Victoria stood conversing with one of the other guests, fighting the urge to peer past her companion and into the ornate central hallway to see if Jed had arrived. The evening was growing late, and surely dinner would be announced shortly. These days, it was unlike Jed not to be punctual, and Victoria could hear only too well the comments Hayden would make if the man who had rescued her failed to appear before everyone went in to dinner.
An unwelcome thought suddenly flashed through Victoria’s mind, disturbing her greatly. What if an impatient Jed had finally given up his pursuit of her and had moved on from Cairo? A sensation of wretchedness washed over her at the possibility, and she tried to combat it by assuring herself that there was a very logical and acceptable reason for Jed’s tardiness. Exactly what that was, however, she couldn’t begin to guess.
In the midst of her anxiety, Victoria was aware of one small consolation. At least she wouldn’t have to deal with Hayden’s increasing moodiness as well as her uncertainty about Jed. This evening, the diplomat was in a better humor than he had been of late. Her glance fell upon a flawlessly attired Hayden as he stood on the other side of the elegantly furnished room, twirling a glass of sherry between his thumb and forefinger and conversing with her mother and their hostess.
Sensing that he was the object of her perusal, Hayden raised his eyes to hers and saluted her with his glass. His smile was so full of genuine happiness that it was quite dazzling, effectively eclipsing the calculating coldness that had turned his blue eyes into veritable chips of glacial ice. Though Victoria wondered at his cheerfulness, she had no cause for alarm, until Lady Trenton stepped forward to claim everyone’s attention.
“I must apologize for the delay of our evening meal,” she began, with warmth and graciousness. “However, I find myself waiting for the arrival of one other guest, and it would be a shame to be seated and start without him if it can be avoided.”
“Who’s the person responsible for my starvation?” a retired army officer demanded with a good-natured laugh.
“That charming but naughty Mr. Kincaid,” Lady Trenton replied with a rueful smile. “I assure you I will quite take him to task for keeping you from your meal, Colonel, but perhaps another glass of sherry would be acceptable while we linger just a few moments more.”
“Go ahead, Colonel, indulge yourself,” a smiling Cameron Shaw interjected soothingly. “I promise you’ll find Kincaid interesting enough to forgive him.”
“But there’s no need to keep dinner if it is Kincaid who is delaying things,” Hayden announced, a satisfied smile ringing his mouth. “I thought you knew.”
“Knew what?” Victoria asked nervously.
“He won’t be here this evening,” Hayden said, managing a certain degree of nonchalance in spite of the excitement he felt.
“Not coming?” asked Cameron Shaw with a frown. “If that were the case, Kincaid would have sent his regrets.”
“If he were a gentleman, he might. But then, to be fair, I suppose even a gentleman might have difficulty penning a note under the circumstances.”
“What circumstances?” Victoria demanded, a handful of graceful steps bringing her to Hayden’s side.
“Why, being arrested, of course,” Hayden drawled insolently. “I just surmised everyone would be aware of it by now, especially with the way news travels in our little community.”
“Arrested!” Victoria’s mother said, her shocked voice no louder than a whisper. “Whatever for? Was he caught dallying with someone’s wife or daughter?”
“Oh, no, not at all,” Hayden assured her, ignoring Victoria’s silent plea as he used the backs of his fingertips to needlessly smooth the lapel of his dinner jacket. “He’s been taken into custody for murder, though there’s more to it besides even that vile crime.”
Victoria saw the room beginning to sway and everything turning hazy as she fought against the black cloud threatening to descend upon her. With sheer force of will, she managed to overcome the urge to faint, though she could not restrain herself from reaching out for her father’s steadying hands.
“If any of this is true, and I have my doubts, why did you keep the information to yourself?” Cameron demanded. “It was hardly the right thing to do blurting it out like that in the presence of the ladies.”
“But I assumed everyone had heard and was just too well-bred to speak of it before we dined,” Hayden asserted innocently. “Lady Trenton’s announcement of waiting dinner for the scoundrel took me by surprise, and when I could find my voice, I spoke without thinking. My apologies to the ladies.”
“None of this is true, none of it,” Victoria insisted. Her complexion, despite her weeks in the sun, had turned as pale as the ecru organza gown she wore. Still, she faced Hayden squarely and refused to be quelled by his look of icy disdain.
