Wings of Fire - Charles Todd [127]
There was nothing there of anger or tension or a desire to kill. If anything, Cormac’s expression was pleasant, welcoming. But the brilliant blue eyes were fire.
Answering him, Rutledge said, “Yes. She’s the spirit of the house.”
Cormac smiled at him. “That’s a very Irish way of putting it.”
“Is it?”
Cormac came to the table and picked up his drink, then gestured with the glass. “Won’t you join me?”
Rutledge said nothing, and Cormac went on easily, “There’s no laudanum in it. Will you join the search for this new Ripper?”
“He isn’t my business. Never was. But Olivia Marlowe is.”
“Ah.” He lifted the glass again, gesturing this time to the portrait. “You didn’t know her as I did. Olivia was only a pale shadow of Rosamund.”
“She had a remarkable talent. Olivia.”
“Her poetry? But talent is transient. Fame is transient. We are all going to die some day, more’s the pity. It seems man has learned to do everything except live forever. When we achieve earthly immortality, I suppose we’ll finally have the power of God.”
“I’m not sure I’d want that. Immortality. To live forever would be—tiresome. Eternal youth, that might be more useful.”
Cormac laughed, the handsome face lighting from within. “Would you choose now, or before 1914?”
“Before. I have no fond memories of the war.”
“No, I don’t think you have. I’ve read your medical reports—I still have connections in London with the people I worked with during the war. And most things are available for money. A very intriguing file. I’m amazed you survived. But you’ve nothing to fear from me. I don’t plan to expose you.”
No, Rutledge thought. You’d much rather kill me.
He said aloud, “It doesn’t matter. I never expected to keep my secrets forever. If they come out, I’ll find something else to do with my life.” But he knew how great a lie that was .. .
“Or end it?” Cormac asked softly, responding to the silent thought.
“You can pray for that. Will you be here when I leave?”
“It depends on what you’ve come to find.” For the first time something echoed in the quiet voice.
After a moment Rutledge said, “Why should I make it easy for you?” and walked past Cormac, back into the hall. To his surprise, Cormac actually let him go. But he could feel the man’s eyes still watching him, and he knew it wasn’t over.
He crossed the hall, taking the stairs two at a time while Hamish reminded him that Stephen had fallen here, the words tumbling like the man had done, over and down and crashing into the floor below. Yet only Rutledge could hear them. At the top of the steps in the gallery, he made his decision, then took up the small lamp from the table where it had been set, waiting, nearly lost in the surrounding blackness.
Down the passage to the left, not the right, past the closed doors of bedrooms, the darkness here astir with feelings Rutledge couldn’t name as the lamplight made a circle of orange light around him. The oil was hot beneath the glass, warming his hand. He thought of Olivia, and of Nicholas. Did one ever come back from the dead? It was an interesting question. He hoped it would be some time before he discovered the answer to it.
The silence in Stephen’s room was palpable. In the lamplight the furnishings seemed stark and somehow dauntingly empty, heavily shadowed.
He paused in the Norway for a moment, listening to the sound of his own breathing and Hamish’s trepidation.
‘‘Leave now!” the soft Scottish voice repeated over and over. “Now!”
But Rutledge crossed to the bed and knelt, his hands moving along the struts that held the springs in place. Fingers careful, sensing their way over the strips of dusty wood.
His nails struck the book’s binding, his fingers stretched and closed around it, drawing it out with infinite circumspection.
Then it was in his grasp.
He stood, and in the silence there was now a humming of tension, like the distant baying of hounds. The hairs on the back of his neck lifted in a primeval reaction. Hamish, hissing malevolently, heard it too.
There was