brown eyes regarded her intensely. “Go on.”
Ellie took a deep breath and explained that she and her grandfather were still trying to fit the bed suite into the rented space without damaging it when Dallas had arrived. Asher’s brows rose as she repeated the story that Dallas had told her. Out jogging that evening, Dallas had stopped by the Monroe house on impulse to discuss a date Ellie had gone on the previous night. Dallas had ostensibly seen the fire through the front window. She waved down a passerby, who happened to be Garrett Willows, the gardener at Chatam House, as he drove down the street on his motorcycle.
Willows had called 911. The Fire Department had arrived within moments and put out the fire a short while later. That was apparently when Dallas remembered that Ellie and her grandfather were moving furniture into storage that night. Willows had offered to take her there so she could break the news in person. That was also when she’d called her aunts, who had immediately offered sanctuary.
“And that’s all there is to it,” Ellie said, not quite meeting his gaze.
“And how did the fire start?”
She gulped, then made herself look at him, noticing that as she did so his gaze dropped to her lips. “Apparently a can of paint remover spilled, then a hot lamp tipped over, the one we always left on when we were away from the house at night.” She shrugged and looked down at her hands. “I don’t know how it happened in an empty house. Someone said there was a loud noise, like a car backfiring nearby.”
“And you think something like that could have knocked over a can of paint remover and a lamp?” he asked skeptically.
“There could have been a collision at the track yard,” she insisted. “The switching lane is just a few hundred yards from the house. It isn’t used much, but when it is, we can feel it, almost like the ground is moving.”
“But if your theory is correct,” he mused, “then the paint remover had to be open when it tipped.”
“The workmen sometimes just set the cap on the neck and didn’t screw it down until they were done,” she told him. “They warned me about an open can more than once when I came into the room where they were.”
Asher leaned back in his chair. “Plausible,” he admitted, but his tone implied that he found it just barely so.
He stroked a fingertip over the cleft in his chin. “You, ah, mentioned going on a date the previous evening.”
Ellie blinked at the change in subject. “What about it?”
“Just wondering if you’ve broken anyone’s heart lately.”
She scoffed, laughing. “Hardly.”
“There hasn’t been anyone special then?”
“I wish,” she quipped. “What there have been are a lot of first dates, emphasis on the word first, as in not many second dates.” She wrinkled her nose. “I just don’t seem to find any keepers, if you take my meaning. Dallas says I’m too picky, but I notice that she doesn’t have a steady boyfriend, either.”
He smiled then abruptly sobered again. “By any chance, might one of those first dates have been with Garrett Willows?” he asked carefully.
Ellie blinked and frowned, shaking her head. “I never met him before that night. Why?”
“I’m just trying to understand the overall situation.”
“But I’ve told you what happened.”
“You put forward a supposition,” he pointed out, “but you’ve as good as said that you don’t really know what happened.”
She slid to the edge of her seat and laid a hand on his desktop beseechingly. “Look, however it happened, it wasn’t malicious.”
Asher beetled his brow. “And how do you—”
“It just stands to reason,” she said too quickly. “I mean, it’s not as if we have enemies.”
“Then who set the fire, Ellie?”
“I don’t know!” she shot back. And she didn’t. Not for sure. “No one! It was an accident.”
“Did you arrange that fire to promote a romance between our relatives?” he demanded.
She gasped. He suspected her? Here she was trying to protect his beloved but harebrained sister, and he would put the blame on her? Indignant, she rose to place both hands on his desk. Leaning forward, she brought her face close to his, so close that she could smell the minty freshness of his breath. “I had absolutely nothing to do with that fire!”
“Nothing?” he asked skeptically.
“Zip,” she declared flatly, punctuating her denial with taps of her forefinger against his blotter. “Nada. Nil. Zero. Zilch. I didn’t set it! I didn’t cause it! I didn’t have anyone else do it! I didn’t know it was going to happen. I still can’t believe that it has!”
After a very long moment, Asher relaxed back in his chair. “I had to ask,” he said, as if that excused all.
Sighing, Ellie dropped her head. He believed her. He believed that she had nothing to do with the fire, and in that moment, fool that she was, that was all that mattered.
Asher still had serious questions, but he felt sure that whatever had happened, Ellie had not purposefully caused the fire at the Monroe house. Deeply relieved, he smiled. She blinked and smiled back. For a long moment he couldn’t look away. Then another thought came to mind. Though she might not have been responsible for the fire, she was certainly guilty of meddling in other people’s lives.
“So you didn’t start the fire, but you’re not above using it for your own purposes,” he accused, frowning.
She dropped down onto the edge of the chair again. “My grandfather taught me that God doesn’t let anything into the lives of His children without a reason, and getting together two people who care about each other seems like a pretty good one to me.”
“Please,” Asher scoffed. “Odelia and your grandfather haven’t had feelings for each other in fifty years.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Even if they did have feelings for each another, I would discourage them from entering into a relationship at this late date. It isn’t sensible.”
Ellie gasped. “You can’t be that cold!”
That, surprisingly, stung. Coldness was what his ex-wife, Samantha, had accused him of when her tears had not moved him. Perhaps if she had not employed them after making angry demands, he would have been more amenable. Perhaps she wouldn’t have left him then. Perhaps his wouldn’t have been the first divorce in his family. He blocked further thoughts on the matter.
“I’m simply pragmatic,” he refuted, keeping his voice level. “Two people the age of your grandfather and my aunt ought not become entangled romantically. It’s just not wise, fiscally, emotionally or in any other way.”
Ellie narrowed her wide, violet eyes at him. “Just because they’re older, you think they don’t deserve to be happy? How hard-hearted can you be?”
Asher felt his temper begin to spike. “I never said they don’t deserve to be happy.”
“Just that they should ignore their feelings for each other!” Ellie exclaimed.
“You don’t know that they have feelings for each other any more than I know they don’t!” he pointed out.
“Well, we won’t know whether they do or not if we don’t give them a chance to find out, will we?”
“What difference does it make at this point?” he demanded. “They’re past the point of contemplating children or building a financial future together.”
“Love and marriage are about more than children