Jonathan in tones of great interest "Or to put it another way,
just what would 'desecrate' a place where you and your friends
drink, dice, and wench until almost dawn?"
Jonathan turned a dull red and did not answer. The coach
bumped to a stop and Dan reached through the window and
unlatched the door. "Out," he said. Mairelon shrugged and
climbed out, steadying himself awkwardly with his bound
hands. Jonathan sat back, looking stubborn
Dan sighed. "Don't be foolish, dear boy. If you stay here,
209
you have no hope of keeping me from doing whatever out-
rageous things you think I am planning And I assure you that
if you decide to be obstinate, I shall make it a point to think
of something particularly outrageous "
Jonathan hesitated, then gave in Wearing a ferocious
scowl, he crawled out of the coach Kim started to follow,
but Dan put out an arm and blocked her "After me," he said
"And from now on, you are to do nothing and say nothing
unless 1 tell you Do you understand^"
"I understand," Kim said sullenly
"Good Now, after me "
When Kim came blinking out into the light, she saw Jack
Slower holding his pistol on Jonathan Aberford while Dan
kept Mairelon covered She glanced longingly at the woods,
but she did not try to mn. There was no cover close by, and
Dan wouldn't so much as pause to consider before shooting
her Even the unexpected failure of his control spell wouldn't
slow him down She'd stand a better chance of nicking the
Queen's garters at high noon on the steps of Buckingham
Palace than she would of getting away now Reluctantly she
joined the others
"Ben, you wait for us here," Dan commanded 'The rest of
you will come inside and help look for the platter You first,
Mr Mernll "
Mairelon walked over to the door of the lodge "It's
locked "
"It shouldn't be We never—" Jonathan stopped short and
pressed his lips together, as if he were afraid he was giving
vital secrets away to an enemy
"No matter," Dan said He waved his free hand in a sweep-
ing invitation "Kimi Open the door "
Even more reluctantly than before, Kim walked forward
and pulled her bit of wire out of her pocket As she knelt in
front of the lodge door, Mairelon gave her an encouraging
210
wink. She did not dare respond, for Dan was watching her,
but her hands did not shake at all as she inserted the wire in
the keyhole and began wiggling it against the tumblers.
The lock was nothing special, but Kim took her time with
it After her experience with Mairelon's magic trunk, she was
not inclined to take chances, particularly since this lodge also
belonged to a bunch of frog-makers Then, too, she didn't
much want to flaunt her skill in front of Dan It'd only give
him another reason for wanting to get his dabbers on her
"Losing your touch, dear boy?" Dan said. "I hope not"
The threat below the words was plain Kim gave her wrist
a final turn, wondering as she did whether Dan had forgotten
that she was supposed to be acting under his command or
whether he just enjoyed threatening people "It's open," she
said, rising
"Good Mr Merrilh" Dan nodded toward the door Mair-
elon gave him an ironic bow, shoved the door open, and
went in Jack followed, at Dan's direction, then Jonathan and
Kim Dan himself came last
The interior of the lodge was dark and smelled of smoke
and old wine. "Who's pulled the shutters to?" Jonathan de-
manded. "Blast it, can't anyone do anything right?"
"I fail to see—" Dan began, when a voice from the far
corner of the room interrupted him in mid-sentence
"Jon? That you? Well, of course it is Nobody else would
be so put about by a little thing like shutters It's all right,
Marianne, it's only Jon "
"Freddyi" said an agonized female voice in a piercing whis-
per "Sshhhi"
"But it's only Jon," the first voice said, and a shadowy male
figure rose from behind a clump of high-backed wing chairs
He stepped forward, peering through the gloom, then
stopped short and said with considerable indignation, "I say,
Jon, who are all these people you've brought along? Not the
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thing, old boy, not at atl the thing. This lodge is supposed to
be private, y'know "
"Meredith! 1 might have guessed," Jonathan said in tones of
loathing. "What are you doing here?"
"Might ask you the same thing," Freddy pointed out. "J ain't
the one who came barging through a locked door with a
country fair's worth of people."
"That door isn't supposed to be locked! The Sons of the
New Dawn should be free to come and go as they please; we
agreed on that at the very beginning!"
"This is all very interesting," Dan said in a bored voice,
"but I do have a few things to do here, and time presses. If
you—and your no doubt charming companion—will just join
the others here, Mr. Meredith, we can begin."
"Who's this?" Freddy said without moving- "Some jumped-
up Gt? Really, Jon—"
"Freddy!" The female whisper was, if possible, more ago-
nized than before. "Make them go away!"
