Promise Me Tomorrow (24 page)

“Sir George Merridale. Oh, but, Justin…”

“I know. If Sir George were capable of killing, surely he would have done in Sophronia years ago.”

Marianne had to smile. “One would think so.”

She realized as she looked at Justin that it had grown much harder to see him. The dark was closing in on them. She cast a quick, frightened glance at the barrier formed by the cave-in. The light coming in the chinks and cracks was much paler, almost gone.

“’Tis almost night,” she said, with an involuntary shiver.

Justin quickly took her in his arms again. “It won’t be so bad. At least we are together. And it has been some time since I heard the timbers creaking. They are going to hold. Tomorrow they will find us. You can count on it.”

It felt good in his arms. Marianne wanted to believe his words. She closed her eyes, shutting out the increasingly dim cave in which they sat.
What did it matter that the place would soon be utterly black?
Justin would be there, she reminded herself; she would have his strength and comfort.

Still, she could not completely repress the flutter of fear that moved through her as a darkness more complete than anything she had ever seen settled upon them. Justin, as if sensing her fright, launched into a long, amusing story concerning a trip to inspect a horse that he had once taken with Bucky. It had been, if he was to believed, a journey fraught with more silly mistakes and mishaps than would occur to most people in a year. She suspected that he was making large portions of it up, but she could not help but chuckle at the pictures he described.

Finally, however, the story wound down, and they settled into silence once again. Justin lay down, cradling Marianne in his arms, and she closed her eyes, hoping that sleep would take her away until light was once more filtering through the timbers.

But sleep did not come easily. Her body was tense, and the ground was very hard beneath them. Clods of dirt and little rocks that she had not noticed before now seemed to press into her flesh in many places. Worst of all, her stomach was rumbling with hunger, and her mouth felt parched. Another, more unmentionable, need was pressing her, also, and she had no idea what to do about it.

Suddenly there was a scraping sound outside, and Marianne shot up to a sitting position, all annoyances forgotten. “What was that?”

Justin sat up beside her, saying in a whisper, “I don’t know.”

Hurriedly they jumped up and began to dress. After a moment, there was another noise, then the whinny of a horse.

“Oh.” Justin relaxed, his voice disappointed. “’Tis only my horse. Well, at least we know that he has stayed put.”

They were about to lie down again when a voice came from outside, muffled by the dirt and timbers, “Hallo! Is anyone there?”

Justin and Marianne turned toward one another, hope warring with fear inside them.
Had rescue arrived? Or was this the killer, returned to make sure that he had finished her?

T
HE MAN’S VOICE CAME AGAIN
,
“Can you hear me? Is someone in there?”

It did not sound familiar to Marianne, but muffled as it was by the barrier between them, she could not be sure. Justin cupped his hands around his mouth and called back, “Yes. There are two of us in here!”

Turning to Marianne, he murmured, “I would rather face him, if it is the killer, than stay in here.”

Marianne nodded in agreement.

“Say it again!” The voice was louder now, just outside the entrance. “I couldn’t understand you! Are you inside the mine?”

“Yes! It collapsed on us!”

“Devil a bit!” came the answer, and there was the sound of shifting dirt and rock.

“Careful!” Justin shouted. “When we tried to dig out before, it collapsed on us a second time.”

“I hear you. I will go carefully,” the cheerful voice assured him. “Perhaps you might want to stand back a bit.”

Justin pulled Marianne back, and they stood in a fever of impatience, listening to the sounds of the man digging. There was a loud crack, and they jumped back, glancing around them anxiously. They could hear the soft sound of dirt sifting down onto the ground, but in the stygian dark, they could see nothing. Marianne swallowed hard and grasped Justin’s hand more tightly.

There was a scraping and a thump outside, followed by a muffled curse, then the voice said pleasantly, “Sorry! Rock fell on my foot.”

More sounds of digging followed before a faint shape showed in the barrier, about a foot long, paler than the blackness around it. A moment later a face appeared at the hole, or at least the eyes and nose of a face, indistinct in the dark. It disappeared, and a moment later, a lantern was held up, casting in blessed light, and the face edged in beside the lantern.

“There you are!” A white grin split the man’s face. He was a stranger to Justin and Marianne, a handsome man from what little they could see of him, with dark, merry eyes and a generous, mobile mouth. “There is a lady with you?”

“Yes. We’re terribly glad to see you,” Justin told him, stepping forward. “We tried to move these timbers, but they were too heavy. Perhaps if I push while you pull…”

“Of course.”

Their rescuer set down his lantern, and the two men began to work together, their movements slow and cautious, mindful of the unstable quality of the barrier.

