Patricia Veryan - [Sanguinet Saga 10] - Lanterns (35 page)

Williard had the grace to be embarrassed by his sister's
behaviour,
and he snorted, "Rumour! Blasted area fairly hums with rumours!"

"Yes, indeed." Not one to miss an opportunity, Mrs. Maitland
added,
"I myself am a victim—as are you, Sir Lionel! Indeed," she hid behind
her fan and said roguishly, "our names are… linked, I fear."

Sir Lionel threw an agonized glance at Marietta.

"Were I you, ma'am," put in Mrs. Cordova with unexpected
clarity,
"I'd give not a thought to such nonsense. I'm very sure my brother pays
no heed to gabblemongers!"

Vaughan caught his breath.

For an instant the room was very still.

Sir Lionel stood nervously, and retreating from this dangerous
conversation went to the credenza at the side of the room
and began to rattle glasses about.

Flushed, and her eyes glittering wrath, Mrs. Maitland sat up
poker
stiff and snapped, "There are some very unkind people about, dear Mrs.
Cordova. For instance, there are those who believe that this silly
Madame Olympias, who pretends to be a clairvoyant is no other than—"

Her venom was stilled by a sudden bellowing clap of thunder.

Mrs. Cordova sprang to her feet and said dramatically,
"Beware! The spirits walk tonight!"

This impressive proclamation was followed at once by a strange
high-pitched squealing sound. Padding across the room en route to the
kitchen, Friar Tuck arched his back and hissed at the ceiling.

Fanny reached for Vaughan's hand nervously.

In the act of refilling Innes Williard's cup, Marietta stared
in astonishment at the sofa.

"Mrs. Hughes-Dering" was moving! As she watched, spellbound,
and
heedless of the tea that overflowed both cup and saucer, the arm of the
large figure lifted slowly.

Mrs. Cordova said, "Awwk!" and slumped into an armchair,
staring in a mixture of delight and consternation.

Friar Tuck's stomach brushed the floorboards as he departed in
a flash of ginger-and-white fur.

Fanny uttered a shocked squeal. Holding her hand firmly
Vaughan felt the hair lift on the back of his neck.

Had it been broad daylight the effect might have been less
spectacular, but in the dimly lit room with thunder rumbling outside,
the sight of that plump arm lifting to point, it seemed, at Mrs.
Maitland, was awe-inspiring.

The widow uttered a piercing scream. Her "frail and elderly"
mama
wasted no time on such outbursts and was already bolting for the front
door at a rate many a young athlete might have envied. In full cry, the
widow followed.

Mrs. Hughes-Dering's arm sank down again to land in an
ungainly
position that somehow emphasized the bizarre quality of the scene.

Sir Lionel stammered apologetically, "No—wait. I wish you will
not—"

"My cloak!" shrieked his admirer with little of admiration.
"Don't
stand there like a lump, Innes! Get us out of this accursed house!
We'll wait on the terrace!"

"Yes, but—" said Mr. Williard, regaining some of his colour.

Marietta dropped the teapot and ran to collect the cloaks.

Vaughan, who had come to his feet when Mrs. Crosbie Williard
launched into her sprint, gulped, "I'll call up the carriage," and went
nobly (and tearfully) into the rain.

Five minutes later the Williard carriage departed at speed,
the
surprised coachman having been ordered to spring his horses no matter
the state of the muddy drive-path.

Inside, Mrs. Cordova, who had been anxiously restoring her
"friend,"
looked up with a tangled length of wire in her hand. "Lio-nel… ? Did
you hide this wire behind the bell pull?"

He sighed dejectedly. "What a disappointment. They were all
supposed
to move! That was my surprise for you, Emma. Another failure, alas."

He won little sympathy. In fact, between bursts of hilarity,
the others didn't appear to consider it a failure at all.

"Friar Tuck was very scared," said Arthur, caressing the cat
who was
curled up on the bed beside him. "I 'spect it was the thunder. He's
frighted of thunder, but I only heard one banger. Was there lots? Why
am I let have my breakfast in bed when it's not my birthday?"