Freddy turned his head back toward the corner. "I'm try-
ing, Marianne- But it ain't an easy sort of thing. Jon's a stub-
born fellow Maybe he would if you asked him," he added
hopefully. "I mean, favor to a lady and all that. Jon's a gen-
tleman, after all."
"But I can't' Oh, I can't!"
"The lady doth protest too much," Mairelon murmured.
"It doesn't matter," Dan Laverham said, ignoring Mairelon.
He seemed a little put out by Freddy's determined thick-
headedness. "Mr. Aberford isn't the one you have to con-
vince. Do as I tell you "
Freddy looked at Dan with an expression of polite hauteur
that changed quickly to incredulity. "Jonathan! That fellow
has—" He broke off and glanced back over his shoulder, then
lowered his voice and continued, "I think that fellow has a
gun."
212
"He certainly does," Jonathan said, disgusted. "And only a
sapskull like you would take ten minutes to notice it."
"Enough of this nonsense," Dan said. "Kirn, find something
to tie them with, and open the shutters while you're about it.
We can't hunt for the platter in this light. Jack, get that
blithering fool and his doxy over with the rest of them."
"Right," Jack said with an evil smirk, while Freddy splut-
tered a halfhearted protest. He sidled between a settee and a
low, solid-looking table toward the darkened corner from
which Freddy had emerged. Kirn threw back the first pair of
shutters, letting the dusty grey sunlight light up another clus-
ter of chairs and a side table stacked with cards and mother-
of-pearl marker chips.
A moment later, there was a quavering feminine shriek
from the far corner. "A pistol' Oh, it isn'
t loaded, is it?"
"Be a lot of use that way, wouldn't it?" Jack sneered. "Move
it,"
Kim glanced back as she opened a second set of shutters,
and her eyes widened in surprise. The distraught and some-
what disheveled young woman whom Jack was pulling, with
evident relish, from her hiding place was the lovely blonde
who had been with Lady Granleigh in the carriage at the inn,
that first day in Ranton Hill. Kim cudgeled her brain and
summoned up the girl's name: Marianne Thornley She
blinked as a few other bits of information came together in
her head, and almost smiled. So this was the heiress Lady
Granleigh intended for her scapegrace brother! From the look
of things, Jasper wouldn't have much luck, no matter how
persuasive his sister was. Miss Thornley seemed to have her
own plans-
"My, my," Dan said "Gently, Jack; it's not a doxy, it's a
lady."
"Miss Thornley!" Jonathan gasped. "Freddy, have you run
mad?"
213
"Freddyi Oh, Freddy, do something'" Marianne cried With
a sudden spurt of strength, she jerked her arm from jack's
grasp and ran to Freddy, where she wrapped her arms around
his neck and buried her head in his shoulder, effectively pre-
venting him from doing anything even if he had wanted to
"Now see what you've done," Freddy said reproachfully to
Dan He patted Marianne's shoulder in awkward and mean-
ingless reassurance
"Kirn, where's that rope?" Dan called
"There ain't none," Kim said, throwing open a third set of
shutters Even with three windows uncovered, the room was
not well lit, but at least it was now possible to move around
without tripping over a footstool or a bench From where she
stood, she could even make out the wreaths carved into the
mantel above the big fireplace, if she squinted
"Well, find something! And hurry it up " Dan's temper was
beginning to fray.
"Are you quite sure you want to keep on with this?" Mair-
elon asked with an air of polite concern "You're accumulating
rather a lot of witnesses, you know, and these three—" he
indicated Jonathan, Freddy, and the shrinking Marianne with
a theatrical wave of his bound hands, "—will be missed be-
fore long "
Marianne looked up, as if she were about to say something,
but before she could speak, the door behind Dan swung
open "Good day," said Gregory St Clair "I hope I'm not
interrupting, but 1 was getting tired of waiting "
In the momentary silence, St Clair stepped into the lodge
and pushed the door closed with his silver-headed walking
stick He was dressed for all the world as if he were paying a
morning call at the height of the Season m London Welling-
ton coat, striped pantaloons, and Hussar buskins His cravat
was a snowy expanse of starched linen, and his gloves were
214
grey kid Looking at him made Kmi's fingers twitch ac-
quisitively
Both Mairelon and Dan Laverham were staring at St Clair
with unconcealed dislike Jack didn't seem to know whether
to aim his pistol at the new arrival or continue pointing it at
Jonathan and Freddy, who wore identical blank expressions
Marianne, on the other hand, clung more closely to her puz-
zled escort and said in faltering tones, "Oh, Freddy, it's Lord
St Ctain"
"Cood," said Freddy, relaxing "For a minute, I thought it
was another Cit "
"St Clair," Mairelon said in a flat voice "I should have
expected you "
"Gregory has a habit of turning up where he is not
wanted," Dan said He spoke as if responding to Mairelon's
comment, but his eyes stayed on Lord St Clair and his voice
was cold
"You have a great many unappealing habits of your own,
Daniel, but I don't regard them " St Clair's expression made
Kim want to crawl behind one of the wing chairs, he looked
exactly like Dan in his worst and most unpredictable moods
He glanced around the interior of the lodge, then added,
"This time you seem to have outdone yourself, however 1
expected Merrilt, but who are all these other people^"
"Lord St Clairi" Marianne shrieked as his gaze reached her
"You must do something, or we shall alt be killed!"
