by Billie Green
"Uh-huh." Her reply came out in a breathless whisper and she felt his hands tighten their hold.
He inhaled roughly. "Okay, the sooner we get it over with, the sooner we can come back here." He grasped her arm and began to urge her toward the living room. "Come on," he said grimly. "Let's get on with it."
He stopped suddenly by the front door and pulled something from his coat pocket, extending it toward her.
"What is it?" she asked, glancing down at the thin black cylinder.
"It's a penlight."
"Sure it is." She took it from him and stood for a moment staring at it in bewilderment. "Alex, do I want to know why I need a penlight at a party?"
He laughed at her wary tone. "Just in case we get a chance to do some sleuthing."
"Sleuthing?" she murmured. Then excitement began to grow in her brown eyes. "You mean I get to help?"
He pulled her to his side and moved across the room to the front door, his arm thrown around her shoulders. "You've been with me since the beginning of this chase," he said, his fingers pressing into her side as he spoke. "I figured you'd want to be in at the kill."
"Never say kill to a coward," she said, pushing her face against his pleated silk shirt "Actually," she added, pulling back to stare at him, "I guess it's a kind of compliment that you trust me enough to let me help you."
He smiled. Then as they walked through the door, he said softly, "I would trust you with my life, Duchess, without a minute's hesitation."
When they were settled in the rented Renault, she placed the slender flashlight in the bottom of her bag, checking carefully to make sure there were no suspicious bulges. She tried to think of the evening ahead, but his last words kept echoing in her mind.
He trusted her. With his life he trusted her. This was the relationship that she had been dreading, she realized with surprise. She depended on another human being for her happiness . . . and more—she was willing to do anything in her power to make him happy. '
She smiled, unconcerned that all of Evan's predictions had come true. She would have to bring Heather's husband a gift when she saw him. Because he had been right. Alex had given her more
than anyone in her life and, in return, she could hold back nothing from him.
Moments later, Kate glanced out the window and realized with' surprise that they had arrived at the chateau. She smoothed down her dress nervously as Alex pulled the rented car into the long driveway.
She hadn't been at all nervous when they had shopped for evening clothes, or even when she had been carefully applying her makeup. But now that they had actually arrived at their destination, butterflies were fluttering frantically in her ».. stomach.
When they entered the large, marble-tiled entry hall she felt as though everyone present were staring at the faint crease at the bottom of the little gold purse.
The chateau might have been small compared to the ones in the Loire Valley, but to her it looked like the real thing. It was filled with furniture she had only seen in books and museums and had wall hangings as big as her cabin in Plum, rising all the way to the second floor. She would have loved to stop and examine the smaller, more intricate tapestries, but she kept her mind firmly on why she and Alex were attending this party.
They walked through a doorway and the low roar of voices and music washed over them in oscillating waves. The grand salon of the chateau was full to overflowing, and Kate smiled at everything that moved in an attempt to act naturally.
Alex cast his eyes around the room, searching for Sauset, but in the press of wall-to-wall flesh it was impossible to find an individual one wanted to find.
He glanced down at Kate. Lord, she was lovely. Almost as lovely as she had been when he had awakened that morning. For a moment he thought he had dreamed her, but only for a moment. The warm flesh pressing against his had convinced him that she was real.
He shook his head, forcing his mind back to the business at hand. "Duchess," he said, leaning down so she could hear him. "I'm going to search for our host. Stay right here by this wall hanging so I can find you when I come back."
"What am I supposed to do while you're gone?" she asked dryly, gazing up at him.
Alex smiled. She sounded nervous. "What do you usually do at a party? You laugh at stupid jokes and admire ostentatious jewelry. You discuss in minute detail the latest diet and the 'in' malady and this month's favorite ski resort. . . . What are you looking for?" he asked as she opened her bag and began to peer inside.
"A pad and pencil," she said dryly. "I think I'd better take notes."