“I am sorry to say, my dear, that it is,” he replied with an expression of sympathy that belied the triumph in his heart. The Shaw bitch deserved this and more for playing him false with the crude American. “I know you feel you owe Kincaid something. But you are completely misguided. In my opinion, he never rescued you at all.”
“He most certainly did,” cried Victoria. “He traveled down to Khartoum and blew up a great deal of the city in order to secure my safety.”
“My dear, my dear, think about what it is you’re saying,” Hayden chided her. “No law-abiding man would have been able to reach you, never mind get you safely away from that devil’s den where you were being held. It was only possible for Kincaid to do so because he had contacts in Khartoum, people he knew from his gunrunning operation. In fact, I shouldn’t be surprised to find the whole thing had been staged simply to allow him entry into another, higher level of society where he might glean more information about exactly what the British government knew concerning his illegal activities. And your father helped him do just that,” Hayden added with a reproving glance in the banker’s direction.
“But you told me there was no foundation to rumors about gun smuggling,” Victoria insisted.
“I couldn’t speak the truth, my darling,” Hayden responded, taking Victoria’s hand and pressing it within his own before she snatched it away again. “How could I gamble on Kincaid learning just how closely we had him under surveillance?”
“I thought you said he was arrested for murder,” the Colonel objected, forgetting his grumbling stomach in all the excitement. The knowledge that he’d be able to dine out for weeks afterward on the story that was unfolding in Lady Trenton’s drawing room assuaged his hunger enough for him to want to learn every available detail.
“Yes, he was,” Hayden said. “As the authorities drew nearer to arresting him, he began to suspect as much. Unaware we had already gathered evidence linking him to the unlawful transport of guns to the Sudan, shipments coinciding with his stays in Cairo I might add, he thought that he could keep his name out of this by simply murdering his confederate. But he only dug himself in deeper when we went to question the watchman and found the poor fellow’s body along with Kincaid’s rifle.”
“A watchman, you say. What was his connection?” Victoria’s father asked.
“He allowed the guns to be stored in his warehouse until they could be shipped out,” Hayden said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“And which warehouse was this?” Shaw inquired, trying to reconcile what Reed had to say with his own perceptions of the American.
“Embarrassed as I am to admit this,” Hayden began, knowing that at least a kernel of truth had to be included in his fabrication if he wanted it to appear truthful, “the blackguard was storing his weapons in the same warehouse that the consulate uses for its supplies.”
“A rather stupid tactical error,” the Colonel commented dryly.
“It was a bold move that would have been brilliant had it not been for our present investigation,” Hayden lied deftly. “We would never have thought to look under our own noses for such unlawful goings-on.”
“But Jed was the one who pressed for the consulate to delve into the matter,” Victoria protested. “Why would he do that if he were in any way involved?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he wanted to get out of the smuggling ring and couldn’t. Or perhaps he fed us false information in an attempt to put himself above suspicion and send us off on the wrong track. As it was, I certainly found no use for any of the details with which he provided us. I can assure you, however, the police will be able to obtain all the specifics. They have methods for dealing with even the most recalcitrant of criminals, and they will not be shy about employing them. As for anything else I can tell you, it would merely be conjecture at this time.”
“Surely you have some idea what will happen to Kincaid now,” Cameron Shaw prompted in his most commanding voice.
“There’ll—there’ll be a trial of course,” Hayden blustered.
“Just so long as there is,” Shaw stated, his words echoing the thoughts of all. Everyone had heard of the terrible conditions and strange fates that sometimes befell those held in the khedive’s prisons. “I’ll go and see Kincaid myself tomorrow.”
“Well, well, this has been a most fascinating evening,” Lady Trenton interrupted, trying to salvage something of her dinner party. “All of the excitement must have sharpened everyone’s appetite. I propose we continue this discussion over dinner.”
“If you’ll forgive me, I’m afraid I have no desire for food,” Victoria said wanly.
“But, my dear—”
“Excuse me, your ladyship. There is someone to see Mr. Reed,” the butler announced. “I believe he said he was the chief constable.”
“Send him in,” the noblewoman ordered, wanting this business conducted out in the open so she could put it to an end. Then, perhaps everyone could sit down to a glass of fine wine and the elaborate meal she had so carefully planned.
As he waited for the constable to make his appearance, Hayden wondered if the police had done away with Kincaid already. Wanting to see Victoria’s expression upon hearing such news constrained him from speaking with the Egyptian officer privately. By God, he was so happy, he could be dining on camel tonight and he would think it the most enjoyable meal he had ever tasted.
