He stepped back to get away from her.
I’m becoming a madwoman. But there was no help for it, she thought. She tugged the reticule off her arm and opened it. Jade pulled out a wad of bills and waved them in the man’s face. “Here! Take what you want.”
“Well,” he said, his eyes on the money, “I think five is a fair price, but . . . ”
“Take it!”
He took it.
Jade snapped the strings of her bag tight and looped it over her arm. “Now help me up onto this thing.”
She looked her rented mount in the eye and shuddered. The man stepped up beside the horse and cupped his hands together. Jade grabbed the saddle horn and tried to pull herself up, managed to drape her stomach across the saddle, then wriggled as the man shoved on her foot until she righted herself. When she threw her right leg over the saddle, she then tugged on her skirt, trying to cover her calves and ankles. At the last minute, she remembered to tuck the ends of her cloak beneath her so that it would not flap and spook the horse.
He handed her the reins.
She had never ridden without someone beside her.
She was shaking like jellied consommé. “Don’t forget. Harrington House. Your horse will be there.”
I hope. As she rode away, holding onto the reins and pommel for dear life, she wondered what the poor Englishman thought as he watched a mad woman with wild red hair flying about and tears streaming down her face bounce away on the back of his horse.
THE SMALL GROUP assembled for dinner at Harrington House had just finished their meal when someone began pounding on the front door. Jason waved Tao aside and pushed back his chair. He ran his hands through his hair. The sound of his boot heels rang out loud and clear in the foyer as he hurried to answer the summons. He whipped the door open and felt a rush of relief followed by anger as he gazed down on Jade.
Her hair was a mess. Her eyes were deep emerald pools of fear that streamed tears. She looked confused and disoriented.
He glanced out the door and saw a strange horse munching on the lawn beyond the drive.
“Jason?” she whispered, a tremulous smile on her lips.
He did not move aside. Instead, looming over her in the doorway, he all but shouted, “Where in the hell have you been?”
Her reticule dangled from one wrist as she pressed her hands to her temples. “Please, Jason, don’t yell.”
“I’ll damn well yell when I want to yell!” Then, suddenly remembering his guests, he lowered his voice. “You have a lot of fast talking to do, Jade.” He reached out and took her by the arm, dragging her inside. She was trembling; he could feel it even through her thick cloak, and it angered him. He had every right to be furious, and he wasn’t about to let her fear curb that anger. “Where did that horse come from?”
“I . . . I gave a man five dollars to rent it. I . . . he’ll come to get it in a while.” The morning’s escapade had taken its toll. She couldn’t think clearly with her head pounding so. All she wanted to do was get upstairs to bed. “Should I have tied it up?”
“Xavier!” Jason called over his shoulder. Wiping his mouth on the back of his hand, the man appeared almost immediately.
“Get that horse tied up out front. Someone’s coming for it.” J.T. then turned to Jade. “What’s the man’s name?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I didn’t ask him.”
As Xavier scooted past them and ran out the door, Jason closed it behind him and turned on her. “Where have you been?”
She drew a shaking breath. What had happened to the loving man she had left curled up in bed? “Didn’t you get my note?”
“What note?”
“I left a note with Quan Yen. I went to the doctor,” she said softly. “I’m sick.”
Fear made him grip her arms even tighter. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.”
“You aren’t making any sense.”
“Dr. Adams said nothing is the matter with me. But I’m sick, I know it. I’m dizzy, my mouth is always dry, my stomach aches, and I can’t catch my breath.”
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a crumpled letter and waved it in front of her face. “Why did you hide this from me?”
She squinted, trying to see what it was he was shoving at her. “What is it?”
“Don’t play coy with me. You know damn well what it is. It’s the letter my aunt sent me weeks ago. Why did you hide it?”
“I didn’t hide it. I’ve never seen it before.” She tried to pull away from him. “You’re hurting me.”
“Were you afraid I was going to leave town before you had a chance to seduce me again? I’m surprised you waited until last night. You must have been pretty sure of yourself, putting it off for so long.”
Jade buried her face in her hands and tried to think. Her mind was a jumble of thoughts that would not straighten themselves out. When had that letter arrived? From New Mexico, he had said. She rubbed her eyes and memory of it slowly came to her—the letter arrived the day Matt had brought her Babs’s note and her father’s letter, just after J.T. left for Monterey. She had tossed it on the desk, and somehow it had become lost amid the clutter.
“I did receive that letter,” she admitted, no longer caring whether or not Jason would ever forgive her. All she wanted was to crawl into bed and pull the covers over her head. “Matt brought it the day after you left for Monterey. I put it on the desk and forgot about it.”
He frowned with the dark expression she was coming to know all too well.
“Go ahead and beat me.” She sighed and looked up at him with a weary expression. “I feel so bad already I don’t think I would feel it.”
His expression turned to disgust at such an absurd notion. “I’m not going to beat you.”
“No?”
“No!”
“Then will you please stop yelling? It hurts my head.”
