Gift of Fire

past his chair to get to the door.
    Jonas reached out and snagged her wrist, yanking her to a halt. “I said, sit down.” His face was set in hard, uncompromising lines.
    “But, Jonas, we can’t let him think…”
    “Who knows what he thinks? All we heard was what he said. Sit.” He used his grip on her wrist to force her back down into her chair.
    “You’re right,” Slade Spencer said, finally speaking. His voice was slurred. “We heard what he said. Is it true? You kill some dude in a lab?”
    “No, he did not kill anyone in any lab,” Verity retorted hotly. “Yarwood was lying.”
    “That’s enough, Verity,” Jonas said.
    Spencer scratched his nose and made a production out of lighting his fragrant pipe. The heavy scent filled the room. “I guess he didn’t actually say you killed someone, did he, Quarrel? He said you
tried
to kill someone. I take it something interesting did happen at Vincent College?”
    “Nothing that concerns you, Spencer.”
    “Hey, man, I gotta right to know if I’m staying in the same house as a fucking murderer.”
    Maggie Frampton appeared in the kitchen doorway, frowning darkly as she wiped her hands on a towel. “What’s this about murder?”
    “
He
’
s not a murderer,”
Verity shouted.
    Jonas got to his feet and tugged Verity up beside him. “Come on, honey. Let’s get out of here.”
    She dug in her heels. “But, Jonas, I want to explain. I don’t want these people thinking you’re a murderer.”
    Jonas shot her a cool glance as he pulled her toward the door. “Leave it, Verity.”
    “Just because you’re too damn proud to make explanations,” she said angrily, “doesn’t mean I can’t.”
    “There’s nothing to explain.” He had her through the door now, and led her down the hall to the stone staircase. “Yarwood is right.”
    “About what happened at Vincent? But Jonas, there were mitigating circumstances.” Verity was incensed at the injustice of it all.
    “I’m sure anyone who ever sank an ice pick into someone else would claim there were mitigating circumstances. If Yarwood tried to kill Elyssa, you can bet he’s busy telling himself he had cause.”
    “Jonas, you did not kill that lab tech.”
    He shrugged. “I tried.”
    “It was an accident,” Verity raged. “A lab accident. People were playing with forces they didn’t understand, and someone got hurt.”
    Jonas stared at her for an instant. “Verity, even if you can argue that point, you can’t forget what happened a few months ago at Caitlin Evanger’s. Even Yarwood doesn’t know how good a case he’s got when it comes to accusing me of pushing Elyssa into the water.”
    “What happened at Caitlin’s was pure self-defense,” Verity declared. Her eyes were blazing with righteous indignation. “You were attacked by a professional killer, for heaven’s sake.”
    A slow smile tugged at Jonas’s hard mouth. He looked down into her furious face. “You really do love me, don’t you?” he said softly.
    “I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
    “Never mind.”
    They were walking along the hall to the bedroom. Verity simmered down enough to think about what Yarwood had said. “You know, Jonas, if Preston thinks you tried to kill Elyssa, that means he’s probably innocent himself,” she said slowly. “He looked really torn up about it all.”
    “Don’t be an idiot,” Jonas said fondly as he swept her through the door of their room. “If you’ve just killed someone, the logical thing to do is throw suspicion on someone else. Yarwood used the information he had on me to do just that in front of witnesses.”
    “Witnesses? Oh, you mean Spencer and Maggie.”
    “Yeah. Spencer and Maggie. And when Warwick and Crump get back tomorrow morning Yarwood will undoubtedly make certain they hear about my unsavory reputation.”
    “I wish you wouldn’t talk like that,” Verity chided him.
    Jonas shrugged. “Maybe Elyssa will remember what happened and solve the problem for all of us. In the meantime, we have to be prepared for the possibility that Doug will want to end this consulting job in a hurry tomorrow. Can’t blame him. After what happened to his sister, he’ll probably be anxious to end this entire thing.”
    “Can you write the report he wants with the information you’ve got?”
    “Don’t look so worried, boss. Sure I can write. The report never was a problem. I could have given him something for his clients after the first day.”