Playing with Fire (25 page)

Tansy’s disappearance was another matter, however, and was most certainly reported to every quarter that Sir Julian could think of. She could not possibly have gone of her own volition, nor had she accompanied Amanda, so what had become of her could only be conjectured. The possibilities were legion—and alarming.

No one was more distraught about Tansy than Martin, who did not remain idle. In the vain hope that she might be with Amanda after all, he accompanied the men to Bothenbury, managing the rigorous ride because he took the cat figurine with him, tucked inside the coat of his naval uniform. The fierce wind howled across the Dorset hills, and occasionally there was stinging rain in the air, but nothing seemed to touch him because of the figurine’s comforting, invigorating warmth. However, nothing could protect him from the chill that engulfed his heart now that Tansy was missing. He had known he loved her before; now he knew how far and how deep that love ran. She meant the whole world to him, and no stone would be left unturned until he found her.

It was as he and Sir Julian’s men were riding back from Bothenbury, along the ridge above Chelworth, that something made Martin rein in a few hundred yards from the pyramid. The others continued over the breast of the slope and down toward the house, but he remained behind. The wind blustered across the heights, and seagulls wheeled and screamed excitedly overhead. Far out to sea, a shaft of sunlight briefly pierced the racing clouds and flashed brightly on the otherwise dismal gray of the water. He could see the waves thundering ashore in the bay, where only yesterday the stillness of the fog had made the surface as smooth as a millpond. It was hard to believe the
Lucina
had been so becalmed down there—or, indeed, that it had only been yesterday.

Where was Tansy? Was she all right? How he wished he knew the answers. If any harm had befallen her at someone’s hands, he would not rest until— The thoughts broke off as a small sound caught his attention. He turned in the saddle, glancing around the swaying gorse and bracken, but there seemed nothing there. Then he saw Ozzy and Cleo bounding toward him and knew he had heard their excited mewing. The cats halted a few yards in front of him, then trotted back the way they had come. When he made no move to follow, they paused and looked around reproachfully. Their mewing became more imperative, and at last he realized they were trying to lead him somewhere. He moved the horse after them, and they dashed ahead, taking him swiftly toward the pyramid.

They led him to the entrance and began meowing loudly. As he dismounted he was sure he heard a woman’s muffled voice. “Help me! Oh, please help me!”

“Tansy?” he cried, and ran down the steps to try the door. The lock had recently been broken, for the wood was freshly splintered, so the door opened easily. Daylight shone upon the room beyond, where for a moment—just a fleeting moment—he thought he saw the painting from Tel el-Osorkon on the wall opposite the entrance. But the impression was so fleeting as to have been imagined, for the wall was bare.

Tansy lay on the stone floor, bound with ropes and her tearstained face pale as she stared fearfully at his silhouette against the daylight. Then she realized who he was and began to weep. He hurried to her, and the purring cats rubbed around them both as he cut her free with the small knife he carried in his pocket. Then he removed his coat to wrap around her and gathered her into his arms. “Oh, Tansy, my darling….”

“How did…did you find me?” she sobbed.

“
Ozzy
and Cleo led me to you.”

“They did?” She blinked her tears away as she stroked the two delighted animals. “Where am I, Martin? Where is this horrid place?”

“The pyramid on the hill above Chelworth.”

“So near? I…I thought I must be miles away.” She glanced around, able to see for the first time because of the open door. Her attention caught upon the wall, and her lips parted. “Oh, I….”

“Yes?”

“I thought I saw….” She couldn’t finish the sentence, for it seemed she was seeing things all the time!

“You thought you saw the painting from Tel el-Osorkon?” Martin finished for her.

“Yes. How did you know?”

He smiled a little. “Perhaps because I thought I saw it too. Just for a split second.”

“Yes, that’s how I saw it too.” She snuggled into his coat, which was warm from his body. It smelled of him too, a fresh, slightly spiced smell, maybe from the sandalwood-lined sea chest in which it was sometimes kept onboard ship. “Oh, Martin, I was so terrified lying in here all alone.”

“I know, my darling. I know,” he said softly, his lips against her forehead.

“How long have I been here? I have no idea of time….”

“Well, it must have happened sometime last night. It’s midmorning now.”

