She was predictable and singularly adept at changing the subject. “You’re not going in there. I am.” He kept a brutal step ahead of her thoughts.
“I’m going with you. Besides, you don’t know if you’ll find me here waiting for you, do you?”
Lucas glared at her. “Rachel, I will have this out.” Lucas snapped and by God he would. He was ready to shake some sense in her, a full measure of determination to bend her to his will.
“Oh, you will have this out. You are bold enough to claim I should be your wife and bold enough to make it understood that I should bow to your every whim. You taunt me at every turn by some false duty you perceive. I do not want you, nor have I ever needed you.”
They stood there, each firmly set in conviction, yet unwilling to yield. Anger seethed from each countenance, until their faces seemed twisted like evil demons. Incongruous to the calmness of the night, a mounting rage seized Lucas. He moved closer, pushing her against the ivy-covered wall until he left no room at all. A score or more of epithets were more than ready to spring from his lips, and well he knew that Rachel stood equipped to yield equal of her own. For each of them, there stood a reason too righteous to be surrendered.
“Why is it you are more suited to argument than rational thought?” With no time to quarrel, he preferred not to concede to an impasse, and grabbed her arm, dragging her behind him. “It’s better to keep you with me to suppress your lunacy.” He glanced at the sky. “There’s a full moon. I should have known you’d be about.”
“Stop this, you’re hurting me.” Rachel stumbled to her knees.
Lucas hauled her to her feet. “This is your idea of playing games. Believe me, if the Copperheads ever get a hold of you…your treatment will be much worse.”
There waited a rat to be ferreted out. He trusted Rachel’s instincts. But he’d never admit it to her. He, too, had his suspicions of Bowman and needed to lay them to rest. “Make sure you do everything I say and don’t make a sound.”
His temper escalated to the breaking point, his memory fresh with Andrews” pointless death. In two seconds, he forced open the French doors that led into a library.
“I see your talent for opening doors comes in handy,” she said in hushed tones.
“I had plenty of practice in your home in Richmond.”
“A lot of good that did.”
“My point exactly.”
Before Lucas could stop her, Rachel opened the door of the library into the hall and slipped out into the darkness. After minutes, she returned and pressed the doors closed in a light snap.
Lucas came from behind the door and she almost jumped. “What were you thinking parading through the house alone?”
“Surveillance. I don’t want to risk an itinerant maid to come upon us. All is quiet. No lanterns lit. The servants have left for the evening or are sleeping. I heard snores on the third floor. Must be Bowman,” she whispered.
Lucas stuck his revolver in his belt, went to a mahogany desk, pried open the drawers with a huge sounding crack.
“Can’t you do that any quieter?”
He tried to read the papers in the silver moonlight that streamed across the room.
Rachel lit a candle. “Always come prepared,” she smiled.
With bent heads, they scanned through papers. There were letters, invoices and bookkeeping ledgers. Nothing remarkable. Lucas shoved everything in the drawers. “Looks like your theory on Bowman is null and void.”
Rachel waved him aside.” Why would he hide anything in plain sight? Wouldn’t it be the most logical place for anyone to look? After all, the Copperheads at Elm Street said he kept his plans in a safe.”
Lucas started toward the bookshelves. For the better part of an hour, they soundlessly went through books to see if any were hollowed out and hid any incriminating information. After that failed, Lucas was about to give up. His wavering gaze fell on a painting. He strode across the room.
“Rachel, bring the light over here.” He lifted the landscape, revealing a safe hidden in the wall. He paused and frowned, and then placed his fingers on the cold steel, deftly turning the dial, listening for the click of the tumblers. He swung open the safe.
“Another talent, I presume?”
Lucas rifled through the contents. “You’ve only begun to see me scratch the surface,” he boasted. “Bonds, stocks, mortgages, made by Bowman’s late father. If there would be anything to incriminate the lieutenant, it would be hidden right here.”
A parchment envelope fell to the floor and Rachel opened it. “A directive to attend the Adams’ ball. Why would he keep an insignificant invitation in his safe?”
His jaw tensed with a faraway look on her face. Her calculation summed up his line of thinking. Someone important to the Copperhead scheme would be at the Adams’ ball. “In the future, I forbid you to seek out anything more about him.”
She stiffened in reaction to his warning. As he replaced everything, Lucas knew the sooner he confronted her about duping him, the better.
