by Margaret Way
She was on her own. That was good!
All he needed to do was follow her. He had a hunch she was returning to her own apartment. A hunch that was soon proved correct. No question the two of them were sleeping together. Why not? They were young, beautiful people. He didn’t want to hurt this girl. He was Hungarian. He knew all about the tragedies of the Andrassy-Von Neumann family; the tragedies that followed after the war. He knew how the car crash that had killed the girl’s parents had been engineered. He had never wanted such a job. He wasn’t a murderer, but he did know the name of the man who had done the job. He had proof the count was a bad man. A scary man, even to him who had been given the job of scaring people. Only this young woman was the true countess, the rightful heir. Once all those things had mattered a great deal to him, but for years now he had been corrupted into becoming just another one of the count’s pawns.
Sonya paid off the driver, then made for the entry to the building. She needed to pack more things if she was going to be away from her apartment for some time. David wanted her to stay at his apartment, but eventually they had decided it would be best for her to move in with Lady Palmerston, who had instantly agreed to having her.
Almost at the front door of the building she became aware of the footfall behind her. She turned, seeing a big, burly man, well dressed, advance towards her. His demeanour, however, was in no way threatening. He addressed her in Hungarian. Somehow she wasn’t shocked. She had been expecting it.
“Good morning, Countess. At last I have found you.”
His tone was respectful. Sonya replied in the same language. “What is it you want?” Her green eyes were cold and distant.
“Only to speak to you, Countess.” He gave a half-bow. “Have no fear. I mean you no harm. There is no point in running away. I will always find you. Let us get this over. I come as an emissary from your cousin, Laszlo. He has a proposition to put to you. Allow me to put your mind at rest. He means you no harm.”
She gave a bitter laugh. “Like he meant my mother and father no harm, I suppose?” At this time in the morning there was no one around. Most of the tenants, young people, would be at work. She was very much on her own.
“Please don’t be frightened.” He took a step back so as not to crowd her. “We will go up to your apartment. We will talk. I think you will be very happy to hear what the count wishes to offer you.”
“There is nothing he could offer me,” she said, with cold contempt.
“Please, Countess. Upstairs. You can’t get away from him. I promise you I mean you no harm. Neither does the count. Violence is to be avoided at all costs.”
“Only because he knows he wouldn’t get away with it. I have spoken to important people about him.”
“Upstairs, Countess,” he insisted. “It is just a matter of delivering the count’s proposal. Then I will leave.”
Oddly she believed him. Perhaps some residual sense of decency, of honour remained.
It was just as she thought. Laszlo wanted the Madonna. In return he would pay into the bank of her choice, anywhere in the world, the equivalent of ten million dollars.
“It is a very good deal, Countess. You could be rich!”
Her expression was totally unimpressed. “Laszlo must be mad if he thinks I’ve got it.”
The man shook his head. “But you have, Countess. Give it up. You’re a beautiful young woman, you have your whole life in front of you. Why should an icon mean so much?”
“You know very well,” she reprimanded him, sternly. “You are Hungarian. Our religious icons mean a great deal to us. How do you know you won’t be punished for trying to take it away?”
He laughed without humour. “I’ll be punished if I don’t!”
“Not if Laszlo is in jail.”
He shook his head. “That won’t happen, Countess. He has too much power. He will hunt you down wherever you go. Call him off. Let him have the icon.”
“Perhaps I need the money first?” she said, with a cool lift of her arched brows.. “He is family, but a monster.”
“So give him what he wants. Do you have it?”
“Certainly not here,” she said. “I’m not a fool. Money first, then maybe we’ll talk. He should be able to arrange an electronic transfer very easily. I can give you the name of my bank and the number of the account.”
“A wise decision, Countess.” The man stood up, a handsome man in his fashion, his blond hair almost sheared to the skull and penetrating blue eyes.
“How shall I contact you?” Sonya asked.
“Do not worry, Countess. I shall contact you. All that matters in life is to stay alive. It has been an honour to meet you. The Andrassy-Von Neumanns were once one of Hungary’s greatest and most noble families.”
When he arrived at the house, Angie, the housekeeper, told him his mother and father were enjoying a late breakfast.
“No need to announce me, Angie. I’ll go through.”
“I’ll make fresh coffee,” Angie said, hurrying away.
The informal dining room, well proportioned and expensively furnished, faced onto beautiful gardens of which his mother was enormously proud. “What is it, David?” his father looked up to ask. “You’re on your way to work?’ He studied his son’s tall, lean figure. David was wearing one of his beautifully tailored business suits. He was well known for being a very smart dresser. “You needn’t go in, you know. Nigel can hold the fort for a while.”
“Have you had breakfast?” his mother asked, always happy to see her adored son.
“Angie’s making me some coffee.” He sat down, his briefcase on the floor beside him. “I have something to show you both. It needs to go into the safe room. It belongs to Sonya. I’ve also organized for her to stay with Rowena. She’s not safe where she is.”
His father regarded him with a puzzled frown. “Really, David, spare me the cops and robbers. What is it you’ve got? What could the girl have that needs to go into a strongroom?”
