Lord Melvedere's Ghost (21 page)

It
wasn’t lost on Cecily that this was one of the rooms that didn’t
have any passage running alongside it, and wondered whether that
was the reason why Jamie had chosen it. It was quiet and, as long
as they kept their voices down, they would be able to speak
privately without being overheard. She wondered what he wanted to
talk about and sensed the brewing questions that as yet remained
unanswered.

Her
initial delight at the sight of the intimate table for two suddenly
evaporated, and she looked at the display with something akin to
dismay. Should she say that she wasn’t hungry and take a tray in
her room? Or should she just take a seat and answer his
questions?

She
found herself being seated with her back to the door, and had no
sooner sat down than the first course arrived.

There really was little cause for concern
, she mused wryly later that evening when the table had been
cleared away and they were sitting on opposite sides of the fire.
Jamie had spent the evening regaling her with stories of his
childhood and some of the secretive, yet funny ones of his
experiences in the Star Elite.

As she
had listened to him, Cecily realised just how staid and boring her
own life had been in contrast, and just how precious Portia was to
her. Hers hadn’t been a life of travelling and adventure. Her life
had consisted of nothing more than a few precious, snatched hours
of teasing and laughter shared with her sister, before they
returned to the cold and barren home they worked in for their
father. She had been practically nowhere and had achieved nothing
with her life compared to Jamie.

Although
the meal had been plentiful, and one of the most delicious she had
ever had in her entire life, and she now sat replete and slightly
warm from the wine, she felt the gulf growing between her and her
host in a way that made her feel uncomfortable and unworthy of even
being there. She stared solemnly into the fire, deep in
thought.

“
Penny for them,” Jamie whispered, moving to sit on the small
chaise beside her. He was close enough that the material of his
breeches brushed her skirts but not so close that they were
physically touching. “You look so lost and alone. What have I said
that has made you so melancholy?”

Cecily
smiled sadly. “I am just being a little somnolent, that’s all,” she
replied, wondering what the wine had done to her. “I cannot help
but wonder where Portia is, and if she is faring as well as I
am.”

Jamie
smiled, understanding her concerns. Although he was an only child,
he was very close to Jonathan, and Archie, and considered them two
of his closest friends. He would trust them with his life, and was
glad that if he was going to have anyone for a brother-in-law it
was going to be Archie.

“
If I know Archie, he has got Portia hiding up a tree,” he
declared ruefully watching as Cecily gave him the response he was
looking for.

Her eyes
grew wide and she stared at him askance. “What?”

He
laughed, and poured some more wine into her goblet. “Settle back,
because I have a story to tell you.”

Later
that night Cecily was still smiling, and leaning on Jamie’s arm far
more than was wise, while he led her up the main staircase toward
her room. There was no sign of her earlier, temporary gloom.
Instead, she was still flushed from the raucous laughter she had
shared with Jamie as he had explained some of the Star Elite’s most
nefarious and alarmingly hysterical exploits. Like the time Pie was
persuaded to adopt the disguise of a woman, only to forget to shave
his beard, or the time Archie got his breeches stuck in a tree he
had climbed into to keep watch. He had been forced to suffer the
indignity of waiting for Jonathan to search for him, and unhook him
from a particularly determined branch that refused to let
go.

The
mental image of an unknown man named Hugo, sitting on his own knife
and having to bend over while one of his men sewed up the wound on
his bottom wouldn’t leave her. All in all, she wondered if the
English borders were safe from the English, and whether the Star
Elite would just be better being allowed to run rife in France. By
the sound of it, they could do far more damage to themselves than
the French ever could.

“
I am just going to check your room,” Jamie whispered, pushing
the door beside them open. He glanced inside briefly and his
attention was immediately caught by the sudden flurry of movement
in the far corner of the room. With a curse, he pushed her to one
side. “Get to my rooms!” he shouted, tearing through her room in a
desperate attempt to catch the door to the passage that was almost
closed.

“
Damn it,” he cursed. He hadn’t seen who it was. The figure was
quick, and had vanished into the darkness far too quickly for Jamie
to make out any of their details. Pushing the panel beside the
fireplace took far too long in his eyes and he wasted no further
time waiting to see if Cecily had followed his orders before he
disappeared into the secret passage beyond the door.

“
Jamie!”

Cecily
stared at the closed panel in dismay. Should she follow him? He
hadn’t taken the time to get a candle and had nothing to light his
way. She knew for herself just how dark those corridors could be,
but even if she could find them, would she want to? He had shouted
at her to go to his rooms but she simply couldn’t stay there and
wait for him. She wasn’t that kind of woman, even if there was an
unknown person around. More worryingly she couldn’t lose sight of
the fact that Jamie’s rooms also had a secret door to the passage,
so she would be at risk there as well.

A cool
breeze shivered over her skin and she glanced up and down the
corridor cautiously. The candle on the table further down the
hallway did little to banish the gloom and she rubbed her arms
against the chill that seemed to creep over her skin.

She
glanced inside the room, and knew she would never be able to sleep
peaceably in there tonight. Where was Jamie? Should she go and
alert the staff? She watched in frozen horror as the all too
familiar sight of Jamie’s father emerged from the closed door to
the passageway. Her mind tried to focus on what she was seeing. The
panel was open, wasn’t it? But she knew it wasn’t. She could see
the panelling behind the man – through him, actually. The man was
definitely Jamie’s father. He wasn’t smiling this time, and instead
looked rather forbidding. Holding the candle aloft, he nodded and
looked down the corridor toward the main staircase.

Cecily
looked in the direction he was pointing, and took a deep breath
before turning back to at him. “What do you want with me?” She
whispered, and watched as the man nodded toward the main hallway
again.

