Terra ~ One Last Wish

  Chapter Twelve

  After a short time I returned to the house, unsure of what to do, or how to act.

  Should I be tough and pretend that I wasn’t hurting?

  Or should I wear my rose-less heart on my sleeve and beg for him to stay?

  I wished I could just vanish off the face of the Earth and re-emerge somewhere else with a new life, a new identity, and no memory of what had occurred here at Gran’s house.

  I slumped down on the sofa in front of the fireplace and covered my tear stricken face with my hands.

  What have I done?

  Love wasn’t supposed to be like this…

  I felt his hand on my shoulder. I knew it was his because of the charged tingle I felt every time he touched me.

  What? Was he trying to console me?

  Anger started to bubble inside me.

  ‘Cate … look at me…’ he said.

  As if I wanted to look at him now, after he had walked away from me when I had finally told him of my love.

  ‘Cate,’ he said, again. This time his voice cracked.

  The fruity sweetness of roses filled the room, but it did nothing to ease the pain of my breaking heart. I just wanted him to go away and let me be after he had rejected me.

  But, I opened my red, swollen eyes anyway, and looked towards him, but not directly at him—hadn’t I embarrassed myself enough already today?

  ‘Cate, look at me … please—I need you to look at me,’ he pleaded.

  He was holding a bunch of pink roses in his hand, stolen from my garden.

  And then, as my heart softened a little, I looked into his eyes. They were full of anguish. And tears. Now I knew he was going to leave me. Why else would he be so emotional? Men don’t like to be seen with tears. Perhaps offering the roses to me was his way of apologising for leaving me. Our relationship had started with pink roses, was he ending it with pink roses?

  I was starting to hate pink roses.

  I took a deep breath, preparing for the devastating words that were going to come from him. I wanted to cover my ears with my hands. I wanted to vanish on the spot. I wanted to be swallowed up and taken to another dimension…

  ‘Cate—I … I … had an uncontrollable urgency to be insanely intimate with you … so I walked away. I went and picked some roses for you while I waited for my desire for you to settle.’ He looked down at the roses in his hand. They were all pink except for two. ‘The red ones represent our love.’ He bent down, placed a finger under my chin and lifted my lips to his. He kissed me with a heated passion that spread fire throughout my body.

  I was breathless when he pulled away.

  He dropped the roses, scattering them on the floor as he pulled me up and wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my hair.

  My lavender rose heart bloomed again, and added a multitude of new rose buds.

  ‘Do you know how happy I am?’ he whispered.

  ‘Now I do…’ I moved my head to look into his cerulean eyes. His pupils were large as he held my gaze. I touched the side of his face. ‘I thought you were about to leave me. I thought—’

  His lips were on mine then, like our kissing was as vital to surviving as the air we breathed.

  ‘Always be mine, Cate.’

  I opened my eyes and looked into his as he finished his words punctuated with a depth of emotion that ran through to the core of my being.

  ‘Always,’ I whispered, and kissed his lips with fragility as if they would break.

  He pulled me into his arms again and I rested there, drenched in the warmth of his pure love for me.

  ‘The lock has to be opened. It scares me … I can’t do it!’ I whispered after a while.

  Ben leaned back from me, looked into my eyes and frowned. ‘It is just a key and lock,’ he said calmly, as if I was being irrational.

  It is just a key and lock! I repeated to myself with sarcasm.

  I pushed Ben away and stormed out of the room. I left the house in haste and headed to the swing of the Magnificent Tree. I was fuming. He had made something so significant to me sound so inconsequential.

  I felt burnt. I set my eyes firmly on the ground in front of me.

  Ben appeared and squatted down before me. He reached out for my hand and held it in his. I wanted to pull it away. I had just shared a fear with him and he had brushed it off as if it was nothing.

  ‘I am here for you,’ he in a low voice. ‘Let me read the letter Gran left for you so I can get a bearing on the situation.’

  I bore my eyes into the ground in stubbornness.

  I did not want to look at him.

