The Deeds of the Disturber - Elizabeth Peters [151]
‘What?’ The Earl’s jaw dropped. ‘You said –’
‘The consummation of the divine marriage would cure you,’ replied the other man. ‘And so it will – my lord. Of your illness, and everything else that ails you.’
Miss Minton raised her white arms. ‘Lord and lover,’ she murmured rapturously. ‘How absolutely splendid. My dear – my dear Radcliffe –’
‘Thoth’ started violently and let go my arm. ‘Damnation!’ he cried.
His exclamation was drowned by a louder cry from Lord Liverpool. ‘Damn it, man, you go too far. I won’t let you do this.’
The other man stepped back. ‘Of all the cursed nonsense . . . I never would have expected you to be so chicken-livered, Ned. Very well. Get out – all of you.’
Several of the attendants had already discreetly drifted away, including Mr Barnes. The Earl doubled up his fists. ‘She goes with me. I’ll see her safe home.’
‘Like hell you will!’ The priest reached into his robe.
Emerson started forward, but he was too late; the sound of a shot rang out, and the Earl staggered back, clutching his side. He dropped to his knees; it appeared for a dreadful moment that he was bowing before the god. Then he fell forward onto his face and lay still.
Emerson’s headlong rush struck the killer and bowled him over before he could aim again. Only one of the masked attendants remained in the room – the tall, thin fellow wearing the baboon head. I dashed at him with my parasol raised, but before I could bring it down I was seized by a pair of sinewy bare arms, and a bare, sinewy hand wrested the weapon from my grasp. I had not overlooked the litter-bearers; I had realized they were present; but I had taken them for paid attendants, like the thugs hired by the Earl to fill out the necessary number of priests, and I had never expected they would risk themselves in a criminal struggle. Evidently I had been sadly in error.
Two more of them had collared the man in the baboon mask, and the third pair pounced on the combatants – or, I should say, the single combatant, for Emerson had dragged the sem priest to his feet and was about to administer a mighty blow to the midsection when he was grasped and pulled away. Before he could shake off his assailants, the killer snatched up the gun he had dropped and levelled it, not at Emerson, but at me.
‘Everything seems to have gone wrong tonight,’ he remarked rather breathlessly. ‘You, there – the little one, whose robe badly needs to be shortened – I don’t know how you happen to be present, Mrs Emerson, but you are next on my list, and if your allies don’t stop struggling I will shoot.’
The back of his mask had been smashed when he fell; he had to hold it in place with one hand. Emerson’s ibis-head was in tatters, and the priest laughed aloud when he looked at him.
‘Time to unmask,’ he said with sinister gaiety. ‘Don’t be shy, Mrs Emerson, I’d know you anywhere. And the big fellow has to be the professor. I might have known he’d choose Thoth. The scholar of the pantheon . . . But who’s the baboon?’
I removed the mask and threw it aside. So did Emerson. The baboon folded his arms and stood still; one of the Egyptians snatched off the mask.
‘Inspector Cuff!’ I cried.
‘Good evening, Mrs Emerson,’ said the Inspector politely.
‘Well, this is certainly a ridiculous state of affairs,’ I remarked somewhat later. ‘I left a message for you, Inspector, explaining the situation and asking you to search Mauldy Manor if I had not returned by morning. But I suppose I cannot expect you to come to the rescue now. Didn’t you even bring a brace of constables with you?’
‘You don’t understand, Mrs Emerson,’ the Inspector replied sadly. ‘This is a very delicate matter – very delicate indeed. I am here without the permission or the knowledge of my superiors, and my little pension –’
‘Oh, never mind. This is no time for excuses. We must bend all our efforts on escape.’
‘Any ideas?’ inquired Emerson.
He was leaning against the wall, his arms folded. We were all leaning against the wall; there was nothing in the room to sit on. It was one of the bare stone-walled cells in the cellars, differing