Twice Tempted (34 page)

But he didn’t.

“What is it?” he asked instead, standing there unmoving as granite, his earth-brown eyes dark as night. “What haven’t you told
me
? What can you have done that was more scandalous than working in a brothel or having a wife who betrayed her country?”

Fiona felt the blood drain from her face.
Scandalous.
Oh, sweet heaven, if it were only that. If only she didn’t paint him with her crime if she told him. Because she knew that he wouldn’t let it rest. He would not let the matter drop until it was finished. And the only way for it to be finished was for her to be hanged.

“I…”

And then the moment was lost. Mae began pounding on the door. “I know you’re in there! Lennie told us. Fee, you have to come here! I need help figuring this out!”

Fiona pulled in a sobbing breath, never looking away from Alex. Daring him to speak, to commit even without her answer. To give her something to take with her.

“Isn’t Chuffy here?” she asked, not moving. “Have him help you.”

“Fee!”

Fee pulled out of Alex’s arms. Alex reached for her, but it was too late.

She shuddered with the impact of loss. “What is it, sweetings?” she asked, pulling the door open.

Mairead was bouncing on her toes, her eyes gleaming, her fingers twisted around each other. Behind her stood Chuffy in a flat tweed cap looking like a beer carter and Lennie, a hunk of bread stuffed in her mouth.

“Mrs. Tolliver has soup and bread,” the girl offered, on her own toes to be seen.

“No!” Mae protested, trying to brush the girl away. “I’m close. I can feel it. I need Fee to help me first.”

“You need to eat first,” Fiona disagreed, taking her sister by the shoulders and turning her for the kitchen. “We’ll solve puzzles afterward.”

“We’ll leave afterward,” Alex said, following, “and solve the puzzles when we get where we’re going.”

They had just reached the staircase when they were interrupted again. Someone was pounding on the front door with something heavy. Everybody turned toward it.

“Open in the name of the king!” a strident voice cried.

“Damn and bugger!” Alex spat. “How did they find us?”

Fiona spun around, agape. “How did they
what
?”

Chapter 20

A
lex turned to Lennie. “Is there a back door?”

The pounding began again. “Open in the name of the king, I say!”

Suddenly Mrs. Tolliver was squeezing into the hall, unhurriedly pulling a key from her bodice.

“You just wait!” she yelled before spotting Alex. “Well, hello. You must be Lord Whitmore,” she said with a pat on his leg on the way by. “My, you are the pretty one.”

Fiona battled a mad urge to giggle. The look on Alex’s face was priceless as he stared down at their landlady. Mrs. T was the size of a child, round, rolling, and with the sweetest old face Fiona had ever seen.

The older woman cackled. “I’d have to wager this call isn’t for me, so it might be better you all run upstairs and use the roof exit. Lennie, you know the way.”

Lennie laughed and took the first steps up. “How we got out of paying that last month’s rent. Thanks, Minnie! See you again soon.”

And as Mrs. Tolliver made quite a show of yelling back and forth to her cook and whoever stood outside, claiming she couldn’t get the door open, the rest of them scurried up the steps, stopping only long enough to collected Mairead’s work. Chuffy stuffed it into his coat pockets while Fiona and Mae grabbed bags.

A scrawny young maid edged into the room, waving at Fiona. “Run! I’ll get this stuff. You can come back later.”

Fiona thanked her and pushed Mae toward the door Chuffy held open. From downstairs, there came an ominous creaking.

“You stop that!” Mrs. Tolliver shrilled.

“I’ll break the door open if you don’t answer!” came the voice. “I got information y’r hidin’ Lord Whitmore and ’is fancy piece Mizz Ferguson in there, and they’s wanted for ’igh treason.”

Fiona stumbled to a halt in the middle of the hallway. She swore she felt her heart stop. “
Me?
What did
I
do?”

Alex grabbed her and shoved her toward the stairs. “I’ll explain later.”

She glared at him. “You certainly will.”

Lennie had just led them up the stairs to the attic, when Fiona heard the front door squeal open and boots pound into the entryway. Mrs. T was dramatically weeping, cook shouting, and the constable demanding information. By the time the intruders reached the stairs, the attic door was closed and Lennie was pointing the way across the dusty and cramped room through what seemed to be the prop department for the local theater. Fiona gasped more than once upon coming across a fully dressed mannequin.

