Until Forever Read Online Free Page B

first flight to England and had arrived in London a day late, because after she had left for the airport the first time, she’d turned around and gone back home to get the sword. For some unaccountable reason, she felt as if she had to keep it near her, at least have it in the same country that she happened to be in.
    But David was due some sort of explanation, so she said now, “I wouldn’t have been able to wait that extra month until the summer break allowed me to come here, just to have my first look at it. And it isn’t all that odd that I’d bring it with me. Considering how valuable it is, and the fact that security systems aren’t infallible, particularly my system, which is so outdated, I would have spent my entire vacation here worrying about it.
    “Besides, I had new neighbors moving in next door that I hadn’t met yet. Their moving van arrived only a few days ago. And you know how new neighbors always make me nervous. You never know if you’re getting the next serial killer or your next best friend.”
    He grinned as he lifted his glass to toast her. “I was only teasing, Rosie. I know how eagerly you awaited that sword. I wouldn’t be surprised if you tucked it into bed with you each night.”
    He was still teasing, but she had to fight down a blush, because she had come close to doing just that on a few occasions this last month. Her attachment to this particular antique was absurd, unhealthy even.
    She had other old weapons; the previous star of her collection dated from the fifteenth century, a magnificent foot-long dagger whose scabbard had two pockets to hold two tiny jewel-hilted eating utensils. She loved that dagger, but she’d never had her emotions thrown into such turmoil over it, as was happening with Blooddrinker’s Curse. She wastreating the sword as if it were her child, for God’s sake, worrying about it being out of her sight, fretting over anyone else’s touching it, fearful that it might get damaged or lost.
    She had been in a state of panic nearly the entire flight over, imagining it being thrown around by careless baggage handlers, despite the fact that she’d crated it with such meticulous care. And getting through customs had been a nightmare, waiting for some stranger to insist on opening the crate and—but she’d been lucky. The sword had passed through unmolested, only one of her three suitcases drawing inspection. But she was definitely going to ask David to send the sword back to the States for her on his wife’s private jet. She wasn’t going to go through that nerve-wracking experience again if she could help it.
    David would probably say that what she was feeling was perfectly normal, after she’d waited years to obtain the thing. He would even assure her that it was only temporary, that her worries would settle down, given a little time. She wasn’t going to give him a chance to say so. She just couldn’t bring herself to admit to what had the earmarks of an obsession, even to this brother of her heart. She didn’t understand it, so how could she expect him to?
    She offered him a smile to acknowledge his teasing, and waited for him to join her on the sofa. He’d picked her up at the airport that morning and had driven her straight to Cavenaugh Cottage. His wife, Lydia, waspresently in France meeting with the decorators who were handling her newest acquisition, a chateau near Troyes. Lydia wasn’t expected back until the end of the week, so David would be spending a few days with Roseleen at the cottage.
    Though there was no reason for them to resemble each other, not sharing the same bloodlines, merely the same household as children, ironically, there was a slight resemblance between Roseleen and David. Anyone who saw them together would swear they were brother and sister, and they didn’t bother to correct the misconception.
    That David had retained the name he was born with, David Mullen, only made people assume that Roseleen had married at some time or