Moonflower Madness (7 page)

Ben gave an agreeing hurrumph.

‘We have to find water and grazing before it gets too dark to see.'

It was already nearly too dark to see and there was no promise of a moon.

‘Come on,' she said encouragingly. ‘This way. The river flows to the left of the town. It can't be far.'

She urged him into an unwilling walk, straining her ears for the sound of water. It came, just as she was about to give up hope. She reined Ben to a halt, slipping off his back and running forward to where the Kialing surged silkily and glossily southwards.

‘We have our camp-site, Ben,' she said, her voice determinedly cheery.

She walked back to the pony, looking around her. In the darkness, the town could no longer be seen. There was no glow of a fire that might have signalled Lord Rendlesham's camp.

‘But that also means that there are no beggars'or robbers'camps,' she said, forcing herself to take comfort from the isolation and not to allow it to dispirit her. She unsaddled Ben and rubbed him down with the wadded saddle quilt. The darkness was deep and menacing and full of terrifying sounds, small animals hunting and being hunted; squirrels perhaps, or hares. She tried to think what other animals might be roaming in the darkness. Leopards were said to inhabit the hills. What if a leopard came down to the river bank for a drink? At what distance would it be able to scent human flesh?

‘Stop it!' she said to herself sharply as fear bubbled up in her throat. ‘There isn't going to be a leopard! There isn't going to be anything!'

Something slithered past her in the grass and she pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, silencing a scream. ‘Oh God,' she whispered. ‘Why didn't I realise it would be like this? Why didn't I bring a gun? A knife!
Anything!
'

Ben, serenely unperturbed, was drinking his fill from the river. She took comfort from his serenity. If there was danger, then Ben would sense it and warn her. She pulled her quilt from her carpet-bag and wrapped it around herself. She must sleep. If she didn't sleep then she wouldn't have her wits about her in the morning, and she might not locate Lord Rendlesham and Zachary Cartwright ever again.

Determinedly she closed her eyes, but not until Ben moved close beside her, comforting her with the sound of his breathing and the heat from his body, did she fall into a restless sleep.

When she awoke it was dawn, and she was cold and damp and stiff. A pair of goldfinches, bright as butterflies, were wrangling in a nearby shrub. The shrub was grey with yellow flowers that she had never seen before. She wondered if perhaps she ought to cut a sprig and put it in her carpet-bag. It might be one of the rare species that Lord Rendlesham was searching for.

She stood up painfully and stretched. It was morning and she had survived the night. There had been no unwelcome visitors. Gianetta laughed with joy, gave Ben a good morning pat and walked down to the river to wash her face. What she saw there made her blood run cold. There were markings in the soft sand of the river bank. Animal markings. She had no idea to what animal they belonged, but something had drunk from the river during the night. Something wild; something that had been only yards away from her.

Slowly she bent down, splashing her face with water. She wouldn't camp alone again. There were too many risks. She would wait until Lord Rendlesham and Zachary Cartwright were camped and then ride up and confront them. Zachary Cartwright would not want to spend two days returning to the point where she had joined them. He would be furious with her, but he would have no choice but to allow her to stay with them. And she would be able to count on Lord Rendlesham's support. Of that she was sure.

She breakfasted on bread and cheese, while Ben munched at the grass that grew lushly by the side of the river. Then, with the sun still edging over the horizon, they set off at a gentle trot in search of Lord Rendlesham and Zachary Cartwright.

When it was almost noon and she still hadn't found them, Gianetta began to think Lord Rendlesham's party was still in Fu-tu Kwan and that she would have to return there. She was just pausing, debating what to do, when a cloud of dust on the road ahead of her shimmered and dissolved, revealing a small group of ponies, mules and men.

‘There they are!' she said exultantly to Ben. ‘Now all we have to do is to keep them in sight until nightfall.'