“So, it’s not all that long. I feel as if I’ve been here for days. I was afraid I would be here forever,” she added, then winced as pain jabbed her head again. She probed her hair with careful fingertips and gasped as she felt the lump resulting from the blow.

“What’s wrong?” he asked swiftly.

“I…I was hit from behind.”

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered, fresh tears welling to her eyes. “I left your room to go back to my own, and I heard something downstairs. I looked over into the atrium and saw one of the footmen, James, I think he’s called, going to the library. A man I didn’t know was with him. I followed them, and….”

“Oh, Tansy, why didn’t you awaken me? Or just raise the alarm?”

“I don’t know,” she confessed, only too aware now of how very foolish she had been. “Anyway, I watched from the library door as the strange man—a gentleman by his clothes—opened the secret compartment in the statue of Isis. He destroyed Uncle Julian’s letter. That’s all I remember. There was a sharp pain at the back of my head, and everything went black. The next thing I recall was waking up here. I didn’t know how long I had been here, or even if it was night or day. Everything is completely black when the door is closed. All I could hear was the wind, and sometimes the seagulls.” She tried to rub the feeling back into her arms and legs, which were sore and stiff from being bound for hours.

Martin tried to help her, massaging her ankles as gently but firmly as he could. Then he thought of the bronze cat, and quickly took it from the pocket of his coat. “Here, hold this. It will help you more than anything else.”

She took it, and immediately she felt its heat stream into her hand. It flooded up her arm and into her body, swiftly reaching everywhere, and the feeling of well-being that accompanied it was quite extraordinary. She gave an incredulous laugh. “Why, it’s amazing!”

“I know. I believe that if one is unwell, or injured in some way, it acts as a restorative. Don’t ask me why or how. Just accept that it is so.”

“Magic?” she whispered with a small smile.

“Definitely,” he replied, and kissed her forehead.

The cats reached up on their hind legs to pat the figurine, and their rich purring became even louder. The pyramid seemed to be filled with the sound.

Martin straightened and reached down to help her to her feet. Then he insisted she put on his naval coat properly. “Let’s get you back to the house.” He hesitated. “But first, there’s something I should tell you. Amanda has run off with Sanderby.” He explained what Daisy had said.

Tansy stared at him. “Run off? But she hasn’t even met him yet, so….” The words faltered as she remembered thinking that Amanda spoke as if she and Lord Sanderby had indeed met.

“What were you going to say?” he pressed.

She told him, then went on. “Daisy is absolutely sure Amanda has gone with Lord Sanderby?”

“Yes. It seems a carriage was waiting in the woods, and there can surely be no doubt that it was the earl’s. Sir Julian has sent out search parties, but there’s no sign of either Amanda or Sanderby. They’re long gone by now, and it’s my guess she’ll be married before the day is out.” Martin smoothed his hair back. “Her reasons are plain enough, for by hook or by crook she means to be a countess; but Sanderby’s reasons are more curious. Where elopements and heiresses are concerned, as a rule one thinks only of adventurers or fortune seekers. Sanderby is neither.”

Tansy went to the doorway and breathed deeply of the morning air. Ozzy and Cleo accompanied her and rubbed sensuously around her skirts. Tansy bent to touch them, but she was thinking about Amanda. “You are right about by hook or by crook, so I suppose I’m not really surprised Amanda has done something like this. And I agree that Lord Sanderby’s motives are a mystery. But out of everything that went on last night, I’m most intrigued by the destruction of Sir Julian’s letter. What on earth could it have contained that the strange gentleman was so desperate to be rid of it?” A thought occurred. “You don’t suppose the intruder was Lord Sanderby, do you? I mean, I don’t know what he looks like, but this man was definitely too well dressed to be a common thief.”

“Anything is possible, Tansy, and Sanderby clearly isn’t a gentleman, to have eloped with Amanda. The honorable thing would have been to wait for all the formalities.”

“I do not know Lord Sanderby’s character, but I do know Amanda’s. If the runaway bride were anyone else, I would credit the elopement as the result of blind love.”