Setting the tray across his lap, Marietta said, "There were a
few
smaller peals, and something else happened which startled him a little.
Papa and Lieutenant Vaughan are mending it now so that you can see it
too. But it's a surprise and not quite ready, so Papa doesn't want you
to come downstairs just yet."

He asked hopefully, "Is the surprise about Eric? Has Eric
corned home?"

"No, dear. But he will come very soon, I'm sure."

"Can I go outdoors and wait for him?"

"After you've seen the surprise, perhaps. In fact…" She
hesitated,
then said, "I've something I must show him before he talks to anyone
else. If you should see him first, would you tell him that? It's—a
secret, and a very important secret."

"Sort of like the secret orders the Staff Officers carried for
the Duke at Waterloo?"

"Yes, dear. Just like that."

He was impressed and agreed to relay the secret message,
provided he
could wear a blue coat. "Staff Officers wear blue coats y'know."

Luckily, Marietta was able to unearth a faded blue velvet coat
from
Arnold's press. It was too big, but with the aid of a belt and turned
up sleeves it would serve. She left Arthur eating his porridge and
sliced peach and explaining to Friar Tuck that he knew all about Staff
Officers 'cause a friend of Aunty Dova's had married with a lord whose
son had been one. "His name's Colonel Leith," he said, "an' he's very
fine, an' taller than…"

The sentence went unfinished, which Marietta put down to the
charms of peach and porridge.

It had rained steadily all night and this morning a strong
wind
drove flurries of drops against the windows and set the barn door to
banging. Marietta washed the tea-stained tablecloth and hung it over
the clotheshorse in a corner of the warm kitchen. Fanny was gathering
ingredients for a seed cake, and when the repairs to the "risers" were
completed she sent Vaughan out to the barn to collect eggs. He hurried
in with a piece of sacking over his dark head and announced that he had
"liberated" ten eggs and that the rain seemed to have set in for a long
stay.

When Marietta went upstairs to fetch Arthur, Vaughan said,
"You look very grave, Miss Fanny. I saw how you watched
your
sister; do you think she grieves because of Coville's behaviour?"

"No." Fanny cracked an egg and emptied it into the bowl then
stood
staring down at the two pieces of shell in her hands. "I believe she
had already realized he was—well, not the man we thought him." She
sighed. "Etta has been so good, Jocelyn. You cannot know how hard she
has worked, taking care of us, handling all the details that Papa— I
mean…"

"Yes," he said understandingly. "I know what you mean. In a
sense Miss Marietta has mothered you all."

She smiled up at him. "You do understand. It is exactly that."
She
blushed and said shyly, "Thanks to Etta I am so very happy. But I want
her to be happy also, and she is not. I
know
she's worrying.
And it must be very bad, because she can usually hide her worries from
us all." She reached for another egg. "I do wish I knew what was
troubling her."

Vaughan concentrated on folding his piece of sacking, and said
nothing.

Marietta slipped quietly out of the front door and into the
grey and
misty morning. Leaves and grasses drooped soddenly and large drops fell
from the eaves, but the rain had eased to a drizzle. Arthur was nowhere
in sight. She pulled the hood over her hair and started around the far
side of the house, avoiding the kitchen area. There was no need to
disturb Fanny and her devoted assistant cook. As she'd expected, apart
from two ducks who waddled about unperturbed by the damp, the back
gardens were deserted. Arthur had probably crept out and gone towards
the London Road to wait for Eric. She drew her cloak tighter and
started off, keeping to the trees so as not to be seen from the house.

Her pattens were in the scullery and rather than go in and
claim them she'd come out in half-boots that were
soon thoroughly soaked. She trod carefully and paused several
times to
peer
about through the misted air, hoping to catch a glimpse of a small
solitary figure. She was almost to the bridge when she saw a flash in
the copse of beeches by the stream. Perhaps Arthur had put on his chain
mail before venturing into the rain.

Relieved, she hurried forward, only to stop abruptly. The
figure she came upon was solitary but far from small.

For the barest instant her heart leapt, and she had to repress
a
strong compulsion to run to him. But then came the pain of
comprehension; the glint of light had come from a spyglass, trained at
the moment on the distant London Road. He was up here waiting in the
rain with remorseless patience; hoping for a sight of his quarry.
Crushed by despair, she had to blink away tears.

