William departed, and as soon as Emily opened the front door, a dog rushed out to meet them.
"Simon, down!" his mistress admonished him. The liver and white springer spaniel bounced in circles around their feet, thoroughly sniffing the newcomers. Emily stooped to scratch his head as they filed through the door. "Simon's finest quality is unbridled enthusiasm. Followed by the ability to nap anywhere at any time."
She led them through the foyer to a den with a room-wide bank of windows that looked out across the property. The broad, quiet space called to Amanda. "So much time in a plane and a car, and gosh, I need to stretch my legs." Amanda looked out across a golf course-worthy lawn. "Do you mind, Emily?"
"That's perfectly fine Amanda." Emily walked her to the French doors, which lead to a terrace. Beyond, a formal garden, pond, acres of grass and a stable were close enough to explore on foot. "We'll have dinner at seven and make an early evening of it. It's a little late for a ride tonight, but if you fancy one after the rain passes, Harris can saddle something for you tomorrow. Harris keeps the stable and is married to Millie, my housekeeper and cook. They live in that cottage on the other side of the paddock."
"Oh, riding sounds wonderful, but I think I'll stick to terra firma. Nothing makes me sneeze quite like a horse."
"I understand, dear," Emily said, gently patting Amanda's arm and looking around the room. "Come here, Simon!"
From out in the hall, the spaniel loped their way and skidded to a graceless halt at Emily's feet.
"Simon is excellent company, Amanda. He always goes on my walks with me. He loves the ducks at the pond, even if they don't return his enthusiasm. I've been on the phone all afternoon, and he's been cooped up with me. Would you mind? Just keep an eye on the sky, it won't due to get caught out."
"I'll be glad to." Amanda clasped Emily's hands. "Emily, thank you so much for this. I can't tell you how much I need a couple of days away. You're a godsend."
"Well, I'm biased, but it's a lovely place to get away and reset one's self. I was blessed to share it with James for twenty-four years, and someday our daughter Elizabeth will call it home again. In the meantime, I've been pleased to share it with fellow travelers over the years, like Lee, and now you. While you're here, please consider it your home."
Amanda started to mist up, so she called for Simon, and with another grateful squeeze of Lady Farnsworth's hands, was gone.
Lee made to follow, but Emily laid a hand on his arm. "You've been attached at the hip for days, boy. She'll be perfectly safe here, a hundred yards from my door. Let her breathe."
Emily sank onto the settee and patted the seat next to her. Lee ignored it, but at least remained in the house. He hovered at the back door and watched Amanda walking across the lawn. "She should have taken a better jacket."
"She'll be fine for a few minutes. And Gilbert is working in the garden today. He already knows to keep an eye out for her, and he's very diligent, you can't get better cover than an old sniper. She'll never know he's there. Also, my Tudor roses have never looked better than they did this year."
He could feel Emily's eyes on him as he watched Amanda. Beyond the lawn, there was a bench under a sprawling oak tree by the pond, and Amanda was headed in that direction. Even as the chill of December had started to take the green off of the outdoors, there was something inviting about the tableau. The spaniel bounced along happily at heel, unbothered by the cold.
Lee heaved a sigh of exhaustion and went to sit by Emily, but turned sideways so he could see out into the garden.
Emily looked him over. The younger man appeared weary - bags under his eyes and uncharacteristically, a day removed from a clean shave. Probably in deference to the scrape down his cheek. "Do we need to talk about boundaries, Lee? This would be a terrible time to let your heart overrule your head," she began, looking away in Amanda's direction.
Lee shot Emily an exasperated look. "I'm not the idiot kid you met ten years ago."
"I know that, my dear. And I also know you're the only one she can go to with this. That means you must be both available, and very, very careful."
"Did you draw the short straw with Billy? Because this sounds like an admonition from him."
Emily's knowing smile confirmed it. "He called me on your drive over. He's worried." Emily patted him on the hand and decided to change gears. "Billy read me in, but only the outline. Tell me what happened."
"You've been to the Princes' Islands," Lee started.
"I'm very familiar with them."
"Two goons were waiting for us on Büyükada. The market was already full, and when they started shooting, a hundred new ferry passengers plowed through in a panic. My contact split and I got buried under a pile of tourists, but Amanda kept her feet, and they locked onto her."
Lee got up and started pacing the room. His hands were alternately balled into fists, or scrubbing through his hair in frustration as he recounted the story.