The going was more arduous than it had been the previous day; there were many gullies which Ben scrambled up and down gallantly; often, the road disintegrated altogether, leaving small chasms which he jumped with nimble dexterity. There were more flowers, too, than there had been on the way from Chung King to Fu-tu Kwan: harebell poppies fluttering their petals like purple banners; pale lilac anemones with indigo hearts; carnations – their scent thick as smoke in the strong afternoon sunlight. She had taken a cutting of the grey shrub with the little yellow flower and wrapped the stem in a handkerchief soaked in water. Even if the plant was unbelievably common, she knew that Lord Rendlesham would not laugh at her but would appreciate her interest. And she was indifferent to what Zachary Cartwright might say or think.

By late afternoon, the hills were not so steep or so wooded and Ben was able to walk with greater ease, the bells on his collar tinkling merrily.

She wondered when and where Lord Rendlesham would make camp. They had passed several impoverished villages where children had run out, laughing and pointing at her strange round eyes, but none of the villages had been large enough to have possessed an inn. If her suspicions were correct, and Lord Rendlesham and Zachary Cartwright had stayed in an inn the previous night, they would not be able to find the same sort of accommodation for the coming night. No walled town was visible on the horizon, only bare, lion-coloured hills and, to the left, the bright, glittering sweep of the Kialing.

As dusk approached, she felt the muscles in her stomach tighten. A score of times she had mentally imagined what Lord Rendlesham's and Zachary Cartwright's reactions would be when she rode up and confronted them. Now, in an hour or so, perhaps even less, she would find out if any of her imaginings had been even remotely correct.

The party made camp just as the first stars were beginning to sprinkle the sky. She reined Ben in, watching from a distance. She would wait until they were settled, until the Chinese accompanying them had made something for them to eat, then she would ride out into the open. A small animal screeched in the undergrowth and she shivered, determined that, whatever happened, she would not spend another night alone, in the open.

Half an hour passed and a wisp of blue smoke rose from the camp-site. They were having their evening meal. Her mouth watered. She wondered what it was. Whatever it was, it would be preferable to stale bread and hard cheese.

‘Another five minutes,' she whispered to Ben, a pulse in her throat beginning to beat fast and light. ‘Just another five minutes and then we'll join them.'

She counted out the time and then, excitement rising up in her until she thought she would burst with it, she touched Ben's flanks lightly with her heels and set off at a gallop towards her unsuspecting quarry.

They had pitched camp on the banks of the Kialing. Gianetta could see the shapes of the Chinese moving backwards and forwards in the firelight as they tended the food they were cooking, their quilted jackets and narrow trousers identical to her own. The ponies and mules were loosely tethered and she could see a tall, broad-shouldered figure removing something from one of the saddle-bags. The other remaining figure was sitting in a canvas chair, one leg across a knee, head bent, writing intently.

The small tableau was almost instantly disrupted. She heard cries of alarm from the Chinese, saw the seated figure leap to his feet, grabbing the rifle that had been lying on the ground at his side, saw the figure by the saddle-bags spin round, pistol in hand.

‘Don't shoot!' she cried out in sudden alarm, as she galloped out of the twilight towards them. ‘It's not a bandit! It's me! Gianetta Hollis!'

Her pigtail bounced on her back, the little round hat, emblem of a house-servant, slipping precariously down over one eye. She heard Zachary Cartwright's deep, dark voice utter an incredulous, ‘What the devil …' and then she was among them, reining Ben in, slithering down from his lathered back.

‘It's me,' she said again unnecessarily, smiling around at them with far more confidence than she felt. ‘Is there anything good for dinner?'

Zachary Cartwright covered the ground between them in one swift stride and seized her shoulders. ‘What the bloody
hell
' he snarled viciously, ‘do you think you are doing?'

Gianetta was aware that such expletives existed, but she had never imagined that she would hear them uttered so threateningly, or that when they were they would be directed at herself.

‘Kindly remove your hands from my person,' she said icily, and then turned towards Lord Rendlesham who, as leader of the party, was surely the only person to whom she was answerable. He was standing to one side looking strangely ineffectual, his pistol still in his hand, his good-natured face bewildered.

