He s.n.a.t.c.hed back his hand. Had he felt it too? He whirled to the door. But then he turned back, speculating. What did he want?
"I wouldn"t chance looking at the stone, if you want to keep your sanity long enough to spend the money." He despised her for wanting money.
Well, let him. Those who had money always despised those who didn"t. "A pretty threat. What a gentlemanly gesture."
He did not rise to the bait, but slipped out the door.
Chapter Four.
Kate trudged up to her rooms. She"d done five private readings. They would tell their friends. This engagement would be lucrative. But it had been exhausting when her mind had been on the strange and fascinating Gian Urbano. He had picked such an odd way to try to frighten her. Who would believe he was some kind of a supernatural being? And then, when he could have choked the location out of her, he"d lost his nerve. What kind of a villain was that?
But the night had been disturbing in other ways as well. First, word had come that the baronessa"s sister had died. Kate shook her head. Coincidence. It had nothing to do with the feeling she"d gotten about the tower struck by lightning card the other night.
But what about the reading she"d given for that absurdly young man with the wispy mustache? She"d had another... well, whatever they were. She wasn"t going to call them visions. She"d just blurted out that he needed to avoid carriages at all costs on Thursday next. What happened to "love lost and found"? Well, it wasn"t as if she"d had any choice about whether to tell him or not. She had to make a push to avoid him losing his leg. And she"d seen it so clearly. Dear G.o.d, what was she thinking? It wasn"t real. It wouldn"t happen because she couldn"t possibly know what would happen on Thursday next.
"No matter," she muttered, taking out her key. "When he avoids carriages and nothing happens to him on Thursday, people will be standing in line for readings. It"s a ploy, that"s all." She pushed the door open. She only wished she had more control over her strategies.
It was then that she smelled it. Cinnamon. But this time, sweeter, lighter. Not like the man from whom she"d stolen the stone. Or Gian Urbano.
She peered into the darkened room. A beautiful woman dressed in shades of plum strolled out of the shadows. Her black eyes snapped with an energy that hung around her in the same way Kate felt it around Urbano and the one whose pocket she had picked.
Kate froze. "What do you want?" How had she gotten in? Had she found the stone?
"Oh, I think you know that." The woman"s eyes glittered like black diamonds.
To protect herself, Kate took charge. "I have no idea what you"re talking about, and since I don"t entertain madwomen, I think you"d better leave." She went to light the lamp. She"d feel better when she could see this woman more clearly. Still she didn"t turn her back. This woman radiated danger, even though she was pet.i.te. She couldn"t hurt Kate, could she?
"I"m hardly likely to leave," the woman snapped without ever removing her gaze from Kate"s face. The light came up. The woman exuded s.e.xuality, a ripe flower in full bloom. "The trail always leads to you. First LaRoque loses it on the way to our rendezvous. Then he turns up dead in a burning building, which leads me to Urbano, since who else could kill one of us? I thought Urbano was still fighting in Algiers or we would have used another city. But when I accosted Urbano, he didn"t have it yet. He had met his banker to arrange transference of a large sum, suggesting that he was going to buy it. He was always softer than he let on.
"And you..." she continued. "You, my dear, gave a very public tarot reading about the emerald, no doubt to signal Urbano you had it and wished to sell. Foolish, really. What can I conclude but that you stole the stone from LaRoque and have it still?" The woman gave a throaty chuckle. Kate was sure she"d heard that chuckle before.
"I have no stone. Is it a necklace? Perhaps antique?"
The woman rose, and her eyes went red just like Urbano"s, even as the energy in the room ramped up almost past Kate"s ability to discern it. "Where is it?" the woman hissed.
Kate had an almost overwhelming urge to tell her. She bit her lip and tasted blood. "Where... where you will never find it," she managed.
The woman looked shocked. Her eyes turned an even deeper shade of carmine. She must not know Urbano had tried to frighten Kate in just the same way. Kate peered at her. How did she do that? Even with lenses, there had to be a reflected light source to make them glow like that. The fire? But there was no fire now. Had Urbano had a source of light for his lenses? There had been a fire in the sitting room. But they had been in her bedroom...
"I... want... the... stone," the woman said.
Kate took a breath. "As do, apparently, quite a lot of people. I may have undercharged for it." Kate had her balance now. This woman had an extraordinary force of will and some experience with hypnosis, like Urbano. That was all.
The woman"s mouth opened in a little O of surprise, before she set her jaw and glared at Kate. She began to pace back and forth, tapping one long-nailed finger against her lips.
"I have no intention of giving you the stone, so you might as well leave."
"I have a better idea," the woman said. She whirled so fast, Kate hardly saw her. She took Kate by the throat. "Tell me where it is, or you are going to die."