With
little choice she moved toward the main hallway. Was he trying to
warn her that Jamie was in trouble? She jumped and almost screamed
when, at the end of the hallway, her eyes landed on the same man
standing beside a door. She was really starting to dislike this
house, if only for the number of endless passageways and doors. He
waved a hand toward the door, urging her inside. She knew it was
the door to Jamie’s sitting room she had been in
earlier.

She
watched the man glide to stand in the darkest corner of the hallway
and wait. She couldn’t go back to her room, and she certainly
couldn’t bring herself to go after Jamie and the unknown assailant
in the passages. She didn’t know why she nodded, but she did, and
quickly entered the sitting room. Glancing behind her, she gasped
to find the corridor now completely empty.

Closing
the door behind her with a quiet snap, she sighed with relief at
the fire roaring heartily in the grate. Hastily stuffing logs into
it, she poked it into a dull roar and sat on the floor,
shivering.

Jamie
was cold, tired and coldly furious. He had followed the figure into
the passage, but had lost them somehow.

The
redoubtable Miss Emstridge had been in her bed, but he had not
studied her closely enough to discover whether she had still been
fully dressed or in her nightgown. The last thing he wanted though
was to be caught in the bedroom of one of his staff in the middle
of the night. So, he had returned to the passage, which he had
searched thoroughly. He had also undertaken a thorough search of
the hidden room. None of the items in the boxes looked as though
they had been disturbed since earlier that afternoon, and none of
the items were familiar to him, even from his childhood. So what
was going on?

He had
checked Cecily’s room and was pleased to note that she had followed
his orders and gone to his room. He pushed open his sitting room
door and saw her curled up in a tight ball before the fireplace.
His heart lurched at the forlorn sight of her, but at least she had
been sensible enough to do as she had been told.

Yawning
widely, he turned the keys in the locks of both doors and picked up
a blanket from the back of the chaise. Tucking it carefully around
her, he dropped several cushions on the floor behind her and lay
down. She would probably be furious in the morning, but right now
he didn’t care. She was safe. They were undisturbed, and that was
just the way he had to have it.

The
following morning, Cecily awoke to a loud rumble of thunder, or was
that her stomach? She was so incredibly warm. She mumbled sleepily
and rolled over, dislodging the heavy weight that was draped across
her stomach.

She
blinked sleepily and opened her eyes, jolting wide awake when her
eyes met and held Jamie’s slumberous grey gaze. Although she knew
she should get up, she lay perfectly still and returned his
unblinking stare. She remained quiet when she knew she should be
arguing and shouting at him for the liberties he had taken,
although, he had not really taken any liberties. She was in his
room, not the other way around, and nobody had pressured her into
falling asleep in front of his fire, it was something she had done
willingly.

“
Don’t look so worried, nobody is going to get in,” Jamie
growled around a yawn.

“
Did you find them last night?” Her stomach dipped when Jamie
slowly shook his head.

“
I searched the passages from top to bottom but found nothing.
They could have hidden in any of the guest rooms but without
searching the rooms from top to bottom, which is impossible to do
by myself, it is really difficult.” Disappointment laced his voice.
He hated to lose and Cecily knew it.

“
What about Miss Emstridge?”

“
In her bed,” Jamie muttered, watching Cecily’s brows lift in
surprise. “I only peeped into the room. I said she was in bed. I
didn’t say whether she was asleep or in her night attire. She could
still have been fully dressed, but I didn’t stop to find
out.”

Cecily
had no idea where the surge of jealousy toward the librarian came
from. It wasn’t as though Jamie had shown any penchant for the
elder woman, but she was still an eligible female in the house
nonetheless. Her thoughts turned to their own intimate situation,
and she wondered what the morning etiquette was for getting out of
such close sleeping confinements without offending him.

“
I do think she is up to her ears in something though,” Jamie
sighed. “I also think it has something to do with those boxes in
the hidden room.”

“
Or the books,” Cecily sighed, thinking about the false book
they had found.

“
What do you mean?”

“
I mean that there is more to the fake books than just making
the library look full. Why has someone gone to the time and
trouble, and expense, to make something look so real? I mean, it is
obvious your father is wealthy and doesn’t need to produce fake
books. He could have just gone out and bought a new book if he
wanted one. So why are they on the shelves?”

Jamie
frowned at her and considered. The title of the fake book they had
found hadn’t sounded familiar to him, but that wasn’t to say that
in the right circles it didn’t mean something to somebody, he just
didn’t know who yet. He wished his father was here to ask, and felt
a pang of loss for his sire.

Resting
his head on his hand, Jamie lay beside her and made no attempt to
remove the heavy arm that lay across her stomach. He was pleased
that she seemed willing to accept these minor affections, and
wondered just how far she would allow him to push matters between
them.

“
Do you think the books and boxes are part of one big
scheme?”

Cecily
had no idea, and found it difficult to concentrate with him being
so close. “I think that it is a possibility that you cannot
discount just yet. After all, both the library and the secret room
have been accessed frequently. The library is useless as a storage
area because it is too full of books, but it would be easy to
remove a book or two, probably those that are most valuable, and
replace them with fakes. The secret room is close enough for Miss
Emstridge to hide the book in the case without anyone noticing she
had even left the library.”

“
Good Lord,” Jamie sighed, astonished at her reasoning skills.
He had never even given the books a second thought. The library was
his father’s area, always had been and, to a certain degree, still
was. He had never really paid any attention to it before now, it
was just there. But it was an intrinsic part of the property, and a
very large part of the past. His father would be rolling in his
grave at the thought of it being raided.