“Mr. Reed,” the officer called in worried greeting as he crossed the threshold into a room so richly decorated he had never seen its like.
“Yes, what is it?” Hayden inquired officiously, unable to keep from casting a look in Victoria’s direction.
“In the matter of the American, Jed Kincaid, I am afraid I must inform you that—”
“Dear God!” Victoria whispered, clutching her father when she found herself unable to bear the thought of any more bad news.
“Yes,” Hayden prompted, impatient for the news of the American’s death.
“He has escaped.”
“What!”
Victoria was conscious of no more than hearing Hayden Reed roar his anger as she slid toward the floor, the darkness that had loomed finally enveloping her and blocking out all else.
* * *
Jed stepped stealthily along the shadows flanking the ornate hallway, flattening himself against the wall wherever the soft glow of the sporadically placed lamps penetrated the murky darkness. He had stationed Ali outside with strict instructions to alert him if trouble arose.
A half grin etched itself across the American’s otherwise serious face. His experience at moving undetected had begun in his youth, when he used to creep out of his mother and stepfather’s house late at night. Little had he known at the time he had been honing a skill that would be useful in his chosen career. But none of his other adventures was as significant as the one in which he now found himself.
A man to whom danger was a way of life, Jed nevertheless found his heart beating rapidly as he stood stone still, hardly daring to breathe until he was satisfied no one was nearby. To be found here, in the British Consulate, would mean his capture. And he couldn’t afford to be taken now, for Vicky’s sake as well as his own.
After his talk with Ali, he was positive he had solved the mystery that had woven itself around him like some confining cocoon. But whom could he alert when the man he believed to be involved was, in Malet’s and Cookson’s absence, the very person to whom such suspicions were to be reported? What would persuade the authorities to go counter to Hayden Reed’s orders? Somewhere in Hayden’s office there had to exist evidence that tied him to the warehouse and the dead watchman.
Taking a slender pick supplied by Ali, Jed silently attacked the lock that kept the world from Hayden’s door. With a few deft movements, he breached Reed’s meager security, slipped through the anteroom and entered the Englishman’s official sanctum. Here the darkness was pierced by a sole shaft of moonlight stealing into the room through a chink in the closed wooden shutters.
Noiselessly, he stole across the floor to Hayden’s desk where he lit the oil lamp he had seen so many weeks before. With an expedience born of experience, Jed shaded most of the light emitted by the lamp with his hand, directing its beam onto the top of Hayden’s desk.
Shuffling though papers, Jed assumed Hayden would be too clever to leave anything lying about that would provide hard and fast evidence of his illicit activities. Yet he fervently prayed that somewhere there would be a clue that would strip away his blindness, so that he could see a possible link between the minor British official and the rebel Sudanese.
Stacks of paper neatly aligned along the desk’s surface produced nothing more than directives sent to Hayden by his superiors, Cookson and Malet. In a drawer Jed found files for the promotion of several consulate personnel as well as transfer requests and documents validating future postings. Nothing connected with Reed’s duties seemed to reach beyond the building in which his office was located. With sagging hopes, Jed learned that another drawer yielded only a stack of announcements proclaiming Reed’s recent change of residence.
The worst part of his frustration, as he shifted sheaf after useless sheaf of paper, was that it was not his fate alone hanging in the balance. It was Vicky’s, as well.
A low, involuntary growl crept from Jed’s throat as he thought of Vicky waiting for him at tonight’s dinner party without his ever making an appearance. How had she dealt with the situation when she found out that he was a wanted man? Would she, who had already been the subject of society’s scrutiny after her return from Khartoum, be able to live amid whispers and speculations concerning him? Or would she, in order to survive, simply shut him out of her world until things were settled one way or another?
The idea tore at Jed’s heart and caused his breath to come fast and deep. He, who had never cared what people thought of him, was suddenly quite conscious of his reputation if only for Vicky’s sake. When he came right down to it, however, his nature hadn’t altered. He still possessed the savage streak that had always driven him, and he knew that he would lash out to destroy whatever stood in the way of his attempts to secure his respectability. After all, how could a man offer his name to a woman if there was a stigma attached to it?
