Crystal Gardens by Amanda Quick Read Free Book Online

not.”
    “Their mother? Not yours?”
    “Legally speaking, Judith is my stepmother. My mother died when I was fifteen. Judith has gone to great lengths to keep my work for the Yard a deep, dark family secret.”
    “I see. I must say, I agree with your brother and sister. Your consulting work sounds fascinating.”
    He thought about it. “I’m not sure ‘fascinating’ is the correct term to describe it. ‘Compelling’ comes closer.”
    A knowing look came and went in her eyes. “I understand. Something to do with the nature of your talent?”
    “Unfortunately, yes.”
    It seemed to him that the atmosphere in the room was becoming more highly charged with each passing moment. He should be on hisway, he thought. The longer he stayed here alone with her, the harder it would be to leave.
    “I’ll be going now,” he said.
    She slipped out of his coat and held it out to him. “Here, you mustn’t forget this.”
    He took the coat from her. Unable to think of an excuse to linger, he went out onto the step. He stopped, one foot on the second step, and looked back at her.
    “I suggest that you brace the door with one of the kitchen chairs for the rest of the night,” he said.
    “That is a very good idea. I’ll do that.”
    He waited until she closed the door. The scrape of wood chair legs on the floorboards and a soft thud told him that she had taken his advice on a makeshift lock.
    Satisfied, he shrugged into his coat. The garment was still warm from her body and carried her scent, a sweet, spicy, feminine perfume that was unique to Evangeline. The fragrance carried the essence of the woman and was somehow infused with her energy. He knew that he would never forget it.

Five

    S tone was waiting for him in the kitchen. He had made a pot of coffee.
    “That smells very good,” Lucas said.
    “Reckoned you wouldn’t be bothering with sleep for a while yet,” Stone said. He poured coffee into two thick mugs. “Not with that body waiting for you in the maze.”
    “You’re right. I’ll have to find it before dawn if I want to examine it. Bodies don’t last long in the maze, or the Night Gardens, either, for that matter. To those plants, Sharpy Hobson is just so much fertilizer.”
    He sat down at the old kitchen table. Stone sat down across from him. They drank their coffee in a comfortable silence. They were employer and employee but they were also friends who had saved each other’s lives on more than one occasion. Stone was one of the very few people in the world whom Lucas trusted. But, then, Stone was one of the very few who knew Lucas’s secrets and was not nervous around him.
    “When you finish your coffee I want you to go down to the cottage and keep an eye on it until morning,” Lucas said after a while. “I’m sure there is nothing to be concerned about tonight but I want Miss Ames to have some peace of mind. She has been through an ordeal.”
    “I’ll watch her for you.” Stone put down his mug and got to his feet. “Are you sure you won’t be needing any help with the body?”
    “No. I’ll examine it but I don’t have much expectation of learning anything useful. Still, you never know.”
    “I’ll be off then.”
    Stone walked out of the kitchen and went down the hall. Lucas waited until he heard the side door open and close. Then he put down the mug, got to his feet and went outside.
    He walked across the terrace, went down the steps and started along the narrow path framed by two towering, faintly luminous hedges. Bizarre flowers, unnatural in size and color, glowed in the night. Chester Sebastian had transformed Crystal Gardens into a living botanical laboratory. The results of the paranormal experiments he had performed over the decades had taken on a life of their own. In recent years, they had run dangerously out of control.
    It was no accident that the curious hybrids that Chester had developed flourished on the grounds. He had chosen the old abbey for his laboratory because of