by Lenora Bell
The man was goading her, poking at her to make her angry.
It was working.
She gripped her champagne glass. “Might I have more champagne?”
“Of course. Anything the lady desires. Anything at all.”
She didn’t have to feign her pique. “Perhaps I will accept your invitation, after all, monsieur.”
He bowed over her hand. “I’d be happy to show you my collection tomorrow. Though you must promise to come alone.”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
“Excuse me, Madame, this note just arrived for you.” An attendant handed her a note. She broke the plain red wax seal and read the brief note. It was from Lady Catherine.
“Is something wrong?” Le Triton asked.
“I afraid I must leave. Please donate my winnings to a worthy charitable concern.”
“Are you sure you must leave so suddenly? We were just beginning to become better acquainted.”
“We can resume our conversation tomorrow.’
Indy left hastily. She had to find Raven to tell him about Lady Catherine’s note.
She walked swiftly to the door where she’d last seen Ravenwood. The hallway was empty save for a waiter with a cart piled with little plates of delicacies. “Have you seen the Duke of Ravenwood?” she asked a waiter.
“I haven’t seen him, my lady.” But he made a furtive little glance to the left, which told her all she needed to know.
She headed left. She didn’t have far to go.
He was there, one arm braced against the wall beside Miss Delacroix’s head. She was laughing at something he’d said.
He leant closer, bending to whisper something in her ear.
Indy’s vision blurred. Her stomach roiled.
Suddenly she was seventeen again. Standing on the edge of a ballroom waiting for an invitation that never came.
Cool air assaulting her face as she walked outside. The tinkling sound of laughter and Daniel’s low voice.
Anger and humiliation flashed through her mind like lightening.
She couldn’t do this. Not again.
Never again.
Seventeen-year-old Indy had cried hot streaks of humiliating tears. She’d cried because her dreams and trust had been destroyed forever.
Tonight there were no tears. She’d known better and she’d stuck her tongue on the wintry gate anyway.
You’re a fool. Such a bloody fool.
Allowing him to rip your heart out yet again.
Raven heard a noise and turned around just in time to see Indy fleeing down the corridor in a swish of mulberry silk.
“Damn. Damn!” he said.
She’d seen him talking to Margot and by the looks of things she’d assumed the worst.
“What’s wrong, Ravenwood?” Margot asked.
“I have to go. We’ll talk later.” He walked swiftly down the hallway. He caught a glimpse of deep purple silk around the corner and he nearly collided with a waiter carrying a heavy tray.
She wasn’t going out the front door; where was she going? He chased her in earnest now, not wanting to lose sight of her. She fled down the servants’ stairs and out the back door.
She hadn’t even collected her cloak.
A carriage was waiting halfway down the street and she ran toward it.
“Indy, stop!” he yelled.
He didn’t recognize the carriage. What was she doing?
He caught up with her just before she reached the carriage. He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Wait, please. Let me explain. It wasn’t what looked like.”
She wrenched away from his grasp. Her eyes were cold. “I can’t do this. I just can’t. I can’t trust you. I can’t rely on you.”
“I wasn’t making love to her, I was questioning her.”
Her shoulders shook. So much pain on her face. It twisted his gut with fury at himself that he’d hurt her again. “Please let me explain. She’s Sir Charles’s mistress and I think she may be involved in the theft.”
“I don’t care about her. It’s not about her. It’s about you. You will always hurt me. Always betray me. And it doesn’t matter why you do it or what your intentions are, it hurts and I won’t give you any more power over me.”
“Whose carriage is this? I’m not letting you go alone. You didn’t even collect your cloak. You’ll catch cold.”
She pulled the clasp of the necklace loose. “I don’t want your diamond.”
She flung the necklace at him and he caught it before it hit the ground and tucked it inside his pocket.
“That’s not what I was concerned about. You’re angry. You have every right to be angry.”
“Feeling things so deeply is a curse, Raven. I wish I had your ability to disconnect from your emotions, truly I do. But my highs have always been very high, and my lows very low. And my trust, twice betrayed, is lost forever.”
“Please allow me to explain.”
“I have to go. This is Lady Catherine’s carriage.” She pulled a note from her bodice and handed it to him. “Lady Catherine is ill and has something she wants to tell me urgently. I must go to her immediately.”
“Are you sure that this is her handwriting?”
“I think I know one of my oldest friend’s handwriting. I recognize the distinctive cramped lettering. She’s in trouble and I must go to her. She means more to me than our quest.”
“Indy, you asked me to trust you, and I did. Now I’m asking you to trust me. Allow me to come with you, please. I may be able to help Lady Catherine. It’s late, and you’re alone. Please accept the help of a friend.”
“A friend?” she asked bitterly.
“Business associate, then. Allow me to accompany you, and you may send me on any errands Lady Catherine may require.”
Indy shivered, her shoulders hunching in the cold air. “You may come as my associate.”
They walked together to the carriage. “Are you Lady Catherine’s groom?” Raven asked the young boy waiting by the carriage.