Opening one last drawer, Jed began to explore its contents, sure, now, that he would have to break into Reed’s home to find evidence enough to accuse him. Idly, his eyes moved down lists of requests for supplies and orders for the same. Large quantities of paper, ink, blank ledgers, paint, wood, rope, various foodstuffs and wines. Not only was Hayden in charge of the ordering, but the disbursement, as well. Goods seemed to be constantly flowing in from England and the Continent, stored for a few days at most, and then distributed, all at Hayden Reed’s direction.
Though there was nothing ominous about such duties, something began to foment in the back of Jed’s mind, and he started to read through the orders more carefully. He noted ships and dates, the expenditures for supplies, and the method of transport. He looked and searched and studied the paper again. Yet not a damn bit of it pertained to the smuggling. And then he saw it, the location of the warehouse where all of these goods were kept until they could be sent elsewhere. It was the same place that had seen Yosef Ahmed’s murder. It had been in front of him all the time. Reed’s consular duties gave him every opportunity to smuggle in weapons and casually send them on their way to the Sudan.
With the watchman’s testimony unavailable, however, it would be difficult to prove. Perhaps that was exactly why the Egyptian had been eliminated. But the only one who could confirm such a theory was Reed himself.
Carefully replacing the papers, Jed swore that he would get the consular agent to do just that, no matter what means had to be employed. He’d go to the man’s residence at once when Reed wouldn’t be expecting him. And by the time he was done, Reed would have given him back his good name, a name Jed could share with Vicky.
* * *
“She’s beginning to come around.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, see how her eyelashes are fluttering?”
The voices were muted, as though they originated a great distance away. Yet through the haze that clouded her vision, Victoria could make out misty shapes close at hand, figures that she sensed were comforting and familiar.
But Victoria was in no hurry to leave the darkness behind and rush into the light. Instinct more than memory cautioned that there, in the brightness, unpleasant problems awaited. And so she was content to float amid gray brume and benumbed sensation, trying to shut out the voices that gently but insistently beckoned her forth. Finally she could ignore their urgings no longer.
“Oh, my dearest girl,” she heard her mother cooing, her voice a soft ripple of sound that put Victoria in mind of her childhood.
“There, there, Grace,” her father was soothing, “I told you Victoria would be fine, didn’t I? We’ve raised ourselves quite a strong, courageous young woman.”
Blinking rapidly, Victoria shifted her glance from one parent to the other. She had distinctly heard their words, yet she felt neither the least bit courageous nor strong, especially in these strange surroundings. Instead an inexplicable sorrow gnawed at her—that and pain. Tears began to gather in the corners of her eyes without her knowing exactly why. And then she remembered.
“Jed, oh Jed,” she uttered miserably.
“Here, my darling, have some of the laudanum Lady Trenton’s physician left for you,” Grace instructed, bringing a spoonful of bitter-tasting medicine to her daughter’s lips.
“For heaven’s sakes, Grace!” Cameron Shaw snapped, encircling his wife’s wrist and staying her hand. “You were beside yourself when the girl didn’t come around, and now she’s waking, you’re trying to put her out again. It makes no sense to me!”
“But you heard her,” Grace objected protectively, close to tears herself. “She’s crying over that scandalous American. Let her drift back to sleep until she’s ready to face the truth.”
“The truth? Jed’s being called a murderer is a lie, I know it is!” Victoria protested, trying to rise until her father’s gentle hands guided her head back to her pillow. “He’s innocent, no matter what Hayden has to say.”
“That remains to be seen,” her father maintained, his firm voice tinged with sympathy.
“I don’t care what Hayden thinks, or you, or anyone else for that matter. The Jed Kincaid I know is an honorable man,” Victoria insisted defiantly, nevertheless reaching for the dainty handkerchief her mother held out for her. “You don’t know him as I do. Jed would never become involved with such dirty business.”
“Then why, may I ask, did he run off?” inquired Lady Trenton, returning to the boudoir and overhearing the girl’s remark. “I always thought there was danger lurking in that American’s eyes despite the charm he exuded.”
“Well, you were mistaken about Jed Kincaid,” Victoria said quietly.
Weak and weary though she was, Victoria couldn’t help coming to Jed’s defense any more than she could help worrying about him. Why was he being charged with such heinous crimes? Had he been hurt when he escaped? Where was he now, and was he safe? Questions flowed through Victoria’s mind like helpless petals caught in the strong current of the Nile. But her agonizing queries did nothing more than turn her complexion a paler shade and dull the sheen of her normally bright eyes.
