Puzzled, Rossiter said, “But you had seen his set before, surely?”
“No. Never.”
“Does he play often?”
“I’ve never known him to do so.” She hesitated, then admitted with a rather bitter smile, “An he did, I might not be aware. Unhappily, we share few interests. He had told me that the piece I was to collect from the jeweller was of great antiquity. That is why I did not question the fact that it was so—strange. Quite different from any chess piece I ever saw.”
Among the debris on the floor was a torn sheet of paper. Rossiter picked it up, found a pencil, and handed both to Naomi. “I know how clever you are with your sketchbook. Could you draw the article you lost?”
Using a book for backing, she began to sketch. “’Twas smaller than this, actually. About three inches tall,” she murmured. “And surprisingly heavy. It was of pink jade, I think. Rounded at the top… so. Like a gravestone. And with what looked for all the world to be rubies inset here… here… and here.…”
Watching her intently, Rossiter said, “Jove, but it does indeed look like a miniature gravestone. Was there any other design at all?”
“Yes,” she said, her pencil busy. “A carven face, similar to some of the drawings that have been found where the ancient people dwelt, so that it appears like a tiny man, with—”
Morris wandered up to peer over her shoulder, and exclaimed, “Blister it! That is my toy!”
Two pairs of surprised eyes shot to him, and Maggie, still tidying industriously, paused to stare at him, and say under her breath, “Athisage!”
“Your—what?” gasped Rossiter.
Tearing at his hair in remorseful humiliation, Morris cried, “Oh, Jupiter, what a dolt I am! I thought ’twas atoy!”
Rossiter demanded wrathfully, “Do you sayyouhave it? And have said nothing, all this blasted time?”
“Mea culpa,”groaned his friend. “I trod on the silly thing just after I shot that clod Falcon. When you started raving about a chess piece it did not occur to me— Well, I wouldneverhave thought of it as such!”
“What the devil did you do with it?”
“Popped it in my pocket. When I reached home, m’sister was there to greet me, with all the family, don’tcha know, and I presented it to my little niece.” He turned to Naomi and explained sheepishly, “Didn’t have nothing else, you see. Left the rest of my gifts at the Red Pheasant!”
“Then you know where it is,” said Gideon. “You can get it back!”
“I’ll—er, try. Have to post out to Guildford. Gad!” Morris looked daunted. “Have you ever tried to wrest a toy from a little girl?”
Naomi suggested with a smile, “You must make her an exchange, Lieutenant. A pretty doll would likely be more welcome than that small ruby man, or—whatever it is.”
“Take the carriage,” said Rossiter urgently. “I can use one of the hacks we keep here. Be a good fellow and bring the ruby figure to Snow Hill tomorrow, will you?”
With a good-humoured wink at Naomi, Morris grumbled, “I collect I must be grateful to be allowed to overnight with my sister.”
They walked outside. Both vehicles had been taken to the barn, and Naomi asked that Morris give her coachman instructions to prepare to return to Town. Watching the lieutenant’s swinging stride as he left them, Rossiter murmured, “Poor Jamie. He pays a price for his friendship with me.”
“As do we all,” teased Naomi.
He glanced at her, smiling. He was less gaunt than when he had first come home, and looked calm, but she knew him, and was aware that behind his poise he was grieved and raging because of the savagery perpetrated on his home. It was so typical that he would put aside his own concerns, and worry for his friend at such a moment. Sympathy brought a tightness to her throat. She said impulsively, “Mon pauvre,what a horrid time you have had. You must wish you had not come home.”
He lifted her hand to his lips. “No, how could I wish that, when I had lost everything that gave my life meaning? My headstrong pride robbed me of my family, my home, my heart.…” One long finger touched the delicate curve of her upturned cheek. “I deserved what I brought upon myself. The worst aspect of it all was that my foolishness wounded others. Had I stayed in England, I might have persuaded my father to—different practices, so that all this worry and heartbreak could have been avoided. My sister need not have known such anxieties. I would not have lost my love.…”
Fighting to be sensible, when she longed to throw herself into his arms, she said, “You seem very sure of that last, sir.”
“I am very sure I mean to win her back to me.”
‘No man should have such speaking eyes,’ she thought, and was relieved when the carriage came rumbling up, Morris waving from the window and calling cheerily that he would “climb that confounded hill” again in the morning.
Rossiter waved, and shouted, “Be sure ’tismorning! I know you, slugabed! And have a care!”
The carriage was past then, and Naomi said, “I shall say farewell also, Gideon.”