  There was a long silence between us.

  I wasn’t so sure I wanted to let him into my private world of just me and Gran.

  I considered his request for what seemed like an eternity, although I knew that it wasn’t. ‘It’s in the piano seat,’ I whispered. A tear rolled down my cheek.

  Ben pulled my hand to his lips and kissed it ever so gently before he walked away. I took a deep breath and wished I was not the chosen one to fulfill Gran’s final request.

  Within a short time Ben returned to my silence on the swing. I looked up at the sky. Someone had painted dark clouds onto the bright blue canvas. I tried to ignore my troubled feelings and stop the tears that threatened to spill down my cheeks.

  Ben sat on the grass near me and did not say a word.

  I moved my eyes to his face and watched him. He smelled the rose scented wax that had sealed the envelope as I had done, and smiled crookedly. Then he removed the letter. He looked over Gran’s handwriting and brought the paper to his nose again and closed his eyes. He didn’t look at me. He remained composed and calm. I needed him to do that, more than he knew.

  I watched his eyes as he read, and remembered the letter, word for word, and whispered it in my mind.

  To My Dearest Grand-Daughter Cate,

  I can picture you now, sitting on the swing under my Magnificent Tree reading my letter. I know you well don’t I? Only because you are so much like me! I knew where to place the letter for you to find, because I knew you would sit down at my beautiful baby grand piano to play.

  I have chosen you to be the guardian of my house. Particularly the drawing room. It holds some secrets, some decorations, and some unusual things that I trust with no one else in the world but you.

  And, I have one last wish that I want you to do for me. This wish will become obvious to you as you return again and again to my drawing room, as I know you will. You will find the room too compelling to stay away from.

  As a child, you could be so fanatical about solving a problem, sometimes it was to the annoyance of your family. But you always persisted until you found the answer. You have a sharp mind! You showed signs of your brilliance at a young age, easily outshining your dear brothers and sister.

  And so, there is a problem to be solved in the drawing room. Solving it will lead to the secret that you can feel, and to fulfilling my final wish.

  And Cate, do not be worried, or afraid, even though at times strange things will happen. You will have to be brave and show courage. But I can assure you, that you will not be hurt in any way, or shape, or form.

  Dearest Cate, I love you. I miss you. Please give my love to all the family.

  Until we meet again.

  Gran

  x x x x x x x

  Ben paused once he had finished reading, then folded the letter with care and returned it to the envelope.

  He was quiet. Too quiet.

  He swallowed, then cleared his throat. ‘Wow,’ he said, blinking and raising his eyebrows. He looked up at me then. ‘Gran truly loved you. I could feel it as I read the letter. You need to do this thing for her. She had great faith that you would accomplish it. Just say the word and we’ll start.’

  I did not speak. I couldn’t.

  I dropped my eyes to the grass in front of me, unsure whether I wanted to continue with Gran’s final wish.


  I left the swing and sat on the grass beside Ben. He wrapped an arm around me. There was no hurry to leave his protection. He was my safe place.

  In good time—my own time, I took Gran’s letter and opened it again. I read it to myself, noting details that could possibly help me to complete her wish. I looked up into Ben’s eyes. ‘Let’s get it over and done with.’

  He held my gaze and nodded before he gave me a chaste kiss. He pulled me up off the grass and led me to the kitchen, where we sat and planned the next move in the drawing room, together.

  I gripped Ben’s hand like a vice as we entered the room with the secret. I placed Gran’s letter back into the compartment of the piano seat, then showed Ben the shining gold key underneath the baby grand piano.

  He looked at me and held the gaze of my eyes before he reached up and gently turned the key to the left, as we had planned. However, it was resistant to turning. He tried it again, and it still did not unlock. Nor did it unlock when he turned it to the right.

  He ran his hand through his hair while he looked at the key. He breathed in and out audibly, furrowing his brow. Then he looked to me. ‘Cate, you have to be the one who physically turns the key. You are the one who is related to Gran ... connected.’