Martin went to her and slipped his arms around her waist from behind. “I know what blind love is, Tansy,” he whispered, closing his eyes as he rested his cheek against her hair. The dark curls fluttered in the wind, touching his face gently. It was a sensuous and unbelievably intimate sensation. “When I did not know what had happened to you, or whether you were all right, I went through such agonies that I knew how desperately I have come to love you.”

She turned into his arms, lifting her parted lips to meet his. He pulled her against him, bewitched by the sheer ecstasy of holding her again. He knew he could never let her go, never risk being without her. He broke from the kiss to take her face in his hands. “Marry me, Tansy,” he urged. “I wish I could claim to be a rich man, but I am not. I cannot promise you a fine country estate, London seasons, or a life that will even vaguely approach the privilege that Amanda will enjoy, but I do offer myself, body and soul. Please give me the answer I crave. Say you will be my wife.”

“I will. Oh, I will,” she breathed, her heart almost bursting with happiness as she reached up to kiss him again.

They clung together, almost forgetting everything else, but then there came the sound of hooves and they drew apart to watch as some more of Sir Julian’s men returned to Chelworth, this time from Weymouth. The riders noticed Martin’s horse by the pyramid and began to rein in. They would have come over to investigate had not Martin gone out to wave to them that all was well.

Then he returned to Tansy and took her hand. “Come. We had better go back to the house, to let everyone know that you are all right.” He lifted her sideways onto the horse, then mounted behind her. With a steadying arm around her waist, he urged the horse away down the hill.

Ozzy and Cleo lingered in the doorway of the pyramid. They stared toward the wall where Randal had seen the King Osorkon painting. It was just a blank wall, but the cats knew it was not always blank, nor was it necessarily always the same scene that appeared upon it.

When Tansy and Martin arrived back at the house, they went directly to the kitchens, it being Martin’s intention to deal with James, but no one knew where that young man had gone, for he had already taken to his toes, as the saying went. Knowing that Tansy had seen him the night before, and realizing that she might well be discovered in the pyramid, the footman had deemed it a wise precaution to leave Chelworth, never to return. Even as Martin demanded to know his whereabouts, the ne’er-do-well had reached Weymouth, from where he planned to take passage on the first available vessel.

Tansy was greeted with great delight by the servants, and a maid scurried to the library to tell Sir Julian and Hermione she had returned. Sir Julian and Hermione were just hastening across the atrium as Tansy and Martin left the kitchens. Hermione gave a glad cry and rushed to embrace her former charge. “Oh, my dearest, dearest girl! How
glad
I am to see you safe and, I trust, sound? Where have you been? What happened?”

“Yes, I’m safe, and sound enough, if a little shaken. I’ve been imprisoned up at the pyramid, and I have no idea at all who did it to me, except that James the footman was involved.”

Sir Julian’s jaw dropped, and he hastened over as well. “The pyramid? James? But—”

Hermione shook her head at him. “Not now, sir. Questions can be asked in due course. For the moment all that matters is that she is back with us.” She looked at Tansy again. “We’ve been utterly wretched with worry, my dear,” she said, glimpsing the clasped hands beneath the cover of Martin’s naval coat. She was pleased, for if ever there were two young people whom she liked and thought belonged together, it was these two.

Sir Julian went to kiss Tansy warmly on the cheek. “How relieved I am that at least one of my nieces has been given back to me!” he declared, then turned to gesture to the maid who’d brought the glad tidings. “Tea and hot buttered toast in the library, as quick as you can.”

“Yes, Sir Julian.” The maid gave a swift curtsy and ran back to the kitchens.

Hermione ushered Tansy into the library, and Martin walked with Sir Julian, explaining how the cats had led him to Tansy’s prison. But it wasn’t until the tea and hot buttered toast had been brought that Tansy actually related what she’d seen during the night, commencing, of course, with how she’d seen James the footman leading the stranger across the atrium.

Sir Julian’s face changed. “So I had
two
vipers in the bosom of my staff? First Joseph and now James. He’s gone, d’you say?”

Martin nodded. “My first thought on returning was to take him by the throat, but he’s made himself scarce. I doubt we’ll see him again.”

“James saw me in the doorway,” Tansy explained, “so he knew I’d seen him.”

“But what were they doing in here?” Sir Julian asked. “And who was the gentleman?”