“You’ll see in a minute.” He reached into his briefcase. “What I’m going to show you has been in Sonya’s family since the seventeenth century.”
“Really? Sure she’s not making it up as she goes along?” Sharron pursed her lips. Yet, Rowena, nobody’s fool, trusted this girl.
“I think this will persuade you.” He unwrapped the icon slowly, and then set it down gently on the table.
“And that’s it?” His mother sat back, arching her fine brows. “An old case?” Only the binding had the patina of centuries.
He opened out one side, then the other. Sunlight was splashing through the tall windows into the breakfast room. He manoeuvred the case into a brilliant ray.
“Good God!” Robert Wainwright leaned forward, stunned. “A religious relic, obviously Roman Catholic.”
“Where on earth did she get this?” His mother looked every bit as stunned as her husband. “The diamonds are of the first water.” She touched an exquisitely gentle finger to the array of diamonds in the Madonna’s crown. “The precious stones are gorgeous too. The stones alone would be worth a great deal of money. How did a young woman who works as a florist come by this?” She searched her son’s dark eyes.
“Go ahead, David. Tell us,” Robert Wainwright said. David did.
Afterwards his parents, their attitude greatly changed, made the decision to have Sonya’s cousin investigated. “I’ll make the necessary phone call right away,” Robert Wainwright said. “There shouldn’t be any difficulty tracking the Andrassy-Von Neumann family since 1945. Actually I know of the count. He’s an industrialist and an extremely wealthy man.”
David was back in his office when a phone call came through from Rowena. She sounded agitated, which wasn’t like her. An involuntary spasm gripped the area around his heart. Surely Sonya was safely at home with Rowena? Even as he thought it he knew Sonya to be highly unpredictable. She had spent much of her life taking risks. He had been wrong to believe she would stay put.
“Sonya is here,” Rowena told
him at once. “She’s had a rather frightening experience this morning.”
He gripped the phone harder. “But she’s okay? She hasn’t been harmed in any way?”
“No, dear. I should have told you at once. But you must hear what she has to say. Is it possible for you to get away?”
He was already on his feet. “I’ll be there shortly.”
“Thank you, darling.” Rowena made a sound of utter relief.
His first guess was Sonya’s stalker was in town and had made contact with her. The Madonna was safe in his father’s strongroom. His father had already started the investigative ball rolling. Not for the first time he was very grateful for the power and influence his father had.
His secretary came to the door, an anticipatory look on her face. She loved her job. “Have Prentiss bring the car around to the front of the building Liz,” he said with some urgency.
“Onto it!” Liz moved off, never one to waste a moment.
They all sat in Rowena’s garden room. A tense little group.
“Don’t tell me, I can guess.” David searched Sonya’s face. “You’ve had a message from Laszlo via an intermediary.”
She was enormously comforted by his presence, even if he was looking so formidable, such a tautness in his expression. “He treated me with respect,” she said in an effort to allay his fears.
“Then he can count himself lucky,” he clipped off. “My father has made a few phone calls. He knows of your cousin, Sonya. He’s an important industrialist.”
A lofty disdain came into her face. “Even important industrialists can be corrupt. Corruption is everywhere in high places. Massive fraud. Corporations with their meaner than mean streaks, robbing people, dismissing legitimate claims and getting away with it. It happens all the time.”
“Well, you can leave the Wainwrights out of that,” he said, leaning in closer to her.
“Hear! Hear!” Rowena piped up. “I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be a victim I saw so many sad things in the old days. This Laszlo would seem to be a very bad boy indeed.”
“He had my parents killed.” Sonya started to rock herself, her arms crossed defensively across her body. “His man offered me ten million dollars for the Madonna. Blood money.” Her voice broke.
“But S-Sonya!” Rowena was seriously taken aback.
Sonya met David’s eyes. “No big thing! I already have twenty, don’t I?”
He knew now to ignore the challenges she threw out. They were defence mechanisms. Her behaviour at different times was indicative of her perilous and erratic past life. “Indeed you have,” he said in a calming voice. “So what is your thinking on this, Sonya? You get the money in, but you keep the Madonna.”
“How did you guess?” She gave a little laugh. “Of course I keep the Madonna. It is mine! I give the money away to a just cause. Homeless young people, I think. You can help me there, David.”
He sat studying her, an intent look on his face. “Do you like putting yourself deliberately in danger?” he questioned. “You don’t seriously believe this Laszlo is going to let you get away with it?”
“He will just have to, won’t he?” She gave the characteristic lift of her chin.
“My dear!” Rowena was starting to panic. She had come more and more to realize what a very difficult, even dangerous life Sonya had led.
Sonya could see neither of them was happy with her plan. “The man who visited me practically admitted Laszlo was responsible for the death of my parents.” Tears stood in her eyes.
“How absolutely shocking!” Rowena was as astounded by Sonya’s story as David’s parents had been, although she had known from the beginning Sonya was a young woman of breeding.
“I always knew it,” Sonya told them painfully.
“But what is needed is hard evidence, proof, Sonya.” Vertical lines appeared between David’s black brows. “This man won’t speak to the police. The last thing he needs is to have his cover broken. And what about Laszlo? He’s a man who has long operated without ethical boundaries.”
