“Yes, my lord.”
Dobbs arrived fifteen minutes later, dapper as always. He swept off his crushed hat and seated himself across from Gideon in his customary overly familiar manner.
“Afternoon, sir. I have the guest lists you requested.” Dobbs presented a sheaf of papers. “’Tweren’t possible to get all of ’em. Some had been lost or destroyed. But I managed to get a fair number.”
“Good. Let me see what we have here.” Gideon spread the guest lists out on top of his desk. He scanned the long lists of names of people who had been invited to various houses that had experienced robberies during the Season.
“Won’t be an easy task to sort out the names of persons who was both invited to those homes and who also would have reason to know about them caves, sir.” Dobbs gestured toward the lists. “Hundreds of names to go through. The Fancy likes to give big parties.”
“I can see it will take some time.” Gideon ran his finger down one list. “I have a hunch our man is a fossil collector.”
“Don’t have to be a fossil collector, m’lord,” Dobbs said. “Could just as easily be someone who was raised in the Upper Biddleton area or who had cause to visit there.”
Gideon shook his head. “A casual visitor would not have been familiar enough with the caves to know about the cavern where we found the goods. Whoever chose that cave knew the place well. And the only reason anyone ever goes into those caves is to search for fossils.”
“If you say so. Well, then, I’ll leave these here with you and wait to hear from you concerning our next move.”
“Thank you, Dobbs. You have been most helpful.” Gideon glanced up as the little man got to his feet. “How did you manage to get so many lists?”
Dobbs’s gnomish face crinkled into a grin. “Told ’em I wanted the lists as part of my reward for returnin’ the stolen goods. They was all quick enough to hand ’em over.”
Gideon smiled. “Much cheaper than paying a cash reward, of course.”
“The Quality is quick enough to pay a fortune for a good horse or a fine piece of jewelry, but they tend to be downright close-fisted when it comes to paying for services from folks like me.” Dobbs clapped his squashed hat on his head. “But as I’m workin’ for you this time, I expect I’ll get my reward. I checked around. Yer reputation for that sort of thing is sound. Everyone says you pay yer bills and don’t try to dodge the tradesmen.”
Gideon raised his brows. “Always nice to hear one has a good reputation in some quarters.”
“In the quarters where I live, a reputation for settling accounts fair and square is the only kind of reputation that matters.”
Mr. Humboldt’s Museum was overwhelming and well worth the price of admission. His collection of fossils, skeletons, stuffed animals, and odd plants filled his entire townhouse from top to bottom. Not a single room had been spared. Even his bedroom contained exhibits and crates full of dusty skeletons, marine fossils, and other assorted items.
Harriet was thrilled when she realized the size of the museum.
“Just look at this place, Beth,” she said to her maid. She stood staring at the row of rooms on the ground floor that were filled with treasures. Visitors wandered freely from one to the next, examining and exclaiming over the skulls of rhinoceroses and the lifeless bodies of stuffed snakes. “It is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.”
Beth glanced warily into the first room. She shuddered at the sight of the skeleton of a large shark. “Do I have to come with you, ma’am? This sort of stuff gives me the chills, it does.”
“Very well, then, you can wait in the hall. I shall tour the museum on my own.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Beth turned her attention to the young man who was collecting the admission fees from the trickle of visitors. She gave him a coy smile. The young man grinned boldly back.
Harriet ignored the byplay. “What is in that room?” she asked, indicating a door near the staircase that was closed.
The lad glanced at her. “That’s Mr. Humboldt’s private study, ma’am. Ain’t no one goes in there, except him. Only room in the house what’s closed to visitors.”
“I see.” Harriet started toward the staircase. “Very well, then, I believe J shall begin at the top of the house and work straight down to the bottom.”
She climbed to the third floor and plunged into the first room full of exhibits.
It was heaven.
There were very few other visitors in the museum, certainly not enough to get in Harriet’s way. Time passed quickly as she worked her way from the top story of the large house to the bottom, which was underground.
Although she was primarily searching for fossil teeth, Harriet kept getting distracted by fascinating exhibits.
She found a well-preserved fossil sea urchin in one case that was unlike any she had seen before. There were several other extremely interesting marine fossils housed with it. A variety of fossil fragments in another case held her attention for some time.
It took forever to go through all the drawers in all the cabinets in every room, but Harriet did not want to miss a single item. Each time she opened a drawer or peered into a glass case she told herself that she might be about to discover a tooth such as the one she had found in Upper Biddleton. With any luck it might be labeled. She would learn if someone else had already identified it.
Harriet saved the lower story of the house for last. The underground portion would normally have been used for the kitchen and servants’ quarters in a real home, but Humboldt had turned it into a series of storage rooms for the museum. When Harriet went down the stairs she found herself quite alone.
That suited her perfectly.
She found nothing but crates in two of the dark chambers. But at the end of the hall she opened the last door and discovered a shadowed room full of looming skeletons, some of them very large.
The lighting was quite poor. Two sputtering candles burned in wall sconces outside the last chamber. Harriet selected one and carried it inside. She used it to light the half-burned tapers in the wall sconces in the chamber. It was obvious no one came into the room very often.
