Moonlight Masquerade

by Jude Deveraux

  He looked at her. “If they’d seen the horse, they wouldn’t be so quiet. Sophie, I won’t leave you here alone, and the only way out without being seen is for both of us to cross that beam and go down the ladder. But you couldn’t possibly do that.” He put his head back and acted as though what he’d said was the end of it and he was going back to sleep.

  Sophie stared at him for a moment before she spoke. “What does that mean? Why can’t I do it?” She was curious as much as anything else.

  With his eyes closed, Reede smiled in the most superior, patronizing way that he could manage. “Because you’re so short. You can’t possibly reach the overhead beam, so you can’t hold on, and besides, you’re so top-heavy you wouldn’t be able to balance. You’re not exactly aerodynamically sound.”

  Sophie blinked at him a few times as she took in what he’d just said. Not aerodynamically sound? What human body was? And just who did he think he was to say such a thing? An airplane engineer? “I’m not—?” she began, but her tongue tripped over itself so much that she couldn’t complete the sentence. She glared at him. “I’m top-heavy? You know something, Dr. Aldredge, you’re a jerk. A top-of-the-line, first-class jerk. I’ll have you know that I can balance perfectly well and I can assure you that my arms are long enough to reach the overhead beam.”

  With anger surging through her, she got up and was only vaguely aware that Reede was right behind her. As she stepped out onto the square beam, she didn’t look down, she just put one foot in front of the other. For the first steps she could reach the overhead support. It was high above her head, and if she tripped she could never use it to hold her, but touching it gave her balance. She inched along, her mind full of all the rotten things men had said to her in her life. They’d leered at her, followed her places, made passes . . .

  She stopped thinking when she got halfway across the beam. Below them, the men were talking over the radio. She became fully aware that if they looked up and saw her, she’d be a target. Panic nearly overwhelmed her.

  “I’m here,” Reede whispered in her ear, “and you’re doing great. Just a few more steps and you’re done.”

  She turned to look at him. His eyes behind the mask were bright and alert, not at all sleepy. “You said all that on purpose, didn’t you?” she whispered.

  He gave a little smile and said, “I think you’re aerodynamically perfect and if you pop out of that thing I’ll probably fall backward and break my neck.”

  Her fingers were like claws on the wood above her head, but she still managed to smile. “Couldn’t have that, could we?”

  “No.” He nodded toward the safety of the wall, then put his hand on the small of her back.

  Reede looked down and saw that the two men had moved into the kitchen. They could only see the two people above them if they came around the corner. And they’d turned up the radio, which had started an argument between them.

  When Reede looked back at Sophie he could see the fear growing in her eyes. Yet again he knew he needed to distract her. “Sophie,” he said softly, “sometimes good people do bad things.”

  She turned her head slightly to look at him. Had he found out that she’d stolen the Treeborne cookbook? How could he? Maybe he’d assumed it, since she wanted to mail it back to Carter. Maybe—

  “Not that a person intended to do anything bad,” he said, “but it sometimes happens. Here, put your foot next to mine. There, that’s good. Now go a little bit that way. Great. So a person should be forgiven, shouldn’t he?”

  He? Was he talking about Carter? “I think he should have been honest with me,” she said, then her foot slipped. Reede grabbed her about the waist with his left arm and kept her from falling backward.

  Sophie’s heart was pounding in her chest, but Reede seemed unperturbed by her near fall or even by the fact that they were balancing on a four-inch-wide chunk of wood with nothing below them.

  “Honest?” he said, sounding as though nothing had happened. “Maybe he would have been honest if he’d had a chance.”

  “Are you talking about . . . ?” She had to think to remember the name she’d used. “Earl?”

  “Earl? Your ex-boyfriend who is profoundly stupid? Why in the world would I talk about him?”

  In spite of the circumstances, Sophie gave a little smile. “I don’t know.” She was moving along the beam by quarter inches and she didn’t dare look down or at the end. She kept her eyes on Reede. It was better to think about what he was trying to say.

  “But sometimes we need to walk away,” Sophie said. Her hands were hurting and her feet were aching. It seemed that she’d been on that blasted beam for days.

  “But sometimes a person should be forgiven no matter what,” Reede said emphatically. “Walking away isn’t always the right thing to do.”

  She had no idea what he was talking about and she was so frightened, so jittery, that she couldn’t think clearly. When her shoulder touched the wall, she almost gave a yelp of relief.

  But Reede bent forward and kissed the side of her mouth. Not exactly on her lips but close enough to startle her into silence.

  He kept his face close to hers. “Sophie,” he said, and his lips were touching her skin. “Be still. They’re walking around, and we need to stay out of sight for a few minutes.”

  Her feet may have been on the beam, but her back was against the safe, secure wall. As for the front of her, that was covered by Reede’s big body.

  “I need to hide the red,” he said, referring to her silk corset as he put his hands on the wall on either side of her head. He was so much larger than she was that she was completely hidden by him. If either of the men did look up he’d see only the back of Reede. But the wall was covered with dark wood paneling, so maybe Reede’s all-black clothing wouldn’t be noticed.