“So you’re against me?”
He moved from his chair to where she was sitting on a two-seater sofa. He took her hand, keeping it within his own. “Listen, stay cool. You’ve had an upsetting experience. We’re all on your side, Sonya. But I’m not about to tell you you’ve done the right thing pretending you were prepared to strike a bargain. How can you trust this man anyway? He’s a hireling.”
“He had nothing to do with the death of my parents, David,” she cried. “He’s Hungarian. I knew he did not intend to hurt me.”
David was by no means certain of that. “But then he believed you, didn’t he?” he countered. “He thought you had seen sense. How did he say he was going to contact you?”
“He didn’t say. He’s been watching me all along.”
David’s expression heightened to trigger alert. “So it’s likely he knows you’re here with Rowena?”
Her beautiful face showed her dismay. She looked across at Rowena. “I am so sorry, Lady Palmerston. The last thing I want is to put anyone in danger. I’ll go home.”
“Of course you won’t!” David, deeply perturbed for her, spoke more crisply than he intended. It was obvious Sonya was in a highly emotional state. He couldn’t have her rushing off on her own. It was out of the question. On the other hand, he felt he could no longer leave her with Rowena. Rowena wasn’t a young woman. The safest possible place for Sonya was at his parent’s.
Sonya didn’t take kindly to that. He knew she wouldn’t. “No, thank you, David,” she said, with a positive shake of her head. “I can’t think your mother is as sympathetic towards me as you say. Besides, I have nothing to fear. This man will not hurt me. The Madonna will protect me.”
It seemed more than his life was worth to tell her not to count on it. “Okay, so I have the house watched 24/7.” That should be easy enough, using their security people.
“You think that’s necessary, David?” Rowena asked. “There’s an excellent security system in place here.”
Sonya turned her green eyes on Rowena. “You would feel a whole lot better if I were away from here, Lady Palmerston, wouldn’t you?”
“Nonsense, dear,” Rowena said firmly. “Our aim is to protect you.”
“Let’s slow down a minute.” David held up an authoritative hand. “Dad has spoken to the commissioner. We should leave it to the police to come up with a plan. That’s their job. That’s what they’re trained for.”
“I don’t need their help, David,” Sonya said, starting to get nervous at the talk of police intervention.
“You do,” he flatly contradicted, intensely concerned for her safety.
Her white skin flushed. “You’re angry with me?”
He exhaled a long breath. “I’m worried, Sonya, as I should be. This man must have given you quite a fright coming up behind you, for all you’re trying to hide it.”
“Worse things have happened to me,” she said. “It can be simple, David,” she appealed to him. “I wait to get the money. I give it away. It’s mine anyway and plenty more besides. I am the rightful heir. I will tell this man I will not lay claim to the Andrassy-Von Neumann estate. He can have it. Monster that he is, I know he will take care of it. He has a son. Probably grandchildren. Maybe they are not monsters?”
“We’ll soon know if they are,” David said wryly. “No one is ever going to hurt you while I’m around, Sonya. When the police come up with a plan I won’t be very far from your side.”
He stood up purposefully. He had many things to do. Sonya stood too. He put his arm around her. She closed her eyes, nestling against his shoulder.
“You’re my world, David,” she said, very softly.
He hugged her slender body to him, resting his chin on the top of her head.
They presented quite a tableau. Rowena, looking on, fell back against her armchair. Her face, so concerned, broke into a smile of pure delight.
My goodness me! So that’s h
ow the land lies!
She couldn’t have been more pleased. Brave Sonya nursing a dangerous secret for far too long would come through all her pain and loss with Rowena’s splendid nephew beside her. In his own way, dear Marcus had begun the healing process. Only destiny had its own plan for Sonya and David. It had reached out and touched them with a magic wand.
Could there be anything more satisfying than a happy ending? Rowena thought. But first there was business to attend to …
CHAPTER TEN
ASHAGGY-HAIRED young man, with a mobile glued to his ear, paid little attention to him as he walked through the security door as the young man was walking out, still talking into his phone. How foolish these young people were to assume he had legitimate business in the building. The fact that he dressed smartly must have confirmed he was an all-right guy.
He had no problem either with the lock on the countess’s door. Routine, performed without even trying. Within seconds he was in. He knew where Wainwright had taken her. He knew he had time to make a thorough search of the apartment. From long experience he would leave no sign he had been there. He could have told the count the icon was not in the apartment, but the count listened to no one.
Twenty minutes later. No icon. He wasn’t a man who was easily unnerved, but he was wary of the fact the countess now had powerful people on side. And this was their country. That gave them a big advantage. The Countess Sonya was like no one he had ever known. He admired her, her illustrious name. He came from an impoverished family. He had left an abusive home as soon as he could, living on the streets, surviving by using his wits and his physical strength. Ten years before Count Laszlo Andrassy Von Neumann had recruited him, hearing of his “talents". The count was a man with no conscience who thought nothing of monstrous deeds as long as he didn’t have to carry them out himself. A couple more jobs would set him up. He would quietly disappear to where even the count wouldn’t be able to find him. The count was a disgrace to his ancient name.