As though he had sensed her presence Diccon swung around. He
whispered her name, and there came that blaze of joy in his eyes; the
silver blaze that wrought such havoc with her foolish heart.

Somehow she kept her voice calm. "Good morning, Major." She
glanced
pointedly at the spyglass in his hand. "I'd not realized you were one
of those people who have an interest in birds."

He looked bewildered, then said with a wry smile, "The
creatures I watch for, Miss Marietta are, unhappily, birds of prey."

"The same species that visited you last night?" She had noted
at
once the ugly graze across his cheekbone and said with instinctive
sympathy, "They marked you, I see. I— We were very anxious for you."
His eyes lit up again, and she went on quickly, "Lieutenant Vaughan
said there was quite a battle and that you were able to defeat them all
except for that terrible Chinese man."

He smiled. "Vaughan exaggerates, as usual. As for Ti Chiu, I
must
own I was quite outclassed, but I'll excuse my defeat by claiming that
it would take a troop of heavy dragoons to subdue that ugly customer."

"Then that is just what should be done. You are an Army
officer, why
have you not called for reinforcements to arrest him? You said he and
his master were in the country illegally."

"So they are, ma'am. And to say truth I did send out a call
for
help. Unfortunately, the local troopers have been occupied with another
matter which causes my attempted robbery to appear comparatively
insignificant."

She said with real indignation, "I cannot think that the
attempted murder of an English peer could be judged insignificant!"

"I hope that no murder will ever be judged so, Miss Marietta.
Only—the other matter, you see, involves our national security."

She was suddenly very cold. "Oh."

Concerned, he said, "You're shivering. And small wonder. Those
little boots were not intended for walking in the rain. May I escort
you home?"

What he meant was, "May I come and see what is going on at the
dower
house?" But Vaughan was there, of course, to report to him. With
another pang of misery she thought, 'Oh, heavens! Is that why Jocelyn
courts little Fanny?'

Diccon's hand was on her arm. Scanning her face anxiously, he
asked,
"What is it? I thought we had agreed that if you were troubled you
would come to me?"

How could he look at her with such tenderness and be so
treacherous?
Truly the officers of the Intelligence Service were a breed apart! But
she would not be taken in this time; she would be as deceitful as he.

And so she smiled up at him and said, "Well, I am with you, am
I
not? My trouble is that Arthur has gone off again and I can't find him.
I thought perhaps he had run away to London, or come to you. Have you
seen him?"

"No, and I would have done if he left after eight o'clock. Are
you sure he's not in the house—or the barn, perhaps?"

"He wasn't in his room. He's been rather downcast these past
few days, so I thought…" She shrugged. "No doubt you're right.
I'll go home and look more thoroughly."

He folded the glass. "I'll come with you."

"No. Really, there is not the need. It is just a short walk,
and—"

"And I could wish you do not walk out alone, ma'am."

He looked stern, and like a ray of light it came to her that
he
might not have been setting a trap for Eric after all. That he might
have been standing here in the rain hour after hour because he feared
that the ruthless treasure seekers might next break into the dower
house. Her heart leapt with joy and she said, "But surely you don't
really think this Monsieur Monteil and his henchmen mean to invade our
home?"

It was exactly what he feared, but not for the world would he
frighten her. He'd given Joss strict instructions to alert Sir Lionel
and Bridger to the threat without alarming the ladies. He said, "Oh,
no. Why would they? If
The Sigh of Saladin
had
been hidden in the dower house it would have been discovered centuries
ago."

Joy faded. "Yes," she said quietly. "Of course."

Realizing that she may have betrayed herself, Marietta tried
to
remedy matters by chattering gaily all the way back to the dower house,
making Diccon laugh with her description of Sir Lionel's disappointing
new invention. And because she suspected he would know of it anyway and
think it odd if she failed to mention it, she said casually, "Oh, and
we've been visited by an Army General. He warned Papa to be on the look
out for "some traitorous gentleman" who might journey through the area.
It seemed rather a pointless warning," she added with a little laugh.
"How does one recognize a traitor? Would he wear all black, perhaps? Or
ride in a very fast coach and four with the words 'I Am A Traitor'
inscribed on the panels?"