  I closed my eyes for a moment. I really didn’t want to have any part of this. I really didn’t want the sole burden of being the one to fulfill Gran’s final wish.

  Butterflies pounded heavily against my stomach trying to flee from danger. I frowned, fighting the intense feeling of wanting to escape. But I knew he was right. I had to be the one who physically turned the key. So, against my will, I positioned myself under the piano, lifted my hand to the key, and turned it.

  Effortlessly it unlocked. I looked to Ben for reassurance.

  This was real now.

  I couldn’t go back.

  I knew I had to open the drawer to reveal its contents.

  Ben looked into my eyes. His cerulean eyes were intense. He nodded, encouraging me.

  I pulled open the slim drawer then removed it completely and placed it on the floor so Ben could see the contents of it as well.

  Intrigue set in as, sitting in the drawer was a set of presumably ancient keys. Well, they looked old. There were seven of them; all gold, but of different shapes. Each of them had a jewel in the head of the key: diamond, ruby, malachite, rose quartz, chrysocolla, sugilite, and opal. And they were all threaded onto a large loop of golden metal, obviously intended to keep them together as a set.

  I removed the keys from the drawer and touched each one lightly, tracing over the patterns crafted into the metal heads, feeling the smoothness and coolness of each jewel. The keys were obviously paramount in this journey.

  I replaced the drawer back underneath the grand piano, keeping the set of keys I had found securely in my hand. And then I placed the shiny gold key back into the piano seat where I had found it.

  Downhearted I sat on the sofa, leaned back and rested my head. I looked up at the ceiling of the drawing room as I felt my heart sink. I placed the seven keys onto the sofa beside me and moved my hand to my forehead to hold my tormented mind.

  I felt the touch of Ben’s hand on mine, comforting me. He took it and moved it to his lips and kissed it, before holding it against his heart.

  If my heart was a lavender rose heart, then his heart would be a white rose, opened—eternal love, and unchanging loyalty that endured beyond all else. He had the most glorious, beautiful heart, pure and devoted.

  Yes—he had the most beautiful heart…

  He looked over at me and touched my head with his right hand, closed his eyes, and then gently ran his fingers through my wavy hair.

  I looked up at him and raised my eyebrows and shook my head. ‘I don’t want to do this. I really don’t know what I have to do. I don’t … I just don’t want to do this.’

  He brushed away the tear that fell from my eye and gave me a weak smile. ‘If you don’t continue with this journey, you have automatically failed your Gran. Whatever it is you have to do must be extremely important to her, otherwise she would not have asked you to do it.’ His voice was soft.

  I rolled my body towards his and placed my head on his chest. He rested his soft lips against my forehead. I closed my eyes feeling a deep sadness inside of me. I wished for us to be in another time and place, without this heavy burden that was gifted to me.

  I twisted my body away from him then, picked up the seven keys and stood. I wanted this whole stupid scenario over and done with.

  I walked around the drawing room. I had no instructions, no directions and no clues as to how to continue on this journey. All I had were the seven keys. It was like I was blind, struggling to find my way through a maze with no knowledge of what I was looking for to signify the beginning or the end.

  I jiggled the keys around in my hand, then stopped at the sofa table and pulled the drawer open. There, inside the drawer was a wooden box I had seen before. It had a light pink rose picture on the top face; Gran’s favourite colored rose. I picked it up and inserted the key with the rose quartz jewel on it, turned the key to the left and unlocked the wooden box.

  Inside the box was a golden oval locket on a fine gold chain. The fruity fragrance of roses wafted out of the box. I opened the oval locket and found two black and white photographs. One of Gran when she was in her twenties, and on the other side, a picture of Poppy, Gran’s husband, also when he was in his twenties. I held my breath. This was not as easy for me as I wished it would be.

  I stilled and looked closer at their photographs and thought how incredibly attractive they both were. I looked up at Ben. He nodded to me, turned me around and fastened the necklace around my neck. ‘You are meant to wear this,’ he whispered against my neck before he kissed me there, sending a delicious warmth through my body. My lavender rose heart reached for its sun.