“We have guests I want you to meet.”
He hauled her into the dining room, where he paused on the threshold and announced, “Uncle Cash, Aunt Guadalupe, this is my wife, Jade.”
Cash pushed himself out of his chair and said hello.
Lupe stared, trying to find words to say, but failed.
Jade fainted dead away.
Hauling her into his arms, Jason carried Jade up the stairs to her room. Lupe followed close on his heels. She had been a healer all her life; the fact that Cash had recovered so quickly from his illness was testimony to her skill. She did not comment when her nephew carried his wife to a guest room instead of his own, but quickly set about loosening the girl’s clothing while J.T. got a wet compress for her head.
Lupe sat on the bed beside Jade and smoothed back her hair while Jason hovered over them both. When Jade’s eyelashes fluttered and she opened her eyes, her gaze immediately focused on Jason.
“How do you feel?” Lupe asked.
Jade licked her lips.
“Get her some water,” Lupe directed, and J.T. disappeared.
“I’m all right,” Jade finally said, weakly trying to sit up. “Really, I am.”
“Stay,” Lupe said, pressing her back with a gentle hand. “You’re still dizzy.”
Jason returned with the water and handed it to Lupe, who held Jade’s head while she sipped at it.
Lupe looked at Jason. “How long have you been married?”
He shrugged. “About five weeks.”
“Are you carrying a child?” Lupe asked Jade.
The mattress sagged when Jason abruptly sat down beside Lupe.
Jade shook her head. “No. I . . . I thought I might be. That’s why I went to the doctor.”
You fool, Jason berated himself. When would he learn to think before he jumped to conclusions? The idea tha
t Jade might be pregnant with his child had never entered his mind.
Lupe felt Jade’s forehead, then the pulse at her neck. She asked for a detailed description of Jade’s symptoms and listened carefully. “What did the doctor say to you?”
“He said I was suffering from nerves and told me to come home and rest. And walk.” She looked at Jason and then away. “He said I should go to the country.”
Lupe watched Jade for a moment longer. “I will bring you something to eat.”
“No, please. Just tell Tao I would like some tea. That’s all.”
“I will make you some tea. Later, I will bring you a tray of food. You need to eat.”
Jason was still too worried to smile as he listened to the exchange. Lupe’s cure-alls always revolved around food. She often said that a person is only as healthy as what he puts into his body.
When Lupita left them alone, he scooted closer to Jade on the bed. “Jade, I’m sorry for the way I acted downstairs.”
She refused to look at him and picked at the bedspread. “No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am. Very sorry. It’s just that I woke up this morning and found you gone, then when I found that letter among your things, something inside me snapped.”
“Did you send someone to kill me, Jason?”
He looked stunned. “What are you talking about?” He studied her carefully to see if she was serious.
She tried to put her jumbled thoughts into words. Everything was so confused. “I got lost today. I don’t know how I did, I know the city so well. My grandfather used to say—”
“What happened?” He tried to get her back to the point.
“I was on the wrong horsecar. I got off in Little China—”
“You weren’t supposed to be there. Jade. In fact, I can’t understand why you went out alone at all. Why didn’t you tell me you wanted to see the doctor? I would have taken you.”
She frowned, trying to pull her jumbled thoughts together again. “A man was following me. A big man. I ran down an alley, and I heard him run after me. I slipped across the street when a funeral went past and finally lost him.”
“Was he one of the men who chased you the night we ate in Little China?”
“No. He wasn’t Chinese. That’s why I thought that maybe you . . . you wanted to get rid of me so badly that you hired someone.”
It hurt him deeply to think that she would even suspect him of wanting to cause her harm, especially after last night. He reached out and smoothed her hair back off her forehead. “Do you really think I would do anything to harm you, Jade? How could you think that after last night?”
“Because you’re always willing to think the worst of me. You thought I kept the letter from you on purpose.” Her green eyes glazed with tears of exhaustion and despair. In a broken whisper that tore at his heart she asked, “Will it always be like this between us, Jason? If it will, I don’t think I have the strength to take it anymore.”
He gathered her into his arms and held her close. She did not reach out to hold him back, but seemed content to simply lie there. He closed his eyes and kissed her temple.
He wondered what they were doing to each other.
She wondered how long they could go on this way.
Chapter Twenty
Trouble neglected becomes still more troublesome . . .
A FIRE CRACKLED behind the grate in the drawing room at Harrington House, lending a false sense of hominess to a room that had only been furnished as a showpiece. Jason stood with his hands in his pockets, staring out at the fog-shrouded gardens, and wished he were looking out at a clear, crisp New Mexican morning instead of another damp, dreary one in San Francisco. Lieutenant Jon Chang had just arrived, and Jason was waiting until Tao Ling poured the man a cup of tea. The small task was nearly a ritual, J.T. noted, as Tao carefully filled one of the small bowl-shaped cups.
