He started pacing again. “Other than him, there’s only Mustaf and his wife, Amaya, and Mustaf has been carrying the scroll-holder for much of our journey here. If he’d wanted to, he could have opened the holder, seen the letter wasn’t the original, and reported that to the enemy long ago—in which case I seriously doubt the Black Cobra would have been chasing us through Cambridgeshire. The same applies to Amaya—she would have had opportunity aplenty to act before now. No reason for either of them to wait until we’re trapped here. And in terms of the cult’s usual means of bringing pressure to bear, namely through family members, Mustaf and Amaya hail from a region of India entirely free of the Black Cobra’s influence.”
Gervase nodded. “So not them. What about the girl?”
“Alia?” Del paused, then allowed, “Normally I would count her as a likely prospect, but she’s an orphan, and her only living relatives are Mustaf and Amaya. And Amaya keeps a very close eye on her—she’s very protective, worse than any mother hen. It’s part of their culture to keep girls close, almost cloistered.”
“So no obvious chance there,” Richard concluded. “What of Deliah’s staff? Do you know much about them?”
Del opened his mouth to reply just as the double doors to the library were sent swinging wide.
Honoria stood in the doorway, eyes narrowing as she surveyed the gathering. “So this is where you’re all hiding.”
The other ladies ranged at her back.
Devil smiled. “Just in time. Come and join us. Developments have occurred, we have questions, and would value your sage counsel.”
Honoria humphed, bent a steely, disapproving look on her spouse, but consented to lead the ladies in.
“We weren’t hiding,” Demon said, shifting his legs so Flick could sit on the sofa beside him.
Flick poked his shoulder. “Of course not. You’d just forgotten your appointment to entertain your children in the nursery. But never mind. You can fill in the time after their afternoon naps.”
The fond papas exchanged glances, but didn’t dare moan.
“Now.” Honoria had settled in an armchair by Devil’s desk. She fixed her imperious gaze on Del. “What are these developments?”
Gabriel caught Del’s gaze. “Allow me.” At Del’s nod, Gabriel swiftly and succinctly summarized the recent happenings.
The ladies were predictably horrified, none more so than Deliah.
She stared all but openmouthed at Del. “You left it in a drawer?”
He shrugged. “It seemed safe enough.”
Before Deliah could respond, Tony smoothly cut in. “We’ve been considering whether any of the staff might have been subverted.”
Del leapt in to explain the Black Cobra’s usual tactics. “Could any of your staff have been pressured like that?”
“They would have to have been approached either at Southampton, or after we left there,” Tony said. “Before then, the Black Cobra couldn’t have known that you might be traveling with Del.”
Deliah was already frowning. “Bess is English and has been with me most of my life. She’s very patriotic, too. I don’t think there’s any likelihood the Black Cobra could persuade her to anything—she’d be much more likely to report any approach to me, or Del, or you two.” With a nod she indicated Tony and Gervase. “As for the others, Kumulay has been with me since I landed in Jamaica—my uncle recommended him as my bodyguard.” For the benefit of the others, she explained, “My uncle is the Chief Magistrate of Jamaica. He’d be unlikely to recommend anyone whose integrity wasn’t beyond question.”
She looked at Del, still standing before the hearth. “Like Kumulay, although they’ve only been on my payroll for the last few years, Janay and Matara were in my uncle’s household for over a decade. They left India long ago and have no family left there.”
“Ferrar created the Black Cobra sometime after he landed in India. The cult first surfaced in ’19.” Del shook his head. “Hard to see how there could be any connection.”
“No. I’m sure there’s not.” Deliah forced herself to consider all the possibilities, no matter how far-fetched. The scroll-holder was too important, not just to Del but to England, too. “The girls—Essa and Muna, Janay and Matara’s daughters—would be easy to threaten, but I’ve seen them both over the last days, and they’ve been their usual, giggling, bright-eyed selves.” She met Del’s gaze, then glanced at Tony and Gervase. “You’ve seen them—you know what they’re like. If there’s anything the least bit wrong in their lives, no matter how inconsequential, it instantly shows in their faces, in their demeanors. Of everyone here, they’d be the last two to be able to carry out any secret or subversive mission.”
