Laurie Brown

by Hundreds of Years to Reform a Rake

  “Two.”

  “Right hand. So we go left.” She turned and started walking.

  “Why left if I picked your right hand? What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing. Just a silly method for choosing a direction. Like flipping a coin.”

  “If I had said ‘left’ to your first question, would you have gone right?”

  “Probably.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. Now I’ve lost count of my steps.

  How far until we find a passageway?”

  The ghost was silent.

  She started counting over. At forty steps she paused.“Stop pouting. Shouldn’t we have hit a passage by now?”

  “I am not sulking. I am working on producing a light. Can you see anything yet?”

  “No.” She continued walking. Suddenly, her hand moved into thin air, surprising her so that she stumbled to her knees. She felt around with her hands, almost afraid to believe. “Steps! Uneven, rough-hewn real stone steps.” She blinked away tears and stifled the urge to rush up them.“We did it.We found a passage.”

  “Where do you suppose it goes?”

  “Like I care?” She climbed, careful with her footing and keeping her hand on the wall for balance. No way did she want to repeat her earlier tumble down the steps. “It’s not the passage to the library, because those steps were made of wood.

  These are very uneven and feel like solid rock.”

  The passage suddenly narrowed. “Something’s different. This wall doesn’t feel like stone. Plaster maybe.Why would anyone build...”

  “By Jove, I think I’ve got it!”

  She automatically turned toward his voice. After the stygian darkness, the tiny pinprick of light Deverell produced blinded Josie like the sun. She quickly raised her arm to cover her squinting eyes and stepped back. Her foot slipped.

  Terrified of falling again, she shoved her back up against the wall. The old plaster and lathe construction disintegrated under her weight. Leaving her sitting in an alcove. Next to a skeleton.The gruesome bones were clad in a dingy white wig and the tattered shreds of what was once a green brocade gown.

  Josie screamed and struggled to stand, but her knees were draped over the remains of the wall. In her attempt to get away, she elbowed the skeleton in the ribs and the skull fell into her lap. With another scream, she batted it aside and crawled out of the alcove. She scrambled on hands and knees to the other side of the passage. Shaking too much to run, she pulled her legs up, covered her face, and cowered against the other wall.

  “Would you look at that.”

  “No.”

  “But you must. It must be Robert’s mistress.

  Look.”

  “No. I don’t want to.”

  “Or for heaven’s sake, it’s just old bones.Where’s that scientific bravado?”

  Past her first shock, her breathing retuned almost to normal. She peeked through her fingers.

  “Ohmigod.” She dropped her hands and stared.

  The now headless skeleton wore an elaborate necklace, a huge square-cut emerald surrounded by diamonds hung between the rib bones. Smaller emeralds, similarly set and linked together, looped up and around the top of the backbone.The unfortunate mistress also wore the matching bracelet and ring—a bit dusty, but still obviously a fortune.

  “No wonder they never found her,” Deverell said. “Do you suppose Robert killed her and then put her there, or did he wall her up alive?”

  “Don’t be macabre.”

  “I’m a ghost. It comes naturally.”

  Josie stood and tentatively crossed the width of the passage. “Can you give me a little more light?

  Look at her leg.That’s a nasty break.”

  Josie examined the inside of what was left of the wall.“No bloodstains on the wood or plaster. And her fingernails aren’t broken as they probably would be if she’d been walled up alive and tried to claw her way out.”

  “Oh.” He sounded disappointed.

  “I’m no detective, but logically, it appears she fell down the stairs and broke her leg.” Josie was doubly thankful for her own good luck. “If that shattered bone broke through her skin or punctured a major vein, she probably bled to death while crawling up the stairs to get help.”

  “What about the wall?”

  “I’d say Robert found her body sometime later and interred her remains. Say he was already married to the fair Rowena. He would hardly want to produce his mistress, even dead.”

  “But why leave the emeralds?”

