The Forever Dream (32 page)

Then Kevin was in the room. He was still dressed in his black tuxedo trousers and shirt but had removed the jacket and tie. His face was almost as white as Jared's as he came toward her.

"God, I'm sorry, princess," he said quietly, his blue eyes bright with pain. "What can I do to help?"

Her dark gaze clung to his desperately. Thank God Kevin was here. Kevin would help Jared. "Poison." It was hard to get the words past the tightness in her throat. "They think it's poison. He can't die, Kevin." Her face was a naked mask of pain. "Please don't let him die."

He knelt beside her, his hands closing bracingly on her shoulders. "I'll do everything I can," he said simply. "You know that, princess."

Corbett was replacing the receiver and coming toward them. "Jeffers says it's almost certainly cyanide. That almond odor is very distinctive. We'll have to work fast. He'll be here as quickly as he can, but it will be too late for Ryker if we don't instigate emergency measures at once. Cyanide produces respiratory failure, and it could come at any time," he said crisply. "Betz, you're to begin artificial respiration at once." He consulted the scratch pad in his hand. "You'll also have to set up an IV with ten-milligram injections of sodium nitrate at two- to four-minute periods."

"Where the hell are we supposed to get all that?" Kevin asked, frowning. "The first-aid room is equipped with IV equipment, but I don't know if we have the rest of the stuff."

"Jeffers said we did, and he should know. He's the one who stocked the first-aid room for me." Corbett was walking toward the door. "I'll take a couple of men and hunt up what we need while you and Betz spell each other on the artificial respiration. Get cracking!"

Betz was already taking off his navy blue coat and dropping to his knees beside Jared, his hands reaching out to move Ryker from Tania's arms.

"No." Her arms tightened around him, and she shook her head. "Tell me what to do and I’ll do it."

"We don't have time, princess," Kevin said gently. "Let us help him."

How could she let him go? she thought dazedly.

Who could she trust in a world that would do this to Jared? The ides of March, the day of betrayal. "No, I can't let you take him."

It was Betz who shocked her into awareness. "If you don't, he'll most certainly die in your arms," he said curtly. "And you'll be guilty of murdering him yourself. Do you want that responsibility, Miss Orlinov?"

Her low cry was answer enough, and when her arms loosened, Betz smoothly grasped Jared's limp form and laid him on the carpet. He loosened his clothing, slipped his hand under Jared's neck and arched his throat to open the air passage, and began to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She felt Kevin's hand on her elbow gently pulling her to her feet.

"You can't do any more here, Tania," he said, his voice soothing. "We'll take care of him now. Why don't you go to your room? I'll let you know as soon as he's conscious."

She gazed at him as if he'd gone mad. "I'm not leaving him," she said flatly. "I'm not leaving this room until I know he's going to be all right."

"I didn't think you would, but it was worth a try," Kevin said resignedly. He led her to the Queen Anne chair across the room and pushed her gently down on the cushioned surface. "Stay here, then. Just don't get in the way while we're doing our best to save him, okay?"

"Okay," she said absently, her eyes glued anxiously on Betz, across the room. "I'll stay here."

In the hours that followed, that promise became very hard to keep as she watched the men frantically orking to keep Jared alive while she sat helplessly doing nothing. The room was seething with activity as Betz's men came and went. The IV was set up and the medication was administered at regular intervals. Jared was watched with the sharpness of desperation by every person in the room.

When Dr. Jeffers walked into the room three hours later, the short, balding man looked as beautiful as an archangel to Tania. He went immediately to Jared and knelt to examine him briefly. "I think the crisis is past, he said tersely." He's beginning to stabilize. Let's move him to a bedroom, and I'll begin gastric lavage.

"He's going to live?" Corbett said sharply.

"Unless complications set in," Jeffers said cautiously. "But I see no reason why that should happen. In a day or so he should be pretty well recovered."