He laughed and gave her a quick kiss on the nose. "Just be yourself. I won't be gone long."
He moved slowly through the clusters of people, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to see how Kate was doing. He hadn't gotten very far before he saw her being cornered by a couturier he had met several times.
He stifled a grin. Poor Kate. The man was one of the world's greatest bores.
Shifting his gaze forward again, he stiffened when he saw Sauset at the center of a group of people on his right. He, headed in that direction and could tell the minute his host spotted him. Sauset's features became harsh for a split second before he smiled in delight.
"Alexandre," he said heartily, extending his hand as Alex drew nearer. "So glad you could make it. It's a pleasure seeing you again."
He began introducing the newcomer to the guests around him, and, through half-closed eyes, Alex observed him closely. Sauset was agitated about something; that much was obvious. There was something feverish in his attempted heartiness.
"You're looking well, Charles," Alex said when there was a break in the conversation.
"And you, Alex. Or perhaps I should say Comte de Nuit," he returned. "You're even browner than you were in university. I always thought you looked a little barbaric." He laughed as though it were a great joke. "But it was a barbarism that certainly didn't hurt your popularity with the opposite sex." He glanced around curiously. "I thought you were bringing a friend. Surely you didn't come alone?"
"No," he said, watching a faint sheen of perspiration form on Sauset's forehead as he continued to stare at him. "I came with a very special lady. She's waiting across the room for me."
"But you should bring her over," he enthused. "I must meet this special lady."
Nodding stiffly, Alex moved away. When the crowd closed around him, he stopped beside a potted palm and turned to watch Sauset. What did he have against Tony? Why was he determined to make him suffer? Alex cast his mind back over their school days, but couldn't find a clue to what was happening now. As far as he knew, Charles had never even met Helene. So why now was he digging up such a sad episode from the past?
Kate moved slowly through the laughing crowd, her eyes scanning the room continuously. She hoped she hadn't missed Alex somewhere along the way, but she had no intention of spending the evening in conversation with a barnacle.
Suddenly she spotted him and moved quickly to the other side of the palm. Parting the branches, she leaned closer and said huskily, "Hiya, sailor. Got a match?"
Alex jerked his head around and smiled at her through the palm leaves. "Hello, Duchess," he said, reaching through to pull her around next to him. "I was just coming to get you."
"Yes, I can see you were," she murmured sourly. "I must say, it's about time," she whispered, giving him a vengeful look. "Skulduggery I was prepared for, but you didn't tell me I would be bored to death."
"Bored?" he asked, raising one heavy eyebrow. "But Mario is a renowned wit."
"The man is monosyllabic," she insisted dryly. "My eyes kept crossing." She glanced up at him. "So what did you find out? Do you think Sauset is the one?"
"I didn't find out anything," he murmured. "But yes, I think it's he. He wants to meet you."
"Should I be flattered?" she asked as they began to make their way back across the room, then she smiled up at him. "I did some investigating while you were gone."
"Did you?" He glanced down at her in inquiry
. "What did you find out?"
"I found out that I definitely can't speak French, Italian, or Swahili. I tried to question the maid, but she kept directing me to the ladies' room. And there's a very regal-looking black man over there who spent ten minutes looking at me like I was something in a petri dish . . . makes me wonder what I asked him," she added wryly.
Alex grinned, then suddenly his hand tightened painfully on her arm. "Alvarez," he said, indicating a man who was taking a glass of champagne from a passing waiter.
It was the first time she had seen the man In the red Jaguar close up and Kate studied him surreptitiously, then stood up on tiptoes to whisper, "He looks like Peter Loire playing one of Sir Laurence Oliver's parts."
Alex gave a short laugh. "I wonder if Charles will still deny knowing him."
When at last they stood beside their host it seemed Alex wasn't willing to waste time finding out. As soon as he had introduced Kate, he said bluntly, "I saw Alvarez, Charles. I thought you said you didn't know him."