  “Since everyone knew she’d stolen them, if he produced the distinctive jewelry, it would be the same as producing the mistress. He was willing to give up the emeralds to save his marriage. Sort of romantic.”

  “Only a woman could twist a mistress walled up in the dungeon into something romantic.”

  Josie stepped back. “We don’t even know her name.”

  A knocking sound came from the head of the stairs far above them. “Hello? Is anybody there?” a voice called, faint but understandable.

  “Dev.” Josie turned and ran up three steps before Deverell called for her to stop.

  “Take the emeralds,” he commanded.“They will save Amelia.”

  “Ohhh.” Josie returned and whispered an apology to the hapless mistress.With a squeamish wince, she gingerly lifted off the necklace and removed the bracelet and ring without actually touching the skeleton. The earrings had fallen to the floor and were easy to pick up. Josie hiked up her skirt and knotted everything into a makeshift pouch.

  “Don’t forget the tiara,” Dev said, as she made to ascend the stairs. “It’s probably still attached to the wig.”

  Josie shook her hands, not wanting to pick up the skull.“Why didn’t the wig disintegrate like her hair?”

  “Probably made of horsehair. More durable.”

  She made a face and picked up the skull. After disentangling the tiara, she started to drop the skull, but something stopped her. Josie had had a small taste of what the mistress had gone through in the dungeon, and the other woman had not even had the comfort of a ghostly presence.

  Josie plopped the tiara on her head to have both hands free. She leaned over the remaining wall and placed the skull gently on the floor next to the hipbone, facing outward. More knocking from above urged her up the stairs.“I’m sorry about taking your emeralds, but at least you’ll get a proper burial now.”

  Josie turned away and climbed steadily toward Dev, the going made easier by Deverell’s light.

  At the top of the stairs, Josie encountered a solid wall, no door, no handle. “Dev! Open the secret panel.”

  “Josie? What are you...”

  “Never mind that now. Just get me out.” She ran her fingers over the surface and around the edges, searching for a button or a dial or a loose board or anything to indicate an opening device. “There must be a way to open the panel.”

  “What panel? Where’s the release?”

  “Look around. There should be a hidden lever or some such mechanism.”

  “Don’t worry, Josie-love. I’ll get you out,” he promised.

  And she knew he would. Relief engulfed her.

  The stress of the morning overwhelmed her, and she sank, shivering and shaking, to the floor of the small landing.

  On the other side of the wall, Dev searched desperately for the mechanism to open the unknown secret panel.How had she got behind the door? First, he’d been told by Estelle that Josie had gone into town with a relative.That in itself should have tipped him off to a problem because he hadn’t passed her on the road, but he’d been too occupied setting up his big surprise for their luncheon meeting.

  When she hadn’t arrived on time, he’d gone to her room only to be told that Dora hadn’t seen Josie since that morning and had assumed she was with him. Dora had been worried, but Dev had been angered by Josie’s disregard of other people’s feelings. He should have known better.

  He’d left Josie’s sitting room and en
countered Sadie in the hall. Literally. She’d run into him upon exiting the guest suite she’d been cleaning, sobbing that she’d heard the dungeon’s ghosts screaming and howling and threatening to drag her down to the depths if she didn’t reform her sinful ways.

  To calm her fears and stifle any wild rumors among the staff at the source, he insisted she return with him to the room. Several nearby footmen, who had avidly listened to her outrageous tale, were drafted to help her along.

  They had all heard strange noises. Dev’s first assumption was that a hapless servant had somehow managed to get caught in one of the secret passages.

  Despite being forbidden for safety reasons, the convenient shortcuts between certain rooms had occasionally been used by the lazy, soon to be former servant. Dev had not been aware of this particular passage, but then he’d never liked the confined, steep stairs and narrow hallways of the passages.

  While Sadie cowered in the corner mumbling her childhood catechism, Dev and the footmen knocked on the walls until they found one in the bedroom that returned a hollow sound. Soon after that he’d heard Josie’s voice.

