it.
How very silly all of this was. I took a few careful steps forward, and then a few more. I thought I heard a sound again in the darkness behind me, and I stilled, listening. I was searching for Major Ramsey, Major Ramsey was searching for the killer, and perhaps the killer was searching for me. What a tidy little circle!
There was no sound at all for the next several minutes, and I thought it would be safe to move again. I felt that I needed to get my bearings and make sure that, if the moon should emerge again from behind the clouds, I wouldn’t find myself vulnerable.
I moved a bit farther in the direction of the house.
Suddenly, a hand clamped over my mouth as an arm encircled my waist.
“Don’t scream,” Major Ramsey said in my ear.
I jerked my mouth from under his hand. “Stop telling me that,” I hissed at him.
In truth, I might have been tempted to scream when he’d grabbed me, but I had known almost immediately that it was probably him. For one thing, the spy would have been more likely to slit my throat than pull me against him.
“What do you mean by crashing around in the woods?” he hissed back, his arm still around me.
“I heard something,” I whispered. I hadn’t been crashing about; I was perfectly quiet. I didn’t argue the point with him, though, because I was a bit distracted by the solid warmth of his chest against my back.
We were both still for a moment, listening. I could feel his chest rising and falling, and my own breath seemed to come a bit faster.
“I don’t hear anything,” he said at last. “You should’ve waited for me.”
“I didn’t imagine it,” I told him.
He let out an irritated breath. “I didn’t say you did. But you do appear to be completely incapable of following orders.”
I’m afraid this provoked my temper. I struggled free of his grasp and turned to face him. The moon had emerged now, and I could just make him out in the light shining through the branches above. “I’m not one of your soldiers, Major,” I said.
“Even more reason for you to do as I say. You must learn to do as you’re told so you don’t get hurt.”
“You need to learn that we can’t all be like you,” I shot back. “The great Major Ramsey. The perfect soldier. Sometimes I really do think you’re made of stone.”
I felt more than saw him step closer to me, closing the distance I had just put between us, felt the heat and the tension coming off him. My skin prickled with warmth—and something else.
“I am definitely not made of stone, Electra,” he said in a low voice.
Electra. It was the first time he had said my given name, and there was something in the low, rough way he said it that set all my senses to tingling.
I looked up at him, realizing how very close he was. A few inches of air, that’s all that stood between his mouth and mine. I wondered if—no, I thought—he was going to kiss me again. It seemed as though time stood still.
But whatever either of us might be hoping would happen next, our attention was pulled away by the sound of a car coming up the drive.
I think he swore, but it was too quiet for me to be sure. Then he stepped away from me, the cool evening air swallowing me up again.
“Wait here,” he said. “I mean it.”
He was gone before I could formulate a retort.
From where I stood, I could just make out the front door of the house. I saw the car pull up and then I saw Matthew Winthrop get out.
He stood still for a moment and looked around him. Even though I knew there was no way he could possibly see me within the dark copse of trees, I froze.
There was nothing to hear but the sea and the wind, and so he went to the front door, brought out a key, and, unlocking the door, went inside.
A moment later, I saw the figure of Major Ramsey cross the lawn, pistol drawn, and charge into the house.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I had been ordered to stay in the shade of the woods, and, given my tense confrontation with the major about my inability to obey orders, I perhaps ought to have done it. But the longer I waited, the more I worried that something had gone wrong. Was it possible that