Mischief Read Free Page B

matter. You were a good friend of Uncle Selwyn’s, I believe.”
    “Was I?” Matthias asked. “That is certainly news to me. I was not aware that Selwyn Waterstone had any friends.”
    Alarm shot through Imogen. “But I was led to believe that you owed him a great favor. He claimed that you had vowed to repay him if it were ever possible to do so.”
    Matthias regarded her in silence for a moment. “Yes.”
    Imogen was vastly relieved. “Excellent. For a second there I thought I might have made a dreadful mistake.”
    “Do you make many such mistakes, Miss Waterstone?” Matthias asked gently.
    “Almost never,” she assured him. “My parents were great believers in education, you see. I was trained in logic and philosophy, among other subjects, from the cradle. My father always said that when one thinks clearly, one rarely makes mistakes.”
    “Indeed,” Matthias murmured. “As to your uncle, it’s true that I considered myself to have been in his debt.”
    “Something to do with an ancient text, was it not?”
    “Years ago he came across a very old Greek volume in the course of his travels,” Matthias said. “It contained some oblique references to a lost island kingdom. Those references, together with others I had discovered, gave me some of the clues I needed to locate Zamar.”
    “That is just what Uncle Selwyn told me.”
    “I regret that he died before I could repay him,” Matthias said.
    “You are in luck, sir.” Imogen smiled. “As it happens, there is a way for you to fulfill your promise.”
    Matthias regarded her with an unreadable expression. “I fear that I do not entirely grasp your meaning, Miss Waterstone. You have just told me that your uncle is dead.”
    “He is. But in addition to his collection of tomb artifacts, my uncle also left me a respectable inheritance and the promise that you owed him.”
    There was a heartbeat of silence. Horatia stared at Imogen as if she had gone mad.
    Matthias watched her with enigmatic eyes. “I beg your pardon?”
    Imogen cleared her throat delicately. “Uncle Selwyn bequeathed me the promise that he claimed you made to him. It is quite clear in his will.”
    “It is?”
    This was not going as smoothly as she had hoped, Imogen reflected. She braced herself. “I wish to collect on that promise.”
    “Oh, dear,” Horatia whispered. She sounded resigned to a dreadful fate.
    “Just how do you propose to collect the debt that I owed to your uncle, Miss Waterstone?” Matthias finally asked.
    “Well, as to that,” Imogen said, “it is somewhat complicated.”
    “Somehow that does not surprise me.”
    Imogen pretended not to hear that unencouraging remark. “Are you acquainted with Lord Vanneck, sir?”
    Matthias hesitated. Cold disdain appeared briefly in his gaze. “He is a collector of Zamarian antiquities.”
    “He was also the husband of my good friend Lucy Haconby.”
    “Lady Vanneck died some time ago, did she not?”
    “Yes, my lord. Three years ago, to be precise. And I am convinced that she was murdered.”
    “
Murdered?
” For the first time, Matthias actually showed a trace of surprise.
    “Oh, Imogen, surely you do not intend—” Horatia broke off and closed her eyes in dismay.
    “I believe she was murdered by her husband, Lord Vanneck,” Imogen said forcefully. “But there is no way to prove it. With your help, sir, I intend to see that justice is done.”
    Matthias said nothing. He did not take his eyes off Imogen’s face.
    Horatia rallied. “My lord, surely you will talk her out of this wild scheme.”
    Imogen scowled at Horatia. “I dare not wait. An acquaintance has written to tell me that Vanneck is preparing to marry again. He has apparently suffered some serious financial reverses.”
    Matthias shrugged. “That much is true. A few months ago Vanneck was forced to sell his large town house and move into a much smaller residence. But he still manages to keep up appearances.”
    “I suspect that he is even now