“Why on earth would a housebreaker come after an orrery?” Harry demanded. “What was so special about it?”
“This,” I said, simply. I stood up and opened my hand. On my palm, sparking and shimmering, lay the Eye of the Dawn.
“Bloody hell,” Harry breathed.
“Indeed.”
CHAPTER
22
Harry put out a hand to take it and Stoker intervened, neatly plucking it out of reach. “I think I will take custody of that,” Stoker said in a tone that dared him to oppose.
Harry’s smile was ingratiating. “Of course.”
“I presume these were your associates bent upon the diamond’s recovery,” Stoker said to him.
Harry shrugged. “If it was a giant Nordic fellow, then I suppose so, but how they found me or knew the diamond was in the orrery is unfathomable.”
“You might have told them,” Stoker pointed out.
Harry sighed. “But I didn’tknow. I will be perfectly honest with you: had I known, I wouldn’t be here now. I would have taken the bloody thing, given it to Isabel, and got on with my life. That diamond is the price on my head, if you will remember.”
I looked at Stoker. “As much as I hate to agree with Harry, it does make precious little sense for him to have arranged a confederate to break in and steal the diamond if he knew where it was. It would be a simple enough matter for him to take it himself.”
“Thank you,” Harry said, attempting to look appreciative.
“Do not place your gratitude in me; it is misguided,” I informed him. “I grant you common sense but nothing more. Besides, the intruder was not your Nordic fellow. Does this Isabel creature have no other associates?”
“None that I know,” Harry said.
“She might have hired one,” Stoker pointed out.
“And thereby risk being double-crossed again when Harry has already cost her a fortune? I do not think so,” I said slowly. “I understand the female mind better than either of you. I suspect her methods will be completely personal, just herself and her most trusted companion—this pet Swede of hers.”
“Göran,” Harry reminded me darkly. “His name is Göran.”
“As it ought to be,” Stoker replied. “A good Scandinavian name.”
“I have always preferred Odin,” Harry said idly.
“For a dog perhaps, but it lacks a certain dignity for a human,” Stoker replied.
I cleared my throat. “If we might return to the matter at hand. I saw the fellow. He was most definitely not a Scandinavian. In fact, his was a most decidedly Indian face—and a good-looking one at that.”
“Indian?” Stoker’s gaze sharpened and I knew what he was thinking.
“Anjali,” I said in agreement.
Harry looked from me to Stoker and back again. “What has just happened?”
“Stoker and I had a conversation,” I told him.
“But you did not say anything.”
“We did not have to. A gentleman of Indian origin has this night attempted to steal the diamond—also of Indian origin—from its place of concealment. And one person with access to it at Hathaway Hall was the third factor of Indian origin.”
“Anjali,” Stoker finished. “She has access both to Lady Hathaway’sroom whence the jewel was taken and to Effie’s observatory. She might easily have taken the diamond from her ladyship’s room and secured it into the orrery, thereby ensuring it would reach London and not be discovered should Charles insist upon a search of the Hall,” Stoker added.