  She didn’t know if her heart was racing because she was high above two men with guns, or if it was due to feeling Reede’s beautiful body pressed against hers.

  “I can take your pulse from here,” he said, his lips against her ear.

  “I think maybe you’re close enough to read my blood pressure.”

  “Don’t make me laugh or we’ll both fall.”

  “I heard a door close. Do you think they’re gone?”

  “Who?” Reede asked.

  “Them! The bad guys.”

  Reluctantly, Reede turned away from her just enough to look down into the living room. When he saw no one, he turned more fully away. The room was empty. He lost the languorous look he’d been wearing. “We have to go!” he said, then stepped back so Sophie could see the ladder.

  It may have been a ladder and should have represented safety, but to Sophie it looked like an invitation to death. The step out into thin air just to get onto the top rung was enough to make her feel faint.

  “We don’t have time to hesitate. We have to—” Reede began, then said, “Oh hell!” He stepped back, unfastened the whip from his belt, and slung it over the top beam. He pulled on it to make sure it was secure, then to Sophie’s shock, he swung out on it to stand on the ladder. He hooked one booted foot over a rung and reached up his arms to her.

  “You want me to jump?” she asked, incredulous.

  “No. You need to fall,” he said and his tone was no longer teasing. It was an order.

  Sophie couldn’t take the time to think about what she was doing or if he could hold her or all the other things that shot through her mind. It was a matter of trust, and this man deserved it.

  She put out her arms toward his shoulders and fell forward. As she’d been sure he would, Reede caught her. Instantly, he twisted her around and she grabbed the iron bars.

  Reede didn’t give her time to think as he started down the tall ladder, Sophie in front of him. Her foot slipped once, but Reede steadied her. When they reached the floor she wanted to cry in relief, but they heard the doorknob turn. Reede shoved her into a coat closet and was right behind her.

  The area was tiny and full of old coats so smelly she c
ould hardly breathe.

  “I told you I heard something,” one of the men on the other side of the door said.

  “Will you stop worrying? No one will find out anything until Monday, and by then we’ll be long gone.”

  “I think we should go now. Get out of this town.”

  “Pete has something else planned.”

  “What is it?”

  “How the hell would I know? If I could figure that out I would be the boss.”

  Sophie and Reede were by necessity jammed together in the little closet and a box started to fall off a shelf. Reede caught it before it hit Sophie’s head. He raised his arms to put it back up and when they came down they went around her, pulling her to him.

  Under normal circumstances, she would have protested, but as they heard the men moving about and arguing, the radio blaring, Reede’s arms made her feel safe. She put her cheek against his chest and closed her eyes.

  Reede bent so his head was on top of hers. “I’m going to have to open the door to see what’s going on. I want you to get in the back and hide as best you can.”

  “But if they see you they’ll—”

  “Ssssh,” he said. “I’ve done this kind of thing before.”

  She moved to look up at him in question, but he put her head back down.

  “When I’m sure it’s clear, I want you to follow me.”

  She nodded in agreement.

  “Stick to me as close as my own breath. I want you closer to me than that red thing you have on is to your glorious body. Understood?”

  Again she nodded.

  For a moment he didn’t move but stood there holding her, one hand in her hair, the other one on her back.

  “Sophie, I’m sorry for this. Sorry for everything.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” she whispered.

  “Sometimes my anger overrides my common sense and sometimes I don’t see what’s right in front of me.”

  She had no idea what he was talking about, but it was obviously important to him.

  He put his hands on her shoulders and held her away from him. There wasn’t much light in the closet, just what came through a transom above the door, but in spite of the mask, she could see the concern on his face.

  “Forgive me?” he whispered.

  “For what?”

  “I’m about to take advantage of an unpleasant situation,” he said as he lowered his mouth onto hers.

  Maybe it was what they’d been through together on the beam, or maybe it was the danger they were facing now, but there was a tenderness and a desperation in the kiss that neither of them had ever experienced before. It had the feeling of “the last.” The last kiss before a soldier went off to war. The last kiss before a patient went into surgery. The last kiss before the final breakup.

  Reede was the first to pull away. “Get in the back and stay there,” he said, and she obeyed without question.

  Slowly, soundlessly, Reede opened the closet door and peered out.

  From behind the old coats Sophie watched him. The radio was so loud that they couldn’t hear where the men were. For all they knew they were standing just outside the door.

  When Reede opened the door wider and looked out, Sophie drew in her breath and held it.

  But Reede turned to her with a cocky grin that told her the coast was clear. When he hand-signaled for her to leave the coats and follow him, she didn’t so much as hesitate.

  She got to the door, her hand outstretched to take his when, suddenly, Reede shut the door, leaving her alone in the closet. It was so fast she was almost hit in the face. Instinctively, she stepped back into the concealment of the coats. And all she could do was wonder what had happened. Had the men seen Reede? Were the three of them now standing just outside the door? Did Reede have guns pointed at him?

  She listened but heard nothing. The music still blared, so she couldn’t hear voices. But if the men had seen Reede, wouldn’t there be shouting?