  I closed my eyes and touched the locket, trying to remove my errant thoughts of Ben and I in a passionate embrace.

  I returned the wooden box back into the drawer of the sofa table where I found it, and closed it. Then looked down at the seven keys in my hand.

  Which one would be next?

  It was starting to feel like a treasure hunt when I was a girl, except, this treasure hunt was a grown up one. It was not for fun and games. There was something important I had to complete.

  I walked over to the grandfather clock. There was a keyhole there. One by one I inserted each of the remaining keys, and finally found that the malachite jewel with the beautiful teal colour was its companion. It unlocked and I opened the door. I reached up to find another item of gold in the grandfather clock.

  It was an old fob watch that used to belong to Poppy. When Poppy died, Gran was never parted from it. On the back was an engraving:

  To my one and only love, forever,

  Katie x x x x x x x

  My chest tightened as I recalled Gran retelling the story of Poppy’s passing before I was born: her eyes grew an incredible sadness, her lips had trembled and she clutched at her stomach while she spoke of losing him.

  I closed my eyes for a long moment. When I opened them again I closed the fob watch, put it into my pocket and about turned, shaking off the painful memory.

  I refocused and recalled a silver metal box when I had searched the room earlier with the shiny gold key, before it started to glow on its own under the baby grand piano. It was on the seventh level of the enormous timber bookshelf. The keyhole was blindingly obvious.

  I stood up on my tippy toes to reach it, pulled it out and placed it on the sofa table to open. I hesitated briefly before I turned the opal key to the left. When I opened the lid I found a large bag of what looked like sugar. But unlike sugar, it sparkled like diamonds, not crystals.

  I lifted the bag out of the box. It was heavy—far too heavy for sugar.

  Underneath it was a piece of paper—a note.

  I opened it.

  Magnificent Tree Miracle Compo
und

  Place 7 teaspoons of the Magnificent Tree miracle compound around the base of the Magnificent Tree. Water it in generously with rose infused water (that is 7 litres of water with 70 rose petals in each litre).

  Within 7 days, the Magnificent Tree will come to life as you have never seen it before.

  Always keep the Magnificent Tree miracle compound locked in the metal silver box.

  By Order of Katie!

  And so, I grabbed the Magnificent Tree Miracle Compound, turned on my heel and marched outside with it to set about bringing the lifeless, Magnificent Tree back to life, apparently.

  And when I had finally finished adding the “lovely” sugar-like concoction, watered in with rose infused water, I looked up at the tree with expectancy—but it had not changed one iota.

  ‘Done and dusted, Magnificent Tree,’ I spoke in a sweet calm voice. ‘I’ll be watching you to see why Gran called you the “Magnificent Tree” all of her life, because, to tell you the truth, you’ve always looked far from magnificent!’ I walked closer to the Magnificent Tree, put my arms around it and hugged it. ‘Gran is counting on you for some reason or another,’ I whispered.

  I turned. Ben had been watching me. He stood with his arms folded across his chest and held a crooked smile on his face.

  ‘You find this funny, Mr. Adams?’ I said, looking at him sideways as I walked towards him.

  He nodded. ‘I’ve never seen you hug a tree before! Did it hug you back?’

  I narrowed my eyes at him. ‘If you were a tree, would you hug me back?’ I stopped in front of him and turned back to face the Magnificent Tree, admiring its extraordinary ordinariness.

  ‘I would wrap my limbs around you and never let you go,’ he whispered against my ear as he pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me.

  I relished in the feeling of peace and contentment he emitted from his being, and in the protection he willingly gave to me. And, just for a moment, I felt as free as a bird. Free from the unpredictable burden of fulfilling Gran’s final wish.

  He turned me to face him. I slid my hands up to his shoulders and rested them there. He gently ran his hands over my back to my shoulders and down my sides, then traced his fingers every so lightly over my spine. My entire body tingled and warmed and awakened in places filled with desire.

