Chapter 46

Beau sat beside Dana at the auction, crossing his arms and glaring at John Saville, who'd taken the spot on her other side. The man was a weasel and had no business whatsoever trying to sneak glimpses down the front of Dana's top.
Up until Saville showed up, Beau had actually been having a good time. Dana had descended on the pre-auction review with an artist's eye for perfection and the instincts of a shark. He no longer had any doubt in his mind that the lady knew her business. He'd watched her roll her eyes at a fairly good copy of a Hepplewhite side table and make quick furtive notes on her PDA about a pair of unmarked Louis XIV chairs and an unsigned oil painting. Though she took great pains to hide it from the other dealers and collectors, she was equally excited about an inexpensive 1920s topaz pendant in the estate jewelry case. Beau watched her work, idly noting to her a few pieces he wouldn't mind himself, since he was supposed to be a client.
They were just making faces at each other over a bad Victorian gargoyle sculpture, about waist high and looking more than anything like a winged bulldog, when Saville arrived. He'd glared at Beau and greeted Dana with a kiss that didn't look remotely professional. When Dana introduced Beau as a client, Saville had looked down his nose and sighed.
"He's got loads of money and no taste at all," he overheard Dana whisper to Saville. "As long as I keep him happy, I get to keep spending his money and I get a twenty percent commission."
Saville had nodded in pitied understanding. To Beau's disgust, the weasel had stuck like glue to her ever since, asking her opinions on pieces he was considering acquiring for his warehouse.
"Behave, or I'm buying you those suits of armor," she whispered to Beau between lots. She'd gotten the painting she'd wanted and a number of moderate-quality furniture items so far but lost out on the chairs. She'd even managed to acquire a couple of the things Beau had mentioned - an Edwardian silver tea service he knew his mother would love and a Chippendale desk he could already see in his study. All that remained to be sold were the odd decorative pieces and the jewelry.
Beau forced himself to look away from Saville and relax his posture. The armor consisted of three suits of particularly ornate and improbably jointed plate mail. Definitely of the decorative, never-been-used variety and to put it mildly, hideous.
"Good." Dana patted his thigh but more importantly, she didn't bid on the mail.
He had to turn a laugh into a cough, though, when she did raise her paddle for the gargoyle and its accompanying lot of doorstops, paperweights and bookends. He hoped she'd be able to sell some of that crap in her shop, because he doubted any of her high-end clients had requested any of it. At least there were only a few other bidders, so she got the whole lot for under three hundred dollars.
Finally the jewelry came up and he watched her knuckles tense as the lot containing the topaz necklace was brought to the podium. There was nothing particularly valuable in the lot and he was sure no one else could tell by her body language but for some reason, she really wanted that batch.
"I can't believe I had to spend almost four hundred bucks for that necklace," she grumbled after the auction was complete and they were waiting to arrange for shipping of her various purchases. "I should be able to make some of it back in the shop but still."
"Why?" he asked. "It's a pretty thing but you could find one of more than equal value for that much in any department store." Topaz would be ideal with her coloring, though, he had to admit. The slightly smoky golden hue of the pendant was almost a perfect match for her eyes.
She looked around, then leaned over, brushed her lips against his cheek and whispered in his ear. "There's magic on that stone. I can't tell what, not without some work but it's a positive spell, not a hex."
"You can tell?"
"I'm a witch, remember, as well as the other. I have a pretty keen sense for...unusual qualities in an object. Just like I can almost always tell how old something really is." She straightened his collar and stepped back with a smile. "Just a few more minutes, pumpkin, I promise." She batted her eyelashes and cooed loudly enough for those around them to hear.
"Anything you say, mon petit chou." If she was going to call him pumpkin, he could call her his little cabbage.
Her lips quirked in response but she simply smiled at the smartly dressed, gray-haired gentleman waiting to make her shipping arrangements. She had address cards written out for the commissioned pieces. Most of the rest went to her shop in Philadelphia. He choked down an exclamation when she ordered the limestone gargoyle sent to his home in Montreal, along with the desk and tea set she'd purchased on his behalf.
"He'll remind you that you need to laugh once in a while," she whispered, before turning back to the gentleman. "I'd like to take a couple of pieces of the jewelry with me," she said. An attendant brought over the pieces and she selected a few, in addition to the necklace, then signed for them. She slipped the necklace over her head, then put the other pieces into her purse. "Thank you, Richard. See you next week at Sotheby's." She shook the man's hand and allowed Beau to lead her away.
"Well, I'd offer to buy you lunch but I'll assume you're occupied." Saville sidled up on the far side of Dana.
"Well..." Dana reached up and fiddled with her braid, a coy gesture that was totally out of character and made Beau's teeth hurt just watching it. "Actually, if you wanted to take both of us to lunch, I think I could help you make a couple of sales. Mr. Dumont has a very big interest in high-end antiques. Maybe even...special order items."
The other man's eyes lit up with greedy anticipation. "I see." He fell into step on the other side of Dana but kept his eyes fixed on Beau. "And exactly what types of antiques interest you, Monsieur Dumont? Furniture? Paintings? Sculptures?"
Beau shrugged. "Any of the above, really. Whatever piques my interest. I have a large home in Montreal and an estate in the countryside. Both are big enough to accommodate any trinkets I acquire."
"Trinkets?" Saville raised one thin eyebrow and arched a look at Dana for confirmation.
"Trinkets," she agreed with a chuckle. "Like that Chippendale desk I bought today, or the Monet I picked up last week. Mere bagatelles." The large mahogany desk had cost several thousand dollars and a fortune for shipping but had been worth every penny. He had no idea who'd gotten the Monet but it wouldn't have been out of his price range. Money was rarely a problem for anyone in his clan. They'd cultivated their wealth very carefully over the centuries.
"I see." Saville raised his cold blue eyes and smiled at Beau with all the predatory elegance of a tiger shark. Beau could practically hear the gears grinding in the salesman's head. "There's a nice pub over by the train station. Let's go have lunch."
"Great." Dana tucked a hand through Beau's elbow and one through Saville's on her other side. "I'm starving."
Something primitive inside Beau wanted to break the man's arm off but he forced himself to nod. "I've been looking forward to visiting a real English pub."