"It can't hurt to check. He might know something without realizing it," Nicholas murmured and then glanced to Thomas. "Is he still on the farm?"
Thomas shook his head. "He has a new one now. Well, he's bought several since you left and rotates them; ten years at one, then ten at another while foremen run the others."
"He never leaves though," Jeanne Louise said quietly. "And he doesn't allow visitors at all anymore. Not that he ever allowed me out there," she added bitterly.
Thomas rubbed her back sympathetically as he pulled out his phone. "Bastien will know where he is now and the number. Father still gets blood delivery."
"You know, it occurs to me that we might learn something useful from Armand after all," Marguerite said suddenly, and when everyone turned to her, said, "I've always assumed he locked himself away and cut himself off from family and friends because he was bitter at the loss of his wives, but if Annie's death is connected that puts a different complexion on things."
"I get it," Jo said slowly. "Perhaps he suspected the deaths of his wives weren't all accidents either. Perhaps he was trying to keep everyone out of the line of fire."
"Do you think so?" Jeanne asked, her eyes widening with hope.
When Marguerite nodded, Nicholas grinned and slid his arm around Jo. "She's very clever, isn't she?"
"Very," Marguerite agreed solemnly. "The nanos were right on the money as usual. She's exactly what we needed." She glanced to Thomas. "Call Bastien. The sooner we talk to Armand, the sooner we may be able to clear all this up."
Nodding, he started to punch buttons on his cell, but paused and glanced toward the doorway along with everyone else when they heard the outer door open and the sound of someone entering the house.
Mortimer stood up with a frown and started across the room, but froze when a tall blond man filled the doorway. There was a good-looking, dark-haired man on his heels, peering over his shoulder into the room. Jo had no idea who the dark man was, but recognized Lucian from the night of the party. It was pure instinct that had her standing and shifting to block Nicholas from his view. She knew it had been the right decision when Marguerite, Thomas, and Jeanne Louise suddenly stood and positioned themselves around her, helping to hide Nicholas.
"How lovely to see you, Lucian. What are you doing here?" Marguerite asked, sounding completely calm and even welcoming.
The woman was a master at hiding her emotions, Jo decided. The way she'd moved quickly to step beside her and help hide Nicholas proved she wasn't exactly happy to see him.
"When Greg and I got to the house to pick up our wives, we were told you had all come over here so we followed," the blond man said, his eyes narrowing.
"Pick them up?" Marguerite asked with surprise and glanced at her wristwatch, clucking her tongue as she said, "I hadn't realized it had grown so late."
"The men are supposed to call if anyone arrives," Mortimer said, drawing Lucian's concentrated gaze off Marguerite.
"Yes, so I read from Xavier when he stopped the car," Lucian said dryly.
"You read one of your own men?" Thomas asked with amazement.
"He seemed exceedingly nervous when he realized I was in the car with Greg," Lucian said grimly, and Jo supposed that was his idea of explaining himself. "I convinced him calling ahead was totally unnecessary and would merely piss me off."
Mortimer grimaced and the room fell silent as Lucian glanced from one person to another. Jo frowned as she recognized the concentration on his face. She'd seen it before. It was the penis-eye look. Damn. He was reading people, she realized with dismay and had her suspicions proven when Jeanne Louise whispered in a panic, "He's reading me."
"Think of a nursery rhyme and block him," Thomas hissed.
"I'm trying, but he's—"
"Is no one going to introduce me?" Jo said quickly in the hope of getting Lucian's attention off the panicked Jeanne Louise. It worked… too well, Lucian's sharp eyes slid off Jeanne Louise and onto her instead. Feeling an immediate ruffling in her mind she assumed must be his trying to read her thoughts, she began to babble a little hysterically, "I mean, we have sort of met before, the night of the party, but no one introduced us properly, Sam?"
Responding to her panicked cry, Sam hurried to her side, adding her own body to the human wall blocking Lucian's view of Nicholas. She took her hand and said, "Yes, of course. Jo, honey, this is Lucian Argeneau. He's… well, he's Mortimer's boss."
."And our uncle," Thomas announced. Jo suspected he was trying to draw Lucian's attention from her. She suspected that was also what Marguerite was doing when she added, "And my brother-in-law… Although, legally, perhaps he isn't my brother-in-law anymore now that Jean Claude is dead and I have remarried."