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Back Stealth Save as PDF
Chapters (71)
  1. Cover
  2. BOOKS BY STUART WOODS
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  66. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  67. Excerpt from TREASON
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  70. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  71. What’s next onyour reading list?

He repeated his action of walking up one side and down the other, checking the shop windows. He lingered in front of Literary Antiquities, inspecting the titles in the window, then, after one last look around, went inside, as if he had decided to buy something.

—

Stone called Rose.

“Dr. McGill,” she said into the phone.

“It’s Stone.”

“How nice to hear your voice.”

“And yours, as well. I’d love to see you this coming weekend.”

“What a good idea,” she said. “I’ll take the train down on Friday, if you will have me met.”

“I certainly will.”

“Will Felicity be there?” she asked.

“Would you like me to ask her?”

“I think I would.”

Stone thought he detected a new level of interest in Felicity in Rose’s voice.

“Then I will ask her, if you’re comfortable with that.” He waited to see if the hint had registered.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m more comfortable with it than I had previously thought,” Rose said.

“I’m quite sure Felicity will be comfortable with it, too.”

“See you Friday, then,” she said, then hung up.

Stone called Felicity’s private cell.

“Hello, there,” she said, with warmth. “How are you?”

“Very well, thank you. Are you contemplating another weekend at Beaulieu this coming week?”

“I am. I was going to call you.”

“Then come to dinner on Friday.”

“Shall I bring my toothbrush?”

“Just in case.”

“In case?”

“Rose is coming down, too, and she requested your company at dinner.”

“Did she really?”

“Really.”

“I had thought her rather cool to the idea of . . . me.”

“She’s given it some thought and now seems more warmly inclined to the idea of . . . you.”

“How interesting.”

“I thought you would find it so.”

“How sweet of you.”

“I’ll have you met at the dock.”

“Oh, by the way,” she said, “my houseman, in doing some work in the cellar, came across some very fine and very old clarets. Shall I bring a couple of bottles?”

“That would be wonderful. If you could send them over a day or two before, they can be set upright to allow the lees to settle before I decant them.”

“I will do so,” she said. “And please tell Rose I’m looking forward to seeing her.”

“I will.” They both hung up.

—

“May I help you, sir?” a man behind a counter asked.

“I think perhaps you may,” Roger replied. “I’m looking for an Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, nicely bound in leather.”

Alex went to the front door, locked it, and turned over the sign to read: CLOSED. “This way,” he said, and started down a spiral staircase.

Roger followed.

55

Alex put on a kettle, and it boiled almost immediately. “Tea?” he asked.

“Earl Grey, if you have it.”