Jason watched the detective take a sip, then set the cup down and look expectantly in his direction. After he cleared his throat, J.T. sat down in one of the tall armchairs near the fireplace. “I asked you to drop by because I want this mess involving my wife cleared up. Do you have any more information than you had a few weeks ago?”
Jon Chang showed no reaction to Jason’s outright hostility. Instead, he took another sip of tea, then said, “No. Nothing. It is as if Li Po, the alchemist, has dropped off of the face of the earth. Has something happened recently that I have not been made aware of?”
“Yesterday my wife went to the doctor and on her way home became disoriented. A man, a Caucasian, followed her through Little China, but she managed to lose him.”
“She was warned against going back to Little China.”
“I know that and you know that, but you don’t know my wife.”
“Did she recognize this man?”
“She said she didn’t.”
“I see.”
“There is also something that she has been working on that she hasn’t told you about.” Jason stood and walked over to a table laden with crystal decanters and glasses. He picked up his chair. “I took these off of Jade’s desk.”
Jon Chang reached for the pages and stared down at them in mute interest. “I don’t recognize the characters.”
“Neither did my wife. She’s been trying to decode them for the past two weeks, ever since the crates arrived.”
“Crates?”
“They contained the Chinese art pieces that her grandfather collected. To make a long story short, she wants to set up a museum here in San Francisco to house the collection. Anyway, each crate of goods delivered from the bank was marked with these characters, except for one, and that one contains what Jade is convinced are the alchemist’s belongings.”
For the first time since they had met, J.T. watched Jon Chang’s face register surprise.
“She has the alchemist’s possessions? Why wasn’t I told?”
“Because she wanted to figure out what these symbols meant before she turned them over to you, but I want them out of here now, along with that box. I don’t want my wife involved anymore. Someone still wants to find the alchemist, or whatever he left behind, and they are out to get my wife in order to have him. I want you to take the box and get the word out on the street that Jade Douglas Harrington is no longer involved in this in any way. She’s innocent of any knowledge of her father’s schemes.”
“Of course, I’ll do whatever you ask, but that isn’t going to ensure your wife’s safety.”
“I intend to see to that. My business here is nearly through, and when it is, I’m taking her to New Mexico with me.”
“I see. How does your wife feel about your turning these things over to me?”
“She doesn’t know I’ve called you here. Besides, she’s too sick to care.”
“I am not,” Jade announced from the doorway.
Both men turned at the sound of her voice. She was standing in the doorway, her emerald eyes huge in her pale face. She had donned the comfortable Mandarin jacket and pants, along with her silk slippers. Jason was on his feet in an instant. He crossed the room and escorted her to the settee.
“Do you want some tea?” Jason asked. “I’ll have Tao bring in another cup.”
She shook her head. Lupita had taken full charge of her, and Jade was amazed at how much better she felt this morning. At least the world had stopped reeling and her stomach cramps had lessened. She turned to Jon Chang.
“I’m afraid Jason is acting out of worry. I wanted to decipher the meaning of those symbols before I gave them to you. Would you mind if I worked on them a little longer?”
“Are you getting anywhere?” Chang leaned forward, anxious to hear her reply.
“Now wait just a minute—” Jason interrupted. He knew when he was being railroaded, and Jade was a master engineer.
“Yes, I am,” Jade said without paying any attention to Jason’s outburst. “But I don’t understand the messages. For instance,” she began as she reached out and took the pages from Chang, “this one says, ‘The sun is in hiding. The earth is cold and damp and so is the clay.’” Jade shrugged. “Or how about this one? ‘The devil rides a winged bird.’ I haven’t figured out the second half yet.”
“Hardly a clue to where Li Po might be.”
“No,” Jade agreed, shaking her head, “but I thought they might at least lead us to him once I translated them all. Jason obviously told you I opened a box of items I believe were Li Po’s. It was with my grandfather’s collection.”
“I understand that. So the alchemist was able to write on the crates that housed your grandfather’s art? When?”
“I think that father must have kept him at the adobe. That would explain the silk sash I found there. There was nothing to match it among Grandfather’s things.”
Chang looked at J.T. “I can see why you want these things removed, but I am on horseback, Mr. Harrington. Would you mind if I send a man over for the crate later?”
Jade came to life. “I don’t want you to take it yet!”
“Your husband is concerned for your safety. As am I.”
“But, those things were with my grandfather’s. Legally, they are mine,” Jade argued. Her head was beginning to pound again. “And we really don’t know for certain that they belonged to Li Po.”
Chang asked, “What does the box contain?”
When she looked as if she would stubbornly remain silent, Jason indicated with a nod that Jade should answer him.
“A small glass still, bottles and vials containing cinnabar, slivers of jade, silver, gold dust—” She looked quickly at Jason, afraid he would accuse her of trying to steal it. “A very little bit of gold dust. Some bark and pieces of twigs, peach pits, herbs.” She shrugged. “That’s all.”
“The presence of the still indicates to me that your assumption is correct. The items must have belonged to the alchemist,” Chang said.
Jade Page 34