Lennie just chuckled. “Warehouse, isn’t it? I used to play up here for hours.”

Then when all were in, he shut the door and threw a lock. “Ingenious,” he told them with a mad grin. “Seems like it’s locked from outside. No one’ll guess we came through here.”

As quietly as they could, they pushed open a suspiciously well-oiled dormer window that led out onto the roof. Chuffy climbed out and reached back in for Mairead.

“Get to the Peacock,” Alex told Chuffy as he helped the women through. “Take everyone with you. I’ll meet you there in a bit.”

Chuffy stopped, frowning. “Ain’t the time to go for the safe, old boy.”

“It’s the only time I have.”

Fiona spun around. “Safe? What safe?”

“At your grandfather’s,” Chuffy said, already halfway across the roof.

Fiona wasn’t certain how many more surprises she could take tonight. “My grandfather?”

“Nasty old man,” Mae snapped.

Alex grabbed Fiona by the arm again. “Fiona, please…”

For some reason, that settled her. She turned again and waved at Chuffy. “Get Mae and Lennie to safety. We’ll meet you. Now go!”

Alex glared. “No,
we
won’t. You’re going with Chuffy. Trust me. I’ll meet you in a few hours.”

Her heart was pounding even harder. “You didn’t listen, did you? I’m coming.”

He shook her arm. “How do you expect me to protect you if you don’t listen to me?”

She cocked her head. “I don’t.”

“Fiona, don’t push it. I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“I am not Amabelle, Alex. You don’t have to keep me safe. I assume you are breaking into my grandfather’s house to find something pertinent to my being wanted for treason?”

He couldn’t hold her gaze. “It might be.”

“Then I have a right to help recover it. Besides, I can hardly be seen in public with a charge of treason hanging over my head.”

Treason. Sweet heaven. She had faced many things in her life, but never had she been considered a threat to the state. She wasn’t certain whether to laugh or weep.

She knew Alex thought it was the worst mistake of his life, but he took her hand. “Headstrong woman.”

Mae tugged at Chuffy’s coat. “We need to go. I need a bonnet. My hair hurts.”

“Don’t have enough hair left to hurt, my girl,” Chuffy said, ruffling what was left.

She scowled. “That is what hurts. I don’t want you to see.”

“Chuffy is in charge, Mae,” Fiona threw over her shoulder as she and Alex began to move off. “Do you hear me?”

“Clearly,” Mae answered with a casual wave of her hand before they headed off the other way. Fiona prayed that Mae meant it. Nothing would be more disastrous than Mae digging in her heels at the worst possible moment.

Then, in the deepening dusk, Fee saw something that changed the entire equation. Chuffy turned to make sure Mae was with him, and Mae reached out to take his hand. Just that. But Fiona knew this was a crucial shift in balance. She felt it deep in her chest where the weight of her sister had always rested. The minute Chuffy took Mae’s hand, he accepted the weight, too.

Fiona had always thought its easing would relieve her. She wasn’t so certain now.

Trying to ignore the cold that seemed to seep into the hollows of her chest, she turned around and faced Alex. “Now what?”

He glared at her, as if it were all her fault. “Now,” he said, “we run over the tops of these roofs until we find access into a building. And then we run for our lives.”

“Oh, I am an old hand at that. Lead on, MacDuff.”

He huffed, but set off, still holding her hand.

“Why are we wanted for treason?” she asked, hopping to the next roof after him. “Do they think you helped Amabelle?”

“They think my father helped Amabelle.”

She almost pulled him to a complete stop. “Good heavens.”

It was getting darker. Fiona had more trouble seeing Alex’s dark eyes. She hated not being able to read them.

“There are letters that incriminate him.”

She did stop then, right beside a crumbling brick chimney. “In the safe?”

“In the safe.”

She nodded. “Forgeries. I’ve known some dandy forgers in my day.”

“I’m sure he’ll appreciate your staunch support.”

“How am I connected, though?”

Alex began to move again. “There are two theories. One, you’re with me and I need a bit more pressure put on me to cooperate.”

“And two?”

