A Wedding Story (4 page)

“Of course not.” Jim was pretty damn sure the man had paid one of Jim’s native guides a hefty sum to reveal Jim’s next objective, but he’d never been able to prove it.

“And who would have thought I’d stumble across that diamond mine out there? Not that financial gain is ever my primary goal. Driven by scholarly pursuits, as you well know. Still, it’s a great luxury to know your expeditions are well funded for the immediate future, isn’t it?” He blinked in mock horror, as if realizing what he’d just said. “Sorry, old chap. I didn’t mean—”

“I’m sure you didn’t.” No more than he’d meant it any of the other times he’d stolen a prize that Jim had damn near killed himself to discover. Or even the time he’d—
didn’t mean it, sorry old chap
—led a warring tribe right into the middle of Jim’s camp.

“So? Are you going to introduce me to your lovely companion?”

“No.”

“I can well see why you’d prefer to keep her to yourself, but I didn’t realize you were so shy about competition.”

“Live and learn.”

“Very well.” Major Huddleston-Snell tipped his hat to Kate, who’d watched the entire episode with cool interest. “I’m sure we’ll have other opportunities to become acquainted.”

Back regiment-straight, the major marched into the crowd.

“Well,” Kate said. “You’ve just collected friends all over the world, haven’t you? I’m a bit surprised you ever come out of the jungle.”

“They keep finding me out there, too.” He jammed his arms over his chest. “Things will go much smoother if we set down a few rules up front. Every expedition needs one clear leader, and I—”

“I quite agree.” She rose from her throne at last, gave her skirts a shake and they settled smoothly over her lovely curves. The porter lugging three suitcases by them nearly fell over ogling. Jim was simply going to
have
to get her some clothes that did a better job of covering her up. “And in this case, it’s clearly me.”

“What? You couldn’t find a barn in a one-acre field.”

“I am well aware of the advantages of hiring an expert in certain circumstances,” she said, so composed he wanted to shake that calm right out of her. “And that is what I consider this venture. I’m providing the initial invitation, as well as the financing. You are simply the hired—”

The cacophonous clanging of a gong drowned out the rest of her statement, preempting Jim’s response.

As one, the crowd turned toward the platform erected near the far end, backed by soaring windows. The stage held five men in suits, all trying too hard to look impressive.

Charlie Hobson came forward, thumbs tucked in the pocket of his vest. “Welcome,” he boomed. “I trust you all know why you’re here.” He waited for the laughter that never came. “While the pope, the president, and the queen have all decreed the centennial doesn’t begin until next year,
we
all know when the calendar turns to one-nine-zero-zero, don’t we?” This earned him a cheer. He smiled, smugly gratified, before continuing. “The rules are simple. You will be given one clue now, which will lead you to the next, and the third, and so on. The first competitor to reach the final destination will claim the entire fifty thousand dollars.” Excitement murmured through the room. Hobson held up his hand for silence. “However, if no one achieves the objective by midnight New Year’s Eve, the prize is forfeited.” He paused to allow the impact to sink in. “That’s local time. Whatever local time is at your final destination.”

To her surprise, Kate found herself caught up in the rising tide of enthusiasm that swept through the room. The sensation was so foreign to her that it took her a moment to identify it. Anticipation, exhilaration…her heart pounded in a most uncomfortable way.

“Give us the clue!” someone shouted from near the stage.

Hobson chuckled, clearly relishing his moment in the spotlight. “One more rule. Anyone—and I do mean anyone—caught interfering with another team’s progress or tampering with a clue will be immediately disqualified.”

“Spoilsport,” Jim murmured, and yelped when Kate’s elbow found his ribs.

“And now…” The reporter held out his hand. A fresh-faced young girl scurried forward and posed prettily before placing a scroll in the reporter’s hand. He took his time untying a scarlet ribbon and unrolling the scroll.

“Oh, just read it!” came another shout, followed by a rumble of agreement.

