home, the sun bore down on her with an unusually intense heat, portending the midsummer days to come. She faced the summer with dread. So far she and Sarge had