Twice Tempted (23 page)

Have answers. At your disposal.

He pulled out his watch, which did nothing but remind him of the locket he had in his other pocket. All of the papers and books he hadn’t had a chance to peruse yet.

The threat to Fiona and Mairead.

“I have some messages to send, Soames.”

*  *  *

If she had been there for any other reason, Fiona would have been completely charmed by Chuffy Wilde’s house, with the wainscoted hallways that meandered up and down any number of staircases, the mullioned glass windows, and the flagstone floors. Even the garden out back was dear, a hodgepodge of paths and hibernating fountains to enrich what Fiona suspected was a quintessential English garden.

She so wished she could see it in high summer, with its lavender and hollyhocks and daisies, its marigolds and lupin and foxglove, crowded about one another like debs at a season squeeze. Now it was cold and silent and spare, the gardeners efficient in their work. The bees were asleep and the birds flown, except for a few raspy crows, and the little cement benches seeped cold through her clothing.

She was still so tired. The nightmare had effectively killed any hope of sleep. She felt restless and impatient, as if she were holding her breath. As if the world around her were holding its breath, waiting for some upheaval.

Nobody else seemed to notice it. Fiona could see Lady Bea sitting in the lady’s salon, with its hand-painted wallpaper that ran riot with violets and pansies and primrose, its overstuffed chintz sofas and cheerful fire, a piece of embroidery in her hands covered in black-and-yellow bumblebees. The old woman was humming to herself, her head rocking a bit, as if she were hearing the music in her head, and the afternoon light gleamed in her silver hair.

Fiona knew that Mairead had sought out Chuffy, ostensibly to discuss the telescope. Fiona had seen them outside no more than an hour earlier, measuring angles and checking skycharts. Fiona looked up to see clouds scudding in from the west. If those did not clear by sunset, it would be a very long evening indeed.

If Alex didn’t return tonight, she wasn’t certain how she would sleep. But if he did, she wasn’t at all certain she wanted to. She unconsciously ran her forefinger across her lower lip, as if she could re-create the delicious texture of Alex’s kiss that morning. As if she could call him up to continue it. To expand on it, until her breasts ached and her knees lost their support. Until, just for a few moments, she could rest within a strong pare of arms.

She closed her eyes briefly and relived that moment. That sharp, hard kiss that betrayed so much more than Alex had thought it did.

She had so few dreams left. Her future was written, a place where she would spend her days creating a safe haven from which Mairead could set her stars to dancing. Even her brother’s return could not change that. Ian loved them; Fiona knew that. He would do his best to help. But Ian had never had to deal with Mairead. He wouldn’t know how to calm her furies and soothe her fears. Soon he would have a family of his own to shepherd, his attention captured by growing children and an ascent to the highest ranks of the aristocracy. His sisters, long since strangers, would drift into the background once more.

And never again would anyone hold her the way Alex had, just for a moment, imparting strength and warmth and understanding, his body wrapped around hers, offering sanctuary. Life. Promise. Alex hadn’t meant to; she knew that, too. But with that one act, he had done for her body what he’d long since done for her poor heart: woken it to astonishing and painful life.

She knew she should avoid him. Refuse his touch, his embrace. The nerve-sapping wonder of his kisses. She needed to protect herself just as much as she ever did from wanting too much. From expecting too much.

Couldn’t she just once think only of herself, though? Couldn’t she take this brief moment and fulfill one dream? He wouldn’t love her, not the way she wanted. He couldn’t. But would it be so awful to ask him to pretend, for no more than a night, that she was just like him? That she had been raised in a country estate, just as he had, with servants and kind parents and a lock for the front door? That she had a right to feel love, respect, friendship? That she deserved his love?

She sat where she was for a long time, the cold seeping into her bones, her throat clogged with tears she refused to let fall, her chest hot with grief for what would never be. For what she had never allowed herself to want until Alex had knocked on the front door of her school.

Her school, which was gone, too. She didn’t have the money to fix it, and she had nowhere else to take it. She and Mairead would have to start again.

If it weren’t for Mairead, Fiona would have gotten up from the bench and just started walking. If it weren’t for Mairead, she would have had no past and no purpose. If not for Mairead, she would have been alone.