  Cautiously, she stepped out of the coats and went to the door. Even when she put her ear against it, she heard nothing. She waited and listened, but all she heard was the blaring music. Some cowboy was singing that his third wife had run off with someone else. He couldn’t figure out why women today weren’t like his mother and put up with anything a man dished out.

  Sophie put her hand on the knob. Maybe Reede had left her behind while he went for help. On the other hand, if he’d wanted to do that he could have left her upstairs. Her fear was that he was in trouble and needed help.

  Slowly, with her heart pounding hard, she turned the knob.

  When shouts came and the music abruptly stopped, Sophie was sure they’d seen the knob turn. She put her shoulders back in preparation for men-with-guns to burst in. But then she rethought the “shoulders back” idea. In that position too much of her popped up above the corset. To be caught while wearing such a ridiculous getup was going to be humiliating. She grabbed an old jacket off a hanger, pulled the mask from over her eyes, then stood up straight and waited.

  But the door didn’t open. Instead, she heard a man’s angry voice. It wasn’t the first two men but a different voice. Someone new had come into the house. Was this man the reason Reede had shut the door so abruptly? She put her ear against the door.

  Ten

  “We’ll go when I say we can,” the new voice said. “Here, put these on.”

  Sophie heard something hit a wooden surface, as though boxes had fallen.

  “What the hell are these?” the skinny man asked. By now Sophie knew the voices of the first two men.

  “Can’t you see that they’re Halloween costumes?” the second man said.

  “So now we’re gonna go out and steal candy? From the kids? I like that idea.”

  “Shut up!” the new man said. He sounded more intelligent than the other two. “We’re going to a party.”

  “What?” the two men said in unison.

  “I understand your lack of social graces and that’s why you’ll have on full-head masks.”

  “I don’t want to go to no party. I want to get out of this two-bit backwater place.”

  “You will do what I tell you to!” the new man said. “This town is rich! The women here have jewelry dating back hundreds of years. And for this Halloween party they pull it all out of their safe-deposit boxes and put it on. It’s the world’s most snobbish party, as you have to be a blood relative to get in. They don’t trust anybody else—and I know. I’ve lived here for years and I’ve never been invited to—” He broke off, sounding as though he couldn’t go on with that line of thought. When he continued, his voice was calmer. “I’ve fixed it so there will be three empty places tonight and we’re going to say we’re cousins—there are hundreds of them. While we’re there we’re going to be quiet and talk little. We’ll just wander around and eat, but talk to no one. Got it?”

  Sophie thought the men probably nodded, but she could see nothing, and with the radio no longer covering every sound, she was afraid to move.

  “At ten tonight there’s going to be an emergency,” the new man said. “And I—”

  “What kind of emergency?”

  “A fire in town. I’ve set a device to go off. One of their precious old buildings is going to burst into flame, and the lot of them will run off to fight the fire, us included.”

  “With the jewels?” one of the men asked.

  “No, you moron! The men will go fight the fire. This town is like some storybook. The women will stay behind to start cooking to feed the men.”

  There was silence in the room, as though the two men didn’t understand what they were hearing.

  “We’ll double back and we’ll get the jewels. We’ll wave some guns around and we’ll make the women take their sparklers off, dump them in a bag, then we’ll leave. They’ll have no idea who we are. On Monday I’ll go back to work and I’ll be as horrified as everybody else at what happened.”

  “What do we do then?”

  “After the heist I’ll g
ive you a map of where someone is to meet you. He’ll take care of everything. Any more questions?”

  For a few moments there was silence, then the first two men began to speak at once and the man answered. One man said he didn’t like his costume because the fur was itchy. “It’ll cover your ugly mug.” The other man said he couldn’t see out of his. “You don’t need to see. Just point the gun straight ahead. That’s all you’ll have to do.”

  Sophie turned her back to the door and leaned against it. This was serious. And this was horrible. A fire was to be started in beautiful downtown Edilean. A robbery of ancestral jewels. Guns waved about by men who couldn’t even see what they were doing.

  She had to get out, had to warn people. But how could she do that without being seen?

  And even if she did get out, how could she identify the man who was the mastermind? She knew he lived in Edilean and he planned to go back to work and act as though nothing had happened. How did they find someone with just that description?

  Sophie looked up at the top of the door. There was a transom with a foggy glass insert. It let in some light, but even if she piled up old clothes to make a ladder, she wouldn’t be able to see anything.

  When she heard footsteps coming toward her, she drew in her breath. Would one of the men open the door and see her?

  But he stopped. “Get that table cleared off,” the new man said. “I have a floor plan of the Town Hall.”

  “Why do we need that?”

  “It’s where the party is. One of you will go upstairs just before ten and wait for the explosion. I don’t want any women or kids upstairs lurking about. You herd them down to me, get it?”

  Sophie went down to her stomach to look through the crack under the door. She didn’t think she’d be able to see much, but maybe there would be something useful.

  All she could see were shoes. One of the two men who’d been there at first had on running shoes that looked the worse for wear. The second man had on scruffy old boots. The new man wore what looked to be very expensive loafers, and she noted that his feet were small.