She looked at Del. “So in answer to your question, no, I don’t think any of my people are involved.”
Del started to nod, then stopped. “What about the boy?”
“Sangay? What about him?”
Del frowned. “What’s his background? Where does he come from? What do you know of him?”
Deliah frowned back. “I don’t know where he comes from—I know nothing about him. He’s your staff, not mine.”
Del froze. “He’s not mine.” When Deliah blinked, he added, “I—and my people—thought he was yours.”
She stared at him. “My people thought the reverse.”
“Aha!” Devil rose and, grim-faced, crossed to the bellpull. “It sounds like we’ve identified our thief.”
Webster answered the summons remarkably quickly.
“Tell Sligo and Cobby to report here,” Devil said.
“And Mustaf, too.” Del glanced at Devil. “He might know more.”
“And please ask Janay and Kumulay to come up, too,” Deliah added. She met Del’s gaze. “They’ve all been talking to him.”
Webster bowed and departed on his mission.
“When did you first notice the boy?” Gyles asked.
Del and Deliah looked at each other.
“He was with us in London,” Deliah said.
Del nodded. “I can’t recall seeing him before then, but he might have joined us at Southampton.”
“That would make more sense,” Deliah pointed out. “Our respective households knew each other by the time we reached London. But we left Southampton in a rush—if he was suddenly among them then, they would have assumed, as they did, that he belonged to the other household.”
Devil raised his brows. “Quick thinking on his part, if that was so.”
A tap on the door heralded those summoned. Sligo led the others in. “Y’r Graces.” He bowed, and the others followed suit.
“Colonel Delborough has a few questions about the boy, Sangay.” Devil arched a brow at Del.
Briefly, concisely, Del explained the situation—the missing scroll-holder, and the recent realization that Sangay did not belong to either his or Deliah’s household.
“He doesn’t?” Cobby gave voice to the astonishment lighting his, Mustaf’s, Janay’s, and Kumulay’s faces.
Sligo growled, “The little beggar.”
“Wait before you judge, Sligo,” Del recommended. “The boy’s likely to be a victim in all this.” He glanced at Cobby and Mustaf. “You two know how the Black Cobra operates. Any thoughts?”
After a moment, Mustaf volunteered, “I did think he—Sangay—seemed…” He waggled a hand, pulled a face. “Oddly quiet for a boy of his years, his background.”
Kumulay nodded. “I originally thought he must have been an orphan—that he’d lost his family. He seemed…reserved, you would say, and quietly sad. But then I heard him praying for his maataa.” He glanced around the company. “His mother.”
Del and Deliah exchanged a glance.
“Could the Black Cobra be holding Sangay’s mother as a hostage against him stealing the scroll-holder?” she asked.
Del frowned. “I can’t see how Ferrar might have arranged that—to be already holding her—not unless, foreseeing a need he couldn’t possibly have foreseen, he brought Sangay with him from
India.” He looked inquiringly at Cobby.
Cobby shook his head. “No Indian boy on the ship Ferrar and Larkins arrived on. Not in any capacity.”
“So Ferrar—or more likely Larkins—must have picked him up in Southampton, or even in London. Plenty of East Indiamen in the Pool of London on any given day.” Del’s face hardened. “And just because the Black Cobra recruited Sangay here in England doesn’t mean that Sangay doesn’t believe his mother is in dire and imminent peril back in India.”
Cobby was nodding, his expression grim. “Young, impressionable, and well out of his league—not even in his own country. Sangay’d be an easy target for anyone who knew what levers to pull.”
“Indeed. And the Black Cobra certainly knows.” Del looked at Mustaf. “Where is Sangay?”
“He was in the servants’ hall when we left to come here.”
“I’ll go and bring him up,” Cobby said.
Del nodded. He dismissed the others with a word of thanks, and they all trooped out on Cobby’s heels.