As if she had called her sister to her, Fee suddenly realized that she had been hearing Mairead’s voice for the last few minutes, and that it was rising. It was when Fiona heard her sister scream, “Fee! Make him stop!!” that she jumped up and ran into the house.

The staff were all caught in a gaggle by the green baize door, as if wary of wild animals. Fiona fought the sharp edge of frustration. Couldn’t Mae rest even for a minute? At least it sounded as if Chuffy was giving as good as he got, which stunned her more than Mae Mae’s tantrum.

She slammed into the breakfast room to see the two of them faced off in front of a table full of papers and books, red-faced and screaming at each other.

“You don’t have any right!” Mairead shrieked at him, all but wringing the skin from her hands, a sure sign of panic. “You don’t! You don’t, and I won’t let you.”

“You’re the one with no right!” Chuffy yelled, his hands on his hips, his head pushed pugnaciously forward, his glasses completely missing. “How dare you hold valuable information from us? Don’t you know what that means?”

“It means it’s mine, it’s mine, it’s
mine
! I solved it, not you. It was my gift, not yours. You can’t
have
it!”

Chuffy actually shoved a hand through his hair. “You have to
listen
to me, damn it. Don’t you realize that people could die? People
are
dying, and you stand there acting like a petulant child? It’s unconscionable!”

It took that long for Fiona to overcome the paralysis of shock. She had never seen Chuffy upset before, but he was impressive. She swore he was several inches taller, staring right into Mairead’s wild eyes. And he wasn’t backing down, or soothing her rage or apologizing.

Well, good for him.

“Children,” she said, stepping into the room and shutting the door. “The staff are beginning to complain. They’re afraid that you’ll put the cows off their milk.”

Both whipped around at her and began to shout at once. Chuffy looked impatient and frustrated. Mae looked panicked. This was something big.

Stepping into the room, Fiona caught hold of Mairead’s hands. “We won’t get anywhere by screaming at each other.” Mae’s hands were wet, which meant that she was terrified. Shaking and cold. The first thing Fiona did was meet her sister eye-to-eye and just hold her still. Just ease her away from the brink. “Let us sit and talk, shall we?”

It was as she was settling Mae into one of the chairs that Fiona realized where Chuffy’s glasses had gone. He was bending to pick them up from the floor.

“Now,” she said, letting go of Mae. “Chuffy. It seems you want something.”

Mae bounced up like a jack-in-the-box. “He can’t
have
them. Didn’t you hear me?”

Fiona stared her down. “The curate down at church heard you, Mae. Now sit down before I take away your right to choose. Because you know I will.”

For a long moment Mae stood faced off with her, face red, eyes restless. Just as abruptly she sat. Chuffy shoved his hair into odd little peaks again. Fiona wasn’t as surprised anymore that Mae reached over and patted them down.

“The word puzzles Lady Mairead got from her grandfather,” he said. “I think they might be important.”

Fiona blinked. “Important? Why? They were games. Besides, those are long gone. We’ve played them for years.”

Chuffy turned those puppy-dog eyes at her, and she felt something catch in her chest. Suddenly he reminded her of Alex.

“I believe Miss Mairead still has them,” he said. Mairead was stone-faced. Chuffy ignored her. “And I don’t think they are games.”

He lifted a page with the familiar letters all gathered into groups of four. “This is from the last puzzle she was working on.”

“He
stole
it,” Mairead protested, wiggling in her seat.

“Copied it down,” he said, the mottled red leaching from his face. “Part of it.”

“Yes,” Fiona said, her hand on Mae’s shoulder. “I saw you do it. But why?”

He lifted another paper and handed it to her. “Because it looks like other…puzzles I’ve been working on. Ciphers.”

Fiona’s head snapped up, the paper forgotten in her hand. “My grandfather is deeply involved in the government,” she said. “Couldn’t these be from them?”

Chuffy shook his head. “I don’t believe so. The government uses a different method. This—” He pointed to the paper. “This seems to need a cipher key.”

“The key doesn’t work,” Mairead snapped, reaching for the first paper, the one with the copied puzzle on it.

Fiona looked over. “What key?” she asked. “We don’t have a key.”

Mairead blinked up at her. “This one did. In the watch.”