“All right, here you go. Good luck to you all.” And then, reciting in singsong rhythm,

There was a heartbeat of silence as everyone held their breath. And then a wild flurry of motion erupted, a tumble of humans shouting, shoving, as if someone had yelled
fire!
in an overcrowded theater. It seemed only a moment before Jim and Kate stood alone in the room. A fringed blue scarf, handfuls of torn paper, spilled popcorn, a forgotten nosegay cluttered the parquet floor. A streamer drooped from a wall sconce.

Jim’s deep green canvas bag which had been slung on his shoulder dropped to the floor, then he did too. He stretched out, linking his hands comfortably behind his head.

“So, boss,” he said cheerfully, “what do we do now?”

Kate paced.

She’d scribbled down the rhyme and now had it spread out on top of her trunk, along with two maps, one of the United States and one of the world, that she was very proud she’d thought to bring along. She stared at them until her eyes crossed and still nothing came to her.

She tried, as she had periodically in the hours since the ballroom emptied out, to settle and ponder, only to jump back up a moment later. It was as if she’d been storing up energy for weeks in preparation for this moment and now it couldn’t be contained. She wanted to
go,
to get on with it, but there was nothing to expend the energy on. It was making her crazy.

Jim, however, seemed to have no such problem. He’d rested his head on his pack like it was one of the Rose Springs’ excellent pillows, told her to “wake me when you figure out where we’re going,” then dropped off to sleep as easily as a milk-sotted baby. Just one more thing to add to the list of his “annoying” qualities.

She paused in her pacing at his—clearly oversized—feet. Glaring down at him with enough heat, it should have scalded him awake instantly. His “con” list was long enough to fill up a reporter’s notebook and then some. Too bad there were a lot fewer entries on the “pro” side.

Except that she needed him if she wanted to win. And, relaxed in sleep, long limbs sprawled out over the floor as if it was his own bed, mouth—
lovely
mouth—a little open, a scrape of warm brown beard over his jaw, he was just so…so darn pretty.

Silly word to apply to a man, she thought. Never considered that she would. But he was, pretty as a mountain, the ocean, a sunset. Something elemental, soul-deep, that you could look on for a lifetime and never get your fill of.

“Ma’am?”

She swiveled around. Yet another employee, mop in one hand, bucket in the other, waited correctly in the doorway to begin swabbing away the debris of the night’s send-off. She’d shooed three others away before midnight with so little tact it embarrassed her to think of it now. But they’d been an unwelcome reminder of just how long ago all the others had gotten underway.

“Feel free to begin,” she said, sweeping the room with a wide gesture.

“Oh, no,” the young woman said, wide-eyed at the very suggestion. “Can’t be working if the guests are still here. I was just wondering if there was anything I could get you.”

Kate sighed. “Not unless you just happen to have the solution to the first clue handy.”

“No, ma’am, I’m afraid that I don’t,” the maid said regretfully. “But I suppose I could try…”

“That won’t be necessary.” The staff might as well have
whatever the guest wants
engraved on their foreheads. “Just give us ten minutes and we’ll be out of your way.”

It had to be only an hour or two from dawn. They’d extinguished the gaslights hours ago but the room still glowed, moonlight flooding through the high arched windows, gleaming over the glittering, gilded walls and spangling the spotless mirrors that hung between each window. Shadows and moonlight; she’d always thought of Jim that way, and to see him now, even more handsome than she’d remembered, made her stomach lift and press in her chest until her breath came hard.

She took two steps forward.

“Ouch!” Jim sat up fast, blurry-eyed, rubbing the crown of his head.

“Oops. Did I bump you?” she asked sweetly. “I’m so sorry. It’s just so dark in here, I—”

“Dark.” He scowled. “Yeah, it’s darn near the ‘Black Hole’ of Calcutta in here.”

“Now that you’re up, though, we should get started. The staff’s anxious to clean the place.”

He blinked twice, then looked her up and down. “And you’re going to start scrambling up those walls if we sit around here any longer, aren’t you?”

“I—” She started to deny it, then shrugged. What was the point? “I
hate
everyone getting ahead of us.”

