Lord Melvedere's Ghost (25 page)

“
Archie has lots of places he could take Portia to keep her out
of harm’s reach. She is in the best of care. He won’t allow her to
leave, but won’t send word to you until he is absolutely positive
it is safe to do so.” He mentally sent a prayer heavenwards that it
was indeed the case. The possibility that Archie and Portia had not
made it to a safe haven was simply inconceivable. “Hugo, my boss,
knows we are here, or will do shortly, and will send word to us as
soon as he hears something.”

Cecily
nodded and stared thoughtfully into the fire.

“
What is it?”

She
jumped at Jamie’s whisper, and turned her head to peer up at him.
“How did you know I was going to say something?”

Jamie
smiled secretively. “I just do. What is it?”

Cecily
stared blankly into the fire for a moment, slightly unnerved at his
ability to read her so easily. After several moments of silence she
gave herself a mental shake, uncertain whether she liked him
knowing her so well.

“
Do you think Miss Emstridge is a burglar?”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Jamie
froze and stared into the fire. A tendril of anticipation flickered
through him and he turned slowly to stare down at Cecily’s
profile.

“
What makes you ask that?”

“
The boxes in that secret room downstairs,” Cecily replied
thoughtfully, aware of his eyes studying the side of her face
carefully. “They aren’t familiar to you so the chances are that
they aren’t family heirlooms. Even if they were, why aren’t they
stored upstairs in all of those unused servants’ rooms? When Doreen
took me on the tour, we went upstairs, only briefly you
understand.” She flicked a glance up at him. “There were already
boxes of family belongings up there, but nowhere near enough to
fill the empty space. It doesn’t make sense for anyone to store
items they don’t intend to use again in a hidden room where nobody
would ever be able to find them.”

“
Unless they belonged in someone else’s house, and the thief
wanted to keep them hidden for a while,” Jamie finished for
her.

“
I can’t believe anyone in the house is a burglar,” Cecily
gasped, thinking of the friendly, yet extremely busy, Doreen. Or
Mrs Nantwich, Sophie, even the bashful Potter seemed innocuous. “We
must be mistaken.” She sincerely hoped they were.

Jamie
sighed deeply. He didn’t want to consider the possibility that any
of his staff were thieves either, even the strangely eccentric Miss
Emstridge, but his time with the Star Elite had taught him that he
couldn’t discount anyone from any investigation until he had
identified the real culprit.

“
We just don’t know,” Jamie whispered. “I need to check out
Miss Emstridge’s references, and ask a few more questions about her
background. If only we could find her. Have you seen her
lately?”

Cecily shook her head, thinking of her long nap this
afternoon. She wanted to say,
not since I
was asleep in my bedroom this afternoon,
but knew that was a little unfair on Miss Emstridge, since she
had not seen any discernible features of the person in her room. “I
haven’t seen her for a couple of days,” she replied with a frown.
It was strange to believe that anyone could spend that much time in
their room alone.

Growing
up, Cecily and Portia had both spent a considerable amount of time
in their bedrooms, but they were mostly together and in each
other’s rooms as well. There was very little to do in the guest
rooms at Melvedere, except sleep and read. Surely Miss Emstridge
couldn’t be that much of an avid reader.

“
It is entirely possible that she spends most of her time
reading the books rather than cataloguing them,” Cecily sighed,
thinking of the piles of books lying in carefree abandon around the
desk. They weren’t treasured pieces, and had received very little
respect for the way they had been casually dumped in piles that
were apt to fall over.

“
It would explain why she cannot come up with the catalogue she
has supposedly been making over the past several years.”

“
Do you think she is guilty of stealing the books, or
ornaments?” Cecily turned to stare up at him, intrigued by the way
the firelight cast his chiselled jaw into shadow. The stubble on
his skin looked sharper when edged encased in shadows, but it was
the slightly forbidding expression on his face that made her
shiver.

“
I don’t know darling, but I am most definitely going to find
out. One thing is for certain, if it isn’t Miss Emstridge, then it
has to be one of the staff. Until I can find out which one it is, I
want you to trust nobody, understand?” His sharp grey gaze met and
held hers, demanding her total agreement.

“
I suppose,” Cecily replied warily.

“
I mean it, Cecily. If these people have been using that
storage room for some time to store stolen goods, they are
dangerous, and won’t take kindly to having their source of income
disrupted. Who knows what they could do. You must not, under any
circumstances, take chances with your life. No wandering off by
yourself, and no going anywhere with any of the house staff,
especially Miss Emstridge, understand?” He hated to frighten her,
but he didn’t want her naively thinking that she was safe amongst
people who had been here for many years. They were people she still
didn’t know and, if he was honest, even he didn’t know as well as
he had once considered he did. Although they had been retainers for
many years, he wasn’t in a position to vouch for their honesty, and
that irked him given that they were in his house.

As far
as he was aware, nothing had been taken from Melvedere, except for
the books. That meant the items in the hidden room could only have
come from someone else’s house and that meant theft on a large
scale. Whoever the burglar was, he or she, had gotten greedy, and
reckless, and clearly gotten wind of the fact that Cecily knew
about the passages. Had they been trying to scare her out of them?
Or had they more sinister intentions on their mind that she had
thwarted? Jamie couldn’t lose the image of Cecily stumbling around
on the sun terrace with blood pouring from her head. Although she
had caused the injury to herself, the last thing he wanted was to
have brought her to a place of safety only to find that it isn’t
all that safe after all.