A murmur of light voices filled the silence as the ladies asked questions, seeking clarification on the Black Cobra’s heinous tactics. Minutes passed while they listened, then, shocked, exclaimed.
Del inwardly grimaced, and paced before the hearth.
After a while, he frowned, halted, and looked at Devil. Caught his eye. “Perhaps—”
A tap on the door interrupted his suggestion that they ring to find out what was going on. Cobby had been far too long.
At Devil’s “Come!” the door opened. Sligo and Cobby walked heavily in. Sligo met Del’s gaze, then Devil’s, and nodded grimly. “You’ve guessed it. He’s gone.”
“Where?” Devil asked.
“That’s just it.” Cobby looked at Del. “We don’t think he’s left the house.”
Twelve
Verbal pandemonium ensued.
Ignoring all the questions and exclamations, suppositions and speculations, Devil dispatched Vane and Demon, along with Cobby and Sligo, to the tower.
Vane and Demon returned ten minutes later, confirming that the blanket of snow surrounding the house remained unbroken.
“No one’s come in, and no one’s left.” Vane dropped back into his chair. “Cobby and Sligo have gone down to do a quick reconnoiter of the nether regions.”
The pair of erstwhile batmen returned fifteen minutes later to report. By then, the rest of them had beaten all the suppositions to death and been left with a large handful of unanswered, and as yet unanswerable, questions.
“Have to say it’s dreadful outside,” Sligo said. “Not fit for man nor beast. Freeze your…toes off, it would, and Sangay wouldn’t be used to cold like that, would he? Any roads, the scullery maids said they’ve found him looking out the scullery window on and off since yesterday morning. That window looks onto the rear yard, and the snow is undisturbed out that way.”
“Mustaf and I searched his room in the attic,” Cobby reported. “There was nothing there. Literally nothing beyond a comb he’d borrowed from Matara saying he’d lost his own. Sligo found him a page’s coat once we got here—poor lad was shivering and said he had nothing warmer to wear. That wasn’t in the room, nor was Sangay.”
“He’s got the scroll-holder and is worried about being caught,” Deliah said. “So he’s hiding.”
Del met her eyes, nodded. “He’s quick—he must be to have got this far without any of us suspecting. He must have got the wind up when we called the others up here, and gone off to find a safe place to hide.” Del looked at Devil. “The question is: where?”
Devil returned his gaze, then raised his brows. “Strange to say, despite its long past, I don’t believe anyone has ever tried to search this house.”
“Hardly surprising,” Vane said. “The place is immense.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything.” Honoria looked at Devil. “Ring for Webster. We’ll need to confer.”
Devil nodded. Richard, the closest, rose and tugged the bellpull.
Demon had returned to the sofa beside Flick. “It’s still blowing a gale outside, but there’s no snow falling, and the clouds aren’t promising more. However, the wind is scouring what’s already fallen and blowing it about like the worst sort of sleet. Not even a desperate boy would try to leave just yet. It might be possible by tomorrow, depending on his level of desperation and if it ices over, but today not even Goliath would get twenty yards.”
“That’s something,” Devil said. “So we’ll have at least all day to find him and the scroll-holder.”
“And we’ll most likely need every minute.” Gabriel looked cynically resigned. Alathea poked him. He looked at her. “Just being realistic.”
“Try being encouraging instead.”
Webster arrived, and the talk turned to how best to quarter such a very large house. All the ladies joined in, which drew their menfolk to offer helpful, and in some cases less helpful, suggestions.
At an early point in the proceedings, Devil sent Sligo up to the nursery. He returned to report that all was quiet up there. “The footmen and nursemaids haven’t seen or heard anything—most haven’t sighted Sangay at all—but now they know, they’ll keep their eyes open, and their ears, too, in case he tries to hide somewhere up there.”
Still seated behind his desk, Devil nodded, continuing to jot notes on a piece of paper as, with Webster standing behind him, Gyles perched on the desk to his left, Del in similar position on his right, and Sligo and Cobby hovering near, they thrashed out the basic skeleton of an effective search.