  Frustrated with his inability to find the release, Dev leaned his weight against the panel, testing its thickness. When it showed no sign of giving, he turned to his helpers.“A guinea to the first man to bring me an ax.”

  Both footmen scrambled out the door.

  “Just a little longer,” Dev called to Josie.

  On the other side of the wall, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

  “I expect we only have a few minutes until Dev rescues you,” Deverell said.

  A tired smile teased the corners of her lips.And tore at his heart.

  “Josie, we have to talk.” Now, before he was transported away to who knew where. He would not likely have another chance. If he knew Dev, the man wouldn’t let Josie out of his sight for a good long while.

  She looked up at him. So lovely despite the dirty smudges and ridiculous ensemble. Deverell cursed the villains who had hurt her, and wanted desperately to soothe her cuts and bruises. He was sorely tempted to tell her what he’d figured out, that his energy level was not fading based on time. His strength was directly and inversely linked to Dev’s feelings for her. The more the man cared, the weaker the ghost became.

  “I am weakening more rapidly than anticipated,” he said.

  He was aware of where she’d spent the night; he had felt the enormous drain on his energy and the stab of unreasoning jealousy. Bloody hell. How could a man be jealous of himself?

  “We must leave by six o’clock tonight,” he said.

  “So soon? Can’t we stay a little longer?”

  Like one more night? Not her words, but he sensed her thoughts. “Absolutely not,” he said, his voice gruffer than he’d expected.

  She ducked her head.

  “The return is not without risk.” He’d softened his tone.“I must have enough energy to take us all the way back or you could wind up...in some time other than your own.”

  “And you?”

  He was headed for the bleakness of limbo regardless.“I will always be with you,” he promised.

  If only in his dreams.

  “Josie?” Dev called through the wooden panel.

  “Stand back. I’m breaking through the wall.”

  With a loud thwack, the tip of an ax head broke through the wall. The resulting stream of light put Deverell’s tiny pinprick to shame. Splinters flew as Dev attacked the wood that separated them with desperate fury. Josie curled into a ball and covered her head.

  “Six o’clock,”Deverell said.“Not a minute later.”

  And then he was gone.

  As soon as the hole in the wall was large enough, Dev reached through and lifted Josie out.

  The light nearly blinded her, and she rested her head on his shoulder as he turned away from the dungeon exit.

  He’d only taken two steps when Sadie screamed.

  “Oh God. It’s the pirate’s mistress,” she cried, awe and terror in her eyes before she fainted.

  Dev turned to the nearby footmen, both standing at attention, expressions professionally impassive. “Not a word of this to a soul,” he demanded in his most lordly voice.

  “Yes, milord,” they answered in unison.

  He glanced significantly toward the slumped maid, and the senior footman nodded in silent understanding and assurance.

  “I guess I must really look a sight,” Josie said as Dev spun and carried her out of the room with long strides. She raised her head to look at her filthy dress and her bruised and scraped arms and legs.

  “You never looked lovelier,” he said, his throat almost too dry to get the words out. He tightened his hold on her.

  She wiped away a tear and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “Come on. I look like a Halloween ghoul. I frightened Sadie into a faint.”

  He understood that she was making light of the situation in order to cope with the trauma she’d undoubtedly suffered. Although he might have shown his concern in a different manner, he followed her lead. “Probably caused by the bloody scarves.” His gut clenched. “Although the tiara is a nice touch.”

  She laughed as she raised her hand and removed the emerald crown.“I’d forgotten about this.”As he carried her down the long halls and to his suite, she told him about finding the skeleton and the lost jewelry. She fumbled with the knots she’d tied in her skirt. Fortunately, he didn’t question her ability to see in the darkness.

  “I don’t give a tinker’s damn about the emeralds,” he said, kicking his own door open. “Fetch her maid,” he said to Carson, who exhibited momentary surprise before assuming a bland expression.“Use discretion.And tell Mrs. Osman to bring her medical kit.” He didn’t bother to slow down either to offer an explanation or to see if the valet carried out his orders.

