Temptation & Twilight (45 page)

“I swear,” Iain vowed, falling to his knees, “I do not know where she is. I only want to find her. We’re wasting time, Sussex, time we don’t have—time that is running out for Elizabeth. If you cannot believe me about anything else, then believe me about this. I love your sister. And I just… Christ! I just want to find her. I can’t waste any more time knowing she’s out there all by herself. You can do whatever you want with me, but after I find Elizabeth and bring her home. For the love of God, man, I’ve never asked anything of you, but I am asking now, help me find your sister!”

“MY LORD, it’s no good,” Sutherland pleaded as Iain alighted from the carriage and staggered into the dank, damp alleyway. The snow was melting, making everything wet. The fog wafted in from the Thames, blanketing the city in a grey cloak. It was cold, but Iain was BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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already too numb to sense it. Tilting his head, he gazed up at the windows, drapes pulled tightly shut, and tried to concentrate. Perhaps he had missed something. Another hidden door. A secret passageway.

“You’re bloody exhausted, filthy and wounded. Not to mention the fact that you’ve already ripped apart the House of Orpheus twice. She’s no’ there, my lord.” With a snarl, Alynwick lashed out at his valet. “What would you have me do, Sutherland? Leave the woman I love to the fates while I go and soak in my tub?”

“Use your blasted head!” Sutherland retorted. “
Think!

And you canna do that when you’ve no reserves of energy left. Yer tapped out. Not thinking straight. You need a meal, at the very least to get you thinking clear.”

“There’s no time,” he grumbled, brushing past the man.

“If you keep retracing steps you’ve already taken, you’ll be wasting more time. My lord, please. Let me see to your wounds, feed you, and then we can begin thinking of what new steps we might take.”

“I can’t slow down. I…can’t.”

“You won’t allow yourself a minute’s rest because deep down you’re afraid she’s already lost to you.”

“Enough! Elizabeth is… She’s all right,” he mumbled, refusing to look inside and examine the very large hole gaping in his chest. “There’s…time left. She’s strong, so much stronger than I ever gave her credit for.”

“Come into the carriage and we’ll go home.”

“No, I can’t. Elizabeth. Her rooms. Maybe I’ve overlooked something. I’ll go there.”

“You’ve already searched them. Besides, by now Sussex will have gone over them with a fine-tooth comb.”

“Then the club. I have to go there. Look again.” BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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“This club is done, my lord. The leads are gone. Orpheus has vanished.”

“No, he’s still in the city, hiding. But where…?” He needed to think…. Where would Orpheus go?

Where could he hide with Elizabeth so he wouldn’t arouse suspicion? Iain needed to know his enemy. The unfortunate part was, he didn’t know him. But there was one person who did.

“YES?” THE BUTLER asked, his lips curled in disdain as he stood looking up at Iain.

“Alynwick to see Lord Sheldon, immediately.”

“I’m afraid his lordship is indisposed. You will have to return tomorrow.”

“Damn you, man, get Sheldon. A woman’s life depends upon it.”

“Who is it?” a voice boomed from the hall.

“It is Lord Alynwick, my lord, requesting an audience.

Are you at home?”

What an idiotic question! Iain didn’t bother to wait, but shoved past the pompous butler and into the hall, where he stumbled.

“Good God, what happened to you?” Sheldon demanded.

“Later,” Iain muttered.

“When have you last slept or eaten?” the earl enquired, looking at him in his bedraggled state. “You’re gaunt and exhausted. It’s been days, by the looks of it.” Suspicion suddenly lit his eyes, and he motioned Iain into his study.

Tired, terrified, Iain humbled himself by falling to his knees. “Elizabeth is gone—has been for days. Lasseter has her. Sheldon,” Iain pleaded, no longer caring how he appeared. He thought only of Elizabeth’s well-being now.

“I need your help. You know him better than any of us.” BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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Reaching out his hand, Sheldon offered it to him and helped him up. “You have it. Toth,” he called to the butler, “send around for the carriage. Also, tell Mrs. At-kins to bundle up something for Lord Alynwick to eat.

