The Temptress (Montgomery/Taggert 8)

“I didn’t see because I was pulling the rope up, but I think she probably had to go into the house because the dogs came around minutes after she touched the ground. She wrapped her shoes in pieces of sheet and rubbed them with some meat fat. She was planning to throw the cloth away when she reached the edge of the forest.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like it worked because she’s nowhere to be seen outside. Now, I want you to listen to me and do exactly what I say. Prescott, the man from Hamilton’s place, will be here in a minute and I want you to let him help you get out of here. He’ll take you over the roof.”

“And where will you be?”

“Searching for Chris.” With that statement, he went to the window and proceeded to climb up a rope toward the roof. Pilar could hear him walking softly overhead and then all was silent.

Tynan gave a signal to Asher who crouched behind a dormer on the tall house, then tied his rope about a far chimney and started down. Thanks to Belle, he knew most of t

he layout of the house and he was heading now toward Dysan’s office. This would be the room that Chris most likely would want to explore.

The room was dark and there wasn’t a sign of any activity in it—no papers, only a few books, no ledgers with their revealing account numbers, no pretty little blonde snooping through things.

Cautiously, Tynan made his way out the door and into the dark hallway. Listening carefully, he heard voices downstairs, but they didn’t seem particularly upset about anything, as they might be if they’d just found Chris haunting the rooms. With his back to the wall, he began to ease his way down the stairs, stopping constantly to listen to whatever he could hear.

According to Belle, the house was a big one and Ty wasn’t sure where he should begin searching, but the library seemed like a good bet—not because he thought Dysan might have something there but because Chris would want to search a place like that.

He stopped twice at the foot of the stairs to listen but he heard nothing, so he went across the empty dining room to the closed door that he knew led to the hallway. Still listening and, as quietly as a cat, he made his way through the door and into the hall. The first door on the right was the library.

Once inside the library, he paused, pressed his back against the door and waited. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something was wrong. He stood so still that he became part of the shadows, fading into his surroundings so that he disappeared.

The sound of a match being struck made him turn his head—and he saw Beynard Dysan sitting in a chair before him, bringing the lit match up to his cigar tip.

“Bravo,” Dysan said. “You were almost silent.” He bent forward to touch the match to a lantern on the table before him.

In the light, Tynan could see Chris in a chair beside Dysan, her hands and feet tied, her mouth gagged. Her eyes were wild and she looked as if she’d seen something awful.

“I wouldn’t try it,” Dysan said as Ty took a step forward. “I have a gun on her and I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot her.”

Tynan stood where he was, not moving a muscle but trying to look about the room.

Dysan smiled. “I can assure you that there is no way to escape. You got in because I allowed you to enter.” He took the cigar from his mouth and looked at it. “I wondered which one of the women you’d go after first.”

Dysan stood and walked to stand behind Chris, putting a gun to her head, running his hand along her throat and pulling her head back. “Why do I get the feeling that she’s not what she seems? Hamilton said she was his cousin, a mousey little thing that allowed her husband to beat her, but here she is, having escaped down the side of a four-story building, and I somehow sense that she isn’t what she appears.”

“What do you want? If it’s money, you’ll be paid. All you have to do is release her.”

“Money?” Dysan sounded genuinely surprised. “And do you have money to pay for her ransom?”

“I can get it.”

Dysan walked away from Chris but not far enough that he couldn’t have hurt her if Tynan tried anything. “And what do you have that you can sell? Do some of the prostitutes you know have money? Will they sell their diseased bodies to get money for you? Or has that miner of yours finally found gold?”

Tynan just looked at the man, not saying a word.

“Ah, the rescuing hero doesn’t want to tell what he knows. What can I do to loosen your tongue? Remove pieces of this little lady?”

Still, Tynan didn’t move.

Dysan moved closer to Chris and began to run his hands down her arms. “Do you mind that other men touch her? Do you insist that this one is yours alone?”

“Do what you want with her,” Tynan said. “She’s just a job to me. I get paid to take her back to her father.”

“And who is her father that he would pay for her?”

Tynan took his time in answering. “Del Mathison,” he said into the silence.

The only sign Dysan gave that he heard was that his cigar shook just once as he held it in his hand.