  I lifted my head and looked into his cerulean eyes. He returned my gaze with intent to mesmerise. My lavender rose heart turned into a fiery red rose of desire, craving passion. ‘Ben—’ I whispered, as he moved his lips to mine. I let out a soft moan of pleasure as he kissed me.

  He pulled away. ‘I love you deeply, so ... deeply,’ he said, his voice rough.

  I sighed. His lips were on mine again and I felt his undeniable physical desire for me.

  ‘Our promise,’ I whispered. I wanted to feel his naked skin against mine. I wanted to feel his hands all over my body. I wanted … I wanted … more …

  He stepped away from me and pushed his fingers through his hair before he looked down at me, his gaze dark. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine again, with the lightness of butterfly wings. A wave of ecstasy flowed through me. What was he doing to me?

  He took my hand and led me back to the drawing room. I didn’t want to return to this room. But he was right. I had to get on with Gran’s final wish. I replaced the Magnificent Tree Miracle Compound and the instructions to the metal silver box and locked it.

  I sighed. The diamond, ruby, chrysocolla and sugilite keys remained. And so did my desire for intimacy with Ben—but he would never unlock that until we had exchanged rings. I closed my eyes and exhaled. I concentrated on a mind shift to the journey of the keys to get my thoughts off Ben.

  Nearly half way there, I thought, and then the riddle will be solved. I would finally be rid of this enigma that ravaged my life.

  The next keyhole was a draw on the bookshelf. The ruby key opened the lock. Inside the draw were two new Pandora beads: one a small replica of the Earth, and the other, a bead with tiny pink roses on it.

  I screamed in silence! Every stupid keyhole I unlocked held something of significant value that pierced my heart. One Pandora bead represented Ben—he worked at Earth Sphere, and the other one represented Gran—she always had light pink roses. I worked hard to conceal my emotional pain. I blinked away my tears as I added the two beads to my Pandora Bracelet that Gran had bought for me.

  And then my will to continue to deliver Gran’s final wish dropped like a heavy blanket. ‘You know, Ben, I think I am done with this whole crusade. This is getting way too weird. I … I don’t want to do this anymore. I have to stop.’ My voice was tart. I had had enough. I didn’t have the emotional or physical strength to continue.

  Ben kissed my forehead. The next words he spoke came from left field, distracting me entirely from my battle with Gran’s final wish. ‘When are you going to tell me about when Nic was here again?’

  I stilled. His surveillance … he knew.

  Anxiety bubbled in my stomach. ‘Tell me what you know,’ I requested, keeping my cool while anger began to boil beneath my skin, and guilt crept into my heart.

  ‘Absolutely not. I want to hear your version of the events.’

  ‘Including the thought that I wanted him to kiss me?’ I spat out at him, angry that he had invaded my privacy again.

  He lifted his chin higher, burned his cerulean eyes into mine and took a deep breath. I had hurt him. ‘Especially the part where you wanted his lips on yours instead of mine.’ He turned away from me, walked to the window and placed his hands on top of his head, then looked out at the garden.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and counted to ten as I rebuked myself for not keeping control of my anger. I walked over to him, sat on the windowsill beside where he now leaned and followed his line of vision to the forget-me-not flowers that had started to flower. Did he know that Nic had given them to me?

  I decided to start at the beginning about Nic, so Ben could understand—if that were possible. ‘The day I moved in, you visited me for … maybe an hour … and then had to leave again. Emma and Tim rocked up unannounced with Nic in tow. He happened to be hanging out with Tim and was here by chance. As darkness fell the power went out, and couldn’t be fixed until the following morning. So they all stayed with me for the night. Nic and I were like magnetic poles, repelling one another. He really annoyed me. Anyway, we passed away the time with the truth serum, and during the events of the night he discovered that I was fearful of the drawing room. The next day I found Nic drawing a landscape design of my yard, apparently to pass away the time. I showed him my design and we found some common ground. He volunteered to help me with the landscaping because he thought I was weak and wouldn’t be able to complete it. The day that we finished the garden and he left, was the last time I thought I would ever see of him. But then he turned up a day later and confronted me about my fear, wanting to enter the drawing room with me to burst my irrational thought. Well, he did. He held my hand as we entered the drawing room … I was distressed and he held me. He didn’t kiss me, Ben. He said he had finished what he had to do—and left.’ I had left out details of conversations between Nic and I on purpose.