“Aye, sir. She said I was to bring the lady to her. She didn’t say anything about a gentleman.”
“This is the Duke of Ravenwood and he’ll be accompanying me,” said Indy.
“How long is the ride to Lady Catherine’s estate?” Raven asked.
“No more than a half hour,” said the groom.
They climbed into the carriage.
Raven removed his coat and set it around Indy’s shoulders. She didn’t push it away, so he took that as a hopeful sign.
They rode through the Paris streets in silence this time. Indy sat next to him but she was a world away.
If he tried to explain his interrogation of Margot, he’d open himself up to having to explain that other time, so long ago, in the garden.
She was angry, and her anger was an offering, a way out.
The easy way out. The selfish way.
He had to tell her. He had to confess his secret. She deserved an explanation for why he’d chosen his family, and service to his country, over her love.
He must find the words, must suppress the conditioning that screamed inside his head that an agent never confessed, never admitted to anything.
“She means nothing to me, Indy,” he said softly.
“She used to be your lover.”
“Yes, she did.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“I didn’t think it was relevant to our quest. Tonight I wanted to speak with her alone about her amour with Sir Charles.”
“You left me with Le Triton.”
“I thought that was the plan. You wanted to speak with him.”
“That was the plan, until I realized how right you were. The man is . . . unsettling to say the least. There’s an almost palpable corruption in every word he says and every move he makes.”
“I shouldn’t have left you alone with him.”
“I volunteered for the duty.”
“I would have returned within the next five minutes. How did the conv
ersation go?”
“Not as planned. Instead of inviting you to his house, he invited me. And he asked me to come alone. I think he was trying to seduce me.” She shuddered. “It was horrible.”
“Don’t even think about it. I’m not sending you in there alone.”
“I can do the reconnaissance just as well as you. I’ll see how many guards he has, where they are situated, where the stone could be kept.”
“I won’t let you do it.”
“Oh we’re back to this, are we? He’s not going to murder me, not when he knows you’re waiting for me to come home.”
“He might murder you.”
“You said yourself that no one has been invited into his fortress. I just received an invitation into his lair. What was I supposed to do? You were off with Miss Delacroix and Le Triton wasn’t interested in purchasing the necklace.”
“I’m not faulting you, I think you did a wonderful job.”
“But you don’t trust me to finish the job I started.”
“I don’t trust Le Triton. There’s a very big difference.”
“I don’t think there is.”
Raven pressed his fingers to her lips. The carriage had taken a wrong turn.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“The carriage turned the wrong way.”
“It’s probably a shortcut we don’t know about.
“There’s only one way to reach Montrouge and this is not it. This isn’t Lady Catherine’s carriage. We’ve been misled. Prepare yourself,” he said tersely. “The carriage is slowing.”
“Prepare for what?”
“For a fight,” he said grimly. “You have your hidden dagger at the ready?”
She nodded.
The carriage slowed and stopped. There were no lights or sounds.
The door opened.
“Out of the carriage, both of you,” a rough voice said in French. “And hands where I can see them.”
Chapter 21
Raven counted five enemy combatants, though there could be more men in that nearby copse of trees. His mind went to that cold, efficient place it had been trained to go. Kill or be killed.
Head down and plow through the enemy line.
He’d protect Indy with his life. “What do you want?” he asked the enormous man who’d made them leave the carriage. He must be nearly seven foot tall.
“Don’t play coy.” The man raised his pistol and pointed it at Raven’s head. “Surrender your weapon and hand over the diamond.”
“Le Triton decided he didn’t want to pay?” asked Raven.
“That’s not your concern,” said the giant with the pistol.
Indy caught Raven’s eye. The moon was shining overhead. For a split second he marveled at how beautiful she was by moonlight, then he returned to the task at hand.
Four hulking men and the groom, who was no more than a boy and hovered near the carriage as if he wanted no part in the violence.
Raven reached behind his back but raised his hands again when the man cocked his pistol and pointed it at Indy.
“No sudden movements,” the man growled.
“I’m surrendering my weapon,” said Raven.
The man jerked his head. “Do it, then.”
Raven pulled the pistol from the back of his waistband and threw it across the ground toward the man.
The man gestured with his pistol at Indy. “Where’s the purple diamond? Not around her pretty neck anymore. Tell me or she dies.”
“I stuffed the necklace down my bodice,” said Indy boldly. “Come and find it.”
Raven’s first reaction was to try to silence her, to physically place himself in front of her, shield her from their attackers.
Then he realized what she was doing.
Men always underestimate me, she’d told him.
He’d been underestimating her.
She was bringing them closer, within striking range. He caught her eye and gave her a swift nod of encouragement.
“Why don’t you both have a search, my fine fellows?” she said in French. She shrugged out of his jacket and it dropped to the ground with the Wish Diamond in the pocket.
She wiggled her chest. “I have enough for both of you.”
“Search her and be quick about it,” said the man with the pistol who was obviously the leader.
“Don’t mind if I do,” said his associate with a nasty sneer that curdled Raven’s blood.
