Heartwishes by Jude Deveraux Read Free Book Online Page A

laptop, and my BlackBerry. She said if I got this job she’d send me an iPad.”
    “It sounds like she cares about you,” Colin said.
    “It’s mutual, but we aren’t chummy. She has two children and wants a third. She and Mom are worried that I’ll never get married.”
    “Whatever you do, don’t let her talk to my mother. My poor sister got so tired of my mother’s constant talk of having babies that last year Ariel swore she’d have her tubes tied.”
    “A drastic threat.”
    “My sister is the epitome of a ‘drama queen.’”
    “So who is your ‘favorite little man’ and isn’t Merlin’s Farm the place where those paintings were found last year?”
    Colin’s quick laugh nearly made him choke on his sandwich. “You really listen, don’t you?”
    “I read about the farm on the town Web site, and I like to find out things. Is it?”
    “Yes,” he said. “As you seem to know already, Merlin’s Farm—”
    “Built in 1674, wasn’t it?”
    Colin shook his head at her in wonder. “I have a feeling you could tell me who the English king was then and what was going on in the world.”
    She could, but she wasn’t interested in what she already knew. “The paintings caused a stir in the historical world, so of course I heard about them. They belong to the owner of Merlin’s Farm . . . I don’t remember her name.”
    “Sara Shaw, my cousin. She married the detective who found the paintings. They were hidden away in a secret room in the old house. You’ll have to see it. The way the room was built behind the fireplace was really ingenious.”
    Gemma’s eyes lit up, but she said nothing, just willing him to tell her more.
    “Anyway,” Colin continued, “Mike and Sara still live in Fort Lauderdale. They’ll stay there until his retirement in a couple of years, then they’ll move back here permanently.”
    “The paintings . . . ?” she prompted.
    “Oh yeah. They were done in the 1700s by an ancestor of ours—”
    “Charles Albert Yates,” Gemma said.
    “I’m sure you’re right,” Colin said. “Joce—the woman who owns Edilean Manor—thinks they were painted by a woman. She—”
    “Wow!” Gemma said, her eyes wide. “A woman went down the San Juan River in 1799 and made paintings of the flora and fauna? What an extraordinary find!”
    Colin laughed, but he was impressed with her memory and her knowledge. “You and Joce and Sara have to get to know one another.”He finished his sandwich while looking at her, and he could see that she was thinking about the paintings and how a woman may have made them. He wasn’t going to say so but he was very pleased that she’d not asked about the value of the paintings. The discovery of them had made international news and been reported by the BBC and in Paris. For a while the town had been inundated with tourists asking questions. With just a few exceptions, the only thing people had asked about was the money. How much were the paintings worth? Colin had grown so tired of the questions that he’d mumble, “Millions,” then leave and let his deputy, Roy, handle them.
    But Gemma didn’t seem in the least interested in the financial side of the find—and he liked that very much.
    She finished her sandwich. “And Sara is Ellie’s daughter? And your ‘favorite little man’ who helped her?”
    “You’re going to be great at the research!” Colin said. “Yes, Sara is Ellie’s daughter, and Mr. Lang is the caretaker of Merlin’s Farm. He’s in his mid-eighties now and we look out for him. When Mike and Sara are here, he moves into a house they remodeled for him.” Colin wasn’t going to go into telling Gemma about Mr. Lang’s endless complaints about the tourists and having to live outside the old house, which he thought of as his.
    Gemma wanted to ask what Ellie had meant about “club ladies” being after the old man, but she thought she’d asked enough questions.
    She stood up. “Mind if I wander around the rest of the house