Jack!” Sheldon shouted for his dog, who came prancing out of the study. “Toth, send a missive around to Black and Sussex that they are to meet me at Temple Church, but are not to go in, but wait for my command. My bag, as well,” he muttered.

“Yes, my lord.”

“I mean to be gone within ten minutes, Toth. I want action, now!”

“At once, my lord!”

“Now,” Sheldon demanded as he reached for his greatcoat. “Tell me everything I need to know.” Iain held nothing back, not even the story of the Brethren Guardians, and the relics. Secrets could only harm Elizabeth now, and those about the Brethren Guardians were what had started this whole business. Elizabeth was lost to him because of the Guardians. He’d be damned if his insufferable pride would aid her death.

“YOU STILL HAVEN’T figured it out, have you?” Sheldon asked. It was dark in the carriage, and the gentle swaying was making Iain’s eyes want to close in sleep. But he fought it. He felt a measure of strength returning after having eaten some cold gammon and bread with cheese.

The steaming mug of mulled wine lit a fire in his belly, warming him, making his senses feel somewhat brighter than they had. He’d been ready to collapse at Sheldon’s feet when he had first entered the man’s house.

“Figured out what?” he asked, wiping his face with his palm. He heard the sound of his night beard bristling against his hand. He must look a sight.

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“Who I am.”

It was uttered very quietly, and Iain glanced up sharply. “I thought you a detective for Scotland Yard.”

“I am. But there’s more.”

Iain groaned. He’d thought as much, but he was in no mental or physical condition to do anything about it. If Sheldon was indeed his enemy, he would be at his mercy.

He had needed help, and perhaps his need had placed him at greater risk.

“Elizabeth told me that you were helping her decipher the diary of the mysterious Veiled Lady. Did she not tell you?” Was that gloating Iain heard? No, it wasn’t superiority, but surprise. It was there in Sheldon’s eyes. “I thought… Well, she made it quite clear that while I was infinitely likable, she felt, at least for now, that she wasn’t ready to elevate me to more than a friend.” It wasn’t the time to feel elation in the fact that Elizabeth was not interested in the earl, but Iain was only human.

“It was the morning of Sussex’s marriage. I thought perhaps the duke might take Elizabeth away with him, so I made an early morning call and persuaded her to come to Temple Church with me. I was hoping that a tour of the crypts might leave a lasting impression, as it were.”

“And did it?” Iain found himself growling. Damn it, she had been alone with Sheldon, and she’d never confided in him. All those conversations they had shared, the ones that had exposed each other’s flaws and weaknesses.

Iain had thought there was nothing else he might discover about her, but he was wrong. He should have known, even factored in Elizabeth’s staunch loyalty. After all, she had kept their secrets. Why not this one?

“I can see the workings of your mind, Alynwick, and let me put a stop to them at once. While Elizabeth enjoyed BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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herself immensely that morning, she did not… welcome, as I’d hoped, my declaration of interest. In other words,” he muttered, “she rebuffed my kiss and blurted out quite frankly that someone had stolen her heart years ago, and she was unable to find a way to get it back, or give it to someone new. Naturally, I knew you to have been the thief. Especially when she explained that she no longer needed my assistance with the book, that you had agreed to aid her.”

“Why would it matter about the diary?” Iain mumbled, lifting the corner of the shade to look outside. It was foggy, so much so that he was unable to see where they were, or which way they were travelling. He’d been in too much of a fog to ask Sheldon where they should start. And now he wondered if he was truly safe with the earl, if he had unwittingly fallen into Sheldon’s hands.

“You did not conclude who the Veiled Lady was?” Sheldon asked with surprise.

“Of course I did.”

“You couldn’t have, else you would not have come to me tonight.”

A horrible feeling of dread came over him, and every self-protective instinct he had reeled inside him. Even wounded and exhausted though he was, his reflexes served him well. He had the earl pinned back against the carriage squabs, the point of his elbow over the fragile cartilage of the man’s throat.