"Amanda drew them away and they chased her for ten blocks before the biggest goon in eastern Europe cornered her with a knife. She threw a fistful of dirt in his face. He cut her. She grabbed a piece of lumber shot full of nails and swung on him like Babe Ruth. I caught up to her after she'd buried him in a pile of garbage and stolen a change of clothes from somebody's laundry next door. She was vibrating like a tuning fork. We squatted in a hotel room and called Billy while we waited for sundown. We made for the water. I was worried someone would be watching for us, and she figured out we could climb down a hatch in a dark part of the wharf to get out to the small boats. We stole one, made it back to the marina and Billy had the CIA sitting on our hotel room. My old army buddy Paul Mendoza had a guy on his team stitch her up and we tried to get some sleep, and failed miserably."
Lee wanted to say the next part just right and give his partner the credit she deserved. "It was easily one of the worst days of her life, and Amanda managed to focus, and problem solve. She wasn't sure I'd made it, so when I found her, there was a blip, just like a minute when she had to compose herself, and then she told me if she was going to get through the next few hours, she needed me to keep my distance…which is not how we typically conduct ourselves when we're married." Lee held up his left hand for emphasis. "For the next twenty hours, she was a rock, bordering on stoic, which you well know is not her natural inclination. This morning we found out that a ten-year old girl she'd bought a bracelet from in the market is in a coma, and we finally had a much-needed cry over that."
"'We had a much-needed cry?'" Emily asked, trying to not appear as surprised as she felt.
Lee gave her a sidelong look as he stopped his pacing in front of a small table bearing a crystal liquor service. He poured them both a short scotch and carried a glass to Emily. "You would focus on that."
"Thank you." Emily took the glass and quirked an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.
Lee downed his drink in one gulp. "I know what it cost Amanda to get through yesterday, and I'm not ashamed to admit to you, and only you, that I cried right along with her." Lee's expression lightened considerably. "Also, this morning in the airport she verbally cut down Anton Sidorov like a garden weed. It was something to behold, I tell you."
"She's coming into her own," Emily surmised.
Lee nodded, again watching his partner through the glass door.
"What did yesterday cost you, Scarecrow?"
"I don't think I'm your focus this weekend, Emily."
She laughed. "No, probably not. But since Amanda is communing with the ducks, how about you answer my question, anyway? For old times' sake."
"A few brain cells and a couple of years off my life, at least," he admitted. "If we let her, she'll spend the whole weekend right there under that tree."
"You know me well enough to know I won't allow that," Emily said. She moved to stand next to him. Amanda was making a circuit of the pond as Simon chased unsuccessfully after a pair of escaping ducks. The sun was setting, so Emily flipped the switch for the lights on the terrace, to help light her way back to the house.
Emily took him by the hand. "I didn't mean to upset you right off the bat, but I care for you both too much to keep my peace. I've been where Amanda is, except I had my James to come home to. Amanda has you, but it's not the same. Please be careful, Lee."
"I'll be whatever she needs me to be."
Distilling this complex man down to his most basic and honorable motivations was turning out to be Amanda King's superpower. The stubborn set of Lee's chin looked to Emily more like a little boy than a man. He spoke with such conviction, and made it sound so simple, but Emily knew it wasn't. "Putting that kind of pressure on your partnership could be…unwise, Lee. You can't-"
"It won't be an issue," he interrupted her. "We'll be fine, please don't worry."
Emily took a long look at him. "Is there something between you two?"
Lee considered it, knowing if he could be forthright with anyone about Amanda, it was Emily Farnsworth.
"I could say no, but that's probably not honest." Lee said, pondering how to explain it. "She is not the novice she was. I hope I'm not the fool she first met. She's well more than competent...and as maddening as ever, but she could say the same of me. And," Lee smiled at the next thought, "we spend time together. Not just at work. I'm not sure what we are, but we're…something." Lee searched for a word that described them but came up short.
"Equals?" Emily suggested.
"In all the ways that matter, yes."
"And you think whatever you are, it can bear up under this burden?"
"I do," Lee answered, without hesitation.
At the other end of the lawn, Simon charged after the nearest duck. Getting wet up to his chest, however, was his only reward. As the spaniel shook off, Amanda genuinely belly laughed for the first time in nearly two days, and Lee smiled.
Emily watched him watch his partner. "You're going to surprise me, aren't you, son?"
Lee's only reply to was to roll his eyes, and it was Emily's turn to smile.