Kate looked up into those implacable eyes, coughing. She scrabbled at the hands that had locked around her neck. How could a woman of her size be so strong? Urbano"s threat had been almost a caress by comparison. But the same ploy might work.
"I... I took it to a bank," she choked.
In the corner of the room, a whirling darkness seemed to gather behind the beautiful woman. It must be the onset of unconsciousness.
Urbano stepped into the lamplight. ""Let her go, Elyta."
Kate had never been so glad to see anyone.The woman he had called Elyta turned and straightened, but she didn"t let Kate go.
"You dare interfere with a mission given me by Rubius himself, in my city?" Urbano growled. He was anything but nonchalant.
"You didn"t seem to be getting very far with "your mission," " Elyta snapped.
Kate sputtered and gasped.
"I revoke your welcome. Leave my city this instant." Kate registered Urbano"s determination from far away. "Now let her go."
Kate"s vision began to darken at the edges.
"Do you really want to do this?" he growled. "What will you tell Rubius?"
The woman let Kate slump to the floor. It was as if Kate had forgotten how to breathe.
"That LaRoque killed you and I finished your mission." The woman called Elyta laughed. Her eyes went from burgundy to carmine.
"Who would believe that?" Urbano trembled with some unseen effort.
"You"d be surprised what an old, old man believes of a beautiful woman," Elyta hissed. "He appreciates me, even if you do not."
The power in the room seemed to batter Kate. She touched her bruised throat, willing herself to breathe.
Urbano began to tremble. A slow smile spread over the woman"s face.
"I"m older than you, my pretty man, and so much stronger." The power in the room felt like a weight on Kate"s chest. A sparkling blackness danced at the edge of Kate"s field of vision. She sucked in a breath. It was almost painful.
A popping, fizzing sound reached through the haze in her brain. The draperies burst into flame. Urbano narrowed his eyes.
Breath hissed in and out of Kate"s lungs. It seemed enough. The upholstered wing chair near the cold grate to her right sprouted flickering tongues of flame. Urbano glanced to the flame, shock and dismay registering on his face.
"I want that stone!" Elyta shouted.
"By all means stay and look for it." Urbano too was gasping. The room was almost fully engulfed. "Are you ready to face the flames?"
"I"ll heal."
"Ahhh, but the pain..."
Elyta hesitated. Then she decided. "This isn"t the last," she hissed. "And when I return, I will bring friends."
The words came from a distance. The pain of being burned alive. That would be Kate"s fate as well. She should crawl toward the door. But the sparkling blackness ate at her field of vision. And she couldn"t crawl. She couldn"t see. She...
Kate coughed and sputtered back into consciousness. Her cheek was pressed against woolen fabric. Cinnamon and something else, something sweet but quintessentially masculine, a.s.sailed her nostrils.
"Quiet. You"re well." The voice was baritone.She looked around. Gian Urbano was holding her against his chest and hurrying across the piazza in front of her lodgings toward the fountain. People were scurrying about the piazza, shouting. Behind Urbano, a building was engulfed in flames. That seemed familiar. She stretched up against his shoulder. It was her building! The stone was in there.
Urbano looked over his shoulder and cursed under his breath. A man came tottering out of the building in his nightshirt. Urbano put her down, and grabbed a man with luxuriant mustachios just coming up to gawk. "Watch over her," he commanded. He looked back at the fire. That seemed familiar somehow. "There are still people in there."
"Are you going for the stone?"
He swiveled his head and stared at her. "I thought you took it to a bank."
She looked up at him, still dazed, and shook her head. "In a drawer of the dresser, wrapped in my chemise."
He stared at her for one long moment. Realization struck him. She could feel his dismay, and then his resolution. He swallowed.
Then he faced the burning building again, straightened, and struck off at a lope across the square.
Kate sat up, ignoring the protest of her guardian. He"d be burned alive. And what she had just witnessed was exactly what she had seen in her premonition.
Everything she"d ever had was in that building. She looked down. Her reticule still hung from her wrist. That meant she had her cards at least. But that was all. Oh, she had the money from her readings tonight, enough for a few night"s lodging, no more.
She"d spent her dream money and never even gotten the stone cut. The stone was her only hope...
Urbano was up there getting the emerald for himself. Why, for G.o.d"s sake, had she told him where it was? Either he retrieved it for himself or it was cracked or spoiled by the heat. Then no one would have it. At least if he got it out, she"d have a chance to purloin it from him.
Long minutes pa.s.sed. People ran from the building, coughing. She thought she saw Urbano escorting them through the blaze to the front door, but she could not be sure because he always disappeared back into the smoke and flame. Kate pushed herself to her knees. The wait was unbearable. Where was he? No one could survive the inferno the building had become.
Behind her, she heard a great splash. She turned. People with buckets were taking water from the fountain to throw on the building. Useless.
