The Golden Leopard (10 page)

He leaned forward, arm on knee, until his head was nearly even with hers. “Jessie, if I hadn’t spoken as I did, we would have continued crossing swords to no purpose save the exercise of our wits. I need your help. And because you have set yourself to resist me, I fired a broadside. It was, I believe, a necessary tactic.”

“Oh, good heavens, Duran. Have done with the military metaphors.” The man would tie her in knots if ever she let him get hold of her at both ends. “Everything you do is calculated for effect. Even your insults come bearing plots. How have you suborned poor John Pageter, I wonder? How do you even
know
him?”

“When the ship reprovisioned at Cape Town, the colonel was among the new passengers who came aboard.” The lines at his temples crinkled with amusement. “As I understand it, he narrowly escaped being leg-shackled to you. The poor frightened fellow ran all the way to Africa.”

“Only so far as Africa? I must be losing my touch.” She produced a chilly smile. “
You
ran all the way to India.”

“And even there I could not escape you,” he said after a moment. “But I was joking about Pageter. He told me your mother had been promoting a match that neither of you wished, although he much admired you. I believe he was in love with someone else at the time, but the lady was not in a position to return his affections. He left to avoid causing her pain.”

“A common excuse, I believe, when a man does not wish to marry a woman he has dallied with.”

“Ah. Now you are talking about me, Jessie. About us. Are you certain that you wish to?”

“What I wish, of course, is to be rid of you.” It was true. Her pulse raced. Her throat was dry. All the familiar, unwanted symptoms of exposure to Hugo Duran. “You have made use of a perfectly nice man to insinuate yourself into this house, where you bribed my father to make you welcome. Your purpose cannot be honorable.”

“That is not a word, I agree, generally linked to my name. But perhaps you should reserve judgment until you have heard what my purpose is.” He hadn’t moved, that she’d noticed, nor had she, but he seemed a great deal closer. “Is it so much to ask, a few minutes of your time and a chance to explain?”

She studied the ground. With Duran, nothing was that simple. To give him the slightest opening was to invite an invasion. She had made herself vulnerable to him once, and he had hurt her. But she took responsibility for that. She had not meant to care for him, or even known that she did, until he left her. It had been a devastating surprise.

And in all fairness, how could he have known her feelings, if she did not?

“Humility does not suit you,” she said finally. “You do not ask, however soft your voice. You
demand.
And if that fails, you deceive. But pray get on with it, sir, so that I may decline to do whatever it is you want of me.”

“Well, I would,” he said in a friendly voice, “but your father expects me to join him for a trial of his new gun. Shall we speak after supper? And in the meantime, my dear, see if you can do something about that grudge you are carrying.”

Pride stiffened her back. “I have no idea what you mean.”

“No?” He looked sorrowful. “You never used to lie.”

“I had a good teacher.”

“Then I have more to regret than I had thought.” He stepped away and bowed. “Tonight, Jessica. Do not fail me.”

Not that Pageter failed to know the score. Duran had told him as much about the nizam and the leopard as he was likely to believe, and with his usual composure, Pageter had accepted it straightaway.

“Odd chaps, some of these native rulers,” he’d said, going on to offer whatever assistance Duran required, so long as he wasn’t expected to commit an actual crime or help do away with Shivaji and his associates.

Now, his schemes smoothly in play, Duran found himself pricked by needles of conscience. “I will pay you back,” he said into the companionable silence.

“I’ve no doubt of it. The hope of repayment is what inspires me to see that you escape.”

And if I don’t?
The unspoken question hung in the air, deliberately ignored by them both.

“It will take time,” Duran advised him. “Years, probably.”

“I don’t mind. There is little I want, and where I spent the past few years, there was even less to buy. I can well afford to advance you a stake. And if your gaming fails to scrape up the funds you require, I shall procure passage for you to . . . Where is it you plan to scarper?”

“Brazil, I think. Or Peru.”

They had paused, as if by common agreement, in the shelter of a copse not far from their destination. For the most part they kept distance between them, to avoid suspicion of complicity in precisely the sort of scam they were running. Being compelled to share a suite of rooms had been a setback, but none of the other guests appeared to have noticed.

In the shadows, a lone bird chirping overhead, Duran seized the chance to ask a question he would not, in the usual course of things, even think of asking. “Why are you doing this, John?”

