“It looks promising,” she commented and they went in.
“Why don’t you tell me what you want and go find a table while I order?” Thomas asked as they reached the counter.
Nodding, Inez glanced over the menu on the boards on the wall behind the counter and said, “A latte and lemon muffin.”
“Not tea?” Thomas asked with surprise.
“I never have tea away from home. They never steep it long enough,” she informed him.
“Okay,” he said with a laugh, and then pressed a quick kiss to her lips and urged her away. “Go hunt us up a table. I’ll find you.”
Smiling, Inez headed for the stairs to the second level. There weren’t many tables on the main floor and the few there were taken. The second floor wasn’t much better. As she’d noted from the street, it was quite busy, but Inez managed to find an empty table by the window and settled there to watch the stairs for Thomas.
It wasn’t long before he appeared. His gaze swept the second level until he spotted her and then he headed straight over. Inez couldn’t help but notice the glances cast his way by the other women in the restaurant as he passed them. She had the most juvenile urge to stick out her tongue at them. He was hers and no matter how beautiful, smart, or accomplished they were, those other women could never be anything more than blow-up dolls, or pretty puppets to him. It was good to know, but didn’t keep her from wanting to pop the dolls with a pin, and cut the strings on the puppets.
“What is that expression about?” Thomas asked with amusement as he set the tray on the table.
“What expression?” Inez asked innocently.
“I’d have to describe it as gentle malice,” he informed her as he passed her a latte and her muffin.
“Malice?” she asked with surprise. “Never.”
“No?” Thomas asked mildly as he set his own drink and muffin in front of the chair opposite her, and then set the tray out of the way on the window sill beside them.
“No,” Inez assured him. “I was just noticing that the women all eye you like candy and that I’d have to hurt them if they were foolish enough to try something.”
Thomas had been in the process of taking his seat when she said that, but stilled, his eyes widening incredulously at her words.
“I assure you there was no malice in the thought at all,” she said with a shrug.
A burst of laughter slipped from his lips and Thomas finished settling in his seat, then shook one finger back and forth at her. “Naughty, naughty. And here I thought your eyes were brown, not green.”
“I’m not jealous,” Inez assured him solemnly as she began to doctor her latte, adding sugar to it.
“No?” Thomas asked doubtfully and said, “I am.”
Inez glanced at him with surprise. “What have you to be jealous of?”
“Of every guy who gives you the up and down look.”
Inez laughed as he showed her the look; squinting his eyes and running them up and down what he could see of her figure above the table. Shaking her head, she protested, “No one does that.”#p#分页标题#e#
“They do,” he assured her. “Mr. Ginger-hair behind the counter downstairs was doing it.”
“Well, I’ve never noticed it.”
“I know,” Thomas said with amusement. “And I think it’s adorable that you’re completely oblivious to how attractive you are. It makes me glad I’m not a mortal. I think a normal man would have to hit you over the head before you’d notice they were attracted to you.”
Inez shook her head. “Men preferred leggy blondes and sexy redheads. I’m just boring me.”
“Inez, love, there’s nothing boring about you,” he said dryly.
She stared at him silently, wishing he meant that. She wanted to be his love. Swallowing the sudden lump in her throat, Inez glanced down at her latte, took a sip, and then asked, “So how are we supposed to look for Marguerite here in York?”
Thomas blinked at the sudden change of topic, then allowed it and grimaced. “Well, we can’t trace her phone.”
“No,” she agreed on a sigh.
“Or her credit cards,” he added and then shook his head. “In truth, I haven’t got a clue where to start. We already know she isn’t in one of the hotels.”
“That leaves flats and rental houses,” Inez said.
Thomas nodded. “But nothing has shown up on the Notte credit cards.”
“They paid by cash or check, then,” she said thoughtfully.
“It looks that way. Unfortunately, we can’t go around knocking on every door in town.”