Stifling
a yawn, he nudged her forward and reluctantly pushed to his feet.
He would have been more than happy to spend the rest of the evening
like that, and was looking forward to the day when they were
married when they could spend more time sitting in front of the
fire. For now though, he had to be patient. He eased away from her
and hauled her up to stand before him.

“
I am off to bed. Lock your door and don’t open it to anyone.
Warren will be here at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning with your
breakfast tray. I am sorry it is early, but there is much to do and
I need to get an early start. It is better if he brings the trays
up together, and rearranges your room before the maids start work.
He will instruct them to leave the fire in your room until later
and that they are not to disturb you. Apparently, you are feeling a
bit poorly from your head injury.” His lips quirked ruefully and he
shared a conspiratorial smile with her. “Until then, stay in
here.”

“
What are we doing tomorrow?”

Jamie
mentally winced at that question. He hated the fact that she was
ready to get herself involved. He could see the eagerness in his
eye and knew that she wasn’t going to be put off easily. Briefly
considering fobbing her off, he reluctantly acknowledged that the
last thing he needed was for her to go off investigating on her
own. Although she was likely to stay away from the passages, she
would go poking around in the library and, if Miss Emstridge was
indeed guilty, who knew where that would lead?

“
I have a special job for you to do tomorrow. It is a bit
laborious I am afraid, but I will tell you more about it in the
morning. Meantime, get some sleep. I will see you in after
breakfast.”

Rather
than turn to leave, Jamie drew her forward until she was flush
against him. Cecily placed her hands on his chest, glancing down at
the small curls of coarse hair that tickled her fingertips. She
jumped guiltily when one large palm landed firmly over hers,
halting her progress.

Her
mouth was captured with ruthless hunger. The hand over hers
clenched and drew her arm up and over his shoulder. Her fingers
locked in his hair. She was helpless to do anything but tip her
head back and allow him to plunder. This kiss was unlike any other
he had given her. This was a deeper, more intense seduction with a
hidden intent that was driven by only the deepest desire. He
widened his stance and drew her closer, knowing she could feel the
physical effect she had on his body. He wanted her think about what
she did to him, and what was going to come next.

He was
proud of the fact that she welcomed his kisses, and was now
returning them with less hesitancy and more curiosity. Her actions
copied his with surprising accuracy while her fingers found more
and more of his flesh to explore. Goose bumps stood out on his
chest, and he shivered at the icy hand that swept down his spine.
His control was threadbare. It wouldn’t take much before he was
tumbling her back onto the bed behind them despite the fact that he
knew it would be folly to take matters that far right now, not when
there were so many things left unsaid between them. But, his body
was hard and aching and he wasn’t sure how much more restraint his
self control could stand. Feeling far more shaken than he was
familiar with, Jamie slowly eased back on the kiss, growling low in
his throat when she merely tightened her arms around his neck and
clung on.

Cecily
knew she was playing with fire. He had tried to draw away yet here
she was practically throwing herself at him. He must thing she was
a wanton for her reckless behaviour. A tiny shiver of guilt began
to banish the raging fire that had overset her. Slowly easing away,
she gulped in a breath of air and willed her scattered senses back
into place.

She
didn’t need to look at him to know that he was studying her
carefully. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. It was a struggle
to bite back the apology that hovered on her lips. After all, he
had started the kiss. She was just responding to it.

“
Goodnight,” she whispered. Moving over to the window she took
her time closing the shutters and the curtains. She didn’t need to
look behind her to know that he remained standing where she had
left him for several long moments before he grumbled a quiet
goodnight. The click of the door closing behind him was all she
needed to hear, and she sagged with relief, holding on to the
curtain for dear life. Resting her head against the silken
material, she fought the well of tears that threatened and focused
on the cool material against her fevered flesh. Each time they
kissed it was getting more and more difficult to let go. It seemed
to reaffirm her need to get away from here, before she ended up
doing something that they would both regret.

She
tossed and turned that night. Whether it was because of the amount
of sleep she had during the afternoon, or the wildly swinging
emotions that refused to allow her to settle, she couldn’t be sure.
At some point during the night she must have slept because sometime
between midnight and dawn she became aware that she was cold – very
cold. Tugging the covers up to her chin, she rolled over and
burrowed down into the mattress. For a make-shift bed, it was more
comfortable than the one in the guest room. She was about to doze
off again when a faint tickle of cold air brushed against her
cheek.

Her
heart lurched. Her eyes snapped open and she stared into the
darkness as she tried to take stock of her surroundings. Once
again, a gentle yet freezing cold breeze drifted across her face.
At first, she wondered if there was a secret passage that led to
the room that they had missed. She was terrified of sitting up and
taking a look for herself.

In the
end, she lay and stared blankly at the door to Jamie’s room, unable
to move and unable to go back to sleep. She wondered how many hours
it would be before dawn. She watched in shock as the shadowy figure
of a man glided into view. He moved to stand before Jamie’s door.
Even with the room encased in darkness that was only lightened by
the glowing embers of the fire, she could make out his shadowy form
that was a silvery grey. Her heart pounded, and she blinked a
couple of times just to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks
on her.

She
swallowed yet began to feel strangely calm. “Do you want me to
follow you?” she whispered, glancing in concern at the
door.

The
spectre shook his head.

“
What do you want with me?” Cecily slowly pushed herself
upright, holding the covers in front of her to both protect her
modesty and ward off the chill that always appeared when he
did.

The
spectre merely smiled and looked at Jamie’s door. “Do you want me
to get Jamie?” She asked, wondering what Jamie would say if she
tried to explain to him that she had just had a conversation with
his long deceased father.

Once
again the spectre shook his head. He smiled gently at her, nodded
once and disappeared through the door into Jamie’s room.