“There, there, my dear. The shock has been too much for you. But what you’re reacting to, surely, is having learned that you suffered the company of such a horrible man on your northward journey from Khartoum. You can only be glad that he left you in peace. He did, didn’t he?” Lady Trenton asked delicately, trying to uncover the source of Victoria’s excessive distress.
“Of course he did!” Grace Shaw replied indignantly before Victoria could answer. Yet emphatic as the matron’s reply was, she, too, had her doubts. Hadn’t she seen with her own eyes the way Kincaid had looked at her daughter?
But Victoria could not bother to defend her honor, even to the biggest gossip in all of Cairo. It was Jed who was important. Her mind searched frantically for a way to help the American who had risked his life so many times to save hers, the maverick who had been willing to join a herd in order to be near her, the man who had taught her what it meant to be a woman. There had to be something she could do to lend assistance to his plight—there had to be! Suddenly a thought struck her.
“Where’s Hayden?” she asked with detached calm. He could help. He was heading Cookson’s damned investigation, wasn’t he? Since he was the one who started this mess, he was the one who could stop it.
“Why—why—he’s gone along home, child. After all, it is very late,” Mrs. Shaw informed her in a faltering voice.
“He wasn’t concerned about me? He simply left?”
“You know how men are in an emergency,” Lady Trenton said, following Grace’s lead. “They’re no good at all. Hayden hadn’t the vaguest notion of what to do for you, so he went home.”
“With strict instructions that we were to inform him of your health in the morning,” Grace interjected lamely, her quiet words barely audible over her husband’s snort of contempt.
“Poor Hayden couldn’t leave fast enough once I had you brought to this room,” Lady Trenton added, rudely interrupting Victoria’s memories of how well Jed Kincaid handled any crisis that arose. “But then I would guess the dear man’s haste to be gone was caused by the guilt he felt for upsetting you. He obviously hadn’t expected you’d find the news of Kincaid’s arrest and escape so unnerving. Sometimes men have no idea of just how delicate we women are,” the socialite concluded with a sniff.
“Yes, but in his defense, I should point out that he was quite contrite, indeed,” Mrs. Shaw said by way of comfort. She didn’t bother to inform her daughter that Hayden’s remorse had manifested itself only in the face of Cameron’s rage.
“I’m sure he was,” Victoria said evenly, not daring to give the slightest indication of how she had come to regard Hayden Reed. Should her parents suspect the emotions she really harbored, the plan that was beginning to form would never be a viable one.
“But Hayden’s behavior is not something for you to worry about,” Cameron stated authoritatively, tired of the way his wife and her friend were going on. “What you need is your sleep.”
“Lady Trenton insists we remain here until morning when her physician will call again to see you,” Grace explained, giving her daughter’s hand a small pat. “Your father has agreed.”
“That might be for the best,” Victoria admitted, glad things were working in her favor. She had an idea of what the dastardly civil servant would want from her in exchange for his cooperation to clear the name of the man she loved more than life itself. Distasteful as she found the prospect, Victoria knew she would do whatever was necessary to save the man who owned her heart. Her idea could only be successful, however, if she spent the night in the city and not on her parents’ estate, where she had one of the servants acting as her bodyguard anytime she stepped out of doors.
“Right now I find myself exceedingly sleepy. I think I’ll just lie back and close my eyes,” she said pitifully, and gave a little moan that would make certain her father did not change his mind about his family staying the night with Lady Trenton.
“A wise decision,” the noblewoman pronounced. “Perhaps a bit of the laudanum?”
“I’m so fatigued, I won’t need it,” Victoria replied. A dose of the potent drug now would see her intentions come to naught.
“But a weary body does not protect against an overactive mind,” Grace chastised gently. “Consider a small spoonful.”
“There will be none at all,” Cameron announced firmly, escorting the two older women toward the door before they could have their way. “What Victoria needs is quiet, not laudanum. I suggest we remove ourselves and give her just that.” Ushering Grace and Lady Trenton through the doorway, Victoria’s father stood at the threshold and turned to address his offspring.
“If you should require us, your mother and I shall be in the rooms directly next door, my dear. As for Kincaid, don’t trouble your pretty head about him. If he’s the man I think he is, things will sort themselves out. And if he’s not, he certainly isn’t worth your upset.” Then he was gone, shutting the door behind him.