Tania felt almost limp with relief. She expelled breath she hadn't even been aware she was holding. Thank God. Jared was going to be all right. She leaned her head back against the high back of the chair, suddenly conscious that it was swimming with dizziness Oh, thank God.

"Why hasn't he regained consciousness?" Corbel asked with a frown. "Is he in a coma?"

"He's suffered a very serious shock to his system,” Jeffers said patiently. "He may remain unconscious for some time." He turned to McCord, who was standing by the IV "You've done an exceptionally good job regulating those injections, McCord."

"Shall I keep them on the same schedule after you leave?" Kevin asked, wearily rubbing the back of his neck.

"That won't be necessary," Jeffers said as he stepped aside so two of Betz's men could lift Jared's body and put it on a stretcher. "Senator Corbett has asked me to stay until Dr. Ryker is entirely out of danger. I'll be supervising the IV and will put him in an oxygen tent for tonight, at least."

Betz's men were moving toward the door, carrying Jared on the stretcher, while another followed closely with the IV They were taking him away, Tania thought with a thrill of panic. She mustn't let them do that. She must go with him, protect him, take care of him. Nothing like this must ever happen to him again.

She struggled to her feet and strode toward the door, firmly fighting off the odd weakness in her knees.

Kevin stepped forward, his face concerned. "Call it a night, princess," he urged softly. "He doesn't need you now."

"No?" She drew a deep breath. "Perhaps not. But I need him. I need to be with him, and no one is going to stop me. He's mine, Kevin."

She turned to follow the stretcher out of the library.

Chapter 14

The light, tantalizing fragrance of wild flowers pierced the shifting mists of darkness that surround Jared. Tania?

She was sitting in the chair next to his bed, still wearing the rose velvet gown, and there was a charged tension about her that seemed to reach out to him dispersing the fog that was clouding his faculties. He hand was tightly clasped in his, as if she were a small child afraid of the dark, and she was instantly aware the moment when he opened his eyes.

She drew a deep, steadying breath. "They said you were going to be all right, but I was beginning to that they were wrong," she said, and gave him a shaky smile "You took so long to wake up—it's been twelve hours. It was most contrary of you, Jared." She reached over to the bedside table and picked up a plastic cup with a curved plastic straw. "Jeffers said you'd want a drink soothe your throat. He had to put a tube down to wash all the poison out of your system."

Poison! As he sipped the cold water, he forced his mind to focus in its usual keen fashion. That last dizzy moment in the library before the mists had closed in on him, he'd been conscious of something very wrong. Poison, of course.

"How?" he asked "quietly.

"Cyanide in the brandy. That sounds like the title of an Agatha Christie thriller, doesn't it? Someone substituted the bottle you were drinking from before dinner with another one doctored with cyanide. Not very efficiently, thank heavens. It wasn't laced heavily enough to kill you immediately."

"Who was it?"

"Corbett doesn't know. He thinks there was a leak and one of Betz's team was bribed to do it." Her laugh as mirthless. "Betz is denying it, of course. He says his men are all good, loyal men, totally incapable of being corrupted." She rubbed her forehead wearily. "I just don't know. Maybe it was Corbett himself."

He shook his head. "Corbett has too much to lose by my death at this point. He has a vested interest in keeping me very much alive."

"Kevin said yesterday was the day of betrayal. He so said that all the verbal fencing concerned me." Her yes were feverishly bright in her strained face. "And the poisoning, Jared? Did that have something to do with me too?"

"God, no, sweetheart." His hand tightened on hers. "None of this was your responsibility. Corbett's trying to use you as a lever, yes." He smiled grimly. "The bastard's trying every dirty trick in his repertoire to get what he wants. It seems our charming senator has a chronic case of megalomania."

"It doesn't really surprise me," she said slowly, there had been enough signals last night to make her suspect something of that nature. "He's going to force you to turn over your work to him?"

"He's going to try," Jared said quietly. "He's not going to succeed. There's no way on earth I can let him get hold of it." He paused, and for a moment there was a haunted, pained expression on his face. "Even if it means putting you in danger to keep him from doing it. Can you understand that, Tania?"

