Page 91 of In the Heat of the Jungle

“Miss Webster asked for us to ship her baggage to Dallas, Texas, in America. She was planning to return home immediately upon arrival. We did as she requested. Is there a problem, sir?”

“None,” Chad stated with a dark scowl.

“See, she was lying about returning to London and marrying you. She was planning to sail to America, then sneak back to Jace Elliott.”

“If she was lying, Reid, she changed her mind during the safari. I changed it for her.” Chad was riled by this unexpected news.

“What about Jace and the will?”

“Before we sail Friday, I’ll handle him. He won’t get anything. I’ll see Jim Hanes tomorrow and make him an irresistible offer, fifty thousand pounds and my silence if he doesn’t let Jace reach home alive.”

“How can you? You only have a little over fifty thousand in the bank here, and half is to pay Jace.”

A cold and evil gleam was in Chad’s eyes. During his misery, all the hatred for Jace had resurfaced, and increased. In his crazed mind, Jace had lured him here with dreams of final revenge and had gotten Leigh killed. His old enemy had taken away his two dreams and had to die. “I’ll give Jace and Jim twenty-five each. Then Jim can take Jace’s money when he kills him and drops the body in quicksand. I don’t want any evidence left behind, Reid, and I want to be gone when he’s slain. When Jace can’t be found to claim his half of the inheritance, I’ll get everything.”

“Fiona will get everything, Chad.”

“That’s the same thing. Mother wouldn’t dare cross me. If she tries, I’ll kill her, too.”

~*~

Wednesday, Leigh saw red spots on her knickers. It caused her to realize that during the safari she had missed “Mother’s Misery,” as her aunt Jenna called it. She was glad she hadn’t noticed that absence, or she would have panicked, thinking herself pregnant.

Her female condition only lasted two or three days, and was always very light. She had experienced “Mother’s Misery” during those last few days aboard ship. She had skipped her monthly flow in May, but it had returned on time in June. Yet it wasn’t unnatural for a woman to skip a month here and there. Illness, extreme tension, medicine—and drugs—could delay or bring on the condition at times. She also knew that her mother, Mary Beth Leigh Webster, had given birth to only one child and Jenna Leigh Barns Hastings had given birth to none. Perhaps the Leigh women were not as susceptible to pregnancy as were most females.

She went to find Abena for help. Leigh touched her feminine area, blushed, and said, “I’m in my woman’s way. I need clean cloth.”

Abena understood her hints. The woman fetched old linens from a chest and helped Leigh make pads to absorb the red liquid. Placing a small wooden box in the bathroom, she told Leigh, “Put here. At night when I go, I bury deep and sprinkle with pepper. We not want to attract hyenas with smell of blood.”

Leigh returned to her room to lie down. She had endured a restless night. She wondered what Jace would have done if she had gotten pregnant. Surely he would marry her. Surely he realized such a complication was possible during a long and intimate stay.Another trick to entrap you, Leigh, with an heir?

She propped on the bed to read herself into a sleepy mood. Before doing so, she murmured a quote from “Ode to Joy,” “Sweet magic brings us together,” then added a quote from “Lutetia,” “Wild, dark times are rumbling toward us.” Leigh told herself to calm down but she was unable to do so.Wild perils brought us together, my love, your hunger for revenge—and Chad’s. But sweet passion and magic nearly destroyed the past for you, Jace. Why can’t you let the dark past be over? Why can’t you let us have a bright future?

~*~

On Thursday, after Chad paid him, Jace pretended to leave Mombasa for home. He concealed himself to make certain the two couples caught the steamer for London tomorrow. A telegram from Lord Salisbury revealed that Sean and Jaimie, the men who had attacked Leigh on the London waterfront, were stablemen for Marquise Cynthia Campbell. The two bastards had been killed while resisting arrest so no testimony from them was forthcoming. There was no news about the two men who had attacked Leigh at Fort Jesus.

Jace followed Reid Adams to the telegraph office late that afternoon. He also witnessed a meeting between Chad and Jim Hanes this morning. He noticed that Jim was walking fine on a leg supposedly broken in early April. He decided to have a word with Jim later.

~*~

On Friday, the ship sailed with the two couples aboard. Jace and Johi searched for Jim Hanes to question him.

“Come clean, Jim, your leg was never broken. How much did Chadwick Hamilton pay you to fake that injury so I’d take his job?”

Jim sent him a sly grin. “Ten thousand. He’s gone, so why lie about it? He hates your guts, Jace, so I’m baffled by why he wanted you as his guide. He paid me twenty-five thousand to trail you homeward, kill you, and hide your body in quicksand. He said you’d be carrying another twenty-five I can steal. That’s a mighty high price on a man’s head. What did you do to him?”

“Not what he thinks. Why are you telling me this?”

“Why not? I’m not going to murder you or any man for money, not even for fifty thousand pounds. I took the bastard’s money because there’s nothing he can do to get it back. If he learns I didn’t carry out his orders and returns, I’ll be long gone. I’m sailing for Australia tomorrow. He provided me with a nice stake.”

“I’m glad you told me the truth. I knew he hated me, but not enough to murder me.”

Jace waited until the man who worked in the telegraph office locked up and left to eat. He had been unable to sneak inside last night to steal a copy of Reid’s telegram because the employee also lived in rooms attached to the office. When Jace located the handwritten page, he stuffed it into his pocket and slipped away unseen.

Before leaving town, he sighted the two men who had attacked Leigh at the old Portuguese fort. He and Johi raced them down and beat one man into answering his questions. He learned that a woman with “hair like fire” had paid them to abduct and sell the sunny-haired female into slavery. Jace turned the men over to the local authorities.

While riding the train toward the river to catch a boat to the stop near Nairobi, Jace withdrew the paper and read it. He smiled, then frowned in rage. At last he had a piece of enlightening and incriminating evidence in Reid’s handwriting. When he was confronted with it, Chad would be furious. Jace was eager to wave this stolen page in the guilty bastard’s face.

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