‘If I could talk to you for a moment in private …' she began, trying to sound as dignified as the situation would allow. Zachary Cartwright still held her tightly and was showing no signs of releasing her.

‘But, Miss Hollis …' Lord Rendelsham said dazedly. ‘I don't understand … Your clothes … Why are you dressed in such a peculiar manner? Who are you with? Where are your companions?'

Gianetta had been manhandled for long enough by Zachary Cartwright. She kicked him viciously in the shin and at the same time tried to twist herself free of his grip. She failed. He merely gave an expletive even worse than those she had already heard and dug his fingers even harder into her shoulders.

‘I am dressed like this because I thought I would be safer,' she said, directing her attention solely towards Lord Rendlesham and trying to sound level-headed and practical. ‘And I'm not with anyone. I rode here alone.'

‘Then you can ride back alone!'
Zachary Cartwright rasped savagely. ‘Of all the stupid, empty-headed,
insane
things to do! Don't you know that you could have been killed? Don't you know that there are leopards in the hills that come down at night to raid pigs from the village sties? Don't you know that there are half-starved beggars and bandits who would have killed you for your pony without a second thought?'

He released his hold of her so suddenly and contemptuously that she stumbled. ‘And if you
had
come to grief, don't you realise who would have been held responsible?
We
would have!'

His brows were pulled together satanically, his black eyes blazing. ‘We would have been accused of luring you from home with God knows what kind of intentions. Our expedition would have been ruined and your uncle's colleagues in the diplomatic service would have made it impossible for us to mount another. All because you have fallen victim to a foolish infatuation.'

‘How
dare
you?' Gianetta was nearly robbed of speech. ‘How
dare
you suggest that I rode out here because … because …' She was aware of Lord Rendlesham standing only feet away from them, and her cheeks burned at the memory of how she had thought it would be pleasant to be his companion on the long, lonely journey to Kansu.

‘And so you follow me here,' Zachary Cartwright was thundering, ‘and now days have to be wasted in returning you to Chung King and heaven knows how many more days wasted in explanations to your uncle!'

It was dark now and the only light was from the fire, which continued to burn and cackle, sending golden-blue tongues of flame skywards.

‘Follow
you?
' she gasped incredulously. She remembered her curiosity about him when she had been at the Residency, the way she had gazed speculatively at him in the drawing-room when she thought he was unaware of her doing so, the way he had spun round and taken her by surprise, and the assumption she had seen in his near-black eyes, that her gaze had been one of admiration.

Rage and mortification swept hard on the heels of her incredulity. ‘Follow
you?
' she repeated, panting. ‘Why, I wouldn't follow
you
anywhere, Mr Cartwright! Not even out of a room! Certainly not to the furthermost parts of China!'

There came the sound of a quickly stifled laugh and Lord Rendlesham stepped forward. ‘Why
did
you follow us, Miss Hollis?' he asked, amused curiosity replacing his earlier stunned bewilderment.

Gratefully Gianetta turned towards him. ‘I came because …' She paused. How could she tell him in a few words that she had come because of Serena's impending marriage and the change it would make to her own way of life, because of the tedium of life in the Hollis'home in Lincolnshire, because of the horror she felt at the alternative prospect of living on Serena's charity. She had come because she longed to live her own life independently, she ached to see the real China, the China that existed beyond the high, confining walls of the British Residency. She had come because, above all, she wanted to search for exotic flowers, flowers that had never bloomed in England. Flowers that she could help introduce into English gardens.

‘I want to be a plant-hunter,' she said at last, succinctly. ‘I want to find blue Moonflowers.'

‘God's teeth!' Zachary Cartwright exploded. ‘This isn't a pleasant botanical outing in St James's Park! This is a scientific expedition and there is no place for a woman on it. Especially a woman who is inexperienced, under-age and who has no more brains in her head than a bird.' In the flickering firelight the harsh, abrasive lines of his face were taut and threatening.

Lord Rendlesham ignored his seething companion. ‘Does the Consul know where you are and what your intentions were when you left?'