Gradually the opening widened, but it was still blocked by several timbers. There was some debate about which timber could be moved without bringing down the remainder of the entrance on their heads, and finally they settled on one, which was too heavy and wedged in too tightly for the two men to move it. The stranger left and returned a few moments later with a rope, which they lashed around the timber, and he used his horse to slowly pull the timber forward while Justin tried to brace the other timbers to make sure they did not fall, as well. There was an ominous crack as the log shifted suddenly and the timbers resettled. A few rocks tumbled down, and dirt spilled on the ground, but nothing came crashing down.

Justin breathed out a sigh of relief and turned to Marianne with barely suppressed excitement. “There is enough room now. Come.”

He held out his hand, and Marianne went to him quickly. Her hand on Justin’s shoulder to steady her, she climbed up onto another timber and slid her upper torso out the opened hole. The man outside pulled her the rest of the way out and set her on the ground, then turned to help Justin climb through. Marianne sank to the ground, her knees suddenly like water in the aftermath of fear and excitement, and watched as Justin’s head and shoulders squeezed through the hole. His passage was more difficult because of his weight and the breadth of his shoulders, and a timber slanted across his body creaked and slid back several inches, causing a shower of dirt and pebbles to spill over him. But in the next instant he was clear of the debris, the stranger staggering back as he took most of Justin’s weight.

The two men collapsed onto the ground beside Marianne, panting, sweat gleaming on their skin in the lantern light. Justin stretched out flat on his back, looking up at the night sky, where an almost full moon hung low on the horizon and bright specks of stars were scattered across the darkness.

“Nothing has ever looked as good as that,” he remarked, and he reached out to take Marianne’s hand and squeezed it.

Their rescuer grinned. “I’ll warrant that’s true.”

He was a tall man, with long, muscled legs and shoulders as broad as Justin’s. His hair, like his eyes, was black, and his face was squarish, with a strong jaw and razor-sharp cheekbones. He was dressed simply in boots, a dark shirt and trousers.

“I cannot thank you enough.” Justin extended his hand to the other man. “I am Justin, Lord Lambeth, and this is Mrs. Cotterwood.”

“My name is Jack,” the other man replied briefly, reaching out to shake Justin’s hand. “And you are quite welcome. It is fortunate that I happened by. I saw your horse standing loose, reins trailing, so I decided to investigate.”

“Yes, it is fortunate. I wouldn’t imagine that there is much traffic along here, especially at night.” Justin watched the other man steadily.

“I’m sure not,” Jack agreed pleasantly. “What happened? Were you exploring the mine? How did you get caught in there?”

“I’m not sure,” Justin hedged. “Mrs. Cotterwood stepped inside—just barely beyond the entrance. Then the entrance partially collapsed, and when I went in to help her, the rest of it caved in on us.”

“Never knew it was so shaky,” the man said lightly, and his eyes returned speculatively to the fallen pile.

“I think it was helped along,” Justin told him grimly.

The other man turned to him, eyes narrowing. “The devil you say! Beg pardon, Mrs. Cotterwood.” He ran a hand back through his black hair. “What makes you think that?”

“I heard a bang as I was riding. I wasn’t sure what the noise was, but after I saw the cave-in, I was inclined to think that it was an explosion I heard.”

Jack’s eyes went from Justin to Marianne and back. “Why would someone want to do that?” he asked quietly.

“We don’t know. But it appears that someone was either very careless or wanted Mrs. Cotterwood to be harmed.”

“Why would anyone want that?”

“We don’t know. What do you think?”

The man’s eyebrows vaulted upward in exaggerated amazement, and he grinned. “Me? Why, I have no opinion on it. How could I? I scarcely know the lady.”

“Mmm. I thought you might have some familiarity with the mine,” Justin responded. “I mean, considering that you were riding by it.”

Jack’s grin broadened. “It is on my way home. But I don’t know much about it except that it has been abandoned for years.”

“An abandoned mine could be handy,” Justin commented.

Marianne looked at Justin in puzzlement. He seemed to be hinting at something, and the other man’s watchful, amused expression conveyed that he, at least, had some idea what Justin meant.

“I suppose it could be,” he replied. “I wouldn’t know, now would I? But I seriously doubt that its usefulness would in any way endanger the lady.”

“Well, I am sure there is no way of telling why it collapsed,” Justin went on. “I wouldn’t think it would be worth the effort of digging it out to investigate.”

“I am sure,” Jack agreed, his dark eyes dancing. “If by chance anyone should, I’m thinking there wouldn’t be anything inside it.”

Justin smiled. “I am sure there would not be.” He rose, and Jack did, too. He reached out to shake Jack’s hand again. “You have my eternal gratitude, sir. It would have been far easier, I am sure, not to stop and help us. I am staying with Lord Buckminster—we are good friends. Should you ever have need of my help—or Lord Buckminster’s—I assure you that you have it.”