The chamber was not only dark, it was cold. A thick layer of dust lay over everything, but Harriet paid no attention to that. Dirt and grime were part of fossil collecting.
She saw at once that there were several rows of tall cabinets in the dark room. Each cabinet contained dozens of drawers.
There was a fair chance she would find some teeth in drawers the size of these, Harriet decided happily.
But before she began investigating the cabinets, she paused to examine some of the strange relics that littered the room. There was a large chunk of stone sitting on a cabinet at the end of one aisle. Harriet looked closely and saw the delicate outline of a strange, spiny fish embedded in it.
Farther along that same aisle she found the dusty bones of several bizarre creatures that featured both fins and legs. Harriet studied them in wonder. She had never seen anything quite like them.
She found a chair in one corner and dragged it over to one of the cabinets which contained the strange fossils. She climbed up to get a better look at the skeletons.
A cloud of dust puffed upward as she leaned forward to touch an oddly shaped fin. Then she spotted the small pins holding the fin to the skeleton.
“Ah-hah,” she muttered in satisfaction. “A forgery. I knew it. No wonder Mr. Humboldt has consigned you to the nether regions,” she told the poor creature. “He probably paid good money for you, only to discover he had been fleeced.”
She noticed the dust stains on her yellow pelisse as she climbed down from the chair. Belatedly she wished she had brought along an apron. Next time she would make it a point to do so.
She was standing on tiptoe to examine the skeleton of a very strange fish when she heard the door open behind her. It closed again very softly. Another museum visitor had found his way into Humboldt’s last storage room. Harriet paid no attention until the newcomer started down the ai
sle of tall cabinets in which she was standing.
“Good afternoon, Harriet,” Bryce Morland said from the far end of the aisle.
Harriet froze, not only because his voice was the last one she had expected to hear, but because of the undercurrent of menace in it. She turned to face him.
“Mr. Morland. What on earth are you doing here in Mr. Humboldt’s Museum? I did not know you were interested in fossils.”
“I am not interested in them.” Morland smiled, but in the shadows it was a travesty of an angel’s benign expression. “I am, however, extremely interested in you, my sweet little Harriet.”
A trickle of dread raced down Harriet’s spine. “I do not understand.”
“No? Do not concern yourself. You soon will.” He started down the aisle toward her. The dim light from the wall sconce gilded his blond hair, but his handsome face was in shadow.
Harriet instinctively took a step back. She was suddenly very much afraid. “You will have to excuse me, sir. It is very late and I must be on my way.”
“It is very late indeed. The museum closed ten minutes ago.”
Harriet’s eyes widened. “Gracious. How the time has flown. My maid will be waiting for me.”
“Your maid is well occupied flirting with the lad who sells the tickets. Neither of them will miss us for some time.”
“Nevertheless, I am leaving now.” Harriet lifted her chin. “Please stand aside, sir.”
Morland kept walking slowly toward her down the narrow aisle. “Not just yet, little Harriet. Not just yet. I should mention that I saw your husband today.”
“Did you?” Harriet moved slowly back.
“We had a pleasant chat during which he told me to stay away from you.” Morland’s eyes glittered with fury. “He knows that you are attracted to me, you see.”
“No.” Harriet retreated another step. “That is not true and you know it, Mr. Morland.”
“Oh, ’tis true enough. You are just like Deirdre. She could not resist me, either.”
“Are you mad? What are you talking about?”
“You and Deirdre, of course. St. Justin lost her and he will lose you. His pride will be crushed completely this time. He has always been so damned arrogant, so bloody proud, even when all of London whispered behind his back. But this time he will not be able to endure the gossip the way he did the last time.”
“What are you going to do?” Harriet demanded.
“Plant my seed in your body, just as I planted it in Deirdre’s,” Bryce said calmly. “Deirdre was more than happy to be seduced. You, on the other hand, I believe will take some persuading, hmm?”
Harriet stared at him. “I will never submit to you. How could you even imagine such a thing?”
Morland nodded, obviously pleased. “Not just persuasion, then. A bit of force will be necessary. Excellent. I prefer it that way, you know. But I so seldom find a woman who will oblige me with a struggle. They all fall into my bed so easily.”
“How dare you?” Harriet whispered.
“Easily. I have been waiting for this opportunity for several days. After I had my unpleasant little conversation with your husband earlier today, I went in search of you. I decided the time has come. I knew I would have you today. St. Justin made me very, very angry, you see.”
“You followed me?”
“Of course. Once I saw you go inside this place, I decided to see if it would provide me with the opportunity I wanted. And it has. The key to this chamber was right outside the door. I picked it up on my way in, then locked the door behind me.” Morland pulled a heavy metal key out of his pocket and displayed it with a chuckle. Then he dropped it back into his coat.
“I will scream.”
“No one will hear you. The walls of this room are made of stone and are very thick. And no one will be coming down the stairs now because the place is closed for the night.”
Harriet edged backward a few more steps. She was almost to the end of the aisle. In a moment she would be able to dart around the corner of the last cabinet and run back up the neighboring aisle. She did not know what she would do then, but she would think of something, she assured herself. In the meantime she must try to stall Morland.
