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."