Indy lifted her hem and posed her leg. She caught Raven’s eye. The dagger must be tucked inside her garter.
“And search him for weapons,” the leader said.
The two men approached warily and their leader covered them with his pistol.
“On my count,” Raven whispered to Indy. “Back to back. Stay low. Roll to the ground.”
She made no move, not even a twitch of her eye. She remained focused on distracting the men with her body.
The men drew near. The giant with the pistol moved closer to keep watch, and one man stayed back.
The groom remained near the carriage. Raven decided he wasn’t a threat, too young. He could see from the way he held himself that he wanted no part of the fight. Probably a son or nephew of one of the men, not a hardened criminal yet.
“Don’t try anything, or I’ll drill you with a bullet,” said the leader.
“She’s a prime article, isn’t she?” Raven asked the two men. “Better than you’ll ever have.”
“We’ll have her and the diamond and we’ll tie you up so you can watch.”
Like hell they would.
“Now,” Raven whispered.
He and Indy moved back to back. She drew her blade in a flash of silver and slashed at one of the men. Raven’s fist crashed into a jawbone. There was the cracking sound of a pistol firing but Indy was low to the ground, slashing at the man’s hamstrings, and Raven was shielded by the bulk of the man he’d knocked out.
He threw the man off and lunged for the leader. He knocked away the man’s pistol and turned to deliver a kick to the fourth man’s head. The man fell easily.
The giant was another story. He roared a battle cry and threw himself at Raven.
The man was no thick wit. He’d been trained. Probably one of Le Triton’s elite guard force. Raven wasn’t able to see what was happening to Indy with her opponent because he had his hands full with the towering giant, whose fists were the size of Raven’s head.
Raven kept landing blows and the giant just kept coming.
He locked his elbow around Raven’s neck.
“Here you, move your arse here and fight like a man,” the giant called to the groom, who was watching with a stricken expression on his pale face.
Raven jabbed his elbow into the giant’s kidneys and broke free. “Stay right there, boy, and I won’t slit your throat,” he croaked.
The boy wavered.
“I’ll stick you myself for being a dog coward,” said the giant, between blows to Raven’s ears. “Go help Antoine with the fancy piece. She’s got a knife and she knows how to use it.”
“I won’t attack a lady,” said the boy.
The giant spat out a tooth. “You won’t make it far in life, then.”
Raven risked a swift glance at Indy. She had the man down on the ground with her knife at his throat.
He and the giant exchanged another round of blows. Raven staggered. If he could find a way to use the pocket watch with the sleeping powder inside, he could fell this Goliath, but the man wasn’t exactly giving Raven any room to breathe.
Out of the corner of his eye Raven caught a flash of purple silk.
His vision narrowed. Land a blow on the giant’s nose and move in for the kill.
This was why she never wore tight bodices and puffed sleeves. She couldn’t take full breaths in this infernal corset. At least she’d worn her boots, one of which was currently crushing her assailant’s windpipe.
“Stop moving or I’ll slit your throat,” she said coldly. She pressed down harder with
her boot.
The man whimpered. He wasn’t going to stop fighting if she released him. So she did what she had to do.
She drove her knife into the heavy canvas of his trousers, grazing his thigh just deep enough to make him shriek with pain but not to permanently wound him. She shoved the dagger deep into the ground with her boot, trapping the man down.
She finished him off with a swift kick to the groin.
Raven had already felled two men and was working on the final threat, the towering man who had ordered them out of the carriage.
Raven’s pistol lay on the ground only a few feet away. She darted forward.
“Stop, or I’ll shoot this pistol,” she shouted.
Both men stopped swinging and turned to face her.
“Not if I kill you first,” roared the giant and barreled toward her.
She fired. The bullet struck his knee. He fell to the ground, howling in pain and clutching at his knee.
Raven finished him off with a blow to his head. The giant finally lay silent.
She lowered the pistol. Her hands were shaking so badly she was afraid she might injure herself. Raven was at her side. He took the pistol.
There was blood all over the man’s knee and on the ground.
She’d shot a man. But she hadn’t killed him. He’d live if he received medical attention.
“Are you all right?” asked Raven.
She attempted to smile but her lips were frozen. “I think so.” She glanced at the scene before them. Three men down, the fourth lay behind them. “Where’s the lad?” she asked.
“I’m here!” The boy who had posed as the groom sat atop a carriage horse he’d unhitched. “And I’ve got the diamond.” He waved the necklace like a flag. He flashed them a grin and set off at a gallop into the night.
“After him,” shouted Indy, running for the horses.
“Stop.” He caught her arm. “You could be injured.”
“But he’s escaping with the diamond.”
“Let him go. What I want to know is whether you’re all right.”
“A few scratches and bruises. My attacker is far worse off.” He was still stuck to the ground with her knife, and he’d fainted dead away.
“You were very brave.”
“They don’t call me Lady Danger for nothing.” She lifted her hand to his face and her fingers came away soaked with blood. “You’re the one who’s injured.”