Victoria lay in the soft darkness, the shadows of the room punctuated by the weak glow of a single oil lamp placed discreetly in a far corner. Listening intently to the low murmur of voices in the hallway outside, she finally heard the clicks of doors closing along the corridor, the signal she had been waiting for that everyone had retired for the evening.
Sitting up, Victoria realized she would have to be patient until the others fell asleep and she could set out to do what she intended. She settled herself on the edge of the bed, her feet dangling inches from the floor. All at once, with no warning, a tear materialized and began to wend its way down her cheek. Exasperated by its appearance, she brushed it away. This was no time to be giving into emotions, the girl chided herself. She needed to be every bit as strong as her father evidently thought she was. Otherwise she would have little hope of carrying out her plan.
She refused to bemoan her inevitable separation from the man she loved. She would have the rest of her life to do that after she concluded her business with Hayden. Instead, Victoria determined to use this last hour before her fate was irrevocably sealed to dwell on the happiness she had discovered in Jed’s arms.
She didn’t have to close her eyes to see his handsome visage before her, the exquisitely sculpted lines and planes of his stubborn chin and clean jaw, his fine nose and broad forehead topped by thick, coffee brown hair. But his heavily fringed green eyes were what had held her prisoner from the very first. She had beheld them glinting with devilment, flashing in anger, and growing dark with passion. And of late, she had seen in their depths the unshuttered reflection of love.
Giving herself over to precious recollections, she began to relive the numerous demonstrations of his raw, masculine power, his fierce protectiveness toward her, and his touching tenderness.
And, for all he had given her, Victoria would grant Jed something in return. She would give him his liberty if not his life. The sacrifice she chose to make in order to do so was a trifling thing compared with the joy she would keep hidden in her heart in years to come, a joy founded in the knowledge that somewhere Jed Kincaid lived a free man.
Commanded by her desperation to go to Hayden, Victoria rose. With icy tranquillity, her slender fingers slowly but purposefully untied the ribbons of Lady Trenton’s bed jacket. Slipping out of that and a voluminous nightgown, she found her own garments and dressed, struggling quietly to fasten the back of her gown as best she could. After donning her stockings and shoes, Victoria grabbed a light cotton throw from an overstuffed striped chair, and folded it to resemble a shawl. Draping it over her hair and around her shoulders, she silently opened the wooden door of the ground-floor bedroom leading out to Lady Trenton’s renowned garden.
Once she stepped from the room, Victoria kept to the shadows of the garden’s high walls and searched for the gate that would lead to the street beyond. Stealthily, she placed one foot in front of the other, terrified she would be discovered prior to reaching Hayden and laying her proposition before him.
She wouldn’t be afforded another chance to barter herself to Hayden for Jed’s safety, she thought. She had to make the diplomat accept her proposal and assure her that the charges against Jed would be dropped, the search for him suspended. Then her all-but-disintegrated engagement to Hayden would be reaffirmed. The bargain would be sealed when she surrendered her body to him as a sign that she meant to keep her word.
Victoria was honest enough to admit that Hayden’s contemptible denouncement of Jed had not been the desperate result of any love he bore her. She recognized that it had been motivated by the need to remove an obstacle impeding the golden future Hayden had ambitiously envisioned for himself. For that reason, Victoria would never be able to forget or excuse what Hayden Reed had attempted to do to Jed. Though it would make living with the consular agent all the more difficult, Victoria didn’t care. She would gladly suffer that and more to save the life of her beloved American.
Finally locating a gate on the far side of the garden, Victoria emitted a breath of relief. Awkwardly, she lifted the wooden bar and pushed the barrier outward, then she slipped into the alley and shut the towering gate behind her.
Pressing close to the high walls fronting the street, she set out swiftly for the residence she would soon be sharing with a man she loathed. The European sector was quiet late at night, and Victoria anticipated no danger as she made her way along the straight, direct boulevards. Her steps almost as rapid as her heartbeat, the plucky blonde only prayed that Jed was still at large and that she was not already too late.
Soon Victoria stood on Hayden’s doorstep, silently marshaling her arguments. She could not allow herself to fail in what she was about to do, and she wanted to be prepared with further incentives if Hayden thought to refuse her.