“Damn you,” Sheldon gasped. “What the devil—”

“Spill it all, my lord,” Iain growled. “No more cryptic messages from you. Tell me what you are, what purpose you have in infiltrating yourself into Elizabeth’s life.” He nodded, his face growing a dark red that Iain could clearly see even within the confines of the dimly lit car-BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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riage. Releasing him, he allowed the earl to slump over and gasp as he smoothed a hand down his throat.

“When this is all said and done, you bloody bastard, I’m going to demand you teach me that,” he rasped.

“
If
I let you live.”

Sheldon coughed, then began to speak. “The diary, the Veiled Lady…” He cleared his throat and loosened his neck tie. “The curse.”

Iain pressed forward, made him look into his eyes, which he knew were burning bright with hellfire. “If you think I believe in that nonsense that no one of the House of York and House of Sinclair shall ever come together, you’re out of your mind. It’s medieval posturing, Sheldon, and it was my ancestor, seven hundred years ago, who spouted it. The Veiled Lady was my ever-so-great-grandmother, Lady Marguerite Sinclair, who fell in love with Sinjin York, Elizabeth’s ancestor.”

“Someone wants you to believe in the curse. You said yourself before we left my house that the only thing that you or Elizabeth’s maid could detect was missing from her room was the diary. Why would Lasseter take the book when he took Elizabeth, if it wasn’t something he valued?”

“He must know that I’m not a fool to believe in curses, nor Elizabeth. But…” Iain suddenly stopped and thought through a point he had not considered before. “It would be valuable to Lasseter if the diary contained information on any hidden relics or treasures. Or if he wanted others to believe there was some sort of curse between the two houses.”

“Exactly.” Sheldon’s eyes lit with appreciation. “He’ll use it to frame his crime. To cobble up a story of forbidden romance and Templar curses, after he seeks what-BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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ever it is that drives him. And for the life of me, I cannot figure out what it is he wants.”

“How did you know of the curse?” Iain asked, his gaze narrowing when Sheldon smiled. “In fact, how the hell did you know that the diary belonged to Sinjin in the first place?”

“Don’t you know?” Sheldon said, smiling slowly. “I am descended from the fourth Templar.”

“How can that be?” Iain demanded. “The story is not even true!”

“Yes, it is. The man who was supposedly betrayed and left for dead in the desert was my own ancestor, John Leuven, the Duke of Lorraine, and the Veiled Lady was his sister. That made her my aunt.” Iain could hardly believe what he was hearing. All along, Sheldon had been involved in the Brethren affairs. He’d known…. “We’re related?” Iain asked in horrified wonder.

“One could say that, although the family line is rather diluted now. But, yes, in a way we are. Cousins, I should think.”

“Was the duke a Brethren Guardian?”

“No, he wasn’t. He wasn’t a Templar or even a knight, but he was there as part of King Philip’s entourage. He had brought Marguerite with him, on a pilgrimage. It’s where she met Sinjin—and your ancestor. The three Templars made friends with the duke, and when he learned that he was to round up the Templars for inquisition and execution by Philip, he alerted the Brethren, and offered to give them safe passage out of the Holy City, provided they would take Marguerite and unite her in marriage with Haelan St. Clair, as the king had desired. You see, by all accounts, the duke never knew of the affair going on between his sister and Sinjin York. Otherwise, I doubt BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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he would have insisted on the marriage. Marguerite and Haelan were wed hours before they left Jerusalem.”

“They were ambushed?” Iain asked. “Who knew of their plans?”

“Philip’s men suspected Lorraine of having dealings with the three, and thought he might try to warn them.

They attacked in the dark, and Lorraine put up a fight.

Fabled, in my family, that it was him, and his bravery that allowed the three to flee while Lorraine held off his enemies. As a result of his treachery, Philip dissolved the duke’s family line, took their wealth and cast them out of the country. They emigrated to England, where they heard the story of three mysterious Templars up in the north, and in Scotland. Ever since, the descendants of Lorraine have taken an oath to protect the identities of the Brethren, and the secrets they carried with them out of the Holy Land.”