"I doubt it," St Clair replied "Even Daniel isn't that fool-
ish "
"But he wants to bind us'" Marianne said dramatically
'Typical " St Clair looked at Dan "You should have
gagged her I begin to see why you're still standing here wav-
ing a pistol about instead of collecting the Saltash Set "
"The Sacred Dish is not for the likes of you'" Jonathan
215
cried St Clair raised his eyebrows in polite incredulity
"That is, if we still had it, "Jonathan added in a resentful tone,
glaring at Freddy, "which thanks to him, we don't "
"You ain't still harping on that, are you?" Freddy said "Burn
it, Jonathan, I told you what happened!"
"You had no right—" Jonathan began hotly
"Quiet," Dan commanded without turning "How did you
get past Ben?" he asked St Clair
"I employed my talents to good effect," the Baron an-
swered "Which is to say, ! put him to sleep "
"I took precautions against that sort of thing "
"Not very good ones, at least, not by my standards "
Kirn could almost hear Dan's teeth grinding "What do you
want?" he demanded
"The same thing you do, more or less," St Clair said 'The
Saltash Set" He looked around again with an air of languid
disappointment, and Kirn hoped she was only imagining that
his eyes lingered on her "I had hoped you'd have found the
rest of it by this time, but then I hadn't expected you to have
so much assistance "
"However reluctant," said Mairelon, who had been observ-
ing this exchange with interest "You have some unusual asso-
ciates, St Clair "
"No more unusual than yours," the Baron responded with a
significant look at Kirn
"But definitely more long-standing," Mairelon shot back
"Or am 1 mistaken in thinking you and Mr Laverham here are
well acquainted?"
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Dan put in "Jack, put
them all in the corner and then start looking Not him," he
added as Jack started wanly toward Lord St Clair "I'll deal
with him myself"
"Will you, indeed " St Ctair sounded both bored and skep-
tical, but Kim thought she heard darker undercurrents in his
216
voice "Not the way you did before, I hope? You owe me for
that, Daniel, and I intend to collect In full "
"I owe you?" For an instant, Dan let his rage show, then he
had himseif under control again "It doesn't matter As soon
as I have the platter, we'll leave You won't be able to stop
us "
"The platter''" St Clair said sharply "Is that all? What
about the bowl?"
"I'll have no trouble finding the bowl once the platter is in
my hands," Dan said with renewed confidence<
br />
"Finding it? You mean you weren't aware that Merrill has
the bowl?" St Clair shook his head "And you seemed so well
informed "
Laverham frowned "Is this true?" he demanded of Mair-
elon
"Yes," Mairelon said "Though it's not the sort of thing one
carries around in one's pockets, you realize "
"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Laverham said, and
his eyes narrowed as he spoke
Mairelon shrugged "You didn't ask "
"We'll get it when we're finished here," Laverham said.
"That would be foolish," St Clair commented
"Why?"
"Merrill's got a man at his wagon
"That's the turnip-pated cove I told you about, Mr Lav-
erham," Jack Slower put in "He ain't no problem "
"And even if no one was waiting, it is generally con-
sidered inadvisable to assault a wizard on his home
ground," St Clair finished
Jack's enthusiasm waned visibly Laverham stared at Lord
St Clair, his face expressionless "What would you suggest?"
"Send the girl with a message," St Clair replied "She can
tell Merrill's man that Mernll wants the bowl brought here to
help locate the platter He'll believe that"
Mairelon the Magician Page 24