Gian Urbano staggered up out of the fountain. People jumped back, shouting in surprise.
His coat was shredded on his back, his breeches burned away from his thighs, revealing skin red and bubbling everywhere it was not black with smoke or, worse, charred. She felt her stomach turn and scrambled to her feet, a little shaky. Dripping, he climbed with effort over the stone lip of the fountain. How had he gotten by her without her noticing?
There! He put something in the pocket of his tattered coat. It had to be the jewel.
She hurried over, resisting the urge to ask if he was all right. "Well, that was foolish." Her voice sounded tremulous. She cleared her throat. "Did you get it?" That was better.
He bent over, choking. He smelled like a doused fire, which she suspected he was. But finally he nodded. Well, then...
She put her arm around him, as though she was a.s.sisting him. It was the work of a moment to slip the stone out of its box in his pocket and into her reticule as he caught his breath. He"d never know it was no longer his until he opened the box and found it gone.
He coughed again then stood upright. "If it makes you feel better, by all means keep it."She was taken aback. No one had ever caught her out. Ever. She was the best at what she did. She wanted to protest, but she, for once, was at a loss for words.
"And now," he gasped, sounding stronger. "Let us away before we run into our friend Elyta once again."
"She"ll be back?"
"I expect so."
He took Kate"s elbow firmly. A sense of his electric aliveness ran through her, making her shudder. Sensation pooled between her legs. What a fool she was, to react so to a man! He seemed to have that effect on her, regardless of the circ.u.mstance. That was dangerous. He pulled her along. She squirmed, but couldn"t wrench herself from his grip.
"Where are you taking me?" she protested as he guided her out of the square.
"To my mother."
Whatever answer she expected, it certainly wasn"t that one. To his mother? It left her speechless for the second time tonight.
For one thing, it seemed so... unthreatening. And all he had done was threaten her since the moment she met him. She had no illusion she could keep the stone if he wanted to wrest it from her. His grip on her elbow told its tale of strength, despite his being burned.
At first he walked slowly and painfully, but soon she had to skip to keep up with him. In truth, she felt dazed by all that had happened. Red eyes, her vision of what had happened here tonight, a woman who nearly killed her, then waking up in the square with fire eating up all her hopes and Urbano rushing inside a burning building after the stone... She was numb.
She recognized the Piazza Navona as they hurried past Bernini"s three fountains. Then, across from a park filled with ancient plane trees that lined the river Tiber, they came to a facade of old stone and arched windows. The door was opened by a very discreet servant, dressed in black, who gasped at the sight of Urbano.
"It isn"t as bad as it looks, Paolo," Urbano murmured.
"May I attend you, signore?" the servant asked, concerned. Then his gaze found Kate.
"No. But your wife will attend to Miss... Mulroney." She had never told him her name, so he must have asked after her. "She has lost everything in a fire, but I"m sure there are... things enough somewhere... to provide..." He trailed off, looking around.
Perhaps he was dazed too.
Kate examined him more closely in the light of the well-lit foyer. His burns weren"t as bad as she"d first thought. She had imagined charred flesh beneath the holes in his clothes, but now it was really only reddened, blistered skin and soot. But he was still burned. How was he even standing? How had he hurried her across the entire Centro Storico of Rome?
A huge standing clock against the wall struck one A.M. Urbano blinked. "Have my carriage ready at five, and Piccolo. Pack a trunk."
"Do you... travel during daylight?" Paolo asked. He was hovering anxiously now.
"I"ll ride inside the carriage during the day." Urbano staggered toward an elegant curved staircase with a carved wooden bal.u.s.trade. They both stared as he trudged up the stairs. At the top he turned. "Oh, and did I say you should prepare a trunk for Miss Mulroney as well?"
Paolo nodded, though Urbano had done no such thing. Even trusted servants didn"t dare contradict him. What must it be like to work for a man so arrogant and unfeeling? She looked around. The house was furnished with taste and elegance. That painting there... was it... was it a da Vinci?
It had all the humanity of the master shining from the face of the middle-aged portrait subject. And there, the one that hung at the landing of the staircase... surely the pastels of a Botticelli. How did even a first-rate gigolo afford such luxury?
She didn"t care. She would be gone soon. These servants didn"t seem too formidable. She need only wait until Urbano was asleep.
Paolo rang the bellpull at one end of the foyer. He was a compact man with snapping brown eyes and a fringe of longish hair around a bald pate. If he was nonplussed by his master bringing home an unescorted female at one in the morning, he gave no sign. It probably happened frequently, Kate thought grimly.
"Are you injured, signorina?" he asked, though he kept glancing up to where his master had disappeared.
Kate put her hands to her throat. Bruises must be forming even now. What must he think? "A bit knocked about. I... I hope your master is well." He had, after all saved her life tonight.