  ‘But you wanted him to kiss you?’ Ben’s voice was devoid of emotion. He had not looked at me while I recounted my time with Nic.

  ‘Perhaps. But … but he reminded me of you with your gentleness and your strength. I was an emotional wreck…’

  He turned to me then and looked into my eyes with a sadness that hurt my heart. ‘I’m sorry I haven’t been here for you. What has happened between you and Nic is my fault.’ He grabbed my hand and placed it over his heart. It was beating faster than it should. ‘Can you feel my heart, Cate?’

  ‘Yes,’ I whispered, and nodded my head.

  ‘Sometimes, I worry I will lose you. From the moment I first saw you, I loved you. The thought of you with another man makes me intensely jealous. It tears me apart and throws my world into chaos … please tell me t
hat you belong to me—’ his voice cracked and he looked lost.

  I leaned in closer to him. I wiped away a tear that fell from his eye with a lock of my hair. I looked into the depths of his eyes. ‘I am yours, Ben. My heart belongs to no other,’ I whispered.

  He placed his hands on the side of my face and my lavender rose heart opened wide to its sun. Ben closed his eyes, pulled his brows together in deep emotion and pulled my lips to his. He kissed my top lip, then my lower lip, parted his mouth and brushed his tongue over mine before he deepened the kiss that was filled with an intensity that gave me an extraordinary high, lifting me to a place of pure love, of pure passion—a kiss that sealed our two souls into eternity. I pulled away breathless.

  I wanted more—much more.

  Ben held his eyes closed. When he finally opened them he touched his lips to mine in a light lingering kiss, eyes open, holding mine, soaking me in. He pulled away. ‘I love you so deeply that it hurts.’

  ‘Sometimes I wish we didn’t make a vow of purity,’ I whispered.

  ‘I always wish that. Right now, my need to make love to you is killing me—’ His mouth devoured mine again, weakening my knees, weakening my defenses. I wanted physical intimacy with him more than anything I’ve ever wanted.

  But he stopped kissing me, walked away from me and placed his hands behind his head. He let out a loud sigh before he turned back to me and stared at me with a darkened gaze. ‘Let’s keep going with the keys so we can get on with our own lives.’

  I walked over to him and ran my hand over his shoulder, around the back of his neck and into his hair. ‘I love you,’ I whispered.

  He breathed in deeply.

  I turned from him, letting a breath out with force before I bowed my head, closed my eyes and pinched the top of my nose, trying to return to the present moment. I paced to and fro, digging deep to find a determination to find the answer to the puzzle of Gran’s final wish.

  ‘Three to go,’ I whispered to myself, ‘three to go … Cate, be a darling and finish the treasure hunt. It’ll be a real hoot!’ I spoke to myself in a sarcastic English accent, away from Ben’s range of hearing—definitely a sign I was reaching the threshold of my patience. I predicted an explosion of anger to come—sooner rather than later.

  I refocused and tried to predict the objects yet to be found. So far, everything had a connection to Gran in some way or another: the locket, the fob watch, I fixed the magnificent tree, added the two Pandora beads to my bracelet ...

  What more could there be?

  ‘Come on, Gran. What is it you want me to do? I don’t see your wish clearly yet. What is it you want me to do?’ I requested, talking to myself. ‘There’s only three keys to go.’

  And then there it was, a keyhole at the coffee table in front of the fireplace. The lavender sugilite key unlocked the lock as I inserted it into the chasm. I pulled open the draw to reveal a large old rusted key. It looked somewhat like a dungeon key of olde. I picked it up and looked it over, wondering where it would fit into the mission. Then I closed the drawer and relocked it.