“Why are you so determined to gain revenge against St. Justin?” Harriet asked. “What has he ever done to you?”
“What has he done?” Fury flashed across Bryce’s handsome face. “Like so many others of his kind, he had everything. He always did. And I had nothing. Nothing. My family and his were neighbors for years. When I was growing up I had to watch him and his older brother getting the best of everything. Horses, carriages, clothes, schools.”
“Mr. Morland, listen to me.”
“Do you know what it was like? No, of course you do not. Important people came to visit at Blackthorne Hall. Everyone courted the favor of the Earl of Hardcastle. I had to be grateful for simply getting an invitation to a Hardcastle ball. I was lucky to be asked to join the local hunt. My parents were mere country gentry. They groveled to the Earl of Hardcastle. But I have never groveled to him or his sons. I have been their equal.”
“How can you say that St. Justin had everything?” Harriet demanded.
“He is heir to an earldom and a vast fortune while I was obliged to marry a tradesman’s daughter in order to have the kind of money I needed. It was not fair.”
“You called yourself his friend.”
Morland shrugged elegantly. “Friends in his circle are extremely useful to a man in my position. Friends like St. Justin can get one into the best clubs, the best drawing rooms, the best beds. I make it a practice to acquire friends like St. Justin. But St. Justin is no longer particularly useful and he has offended me.”
Harriet stared at him. “You tell yourself that you are superior to him, do you not? You tell yourself that while he has wealth and a title, you are far more clever, more handsome, more attractive to women than he is.”
“It is true.”
“But you hate him because you know deep in your soul that he is a far better man than you will ever be. And it is not his wealth or his title that makes him superior. It is something deeper, something you will never possess. Is that it, Mr. Morland?”
“If you say so, my dear.”
“What will hurting me prove?”
Bryce’s eyes glittered. “It will prove once again that I can take St. Justin’s women away from him. After I have you, I will have the satisfaction of knowing that I have had both of the women St. Justin thought were his. It is little enough, but I enjoy the sport.”
“You are a fool, Mr. Morland. You must know what St. Justin will do when he discovers that you have tried to attack me.”
“Oh, I do not think you will tell him about our little tryst, madam.” Bryce gave her a knowing look. “Women do not usually confess to having been with another man, even when they are taken by force. They are afraid they will be blamed for it, I think. And any woman married to the Beast of Blackthorne Hall would never admit to having been unfaithful to him. She would be too afraid to do so. The Beast will surely turn on her.”
Harriet’s fingers found the end of the last cabinet. “I would not be afraid to tell St. Justin. He would believe me and he would most certainly avenge me.”
“He is far more likely to murder you,” Bryce said as he closed the distance between them. “And you are wise enough to know that. He would not be able to tolerate knowing that his new bride, the woman he has displayed so proudly to the ton, has been unfaithful already.”
“You know nothing about him.” Without warning, Harriet whipped around the corner of the row of cabinets.
Bryce lunged at her, eyes alight with an unholy fire.
Harriet fled down the second aisle of cabinets. Bryce was right behind her. He would catch her in another two strides.
She saw the chair she had used when she had examined the forged fossil. It was standing where she had left it in the middle of the aisle. She jumped up on the seat and scrambled up onto the top
of the cabinets just as Bryce grabbed at her skirts.
He missed.
Harriet raced along the top of the cabinets, scattering skulls and femurs and vertebrae into the aisle below. Bryce pounded along in the aisle, obviously intending to catch her at the far end when she tried to reach the door.
“You may as well come down now, you little bitch. There is only one way this can end.” There was a terrible sexual excitement in Bryce’s voice now.
Harriet ignored him. Her goal was the large stone sitting on top of the last cabinet in the aisle, the one that contained the fossil impression of a large, spiny fish. She prayed the stone would not be too heavy for her to lift.
Bryce never guessed her intention. It probably did not occur to him that a woman would resort to such a means of defending herself or that a woman would be strong enough to do so even if she tried.
But Harriet had been digging fossils out of solid rock for years. She had spent hours wielding a mallet and chisel. She knew she was no weakling.
She grabbed hold of the chunk of stone and hurled it down at Bryce’s blond head just as he reached up to grasp her ankle.
At the last instant Bryce realized what was happening. “Damn you, no.” Bryce’s yell was choked off as he tried to leap back out of the way.
But he was too late. He barely managed to avoid the full impact of the heavy stone. As it was, it caught him a glancing blow on his head and bounced heavily on his shoulder before falling to the floor with a crash.
Bryce stumbled and went down. He lay very still, his eyes closed. Blood leaked from under a lock of blond hair that curled over his forehead.
A terrible silence filled the shadowed room full of bones.
Harriet stood on top of the cabinets, gasping for breath. Her heart was pounding and her hands were trembling. She stared down at Bryce, unable to think clearly for a moment.
Then she forced herself to scramble down from the top of the cabinets. She was afraid to go over to Bryce. She did not know if he was dead and she did not want to find out.