Sauset's features tightened. "Really, Alex. You're like a dog with a bone. I don't know this person to whom you constantly refer. If he Is here, another guest must have brought him along. I certainty didn't invite him." He turned to Kate and smiled brilliantly. "I'm sure Miss Sullivan isn't interested in this boring man."
Kate studied the man's features carefully. He didn't look like a blackmailer. He looked slightly petulant, but attractive nonetheless—certainly not evil.
She returned his smile pleasantly. "On the contrary," she said. "He looked like an extremely interesting man." She gave Alex a naive glance. "Maybe we should ask Mr. Alvarez how he came to be here?"
Alex's eyes gleamed with hidden laughter. "Maybe we should at that."
By unspoken agreement, they nodded to Sauset and began to move away. They spotted Alvarez immediately, but he was deep in conversation with an auburn-haired woman.
"Charles is guilty as hell, Katy," Alex said. "I can feel it in my bones."
She stared silently at Alex for a moment. "So what do we do now?" she asked. "You don't really think Alvarez will tell us anything, do you?"
"Not a chance. We're going to have to search the place and try to come up with some evidence." He remained silent for a moment as he stared out into the crowd. "He's watching us like a hawk. I think you're going to have to distract him. Duchess, so he won't see me slip out."
"Distract him?" She nibbled on a manicured nail as she considered the suggestion, then, reaching down, she slipped two buttons on her dress free. Drawing in a deep breath in an effort to show more cleavage, she nodded her head. "Distract him," she repeated emphatically.
Alex grabbed her arm as she began to move away, glancing down at her with a frown, then he quickly refastened the buttons. "Like I said, we'll wait for someone to distract him, then we'll slip out."
Kate smiled at the look in his eyes and shrugged. For the next fifteen minutes they stood at the edge of the room, trying very hard to look like average party-.goers. Then, as though ordered to do so, a blond woman cornered Sauset, maneuvering him into a corner behind a marble statue.
"Now let's go," Alex said.
They moved unobtrusively toward the door, stopping occasionally to speak to people they passed, behaving as if they were merely mingling. Then, keeping a careful eye on Sauset and Alvarez, they slipped through the arched doorway into the adjoining entry hall.
The other guests were moving around freely so no one noticed as Alex and Kate climbed the wide marble staircase. When they gained the next landing they turned right and Alex halted before the first door.
Checking both ends of the hall, he slowly eased the door open. The room was dark and Kate couldn't tell if it was the one they were looking for. She started to move forward, but a creaking noise stopped her. As Alex hastily closed the door, she caught a glimpse of the couple on the bed.
"Wrong room," he whispered with a grin, and began moving to the next door.
She glanced back over her shoulder at the closed door. "You'd think they would have at least locked the door," she hissed, moving to stand behind him.
The next room was luckily empty, but it was too feminine to be the master bedroom so they left it behind. The third door he tried seemed to be the right one. By the light coming from the hall they could see a masculine-looking dark satin robe lying on the end of a huge four-poster bed.
"This looks like it," he said quietly as they moved together into the room.
Kate gasped as the door closed behind them, throwing the room into deep darkness. "Why can't we turn on the light?" she whispered when she saw the thin stream of light from his flashlight.
"I saw guards outside when we pulled up." He moved farther into the room. "They might ignore a light in here, but I don't want to take any chances," he said over his shoulder as he pulled open the drawer of a small desk.
Her eyes began to adjust to the dark and she fished the other penlight out of her bag. Moving to a delicate antique bedside table, she pulled out the small drawer and directed the light into its interior. She could hear Alex searching a bureau as she quickly rifled through the contents of the drawer. She found a rather racy paperback novel and a handful of old photos, but no letters.
Next she opened a small trunk, but it must have been purely ornamental for it was empty. Moving slowly around her side of the room, she examined each drawer and several small boxes. She even stopped to check the bottoms of the drawers because she had seen it done once on a detective show, but she found nothing of interest.