Jack gave him a brief nod. “Thank you. I will remember that.”

“Now, I think,
we
should get back to Buckminster, and no doubt you have business you need to attend to, as well.”

The man made a noncommittal noise and turned toward Marianne, who had stood up when the men did, aware of the strange undercurrents of their conversation but still unsure what had occasioned them. “Mrs. Cotterwood. It was a pleasure to meet you. I cannot imagine why anyone should try to harm you.”

“Thank you.” Marianne gave her hand to him and smiled warmly. “I cannot begin to express my gratitude.”

He grinned and gave her an audacious wink. “Why, that beautiful smile is thanks enough.”

With that, he turned and picked up his lantern. Blowing it out, he hooked it onto the saddlebags behind his saddle and mounted his horse. With a nod, he nudged the animal in the sides and was gone.

Justin turned and went to his horse, taking the reins and spending some time patting its neck and praising it. Marianne stood for a moment, looking into the dark where their rescuer had disappeared, then walked over to Justin.

“What was that all about?”

“All what?”

“Those odd comments you made. You and that man seemed to be having a second, silent conversation that I was not privy to.”

“There is something havey-cavey about him,” Justin replied. “Why would anybody be out here by Wheal Sarah at this time of night? And why did he carry a lantern with him? There’s a full moon—plenty of light to pick one’s way across the landscape. You’ll notice he was not using it as he rode. He blew it out before he got on his horse.”

Marianne frowned. “Perhaps he needed it where he was going.”

“Precisely,” Justin agreed. “And where was he going?”

“You think he was going to go into the mine?” Marianne guessed. “But why? Surely you don’t think he is the one who pushed me in, do you? That he is the one who was asking about me, who has been trying to kill me?”

Justin shrugged. “It’s a possibility, though I think it’s unlikely.”

“But he couldn’t have pushed me into the river. And if he had knocked me over the head and made the mine cave in over me, why would he have dug us out?”

“I’m not sure. It seems unlikely that he could be the man we were talking about. But if you had happened onto something he wanted to keep secret, he could, in a moment of panic have knocked you out, then decided upon reflection that he had acted foolishly and would only bring worse trouble down on his head by killing you. So he returned to see if you had died and, if not, rescue you, thereby removing himself from suspicion.”

“But why would I suspect him, anyway? I have never even seen the man before. And I didn’t happen upon anything. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“It is my guess that that man is part of the gang of highwaymen that Lady Buckminster and her friends were talking about the other day.”

“Who? Oh! You mean when we went to the Falls! They were talking about a gang that has been preying on local travelers.”

“Yes. And they call the leader ‘The Gentleman.’ He seemed rather a gentleman, didn’t he? As well-spoken and mannered as you or I, but I know most of the gentry who live around here from having visited Bucky often, and he was no one I recognized.”

“It was odd that he did not give his last name,” Marianne commented, understanding Justin’s reasoning. “And he was dressed all in dark clothes, quite appropriate for someone who does not wish to be seen in the dark.”

“Did you notice his horse? Good horseflesh. I’ll wager he’s swift. But rather nondescript looking. Black without a single marking upon him.”

“Again difficult to see at night…and difficult to identify.”

“Exactly.”

“Amazing. But I still don’t understand what you were saying about his perhaps knocking me out—that I might have seen something—”

“It’s my guess that his gang has been using that mine, probably to store some of their loot. It hasn’t been used in years, no one has any reason to go in there, so it would be a safe place. If he came upon you and thought you were snooping around and had perhaps seen some of their things, he could have panicked and knocked you in the head. But I don’t think that is the case.”

“Not unless he happened to be carrying explosives around with him with which to make the entrance cave in.”

“Good point,” Justin allowed with a grin. “He was probably coming over here to check on their goods or add something to them. That would explain his carrying a lantern so that he could see inside the mine. When he arrived, he found—to his great surprise, no doubt—that the mine entrance had collapsed—and that there was a horse outside, indicating that someone had been inside the mine when it happened.”

“That makes it rather noble to have dug us out, then, thinking that we might have seen what he had in there and would possibly report it to the authorities,” Marianne remarked.

“I agree. That is why I told him that we were not planning on re-entering the mine to investigate. I wanted him to know that I intended to keep his secret.”

“So he let you know, in turn, that he would get any evidence out before anyone could investigate, anyway.”

“Yes.”

“When you told him to call on your help if he was in trouble, you meant that if he were caught or something—”

“I would do whatever I could to help. I wanted him to know that he could use my name—or Bucky’s, since he is better known around here than I.”