Hugging her waist in an attempt to stop her shivering, a resigned Victoria settled on exactly what she would say. She would explain to Hayden he had no choice but to accept her proposal. If the charges against Jed were not dropped immediately, or if any harm had already befallen him, she would inform her cowardly fiancé that she would never marry him. Then, Cameron Shaw’s influence would be lost to him, and that was what Reed wanted, anyway, not her. It was a persuasion Victoria sensed Hayden couldn’t fail to heed.
Raising her hand to knock, Victoria hesitated for one more instant while in her mind she bid Jed Kincaid a sorrowful farewell. It was, in effect, a final adieu to the love they had shared, though she knew its specter would haunt her forever. But goodbyes had to be said even if Jed wasn’t there to hear them. Once she passed through this door and accomplished what she had set out to do, Victoria would never be able to face Jed Kincaid again.
Courageously, if sadly, Victoria straightened her slender shoulders and allowed her clenched fist to rap sharply on the door.
Though Victoria could have sworn she heard stirring within the house, the man she sought did not come to the door, nor did his servant, a large, burly Egyptian who frightened her most thoroughly.
Impatiently, Victoria knocked again and waited. But still there was no response. In fact, the house seemed unnaturally quiet, even the insects suddenly falling silent.
Resolved that she would not be thwarted in her attempt to help Jed, Victoria assaulted the door a third time, her banging growing in intensity and duration.
* * *
When the insistent knocking began for the fourth time, Hayden looked up from what he was doing. Whoever wanted his attention was not likely to go away, and though he certainly didn’t want visitors now, neither did he need the neighbors becoming privy to activity taking place in his house so late at night. He’d have to take care of the matter.
With a nonchalant shrug meant to belie his concern, he straightened up from the crate of contraband rifles he’d been inspecting. “I’ll have to see to whoever that is,” he said with a nod toward the front of the house.
“Get rid of him, or I will do so—permanently,” the massive Egyptian directed.
“Just stay here out of sight and I’ll do what I can,” Hayden growled, not liking his companion’s attempt to usurp his authority.
On bare feet, Hayden padded into the next room and then into the vestibule.
“What is it?” he demanded in an irritated voice designed to intimidate any intruder and send the bounder on his way.
“It’s me, Hayden, Victoria,” came the reply.
Victoria! What did that bitch want at this time of night, unless it was something to do with that bloody American? Whatever her reason for coming here, Hayden couldn’t deal with it at present. The rifles had to be loaded and out of here long before sunrise. Reports had reached him of Zobeir’s death, and the British official had no desire to disappoint those who employed him, the very same people who had employed the slave trader, as well.
“Go back to your parents, Victoria,” he ordered impatiently through the closed door. “You shouldn’t be here by yourself, much less at this late hour. It’s most unseemly.”
“No more so than you sending me away to travel by myself through the streets of Cairo at such an hour,” she retorted.
“It’s no worse than you deserve for being so brazen as to show up here unchaperoned. If anyone sees you, your reputation will be completely beyond repair. Now, go away!”
“I’ll pound on this bloody door and scream at the top of my lungs if I have to. If you want to avoid a scene, let me in,” Victoria insisted.
Suddenly the wooden barrier was thrown open and Hayden’s hand shot out to pull her inside before she could wake the entire neighborhood.
“Suppose you tell me what this is all about?” Hayden said harshly, glancing quickly over his shoulder into the dim recesses of the house.
“I know it was you who falsely implicated Jed Kincaid in the smuggling and the murder. And I’m aware of other things, as well.”
“Oh, really?” he asked, his voice dripping with condescension. “And what else is it you think you know?”
“Why you did it,” Victoria answered fiercely.
Hayden’s heart skidded to a halt, but he maintained an outward show of composure. “And what do you suppose my motive was?”
“You were afraid I was going to break our engagement and marry Jed. But that isn’t the case. Inform the police a mistake has been made and allow Jed to leave Cairo. If you do that, I’ll wed you.”
“Why should I believe that?”
“To show I mean what I say, I’m prepared to give you whatever you want right now...regardless of what that might be,” Victoria stated with sincerity. “But refuse to help Jed and I’ll never be your wife, no matter what happens.”
Hayden wanted to laugh out loud. This was nothing to worry about. The girl had been intelligent enough to see the link between his heading the investigation and the accusations made against the American. But that was as far as her insight went. She had no inkling of his own role in the rifle running, or the murder.