Kate thought she had reached a dead end until, in the dim light, her eyes picked out a door to her right. Expecting to find nothing more than the bathroom, she reached out and tried the knob, then drew in a triumphant breath when she found it locked.
Shining the light into her purse, she looked quickly through her credit-card case and finally pulled out her thin, flexible library card. Holding her breath, she slid it carefully in next to the lock.
"Son of a gun," she murmured in surprise as the door opened. "It actually works."
She ran the thin stream of light over the contents of the closet, then stopped, a bewildered look crossing her expressive features before she examined the peculiar things in the closet again.
"Alex?" she whispered, her voice puzzled.
"I can't find anything in here except a lot of monogrammed underwear," he said in disgust. "Even if he isn't the blackmailer, I couldn't ever like a man who wore designer jockey shorts. He—"
"Alex," she said again, interrupting his muttering. "I think Sauset Is a little strange. He has rows and rows of elaborate leather belts. And that's not all. I recognize the whip and the chains, but what is that—"
Alex came up behind her and pulled her out of the closet, closing the door firmly behind them.
"But I wasn't through checking," she protested, trying to disengage her arm.
"You're through," he said emphatically as he urged her away from the closet.
She stopped struggling and studied his face for a moment. "You're not going to tell me what that thing on the top shelf was, are you? It looked like a giant—"
"Kate, we aren't here to explore the sexual preferences of the man," he said firmly. "We just want to find out what he's using to blackmail Tony."
"Sexual? That stuff was sexual?" She shook her head, then muttered ruefully, "I gotta get out more."
He started to laugh, then stopped abruptly and pulled her into his arms.
"What in—"
Her protest was smothered by his lips just as the door swung open. "I beg your pardon," said an embarrassed voice, then the door closed quietly.
But Kate and Alex didn't notice. They were still involved in the kiss. It was several minutes later before she spoke. "Alex," she whispered huskily as his lips began to trail down her throat. "He's gone."
"Who's gone?"
She gave a breathless laugh, rubbed her cheek against his, and slipped her arms inside his jacket.
"Kate . . . Kate,
I think we'd better leave now," he whispered hoarsely as she massaged the muscles of his back. "That bed gets closer every time I look at it."
He made a rough sound, then released her. Moving to the door, he opened it enough to look out, then motioned for her to follow him.
"Now his study," he said, running a hand over his hair to smooth it down.
"Do you know where it is?" she asked.
Kate held her skirt up with one hand as they moved back down the staircase. As they walked, she looked around the large hall. It seemed strange to find the party going on just as they had left it.
"Tony and I visited Charles once when we were at school," he said, his brow creased in thought. "It was right after we met him . . . before we found out how odd he was. But that was a long time ago. I hope I can still find it."
He led her to the hall that ran beneath the staircase, then seemed to get his bearings. They stood in front of the door he had decided on and talked quietly until the hall was clear of people, then stepped inside quickly, relieved to find his memory was correct.
"If it's here, it will most likely be In his desk." He closed the door behind them and Kate once again dug the flashlight out of her purse. While he rifled through the desk, she moved around the room shining the thin stream of light to the right and left as she walked.
She would have been better off had she directed the flashlight straight ahead for suddenly the light swung wildly to the ceiling and there was a muffled crash as she landed in a heap on the floor.
"Duchess," he hissed. "Is that you?"
"No, it's Irving Schwartz," she said sarcastically. "Of course it's me."
He had started toward her in concern as soon as he heard the noise, but now there was laughter in his voice as he asked, "What happened?"
"I tripped over a—" She stopped and felt the large object that was presently beneath her knees, then drew back her head with a gasp when she felt its hairy surface. "Oh, Lord, it's—it's"—she fumbled around on the floor until she found the penlight, then directed its light at the thing tangled up In her long legs—"it's a stupid stuffed bobcat or something," she said in disgust.
