another surfaced!
Like how he moved so quickly and came and went the way he did, and the way he had eluded her tracker. As to the matter of his drugging her that night at the garage in London - the more she considered that, the more utterly ridiculous it seemed!
But any alternative was even more ridiculous, indeed impossible! So it could only be true. If only she had been a little more thorough when he was in her power. She could have discovered a lot more about this E-Branch he'd worked for, for one thing ...
And as if all of this weren't worrying enough, now there was the question of the watcher. A detective, or the father of one of Bonnie Jean's girls? She thought not. But from the description Harry Keogh had given her, B.J. believed she knew who - or what - it might be. Well, it had happened before, on several occasions down the decades. And now it could be happening again. She supposed she should be grateful Harry had brought it to her attention, except grateful wasn't part of the equation.
But forewarned is forearmed. If indeed this should prove to be the worst possible scenario come or coming to pass, then B.J. must look into it and, if necessary, draw their fire away from her Master. She had done it before - all of a hundred and seventy-five years ago - to lure them from the true spoor; and twice more in the years flown between. Inexperienced though she had been on that first occasion, still she'd won; and likewise ever since, else she wouldn't be here now! It was why she was here, after all; to guard over the dog-Lord in His immemorial sleep, where He patiently awaited the advent of the One Foreseen, the Mysterious One.
The right one, aye. And yet again BJ. thought of Harry Keogh, if only for a moment ...
... And the time of the calling so close now, when again she must go to Him. But this watcher:
If he (or they) were that close, and if they had been allowed to follow B.J., all unbeknown, perhaps to the very lair?
That was unthinkable -that she might so easily have betrayed a secret so well-kept for six long centuries! Well, at least it excluded Keogh's involvement with them. ! For if he were one of them he never would have offered his help in the first place. And when he had her under the influence of his drug, he ! could have done whatever he wanted with her; could have ... removed \ her, and so dealt with her Master, too. For without BJ. what was her Master but a poor defenceless thing in a cavern tomb? But Harry had done nothing except bring her to safety.
But oh, what she wouldn't give for Harry Keogh's extraordinary skills now! The way he seemed simply to vanish like that. Why, with him on her side, B.J. would have nothing to fear during the coming visit to her Master! Harry would lose any would-be trackers as easily as he'd eluded her girl.
With him on her side ... or, him by her side?
Keogh ... Keogh ... Keogh!
Why was he on her mind so? For after al she, Bonnie Jean Mirlu, was the beguiler, with the power of fascination! And yet somehow this Keogh fascinated her ...
Oh? And did that mean something?
His eyes, so warm and innocent: neither brooding, conniving, nor flirting (or flirting only a very little); not even especially beautiful, yet extraordinary in their depth, in the way they echoed the soul behind them. They were oh so soulful, those eyes of his. And at that B.J. gave an involuntary shiver, for the thought of his soul was . . . delicious! And if her Master were to give the word, why, she might yet taste it, steal it from him in one raw red moment!
Aye, and that would put an end to his mysterious ways, for sure.
His mysterious ways ... ?
Bonnie Jean started into shocked awareness where she sat thinking things out and brooding in a chair in her living-room. Harry Keogh: a mystery man appearing on the scene from nowhere, as if on cue. And BJ. feeling this attraction, a weird affinity that was hard to place, as if she already knew him. So much so that when she should have let him be killed - or killed him herself - instead she'd entrusted herself to him! Then, later, he had sought her