“I never lock beautiful women out of the house.” Brad walked back in with a snifter of brandy. He handed it to her, then sat on the coffee table, facing her. “Go ahead, knock it back.”

She did just that, downing the brandy as she might a quick dose of medicine. It slid smoothly down her throat and soothed her jittery stomach. “It’s a crime to treat a Napoleon that carelessly. Thanks.”

“Knows her brandy,” he said to Flynn. Color was seeping back into her cheeks. To give her a chance to recover more fully, he rapped Flynn with his elbow. “How the hell did you manage to get a woman with taste and class to look twice at you?”

“I had Moe knock her down, pin her to the ground. Better, Mal?”

“Yes.” She blew out a breath. “Yes. Your painting’s seventeenth century. That’s absolutely conclusive?”

“That’s right.”

“I found out this morning that the painting at Warrior’s Peak is twelfth century, possibly earlier but no later.”

“If you got that from Pitte or Rowena—” Flynn began.

“No. I got that from Dr. Stanley Bower, of Philadelphia. He’s an expert, and a personal acquaintance. I sent him scrapings of the painting.”

“How’d you get scrapings?” Flynn wanted to know.

More color rose in her cheeks, but it wasn’t the brandy that caused it. She cleared her throat, fussed with the clasp of her purse. “I took them when you went up there with me last week. When you and Moe distracted them. It was completely inappropriate, absolutely unethical. I did it anyway.”

“Cool.” Pure admiration shone in Flynn’s tone. “So that means either Brad’s experts or yours is off, or you’re wrong about both being done by one artist. Or . . .”

“Or, the experts are right and so am I.” Malory set her purse aside, folded her hands tight in her lap. “Dr. Bower would have to run more complex and in-depth tests to verify the date, but he wouldn’t be off by centuries. I’ve seen both paintings, up close. Everything I know tells me they were done by the same hand. I know it sounds crazy. It feels crazy, but I believe it. Whoever created the portrait at Warrior’s Peak did so in the twelfth century, and that same artist painted Brad’s five hundred years later.”

Brad slid his gaze toward Flynn, surprised that his friend wasn’t goggling, or grinning. Instead, Flynn’s face was sober and considering. “You want to believe that my painting was executed by a five-hundred-year-old artist?”

“Older, I think. Much older than that. And I think the artist painted both from memory. Rethinking bolting the door?” Malory asked him.

“I’m thinking both of you have gotten caught up in a fantasy. A romantic and tragic story that has no basis in reality.”

“You haven’t seen the painting. You haven’t seen The Daughters of Glass.”

“No, but I’ve heard about it. All accounts place it in London, during the Blitz. Where it was destroyed. Most likely answer is that the one at the Peak is a copy.”