Smiling, Pageter looked directly into his eyes. “There is someone I care about. When first I met her, she was beset with difficulties, but I could do nothing for her. Nor can I now, these many years later, although her troubles have multiplied.”

“Jessica?”

“Jessica as well, I suppose, in her way. But I was speaking of another woman. And that is all I will say of her, because truly, I cannot be of service to her now. Which is why I offer to you what help I can. One must keep the waters stirred, you see.”

Duran had the feeling he ought to know what Pageter was talking about. He knew damned well he should let it go. But of late, he hadn’t always been feeling and acting like himself. Something was chipping away at who he had always been, as if trying to carve a decent man from a scoundrel. “Which waters would those be?”

“What?” Pageter must have been lost in his own private thoughts. “Oh, I was referring to the pool at Bethesda. In the Bible, one of the Gospels, I think. People with ailments gathered there, hoping for a miracle. And sure enough, now and again an angel would come down and stir the waters. The first person to dive in was cured. Something of the sort. I ought to spend more time with the scriptures.”

His freckles, bronze on flushed skin, grew darker with his obvious embarrassment. “The thing is, I cannot be of help to the one for whom I would give my life. She is unable to make her way into the healing waters. But best as I can, I mean to keep them stirred for others to take advantage of. In this case you, and after you, someone else.”

If possible, Duran was even more embarrassed than the man standing opposite him. He understood what Pageter was saying, though. No one could live thirty-four years in India without becoming conscious of endless circles whirling about one’s ears. What passes one on the right side invariably comes about again on the left. Like, yes, stirred waters.

“I don’t imagine,” he ventured, “that
I
could do something for your . . . friend?”

There was a brief hesitation before Pageter spoke. “No,” he said. “Nothing.”

Duran knew it for a lie. “Well, if you think of something, let me know. Unlike some, I’ve no objection to the occasional high crime or misdemeanor.”

As if regretting the confidence he’d shared, Pageter resumed walking. “In that case,” he said just as they were emerging from the copse, “I wonder that you have not eliminated your troublesome valet.”

“Believe me,” Duran said, spotting Shivaji standing in his usual place overlooking the shooting field, “I think of little else.”

When Duran returned,
considerably wealthier after a remarkable demonstration of target shooting, Shivaji was waiting for him in the bedchamber.

“We shall return to London in the morning,” he said, his dark eyes uncommonly stern. “You will inform your host of our departure.”

Duran, at the bootjack, smothered his initial reaction and took his time removing the second boot. “I haven’t finished here,” he said. “It may not appear the case, but I
am
making progress.”

“I have seen none.”

“If you required a daily report, you should have said so. For one thing, I have asked Sir Fenster Barber how to trace the relations of a gentleman who died last year in India, a friend who supposedly gave me letters and parcels to deliver. That would be our thief, of course. Sir Fenster has written to his solicitors, instructing them to conduct an investigation.”

“To what purpose? We are not certain of his true name. And do you imagine the thief dispatched the leopard to his family by common post?”

“Well, we’ve no idea what he’d been up to, given that he was dead when you found him. It’s
your
bloody theory the leopard made its way to England.”

“But not to this estate, where you take holiday.”

“On the contrary. I’m laboring like bloody Hercules. Winning the cooperation of a stubborn female is all twelve tasks rolled into one.”

“I do not believe the lady looks kindly upon you. What will induce her to assist us?”

“My charm? No, she’s got herself immune to that. But her curiosity will snare her in the end. It would be easier if I knew of something she wanted in return, but nothing has disclosed itself.”

“It is apparent to me, Duran-Sahib, that she wishes for you to take yourself away.”

Grinning, Duran peeled off his shooting jacket and tossed it on a chair. “I made a rather abrupt departure several years ago, and she hasn’t quite forgiven me the manner of it. The last thing I want is to repeat that mistake, which—may I point out?—is precisely what you have in mind for me to do. This is a delicate matter. I need more time.”

“You have tonight,” came the uncompromising reply.

“In that case, you should apply to your gods for a miracle. The lady has agreed to meet me after dinner, but I cannot simply pounce upon her with my request. Jessica is a creature of flight. One does not snatch a falcon from the sky, dear fellow. One offers the lure and hopes she will deign to accept it.”