Still, he had no time to attend to a strumpet willing to throw herself away in order to save the life of another man, and a crude American at that. His distaste for Victoria Shaw began to grow. She was far from being the lady he had originally thought her to be. But that in itself could be an interesting diversion, he mused salaciously. Once he got her in bed, he could treat her like the whore she was, and she would have no cause for complaint. The prospect caused his groin to tighten and his eyes to gleam. Still, that would have to wait. He had no option other than returning to his men and finishing with the rifles.
“Victoria, this conversation is absurd. I want you to go back to your parents and think about how very foolish you are,” he instructed in a domineering tone.
“I know what I’m doing,” Victoria said coldly, “and I’m not leaving here until the matter is settled to my satisfaction.”
“Much as I might like to play your lewd little game, I refuse to take what you have to offer. I have no intention of vindicating Kincaid. As for you, you’ll return to Lady Trenton’s if I have to take you there myself,” Hayden declared. His building anger became hot fury when he had to block Victoria’s path to keep her from walking past him and into the house proper.
“Not until you have exonerated Jed,” Victoria maintained stubbornly. She had come too far to be foiled now. “Do as I say, Hayden, or I’ll still be here when my parents come looking for me. And when they arrive, I’ll charge you with all sorts of things, accusations that will put an end to your career once and for all.”
Hayden looked down on Victoria with barely concealed rage. How dare this little bitch talk to him that way! Though she couldn’t guess at it, her partial insights into his activities meant his career was already over as far as he was concerned. He couldn’t chance staying here, hoping he remained above suspicion and was left in peace by the Mahdi’s men. The only things remaining that were important to him were the money he had made and his life, something he would forfeit if he failed to deliver the rifles the dervishes wanted from him, rifles that had to leave Cairo tonight.
With purposeful steps, Hayden came toward Victoria to physically remove her from the house. Once that was done, he’d drag her, if need be, through the streets to Lady Trenton’s residence.
Reading his thoughts, Victoria deftly sidestepped him and went running into the rear of the house, which was shrouded in darkness.
“You’re not getting rid of me,” she called to him just before she stumbled over a large, unexpected obstacle in the middle of a back room. Picking herself up, Victoria’s eyes began to adjust to the dimness of her moonlit surroundings.
“Unfortunately, it would appear I am,” Hayden said, roughly grabbing her arms and pulling her to him, crushing her so tightly that she could not draw enough air into her lungs to scream. “Because of your rash and shameless actions, I’ll be forced to dispose of you. What a pity.”
Looking at the obstruction that had caused her fall, Victoria was stunned to see an open crate of rifles, and in the murky corners of the room were men dressed in gallabiyas rising and coming toward her.
“Let me go,” Victoria gasped weakly. “You’ll never get away with this.”
“Since you were too headstrong to depart this house of your own accord, you’ll have to leave as a corpse,” Hayden replied indifferently. “As for maintaining my innocence, once your body is found, your death, too, will be blamed on Kincaid. It seems he became infuriated when you rejected him for me. All of Cairo society knows he was trying to woo you. Who wouldn’t believe me?”
“My parents would know that isn’t so,” Victoria managed to whisper, expending some of the little air left to her.
“You might be right. I’ll try a different tactic. Let me see, Kincaid, furious with me for brilliantly uncovering his crimes, sought revenge by killing the woman I love. Yes, that sounds much better, doesn’t it? I think it will do quite nicely,” Hayden said smoothly.
He released his hold on Victoria slightly, and she deeply gulped for air until his hand covered her mouth. Horrified, the girl’s eyes fell on the curved blade gleaming dully in the moonlight, held out to Hayden by his large, Egyptian confederate.
“I’ll do the deed later,” Hayden said with a shake of his head, “after I decide how and where it is to be done. No sense rushing these things, you know, and putting us in senseless jeopardy. For now, I’ll gag the whore and tie her up until the guns are out of here. They are, after all, more important.”
Victoria was dragged into a small, adjoining room. There, despite her frantic efforts to escape, Reed carried out his threat. A cloth was stuffed into her mouth and she was quickly bound to a simple wooden chair, the ropes biting savagely into her tender flesh. Then Hayden bestowed a mocking kiss upon Victoria’s brow.
“Don’t fret, dearest. I’ll be back soon,” he said with a sneer. “And then, before I close your eyes for good, you’ll get exactly what you came looking for.”