How indeed, Rafe was thinking, when Jervis slipped into the room.
“Hope you found something useful, because we’ve got company.”
“We did,” said Alix beaming. Then her face grew serious as she registered what Jervis had said, “Is it the watch?”
“Not yet, but the neighbors are downstairs, squawking about all the activity over here.” He cast a meaningful look at Rafe. “Seems they let a furniture appraiser in earlier in the day, and now they’re having second thoughts about whether he might have been a thief. I think we’d better get out of here in case they find anything amiss.”
“Where are they now?” Rafe asked.
“Downstairs gallery.”
Rafe went to the window and looked down into the garden below. There was a flimsy looking drain spout and a tall tree within reach. “Ladies and gentleman,” he saidswinging open the window frame, “I believe it’s time to climb. Jervis, you first, then Alix, and I’ll follow.”
Jervis wasted no time in swinging out over the sill and into the tree. Alix paused on the sill, studying the distance to the nearest branch and the two-story drop down. She looked dubiously back at Rafe. “Perhaps there are some trunks about?” she asked half-heartedly, glancing about the room for a place to hide. “I haven’t climbed a tree since I was little.”
“Nothing you can’t handle, my little hoyden. Now out you go.” He held her hand as she reached a foot toward the branch and clutched with her free hand toward the tree. Fragments of bark rained down and they heard Jervis swear. “See,” he whispered as he released her, “nothing to it.”
Voices were rising up the staircase. “Well, I don’t see anything missing, but I wonder if we should send word to the landlord.”
That was encouraging, Rafe thought. The neighbors apparently hadn’t discovered the man downstairs yet. He swung himself out and into the tree. He could hear Alix just below him, scrabbling at branches and muttering. He watched her drop the last few feet into Jervis’s waiting arms, and heard him grunt, “Hey, that’s me best tricorne you’re wearing!”
“I’ll buy you a new one,” she snapped.
“Children, this is no time to bicker,” Rafe interjected as he dropped softly down beside them. As they crossed the geometrically landscaped garden toward theporte cochère, a woman’s scream rent the air.
“We can’t run, it’ll look too suspicious,” Rafe said, lengthening his stride and pulling Alix close. “Let’s just get to the street as quickly as we can, then split up. Alix and I will go back to the inn. Jervis, you need to find Dubois and get those papers. Have him make up a set of Parisresidency papers and a passport with the necessary seals for travel to England. And tell him the faster he can get them done, the more appreciative I’ll be.”
“What about clothes?” Alix said quickly.
“And stop by our friends and see if you can arrange for suitable traveling clothes for the lady.”
“As you wish, captain.”
They stepped through theporte cochèreand Rafe caught sight of a group of men carrying pikes and swinging lanterns, heading down the street. He dragged Alix into an alleyway between the houses. Jervis quickly crossed the street and disappeared in the opposite direction, whistling a tune that sounded suspiciously like “The World Turned Upside Down.”
Eight
Rafe grabbed Alix by the elbow and hauled her swiftly down the alley. Her foot connected with something repellently smooth and she slipped. “You don’t have to drag me,” she insisted, “I can follow on my own.”
“You, follow?” Rafe snorted. “That would be a first.”
“Well, I’m sorry that I’m not as obedient as your troops,Captain,” she said in an irritated voice.
“No more so than I. In the army, disobedience is a flogging offense.”
“Why do we have to walk so fast anyway? The watch didn’t see us, and we didn’t take anything...” Her voice trailed off and she gasped, “Or did you?”
Rafe stopped in mid-stride and swung round to face her, his hazel eyes hard. “I beg your pardon, mademoiselle. You are the one who insisted, nodemandedthat Jervis and I break into your mother’s house. Are you now implying that we stooped to theft?” He loomed over her, his face a study in sharp angles.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest you’d stolen anything,” Alix said, taking a step back. “But,” she added defensively, “you must admit it was a bit peculiar the way the neighbors came by all of the sudden. And why on earth did that woman scream?”
Rafe resumed walking and Alix had to run to keep up with him. His brows were drawn together and his eyes narrowed as he turned to look at her. “Jervis and I left a man trussed up in the small salon of your mother’s apartments; a gentleman who said he’d been sent by your desperately ill father. The gentleman claimed you’d stolen something valuable and that you were bringing your ill-gotten gains to a lover who worked in Madame de La Brou’s household.”
“And you believed him?”
“If I had,” Rafe responded dryly,” I never would have hit him with the candlestick.”
“Hit him with a…” Questions filled her head. “But why would someone make up a story like that...?” And then a horrible thought: “You don’t suppose my father could bealive?’ Her blood turned to ice. “I never saw his body I heard the people yelling, the screams, and what sounded like blows. But Solange and David wouldn’t let me look for him.” Her voice dropped to a strangled whisper. “David told me... the mob... cut his head off.” She grabbed Rafe’s arm and looked beseechingly up at him. “What if they were wrong? What if he’s badly hurt and he needs me?”
