There was a dreamy look of wonder on her face that made his heart stop. He forced himself to resist the response. If he let himself get taken in by her growing attachment to the place, he’d lose the nerve to cut her down the way he did with all of his enemies. There was nothing personal about defeating Jane, but he couldn’t let sympathy cloud his judgment. Couldn’t let feelings get in the way of this ruthless undertaking. To make partner, Gabriel had to get the castle for his client. Nothing could stand in his way.
“Kind of spooky, don’t you think?”
“It is spooky,” she admitted. “But that’s part of its charm. The outside of the castle looks like something out of a fairytale. Especially with all the snow this time of year.”
“The inside sure doesn’t.” He motioned to the immense hall around them. This part of the castle wasn’t a ballroom or a princess’ tower. There were deer heads and killing machines on the walls, for one thing.
“Sure it does. Fairytales aren’t always pretty. The inside of Wintergarten is closer to a Grimm fairytale than the sanitized version most parents like to read to their kids.” She gave a faint smile and glanced over at the fire. “My mother gave me a book of Grimm fairytales when I was a kid, and I’ve been into German folklore ever since.”
She seemed to be falling in love with the place already. It was a pity he was going to have to tear her dreams away from her. “Pretty heavy stuff for a kid, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, but it was good for me,” she said.
“How so?” he asked, genuinely interested.
Jane hesitated. “It helped me deal with some hard stuff. Gave me a place where I could be scared without being in any actual danger.”
“I see,” he said. “I guess that means you have big plans for the castle. If you win.”
“When I win, I plan on turning Wintergarten into a hotel,” she said. “Make it part of a heritage tour for people interested in local history and folklore. I was thinking the bottom floors could be more a museum and the upper floors would be where guests stay overnight.”
“Sounds like a huge undertaking.”
She turned to look at him sharply. “Anything worthwhile is. Which is probably more than I can say for whatever your client has in mind for the place.”
“Not that it matters one way or the other, but my client wants to make this his winter home,” Gabriel said. Though he had attorney-client privilege, his client had given him permission to talk about what he planned on doing with the castle. Any detail that would potentially scare her off was fair game.
“His winter home?” She scoffed and then rolled her eyes. “How many homes does this guy have?”
“More than he needs, I’m guessing.”
Her eyebrow quirked up. “Are you judging your client?”
“Most of my clients have more money than they need,” he said wryly. “It comes with the territory.”
“So you are judging him.”
“What I think doesn’t matter. What I want matters even less. As long as I get the results my clients want, I get paid,” he said candidly. He hadn’t planned on that moment of candor. Gabriel tried to tell himself he had only told her the truth to use it against her later. But not even he could lie to himself that well. The truth had come out because he’d wanted it to. There was something about Jane that made him want to talk. It might have been her forthright questions after he’d spent his professional life trying to parse through what the frauds around him actually meant. For better or worse, at least he knew where he stood with her.
Besides, at Wintergarten they were out of place and time. What happened here wouldn’t follow them back to New York. The place was little more than a dream.
She leaned back, crossing her arms as she appraised him. “Do you even like your job?”
“Does anybody?”
“You’ve probably made enough money to start over and do what you really want.” Gabriel could swear he heard a hint of envy in her tone as she spoke. “So if you don’t like it, why keep doing it?”
Why indeed. He could always tell her that law was essentially the family business. His father was a judge. His grandfather a U.S. attorney. But there was more to it than tradition. Far more. A lifetime of pain he couldn’t begin to express to her.
He had to make partner, it was as simple as that. If he failed to win the castle, all these years of working to live up to his parents’ expectations would have been a waste. That was why he’d flown out to Germany. To get definitive proof that his client had a better claim on the castle than Jane did.
“Why? You offering me a job?” he asked glibly.
Her full lips turned down at the corners into a disapproving frown. If her goal had been to get some of his secrets out of him then Gabriel was determined to see her fail. When it came to the truth, he’d only give her so much and no more.
Before she formed a response Emmerich the manservant appeared, expertly balancing a tray laden with mugs of cider.
“Ah, it seems Herr Ross has joined you,” the manservant said with a respectful nod. “In that case, perhaps both of you would like to take your cider in the dining room while you wait for dinner?”
“Sure, that sounds great,” Jane said, getting to her feet.
They followed the manservant into the enormous dining hall. The long dining table seemed to take up the entirety of the hall.
The manservant placed the mugs on either side of the table, leaving Gabriel no choice but to sit across from Jane. Not that he minded all that much. Getting to