  Two to go.

  As I stood, I saw that Ben had spotted an unusual book up on the seventh shelf. He removed it. It wasn’t made of paper like all of the other books. This one appeared to be made out of metal. It was titled, “The Human Body”.

  I laughed. Gran was always so prudish where the human body was concerned. Why would she have such a book as this? I removed the book from Ben’s hands. I turned it around and tried to open up the first page. It wouldn’t budge.

  In fact, it wasn’t a book at all. It was like a little safe, camouflaged as a book. How ingenious! Whatever was contained inside must have been extremely important! Maybe now, Gran’s wish would be revealed to me.

  The chrysocolla key opened the safe.

  Inside were two vials. One contained what looked like a lock of hair. The other contained a clear liquid. Was it water, or was it something much more important? Human hair concealed inside the human body book! How apt. Such innovation. Such humor and such logic.

  I placed the two vials into my pocket with care.

  Puzzled, I still could not clearly see what Gran’s wish was. I clenched my fist in irritation before I closed the incognito human body book safe and relocked it.

  One to go. Then maybe, this whole frustrating, confusing, annoying situation would be done.

  It was the diamond key that remained. I sat on the sofa next to Ben, irritated. Highly irritated. I placed my splayed hand on my forehead and squeezed my eyes shut.

  ‘Come here,’ Ben said with a soft voice. He pulled me in front of him. He placed his hands onto my shoulders and started to massage the stress out of them. He pushed my hair over my right shoulder, his finger skimming along the skin on my neck, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. He moved closer. I felt his warm breath below my left ear, before he kissed me there. Heat spread out through my body. I relaxed and leaned into him and closed my eyes.

  ‘See this,’ I held up the last key. ‘It is turning me into a crankypants!’

  ‘Please, Cate—no! Anything but crankypants!’ Ben stopped massaging my shoulders and held up his hands.

  I grabbed a cushion off the sofa, turned and whacked him with it. He positioned his fisted hands in front of his face while I inflicted one blow after another. As I geared up for another hit he grabbed a cushion and returned my blow. He dodged my attempts at striking him with the cushion, and moved off the sofa. I followed him around the room, chasing him, retreating, attacking and defending myself from his cushion warfare.

  I was on a winning streak when Ben managed to end the cut-throat cushion warfare with an onslaught of two cushions instead of one. He had an unfair advantage.

  I refused to go down without a fight. I held my cushion close to my face and barreled into him. He hunched over, grabbed me around the waist and tackled me to the floor. I went down, and landed heavily.

  ‘Cate … I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you,’ he said apologetically, his brows furrowed.

  ‘I’m okay!’ I said, catching my breath.

  He frowned and looked at me with concern.

  ‘The vials. We can’t break the vials!’

  Ben stilled and his eyes widened before he retreated from me. He stood and ran both hands through his hair.

  I sat up and checked the vials. They were still intact. My hair was wildly out of place from the warfare and I tried to tame it with my fingers while I watched Ben walk away from me.

  He sat at the hearth of the fireplace and steepled his fingers in front of his lips.

  I went and sat beside him. Out of the corner of my eyes a glint of metal caught my attention. I turned to find a key hole in the brickwork of the fireplace.

  In the fireplace! What?

  Uncomfortably, I positioned myself to reach into the brick chimney structure, trying to remain as soot free as possible. I delicately inserted the last key into the last keyhole.

  The entire brick, that wasn’t actually a brick, released from the chimney wall. I maneuvered myself back beside Ben and placed the “brick” onto the fireplace surrounds.

  I frowned at it then picked it up and turned it around, searching for the opening. I found a slight crack in the formation and prized it open. And there inside, was a small golden box, with four more keyholes, and four more keys.

  I placed the box to the floor and hung my head.

  More keys!

  More damned treasure hunt to do!

  I had had enough of this entire frustrating saga.