Eventually, Devil reached for a heavy paperweight and banged it on his blotter. “Quiet!”
Everyone fell silent. All heads turned his way.
“Thank you.” He inclined his head to Honoria, then went on, “We’ve come up with a reasonable plan of campaign. Webster and Sligo will coordinate a search of the lower levels, and all the servants’ domains belowstairs. They’ll do that now, first. Once those areas are known to be clear, we’ll seal them off by placing footmen or stable lads at all the relevant doors and on all the stairs. There’s only so many routes that connect abovestairs with below. By blocking those, we can ensure Sangay can’t slip past and get behind the searchers.”
Devil glanced around at the attentive faces. “There’s no sense in being anything but methodical. Once belowstairs is cleared and sealed off, then all those who normally have business abovestairs and so know the basic layout of the house will start searching, working from the ground floor up. We’ll go floor by floor, all the way to the third floor—the attics—if need be. As each floor is cleared, we’ll put watchers on the stairs so Sangay can’t slip through our net.” Devil laid down his notes, looked at the others. “That seems the only way to efficiently and effectively search this place, and we’ll need all hands on deck to help.”
“Well, of course,” Honoria said.
No one disagreed.
“However,” Honoria continued, “I suggest that when it comes to us”—a wave of her hand indicated them all—“we should search in pairs. A lady will think to look in places a gentleman won’t, and vice versa.”
“So we search as couples?” When Honoria nodded, and the other ladies mirrored the gesture, Devil glanced at the males scattered about the room, then smiled in mild acceptance. “That sounds like an eminently…sensible idea.”
Honoria narrowed her eyes at him.
Devil pretended not to notice.
They decided to have an early lunch while the areas beyond the green baize doors were searched. Cobby and Sligo took charge, leaving Webster to supervise the serving of the meal.
The seating was impromptu, resulting in the ladies congregating at one end, flanking Honoria, with the men at the other, on either side of Devil. There was much discussion in both groups. The ladies’ attention centered on the life Sangay must have led to that point, which resulted in a discussion of conditions in India and elsewhere in the colonies. Deliah found herself peppered with questions, most of
which she could answer, either from her own experience, or her uncle’s, or Del’s. Over the past days, she’d picked up quite a lot about the Black Cobra and his nefarious ways.
The ladies’ sympathies were all for Sangay. Other than Deliah, all were mothers, and all had baby boys.
They were just finishing the fruit course, a degree of mild excitement burgeoning, when Cobby and Sligo presented themselves. In keeping with the campaignlike atmosphere, they both stood to attention.
“He’s not anywhere belowstairs.” Sligo sounded unshakably confident.
“We’ve cleared the attics, as well, Your Graces.” Cobby nodded respectfully to the table at large. “It was easy enough to open the doors and see the dust hadn’t been disturbed. We left some stable lads to guard the attic doors, just in case, once he hears us searching, Sangay thinks to slip up there.”
“Excellent.” Devil sat back. “You’ve done your bit—you can stand down and hold your lines while we do ours.” He looked around the table. “So here’s what we’ll do.”
It was a massive house, and they would have only so long before the gray light faded. Searching by candelight would be that much harder; with that prospect hovering, they were committed to searching thoroughly, yet as quickly as they could.
They’d agreed each floor had to be declared clear before any of them moved on to the next. On the ground floor, Del walked beside Deliah as she bustled down the corridor into the middle section of the wing to which they’d been assigned. Following them, Richard and Catriona were to search the rooms further along, to the wing’s end, while Vane and Patience had already disappeared into the room nearest the front hall.
The other couples were likewise spread throughout the house, down each of the main wings, and through the central section around the massive stairs.
Many footmen, all the parlor maids and housemaids, all the ladies’ maids and gentleman’s gentlemen—anyone familiar with the rooms abovestairs—were assisting, searching the smaller rooms, the service rooms, storage areas and cupboards hidden behind paneling or tucked between the main rooms. Grooms and stable lads, meanwhile, were positioned on all the stairs.
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