  “I don’t need medical attention,” Josie said.“I’m fine.Okay,maybe a few cuts and bruises, but I don’t need...”

  “Your head is bleeding again.”

  Dev walked directly to the bathing chamber and straight into the shower, where he finally set her down. While he turned on the tap, she gladly stripped off her filthy dress. It hit the floor with a thunk. She tossed the tiara in the same direction.

  “Hot water?” She raised one eyebrow.

  “I...uh...requested Carson to...in case we...” He gently removed the bandage from her head. “It doesn’t look too bad.”

  “Head wounds always bleed a lot. I keep telling you I’m fine.”

  He kissed her forehead near the wound.

  “And feeling better by the minute,” she added.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him close. She lifted her face for a kiss and tried not to think about leaving him.

  Their building passion was interrupted by the entrance of Mrs. Osman and Dora.

  “Here now, here now. None of that,” Mrs.

  Osman said. “At least not until we’re sure she’s all right,” she added with a wink.

  Dev backed out of the shower, pausing to whis-per,“ Later,” before turning to face the intruders.“I give her over to your tender care. I will wait in the receiving room.” He executed an elegant leg, quite a feat to pull off with aplomb when he was soaked to the skin. He left a trail of wet boot prints.

  Josie peeled off the rest of her wet clothes and washed with brisk efficiency. She had yet to tell Dev about Xavier and Estelle, and she didn’t want the villains to get word of her survival and escape.

  Wrapped in a sheet, she sat at the dressing table. Mrs. Osman insisted that Josie drink a cup of fortifying broth while the older woman applied salves and ointments and gauze bandages.

  Josie was relieved to learn she’d been correct in her assessment of her injuries.Then Dora dressed her in the clean clothes she’d brought at Carson’s request. Neither woman asked about her misadventure, and Josie didn’t volunteer any information. She asked for a moment alone, and the servants reluctantly left.

/>   Josie found a large box of shirt studs on the dresser and dumped the contents. She found her soiled dress on the shower floor under a pile of wet and filthy scarves.The emeralds and diamonds glittered in the afternoon sunlight streaming in the high windows. She threw all the pieces into the box, closed the lid, and carried it out to Dev.

  Dev sat in the chair by the window, an untouched snifter of brandy at his elbow. He’d poured the drink after changing into a brocade robe, yet his desire for the soothing warmth had cooled along with the blood rush of rescuing Josie.

  After knowing she was safe, he’d had plenty of time to think. Maybe too much time.

  Josie entered the reception room with a broad grin. She presented him with the emeralds.

  “I believe these rightly belong to you,” she said.

  He took the box but, knowing what it contained, set it unopened on the table. He picked up his drink.“They rightly belong to my mother.The family jewels pass to the lady of the house.”

  “Then let’s go give them to her.”

  He leaned back in his chair and sipped his brandy.

  “Dev?”

  “Do you want to tell me what you were doing in the secret passages? Were you searching for the emeralds? Why did you...”

  “Whoa.” She was taken aback.“Why the inquisition?” “You must admit your actions lead to certain logical...”

  “My actions?” She leaned over until her face was inches from his. “Let me tell you something, mister.” She poked her finger in his chest and related what had happened with Xavier and Estelle. By the time she finished the story, she was seated in his lap and he’d said, “I’m sorry” several times, each apology accompanied by a kiss.

  “I’ll send one of the footmen for the constable and...”

  “You’ll have to tell your mother. Unfortunately, she really believed Amanu talked to your father.”

  “Perhaps it would be best if the truth were revealed during one of those fake séances. Then she could see for herself. I’ll send her a note immediately...”

  “Later,” Josie whispered, trailing her hand along the neck of his robe and then under the silk lapel to the smooth, warm, firm surface below. “I think you owe me another...apology.”

  After a passionate kiss, she stood and pulled him to his feet.“I’m wearing a corset,” she taunted him with a seductive smile.