“The watch Mairead walked off with. We believe it to be very important, and someone might have realized you took it. They want it back, and they have enough power to use whatever means necessary.”

Something sharp lodged in her chest. “My grandfather has that power, you mean.”

He briefly looked back, and this time she saw sympathy in his eyes. “Not only him. These traitors are all high-placed. We’ve already stopped a bishop and a duchess.”

Fortunately the roofs were all cheek-by-jowl, and Fiona and Alex wove among the chimneys to reach the farthest roof, finally coming upon a crumbling old place at the corner with a broken dormer. Fiona carefully poked her head inside to see nothing but blackness. She could smell no more than dust and damp, a good sign that they would have the house to themselves on the way down.

“Damn and
bugger
,” she heard behind her.

Turning she found Alex peeking over the edge of the roof onto Stacey Street. “What?”

He returned, his stride quick. “We won’t be going down just now. The constable brought support.”

She instinctively moved to see, but Alex brought her up short. “Don’t show yourself. There are militia in the street, just waiting for us to come out.”

Suddenly the threat became much more real. “What about the back?”

They weren’t as obvious in the back, where lawns grew seedy and fences were knocked over. But she felt them there like burrs under her skin.

Giving up, she plopped down where she was. “Now what?”

He crouched before her. “Now we wait.”

She nodded, bringing her knees up, folding her arms and resting her chin. “I have been in a similar situation before,” she admitted. “It just takes creativity.”

“It takes,” he disagreed, “waiting.”

She grinned up at him, as if this were all a lark. “Oh, good, then I have time for a few more questions.”

She could see the defenses immediately rise. “Possibly.”

She felt so weary, suddenly. Overwhelmed by the mare’s nest she had stumbled into. Frustrated by Alex’s attitude. “So let me see if I have this straight,” she said, and held up a finger. “My grandfather is looking for us to get the watch back.”

“We think so.”

She nodded and held up two more fingers. “Minette Ferrar is trying to hurt us to either get back at Ian or smoke him out. And we’re undoubtedly in danger from other Lions because we are helping crack their cipher.”

He looked away. “Very possibly.”

She sighed and rubbed at her eyes. “Is there anyone who
isn’t
angry at us?”

“Me.”

She looked up and wished that would remain true. “Thank you. It would be helpful to know if there is anyone else I should worry about. Mae doesn’t notice that kind of thing.”

“Chuffy does.”

That hurt all over again. Mae was leaving her; she could feel it, and she didn’t know what to do. So she nodded. “Do you know where my grandfather’s town house is?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Is it any more welcoming than Hawesworth Castle?”

“No.”

A bleak grin. “Then I will be more than happy to invade and desecrate it.”

“No desecration,” he retorted. “We don’t want them to know we’ve come.”

She couldn’t think of any more questions she wanted answered, so she sat staring at the crumbling roof lip. “I don’t suppose we could wait inside somewhere. It’s getting bluidy cold out here.”

His face eased a bit. “Do you realize your accent is becoming more pronounced?”

She scowled. “I imagine I am reminded of home.”

He was silent for a moment. She refused to look up, afraid of what she’d see.

She needn’t have worried. He was looking around. Then, suddenly, he jumped to his feet. “Wait here.”

She did wait there and watched him almost soundlessly run back the way they had come. She watched him until the darkness swallowed him and the street noise below covered the sound of his steps. She waited, her heart only speeding up a little in instinctive dread that he wouldn’t return.

He would, she kept repeating to herself, ashamed at how quickly the veneer of control eroded. It was the dark, she decided, and the cold and the fear of being found. She was so tired and so sad and so tumbled about that the ghosts were able to get close.

She sounded like a whinging brat to herself, but she couldn’t help it. She had to keep reassuring herself that he wouldn’t leave her this time, even though the night was descending fast, the cold was settling in her hips, and she could hear nothing except street traffic and a Charlie calling the hour. Alex would not leave her, she swore, even as the minutes grew and expanded, the darkness threatened to smother her, and the urge to call out for him grew unbearable.

The chill little wind snaked its way up under her skirts and stole the feeling from her nose, and still she didn’t move, mortified because she felt like that child who was told that only by staying in one place would she insure a safe return, only to still be huddled in a forlorn corner hours later.