Obsidian Eyes (43 page)

He was silent for a few moments longer, before speaking. “Have you defied him? Didn’t you say Le Foy’s instructions may have concealed another meaning? What exactly did he tell you to do?”

She closed her eyes and replayed the scene in the study, watched by her mother’s portrait. “He said to keep my ears open, that new alliances are being made and that when I had finished with the Reapers to send him a message.”

“Did he use those words, when you had finished with them? Why didn’t he say when business was concluded, or after you had delivered Zeb?”

“That’s what I thought was odd.” Her father’s words came back to taunt her;
send me a message when you have finished with the Reapers.
What did he mean by finished? Could he have intended her to destroy their base?

“There were no survivors, you have certainly finished them as instructed and learned of a new alliance.”

The small glimmer of light returned to the black recesses of Allie’s mind. Any further thoughts were cut off as Jared kissed her. He was gentle but insistent, until she felt her bones turn to molten metal and she could no longer stand without him holding onto her.

The moon was high in the sky by the time they returned to the house in Edinburgh. The three friends were relieved to hand their horses over to the grooms and not have to worry about unsaddling and feeding their weary mounts.

On entering the house they were greeted by a worried looking Lady Lithgow and Eloise. Both looked anxious that Zeb was not amongst them.

“They’re all right.” Jared reassured them. “Zeb and Lord Lithgow are with KRAC, they have plenty to relay about what they saw and they’ll be here in the morning.”

The relief flooded into their faces. “I don’t know how to thank you all,” Lady Lithgow exclaimed, one hand over her heart, the other held tightly by Eloise.

There was a crease of worry from Eloise who saw Jared’s bandaged arm. “You’re hurt?”

“It’s only a scratch.” He shrugged. “It won’t take long to heal. Now if you don’t mind, it’s been a long couple of days and we’re all rather tired. We’ll tell all in the morning and answer all your questions once we’ve had some sleep.”

They climbed the double staircase to their rooms, Jared and Allie with fingers intertwined. They paused at the top of the stairs, the girls’ rooms off to the right, while Jared and Duncan were housed down to the left. Duncan started down the left hand corridor, while Jared paused.

“Goodnight,” he murmured to Allie. Placing a hand on the side of her face, he brushed a gentle kiss over her lips before releasing her.

“Goodnight,” she replied as she turned to head to her room.

Eloise caught up to her, sliding her arm into that of her friend. “Don’t think you’re going to sleep until you’ve told me everything,” she whispered with a gleam in her eyes. “And I mean everything!”

Friday, 30
^th
September.

awn crept over the horizon and Allie was still awake. She finally gave Eloise sufficient detail, of the romantic kind, for her to be satisfied. She wandered off to her room with a dreamy look in her eyes.

Bet she dreams of kissing Zeb
.

Allie seated herself at the little writing desk under the window, Weasel curled around the base of the lamp and shut his eyes. Only the slow rotation of his ears showed he stayed alert. Opening a drawer, she withdrew the chatelaine she secreted before they left. She unclipped the glass vial containing the mechanical dragonfly Le Foy gave her in London.

It had been a relief to confide in Jared, to tell someone else of the burden she carried. She still held back that Le Foy was her father, not ready to lay herself completely bare. It was enough she trusted Jared with her life by telling him how she escaped the gallows.

He came up with the idea for the message. Le Foy instructed her to contact him when she had finished with the Reapers. She had certainly done that―
finished them
. A small sliver of her clung to the hope they interpreted his words correctly.

Jared advised her to be economical with the truth. Gregor was dead, the castle destroyed. No Reapers survived to bear witness to her actions or betrayal if they were wrong about Le Foy’s true intent.

She stared at the brief message she wrote on the tiny strip of paper, hoping it would save the Lithgows.

And her.

Weapon unstable. Explosion destroyed everything. Reapers finished.

She rolled the strip up tightly, unhinged the end segment of the insect’s dark bronze body and hid the message within. Closing the hidden chamber, she stroked her fingers along its delicate length. It vibrated briefly in her hand, and then unfurled its opalescent wings. The tiny antenna on its head swung around, before fixing on south, the direction of London.

Allie leaned over and opened the window. “Off you go,” she whispered to the miniscule messenger, lifting her hand over the sill. It shook itself, flapped its wings and zipped away. A blur of iridescent colour, winging its way to another outstretched hand. Allie silently prayed that Le Foy believed her message and she guessed at his hidden motives. Her life depended on it.

The exhaustion told on her body, and she pulled back the coverlet on the bed and climbed between her sheets. Sleep claimed her and brought blissful nothingness to her mind.

It was nearly lunchtime when Allie rose, the entire house late due to the previous evening’s events. She headed along to Jared’s room. Duncan appeared in his cousin’s doorway. “How’s his arm?” she enquired.

“Eloise had a poke, and reckoned if she stitched him up, it wouldn’t leave a mark. He told her to go away. He’s looking forward to his first scar. You can go in, if you want.” Duncan gave her his usual grin and swung the door open, and then closed it behind her.

Jared sat up in bed, his right arm bandaged, his naked and well-muscled torso a light brown against the pure white sheets. Allie wondered how he managed to get a slight tan given the notoriously fickle Scottish summers. She had the mental image of him and Duncan cavorting half-naked in the heather like a couple of wolf pups. Then she pushed the idea firmly out of her head.

“Good morning.” He had a worried look on his face as Allie paced up and down. “Did you send the message?”

“Yes,” she began, then stopped; she wasn’t sure how to proceed. There was so much to discuss. She didn’t know how Le Foy would respond. There was the issue of how they could be together, without even contemplating Madeline. She worried what the Consortium plotted against Princess Victoria and was determined to see the future queen survive to prove herself.

Jared tried to sit up further, but his injured right arm impeded his progress. He fumbled behind trying to move the pillow, which had fallen off to the side. Allie watched his awkward attempt to get more comfortable.

“Would you mind?” he asked.

With a sigh, she sat on the edge of the bed, leaned in close, and reached behind him with both hands to resettle the uncooperative pillow.

“Better?” she asked, sitting back. A perplexed look crossed her face. She lost her train of thought due to the close proximity and struggled to regain it.

“Much,” Jared murmured, as he reached out with his good left arm and pulled her in to him, sending her thoughts into a tail spin of turmoil. He deftly rolled, tucking her underneath him as he went and pinned her under his body and the tangle of white cotton sheet.

A thought slowly made its way through the blur of pleasure running up and down her body. The idea coalesced at the front of her brain and she broke free of Jared’s eager lips.

“Are you naked under this sheet?” she asked.

“Want to find out?” he replied with a grin, pulling her back to him.

She placed both hands on his warm solid chest and pushed him back a few inches. “Are you going to distract me like this every time I try to have a serious conversation with you?”

He appeared thoughtful for a moment, before replying. “As a strategy it seems to be working rather well for me, so yes.”

“I have plans to make.” She ran her hands down the middle line of his chest, she wanted to trace around each abdominal muscle and learn every inch of his body.

“Like what?” With a hand curled around her nape, he held her in place to kiss the base of her throat.

Allie wondered what it would be like to completely abandon herself to him. She struggled with thoughts and words.

“Assuming Le Foy lets me live long enough, I need to infiltrate the Consortium, which is going to take guild assistance. They are plotting against Victoria and I need to know their plans. And then we need to figure out how to stop them.” At that moment her stomach let out a rumble. “And I want breakfast,” she laughed.

She pushed him aside and escaped off the side of the bed.