Silk and Secrets(113)

"It has been a successful day," she murmured as she wrapped her arms around his broad chest. She never tired of touching him. "I had no trouble leaving the city, and our rifles and ammunition were right where we left them. Now everything is hidden on the Kasem estate, just waiting for us. In two days, Saleh and Reza will be leaving for Persia. Three days after that, we'll be on our way home."

Ross didn't respond to the remark, just held her tightly and buried his face in her hair. Juliet's brows drew together. "Has something happened?"

"I'm afraid so." He released her and took off his coat. "And I don't honestly know if it is good news or bad."

Intrigued but unalarmed, Juliet followed Ross as he went into the bedroom. Picking up her comb, she plumped down on a silk cushion. "So it can't be that bad. Tell me about it."

Ross pulled off his cravat, then wearily rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "I was visited by Ephraim ben Abraham and two of his friends today. They told me that not one but two Europeans were imprisoned in the Black Well. One was Ian, the other a Russian officer, and one of the two was executed while the other was spared. The hell of it is, they don't know which was which."

Juliet stopped combing her hair as the blood drained from her face. "So Ian may be alive."

She had been mourning her brother for weeks; to learn that he might be alive was as great a shock as hearing that he was dead. Worse, because of the uncertainty.

She wanted to swear or weep but didn't know which. Trying to convince herself that Ian was the man who lived, she said, "I always thought that report of the ferengi crossing himself didn't sound like Ian. Surely it would be more likely if the man executed was of the Orthodox Church."

Ross's gaze was sympathetic, but he would not encourage false hope. "Perhaps, but lately the amir has had better relations with Russia than Britain. It is more likely that he would have executed a Briton."

Juliet skipped to the underlying question. "Why would the amir claim he executed Ian if he didn't?"

Ross shook his head. "I have no idea. It could be policy or it could be sheer bloody indedness. Nasrullah may have decided that saying he had executed a spy would intimidate other potential spies, but that it was wasteful to kill a Briton who might someday be useful as a hostage. Or there could be other reasons. We'll probably never know."

Juliet raised her fist to her mouth and bit her knuckles, hard. Then she closed her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them again, her gaze was hard. "Now that we know Ian might be alive, what are we going to do about it?"

Ross's mouth twisted and he began to pace. With his golden hair and his long, lithe strides, he was like a caged lion. "I doubt that we can do anything."

"We must try to rescue him," Juliet said, knowing that she could not possibly abandon her brother if he was alive, any more than she could have deserted her husband.

Ross's glance was sardonic. "In other words, after we escape from the nayeb's compound, we break into a heavily guarded prison, remove a man who is probably in dreadful physical condition from a twenty-foot-deep hole, smuggle him out of the city, then get him safely across the Kara Kum desert in the most hazardous season of the year. And he may not be Ian."

"We came here to try to save him," she said stubbornly. "Knowing that he may be alive, we can't just walk away."

Ross sighed. "Once more, for what seems like the hundredth time, we are back to the question of whether there is any value in a person committing suicide in a good cause. You know how I feel about that."

Juliet's temper flared. "In other words, you're too much of a coward to try to save him."

"Of course I'm a coward," he said promptly. "I've been in a flat panic ever since I left Constantinople, and the last few weeks have left me quivering like a bowl of aspic. But the issue isn't fear. It's whether we can do anything."

Ross's words disarmed Juliet to the point where she would have smiled if she had not been so upset. She had seen enough of her husband in action to know that an accusation of cowardice was patently absurd.

"I'm sorry," she said contritely. "I should not have said that. But I can't bear the idea that Ian might be within a mile of us and suffering terribly. We must do something." She ran her fingers distractedly through her hair. "Do you think Abdul Samut Khan knows whether it is Ian in the Black Well? If so, perhaps you can bribe the truth out of him."

"If he knows, I don't think he'll tell us, or he would already have hinted that he had valuable knowledge." Ross frowned. "In one sense, knowing whether the prisoner is Ian or the Russian is not the crucial issue. It will probably be impossible to find out which man is in the Black Well, and in any case, I don't like the idea of leaving any European to the amir's tender mercies." He stopped pacing and swung around to face Juliet. "I want to propose a bargain to you."