“Hmm.” Yawning, he rubbed his bristly chin. “Just because they’re stumbling around out there doesn’t mean they’re getting anywhere. Why waste the energy?”

“Because we’re falling behind!”

“Or we’re thinking first, instead of jumping in without looking. Jumping in can get you killed in some of the places I’ve been, Kate. I don’t recommend it.”

“But we don’t know anything!”

He shrugged, completely unconcerned. “We’re not going north or south. We know that much.”

“Oh, thank you. That’s ever so much help.”

There was agitation in every line of her body, a jerkiness in each movement. She was just annoyed enough to be graceless, he thought, finding the contrast fascinating. He’d assumed her fluidity was natural, her grace born in her bones. Its absence now hinted that perhaps it was studied and practiced, a skill deliberately honed as surely as he’d earned his expertise on a horse. He was alternately intrigued by the thought that she could control her motion to such a degree, and vaguely irritated that she was such a calculated construct. Was there nothing about her that was real? Perhaps she was nothing more than a lure, carefully designed to draw hapless men, efficient as an expertly tied fly tossed in front of a ravenous trout.

“We’re falling miles behind with every second. I can feel it.”

He resigned himself to the fact that he’d obviously be getting no more sleep. His bones creaked as he rolled to his feet. Nasty sound; he used to sleep on solid stone without a single protest from his body, he thought sourly. At this rate he’d become one of those prissy aristocrats he used to laugh at, one who traveled with a tea service and a tester bed and every other comfort they could cram onto a raft of servants.

“Floor a bit hard for you, hmm?”

The kind of man Kate would no doubt prefer to travel with. “Not a bit,” he said, and bounced energetically on the balls of his feet to prove it. “Good for the posture, you know. And the character. Wouldn’t want to go all soft.” He surrendered to a yawn. “Now, then. Permit me to share a bit of hard-earned knowledge”

“By all means.” Perfectly sweet words, but a sharp enough edge of sarcasm in her tone that he checked himself for blood.

“First off, it’s absolute foolishness to wear yourself out running off in all directions without being absolutely sure of where you’re going. A complete waste of energy and resources.”

Her mouth pinched, as if she wanted to argue but recognized the futility.

“Exhaustion is equally stupid. Perhaps even fatal.”

“Fatal.” She blanched, cheeks going pale as perfect linen.

Good. People who went on expeditions as a lark, without a proper understanding of the seriousness of the undertaking, were dangers not only to themselves but to those who tried to save them. He had a damn strong suspicion what role he was fated to play in this partnership.

“Yes, fatal. For all the circus of last night, this isn’t likely to be play. One makes much better decisions when one is well rested. Even more, it’s sometimes difficult to predict when you’ll be able to sleep again. One of the first things I learned from the doc was how to rest fast and hard when you can.”

“You’re hinting I should go to sleep.”

“It wasn’t a hint.” Not now that he got a good look at her. Her eyes were red, the circles under them purple-gray. Not her best colors, and he’d have no compunction about pointing it out if the situation called for it.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she told him and ran an agitated hand through the tumble of hair that had come undone.

Did it fall into that luxurious, touchable disarray all on its own or did she coax it into place? “Consider it beauty sleep,” he suggested.

“I couldn’t,” she said, her mouth curling in disdain as she inspected the snarl of blankets he’d used as a bed.

“If you’re too much of a princess to sleep on the floor of the Grand Ballroom I can’t wait to see how you handle the jungle.”

She sniffed. “I’ve slept on the floor before.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I have!” she insisted.

“With how many thousands of dollars of carpets beneath you?”

“Not a one.”

He tucked his tongue in his cheek and inspected her skeptically. “When?”

She froze a second before her mouth curved into a smile, one so flirty and sensual it took a moment before his brain started up again and reminded him that it didn’t mean a thing.

“Maybe, someday, if you’re lucky, I’ll tell you all about it,” Kate said with as much innuendo as she could muster. No reason for him to ever know, she thought, that the lone occurrence had been at her sister’s. She’d much rather hint at a past as adventurous as his.

“Can’t think of one, hmm?”