Fee felt her heart stumble and speed up. “What watch, Mae?”

“You’re holding that back, too?” Chuffy demanded.

Fiona spun on him and glared. “One thing at a time, please,” she said, her voice admirably calm. “That way we have a better chance of getting everything we want.”

“No, you won’t,” Mae retorted, her head down.

Fiona faced her and waited until Mae’s head came up. “The watch, Mae Mae.”

For a moment, Mae just glared at her, as if Fiona had called her a liar. Then, huffing, she reached into the pocket of her ubiquitous apron and pulled out a beautiful chased gold pocket watch.

Fiona gasped. “My God, Mae. Where did you get that?”

Mae looked at the gleaming case. “Where I found the puzzle. Two puzzles, really. I solved the other one. Not this one, though. I don’t think this is the key.”

Gently Chuffy took the watch from her and held it up. “A Tudor rose,” he said, pointing to the engraving.

Fiona nodded. “Part of the family crest. The Haweses were very Tudorish.”

She didn’t miss Chuffy’s reaction, a quick, brief frown. He didn’t say anything, though. He slid a nail beneath the watch case and snicked it open to reveal more engraving.

“Well, that tears it,” Chuffy muttered.

“
Non omnis moriar?
” Fiona asked. “What does it mean?”

“‘Not all of me shall die.’ We think it is one of the keys.”

Fiona swung around to her sister. “Where did you get that watch, Mae?”

Mairead blinked a couple of times and looked around, as if it would help her find the answer. “The stables. In one of the stalls. I think it fell.”

Chuffy closed his eyes and pinched his nose. Fiona felt the weight of Mae’s revelations squeeze all the air from her lungs. “What ciphers are you working on, Chuffy?” She lifted the paper. “Why is this important?”

He sighed and looked down at the group of papers he had laid across the table. “We believe they are from a group of traitors.”

Fiona couldn’t breathe. The implications of his words simply clogged her throat. “Traitors. Lions? You think my grandfather is a
Lion
?”

“I don’t know. But we need to find out.”

But she wasn’t even thinking about that. The true import of what Chuffy was saying hit, and it dropped her to a chair with a plop. “Sweet God. Are you telling me that Mae and I decoded messages for a group that wants to overthrow the throne?”

She looked up, praying Chuffy would smile and say, no, of course not.

He didn’t have to say a word. Fiona was truly afraid she would vomit.

She turned back to Mairead. “Do you really have the puzzles, Mae? Still?”

Mae looked down at her hands, and Fee could see they shook. How could she not know if Mairead had kept those puzzles over the years?

“Mae, please.”

“No.” Fiona recognized her sister’s expression. It was implacable. “No. I don’t. I lied. I don’t have anything but…but
these
.” And she swung her hand across the papers on the table.

“Those are mine,” Chuffy said.

Fiona could see why he recognized Mae’s puzzle. Each piece of paper had the same rows of letters, all separated into groups of four.

“These are ciphers,” she said, and waited for his nod. “And the keys?”

Chuffy sighed and ran his fingers across the leather cover of a small book. “Are you sure you want to get involved?”

“I think we already are,” she said. “Besides, it will help pass the time while we must remain in quarantine.”

Mae was still rocking on her feet. Fiona didn’t want to add that if indeed Mae had kept some of their grandfather’s puzzles, it couldn’t hurt to distract her until she felt more like handing them over. Fortunately, Chuffy seemed to understand.

“I can’t seem to find a pattern,” he admitted.

Mairead cocked an eyebrow at him. “There is always a pattern.”

“Not these,” Chuffy said, pulling out a chair for her.

She sat, her attention already on the papers.

If Chuffy had thought all day, he couldn’t have found a better way to distract both of them. He was right. There didn’t seem to be a pattern. Not one Fiona recognized, anyway. Scooting her chair closer, Fiona pulled a pad of paper over and went to work.

“I am better at seeing patterns,” Mae said with pride. “Fee prefers the frequency theory.”

“You say the words in the watch might be a key,” Fiona said, trying to pick patterns out of the seemingly random letters. “If they don’t work, there must be others.”

Chuffy was rubbing at his nose as he leaned over the table. “Won’t go any further. I know.”