"We'll wait here." Lucifer kept his voice calm and steady, as he had throughout.
Appleby nodded. "In that case, I'll bid you farewell."
Under his breath, Lucifer murmured, "Au revoir."
They waited. With a raised hand, Lucifer stopped anyone from moving. "He's on the edge-we're not going to give him any reason to panic."
Minutes crawled past. They heard the scrunch of gravel, the sound dying away as Appleby dragged Sweetie through the kitchen garden toward the wood. They exchanged glances but no words. They were all thinking of Sweetie.
Then came a patter on the gravel, drawing closer to the house. It was so light a sound, they were too afraid to imagine it was footsteps. Then the baize door at the back of the hall banged the wall; in a rush of pitter-patter steps, Sweetie appeared in the dining room doorway.
"He's gone!" She fluttered her hands furiously. "Away through the woods he ran!" She flung out an arm in the general direction of the wood-then fainted.
Lucifer caught her before she hit the floor. He carried her into the drawing room and laid her on the chaise.
Later, when she recovered and told her story to the assembled ladies of the village, Miss Sweet was, for the first time in her life, the heroine of the hour.
Chapter 21
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As afternoon edged into evening, Lucifer, Phyllida, Demon, and Flick, with Jonas, Sir Jasper, Mr. Filing, and Cedric, gathered in the library to make a new plan.
"I've sent Dodswell to fetch Thompson and Oscar," Lucifer told them.
"Aha!" Demon said. "So that's what you meant by 'au revoir'."
Phyllida and Flick and everyone else looked their silent question; Lucifer explained. "Someone approached the Beer smuggling gang to arrange passage to France. It had to be tonight. The Beer gang told the man to meet with Oscar's band, who would normally run a cargo tonight."
Jonas looked out the window. The wind had come up as the sun had gone down; the storm was moving steadily in. "No one will be running anything tonight."
"I know that, you know that, most of us know that. The question is, will Appleby know that?"
"He was born and raised and lived most of his life in Stafford," Demon put in. "Stafford's about as far from the coast as it's possible to get, so chances are he won't immediately recognize the implications of the weather."
"Then he'll go to the meeting place expecting to meet smugglers." Phyllida was sitting beside Lucifer's desk.
"Men who have as much to hide as he does," Lucifer observed. "That's the only sort he'll feel safe approaching. He intended today to be a last and successful effort. He came to the Manor with his plans made, his arrangements in place-he never intended to return to Ballyclose."
Cedric snorted. "The horse he rode here came back a few hours ago. No other horses are missing."
Lucifer glanced at Demon. "With us here, both with strong teams, escaping on horseback would have been risky."
"He's a cautious sort, yet…" Demon shook his head. "Fancy spending five years searching for something you'd only heard of from someone else's letter. And then it turns out the thing's not even still there to be found."
"He didn't know that. He's obsessed." Phyllida hugged herself. "That's the only explanation. He's mad."
"This picture that Appleby thought was in the book-he said it hadn't surfaced." Sir Jasper glanced at Lucifer. "That seem reasonable to you?"
Lucifer nodded. "The fanfare surrounding the discovery of a lost miniature by an old master would not be easy to miss. He's correct on that. I haven't heard anything."
"But if it's not in the book and hasn't been rediscovered, where is it?"
Lucifer looked at Phyllida. "You remember the item Horatio asked me to appraise-the item that brought me here?"
Phyllida stared. "You think it might be that?"
"It's the sort of thing Horatio would ask my opinion on. I'm familiar with the private collections of old masters held by various members of the aristocracy as well as the Crown. Even more to the point, it's an item he would guard very closely and tell no one else about."
"So where is it?"
"Hidden." Lucifer looked up at the sound of the frontdoor knocker. "We'll have to turn the house inside out, but first we must deal with Appleby."
Bristleford ushered Thompson and Oscar in, then approached Lucifer. As the others pulled up chairs to join the council, Bristleford murmured, "With your permission, sir, Covey, Hemmings, and I would respectfully ask to be included in any little excursion you might be planning."
Lucifer glanced into Bristleford's earnest face, then nodded. "Yes, of course. In fact, if Mrs. Hemmings can manage out there, perhaps you, Covey, and Hemmings could join us."
"Thank you, sir. I'll fetch Covey and Hemmings."
Bristleford retreated. Phyllida caught Lucifer's eye; she closed her hand over his on the desk. "They haven't yet gotten over the fact that they let someone kill Horatio."
Lucifer nodded, then turned to the others. Briskly, he outlined the situation. Oscar described the area where the smugglers met, the knoll to which the Beer gang had directed the impatient human cargo. They made their plans quickly, then they rose.
"Remember," Sir Jasper warned, "no heroics and no unnecessary violence. I don't want to have to take anyone else up for murder."
"There should be no need for any real action. There's too many of us for him to escape, and other than that knife, he'll be unarmed." Lucifer scanned the men's faces. "We'll meet at the knoll as soon as darkness falls-no one be late."
With the words "Aye" and "We'll be there-" the men departed.
Following them into the hall, Flick caught Phyllida's eye. "I wonder if I could have a word." Linking her arm in Phyllida's, Flick turned to the stairs.
Lucifer and Demon, reaching the library door, saw the loves of their lives, heads together, disappear upstairs.
"That doesn't look good," Demon said.
Lucifer grimaced. "I suppose we'd better face this like men."
His expression hardening, Demon headed for the stairs. "We can but try."
Twenty minutes later, Lucifer and Demon met at the head of the stairs. Their ladies were with them. Lucifer stared at Flick. Demon stared, equally surprised, at Phyllida. Then the cousins looked at each other.
"I won't ask if you don't," Demon offered.
Grim-faced, Lucifer nodded. "Agreed."
Neither Flick nor Phyllida appeared to hear; they led the way down the stairs, stepping easily in breeches and boots.
With Lucifer, Demon followed, his gaze shifting from his beloved's neat rear to Phyllida's shapely thighs. As they descended the last flight, he shook his head. "I'll be damned if any of our forebears ever had to deal with this."
Dodswell and Gillies were waiting, mounted, at the side of the house, both holding a pair of horses saddled-no sidesaddles, Lucifer noted. There was quite a little party gathered in the twilight, none of whom seemed to find anything remarkable in Flick's or Phyllida's attire. As they lifted their respective ladies to their saddles, then mounted alongside them, both Cynsters' hackles subsided-a little.
They set out. Lucifer kept a close eye on Phyllida; she sent him a sidelong glance. After she soared over the first fence and left him pushing to regain his position beside her, he stopped watching her and paid attention to their direction.