“I don’t know why you think you know me so well. We’ve been in each others’ company perhaps an hour in our entire lives.”

“Sometimes that’s all it takes.”

“Implying there aren’t a lot of depths to plumb?”

“I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to.” If she murdered him on the spot, she’d never win. Not to mention his suffering would be over too quickly for her taste. There’d be lots of opportunities in the coming weeks. And so she tamped down the anger that he seemed to provoke so easily and let her smile soften. “You know, I’ve changed my mind. You’re right, of course.”

“I’m
right
?”

If she’d known that was all it took to put that expression of dumb shock on his face she would have agreed with him a long time ago. “Of course. I really should gather my rest while I can,” she purred in a tone that would have had her sisters gagging.

He looked smug enough to choke on it. He really didn’t think much of her, did he, to believe that his transparent challenge had prodded her into bed against her will? Ah, well. She’d been underestimated all her life, an oversight she often found convenient.

She slipped between the blankets. They still held something of him, scent and temperature, and everything inside her went soft. “They’re still warm,” she murmured. “I really don’t know why I fought it.” She stretched, arching her back.

Jim recognized her motion was a deliberate punishment, payback for his comments. It worked just the same. His mouth went dry, his heart sped up, and his eyes fastened on that lush curve, as she’d no doubt intended.

It was a blow to discover that despite his best intentions he was as predictable as any man. If he allowed her to see his weakness, the next three months were going to be about as much fun as crawling across a desert.

“It doesn’t have to be a traditional bed, does it?” she asked softly.

She was sensual as hell, thoroughly in control, and he was right on the edge of losing it. He stared at her, knowing she couldn’t miss the heat in his eyes, his struggle for control.

And then she blushed, sweet as a virgin, as if she finally realized her blatant innuendo.

Words had been on the tip of his tongue, just this side of crude, ready to toss suggestions back to see how she’d react. But her blush blunted his words and the sharp edge of his anger. She couldn’t summon up that color at will. No one could be
that
good.

“Get some sleep. Or at least some rest,” he added when he could see she meant to protest. “You’ll need your energy soon enough. I’ll frown over the map and the clues for a while. I’m as capable of being stumped by them as you.”

Surprisingly, she closed her mouth, nodding a simple agreement.

He turned his back quickly—he had enough of seeing her on his blankets, and figured it was best not to test himself quite yet. Her allure was still new to him after all, born of only a few hours in her presence. That, and a young man’s memories, dwelled on too often in lost places when he’d needed something to hold on to. It would undoubtedly get better over the course of the competition. Even the prettiest view paled with familiarity. No doubt her incompetence and complaints would overwhelm her appeal in no time. It’d likely be only a day or two before he could look at her and feel nothing but annoyance.

He pondered the map for only a moment before deciding it was pointless. The answer to that silly clue—did they have no one at that paper who could come up with something more interesting than a child’s rhyme?—was not going to jump out from the map and announce itself. And he was at a distinct disadvantage. Simply for practical reasons, the first clue was probably within a few days travel. He was far less familiar with the terrain of the northeastern United States than he was with central Africa.

But his partner was not. “Kate, I—” As he spoke, he forgot his good intentions and automatically twisted around to face her. She was fast asleep, head resting on his wadded-up jacket, the blankets and her skirts so tangled around her legs that it would take her a good five minutes upon waking to free herself.

Surely she was safer now, more like other women, stripped of her wiles and seductive smiles and smooth charm.

He walked over to her, crossed his arms, and stared down at her. She slept like a child, fist tucked beneath her chin, hair loose and swooping around her ear, her neck. But older, too; without her studied smile, her determinedly smooth brow, he could see the marks the years had left on her: a few fine lines at the corners of her eyes, hugging her mouth, accenting between her brows. Though he knew she wouldn’t agree, it didn’t detract from her appeal a whit. Who wanted a girl who hadn’t lived when there was a woman full of life and experience instead, one with ideas and opinions of her own to share and explore? Like the difference between a pristine canvas full of potential and one splashed with color and life.