'Is that the reason why you never tried to do anything more than kiss me good night when you took me home from a date back in Aurora Springs?'
'Hell, no. Regardless of what your family believed, I knew that you were no fragile piece of spun amber the first time I met you.'
'Really? Do you mean you sensed that I had a fairly strong degree of psi power? I've heard some people can pick up on that kind of thing in others.'
'No.' He looked at her over the rim of the mug. 'The strength I felt in you was another kind of power.'
'Like what?'
He hunted for the words to express what he had known that very first day when she had walked into the Department of Archives. 'You're the kind of person your friends know they can trust and count on no matter what. You're loyal, but your loyalty can't be bought. You've got a soul-deep notion of what's right and what's wrong, and you'd go down fighting for what you thought was right, every time, regardless of the obstacles. And you're kind.'
'Good grief, you make me sound as dull as untuned amber.'
He frowned. 'Just the opposite. You're the most interesting woman I've ever met.'
She got a little tingly feeling in the pit of her stomach. 'Really?'
He held up one finger. 'What's more, just so you know, you possess one special quality that puts you way out of the boring category.'
'What?'
'You're sexy as hell.'
'Hah.' She narrowed her eyes. 'If I'm so gosh-darned sexy, why did you keep us at arm's length back in Aurora Springs?'
He leaned back in his chair, stretched his legs out under the table, and cupped the mug in both hands. 'At the start it was because I knew I was cruising under what you would consider false colors.'
'Oh, yeah, right. The fact that I actually believed you were a librarian.'
'I was a librarian.' He shrugged. 'But I wasn't sure how you would react when I became a Guild boss. When it happened, I could tell that you were very uneasy about the situation. I rushed to get the ring on your finger, but once I had it there, I told myself I should take things slowly and give you a chance to get used to the idea of marrying the head of the Guild. I knew you were not real keen on the idea.'
She put down her fork. 'Who says Guild bosses aren't insightful and perceptive?'
'Not me. Being a shrewd, farsighted, perceptive kind of guy, I assumed that hot sex would complicate the situation.'
'How?'
He rubbed the back of his neck. 'I was afraid that if we went to bed together, you might convince yourself that the only thing we had going for us was sexual attraction. I had a vision of you trying to reduce our relationship to the status of an affair and eventually calling it off entirely. Figured if I courted you in the old-fashioned Guild tradition, you would see that we were a good match in other ways.'
She surprised him with a quick, amused smile. 'Talk about overthinking a problem. Guess it was that scholarly upbringing your parents gave you. Too much history, logic, and philosophy.'
'Guess so.'
'Is there any more toast?'
And they said it was men who tried to avoid relationship discussions, he thought.
'I'll make some more.' He got to his feet and went back to the kitchen counter to pop another slice of bread into the toaster. 'Maybe we'd better get back to the subject of what happened last night at the club. You said you picked up traces of the same psi energy that you sensed when you handled those herbs that Bertha brought out of the tunnels?'
'Psi-bright. Yes.'
He glanced at her over his shoulder. 'But you didn't actually see any of the stuff?'
'No, but as I told you, for me to pick it up at a distance means there must have been a large amount of the herbs in the vicinity or else a highly refined form of them.'
'Enchantment dust.'
'Probably.'
He turned around slowly and lounged back against the counter. 'No doubt about it, there's a strong connection to The Road.'
'What are you thinking?'
'That there are a couple of possibilities. The first is that Ormond Ripley, the owner of the club, is running a drug operation.'
'Why do you look doubtful about that possibility?'
'London told me that Ripley has always been careful to stay on the right side of the legal line.'
She raised her brows. 'Greed has no limits.'
'Can't rule it out,' he agreed. 'But it's also possible that someone in his organization is running a little drug business on the side and that Ripley isn't aware of it.'
She got an uneasy expression. 'You're going to go back to The Road, aren't you?'
'I don't have much of a choice.' He took the map out of his pocket, unfolded it on the table, and pointed to one of the rooms. 'That's the women's restroom. Show me exactly where you were when you picked up the psi buzz from the herbs.'
She examined the map closely. 'I came out that door and turned right.' She moved her finger along the hallway. 'There are swinging doors here. I was standing right about there when a waiter came through the doors. That was when I caught the trace of psi.'
He studied the markings on the map. 'Looks like all the rooms on the other side of the doors are allocated to catering and food storage. There's also one marked Janitorial Supply. Can't see anyone storing dope in any of those places. Too likely to be discovered.'
She tapped the map with one finger. 'I'm sure I felt something, and it had to be coming from somewhere in the vicinity of the swinging doors.'
He looked up. 'Any chance the energy was coming from underneath the hall or from the ceiling above?'
'Not the ceiling,' she said, very sure of herself. 'But down below the floor is a real possibility. Most of the buildings in the Old Quarter have basements, cellars, and underground storage rooms of one sort or another. Wouldn't be surprised if there's a hole-in-the-wall somewhere beneath the club, too. Like I told you, this part of town is riddled with them.'
He flattened both hands on the table on either side of the map. 'I'm going to take a look today.'
'How will you get in?'
'Same way I did last night, as a club employee. Shouldn't be too difficult. There are several hundred people working there. Even during the day a business like that will have a lot of staff running around.'
'I don't know, Cooper, it sounds awfully dangerous.'
The phone on the wall bonged loudly. Cooper reached for it, relieved to have a convenient interruption to a discussion he did not wish to continue.
But it was too late.
'Hello,' Cooper said automatically.
'Cooper? Is that you?' The familiar female voice rose on a questioning note. 'This is Evelyn St. Clair.'
'It's me,' he said. He gave Elly an apologetic look. 'Good morning, Mrs. St. Clair.'
Elly bounded around the edge of the table, hand outstretched. 'Give me that phone.'
'It's a bit early in the day,' Evelyn observed bluntly. 'What are you doing there at Elly's apartment at this hour?'
'Having breakfast,' Cooper said, holding the phone out of Elly's reach. 'Elly took me out on the town last night. Showed me some of the sights of the big city after dark. Got to say, I was amazed.'
Evelyn laughed. 'Cooper, you're teasing me. We both know you've spent plenty of time in places other than