She could see by the uncertainty in his face that he didn't think she could. He wasn't sure he could inspire that kind of loyalty and commitment in her, she realized in amazement. He wasn't certain she would be willing to run any risk to keep his dream intact. She lifted her chin proudly. "No one manipulates me, Jared, not even you. There's no way you could put me anywhere I didn't want to go." Her lips curved in a tender smile. "I'm the Piper, remember?"

He was silent a long moment before he lifted her hand to his lips to kiss it gently. "How could I forget?" he asked huskily, his eyes suspiciously bright. "You're going to be around to remind me for the next millennium or so."

"I'm glad you realize that," she said, her throat suddenly tight and aching. "And there's one more thing you'd better put on that list I gave you besides the baby and the New York residency requirement."

"What's that?"

"You are never to come even close to leaving me again," she said, her tone fierce. "You're never to catch a cold or trip on a step or get a cramp when your swimming. Nothing, you understand?"

His lips twitched. "I'll do my very best to oblige. Anything else?"

"Yes." Suddenly the tears that had been brimming were rolling silently down her cheeks. "You must promise that you won't die before I do. That's absolute required, Jared. I won't go through life without you. I can't do that now."

"Yes, you could," he told her with gentle raillery. How could he promise her that, when next week might be the most hazardous of his life? Yet she must survive, even if he didn't. "You have
e
à
b
." His fingers traced the path of her tears down one cheek. "You never cry."

She nodded. "I never cry." The tears continued to pour down her cheeks. "After tonight." She bent and nestled her damp cheek against his shoulder. His naked flesh was warm and vitally alive. He was alive. "Tonight even a woman with
e
à
b
has a right to cry."

"Come to bed, love."

She didn't resist as he shifted over on the mattress and lifted the sheet to bring her under its silken protection. She should get up and take off her clothes, she thought vaguely, but it was too much bother. She didn't want to leave Jared even for the short time it would take to accomplish it. She never wanted to leave him again. As long as she was beside him, she could watch over him, protect him.

Yet it was Jared's arms that were enfolding her in a blanket of protectiveness, his hands that were loosening the coronet of braids before pulling her into the comfortable hollow of his shoulder, his lips,that brushed her temple with poignant tenderness. "I shouldn't be here," she said wearily, her arms curving around his waist. "You've been ill."

"All the more reason," he said lightly. "I've always known you were the most potent of medicines." His lips touched her brow. "Not to mention your distinctly addictive properties. Now, hush up, and let me hold you. Sick men should be humored."

She gave a sigh of contentment and nestled closer. Why was she arguing, when she was just where she wanted to be?

"What are we going to do about Corbett?" she asked lazily. It was impossible to take anything seriously at the moment. She was feeling too secure and full of thanksgiving that Jared was still alive and able to hold her like this. "He left for Washington early this morning, but he said he'd be back in a few days.''

"Much as I know you'd enjoy it, we're not going to launch a full-scale attack, pixie," he said. "I think we'd better opt for discretion, and just try to escape with our skins intact. That should be enough of a challenge even for you, particularly as I'm sure Corbett left instructions with our friend Betz to tighten security."

A frisson of fear closed along her spine. "Will we be able to do it?"

"We have no choice. We'll do it." He smiled faintly. "Besides, I have a few surprises up my sleeve that our lovable senator isn't aware of yet. I'm not such a fool that I'd allow myself to be completely boxed in without a way out."

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind." His strong but gentle hand was massaging the muscles at the nape of her neck. "It's best that we don't go into it at the moment. We've got to assume that surveillance has already been tightened."

"You mean—?"

"I don't know," he interrupted, "but it's safer not to discuss anything but the weather until we get out of here."

The sharp wind blew through the birches, touching the wind chimes and causing them to make their familiar music, but for once Tania paid no attention, her eyes fixed on Jared's face.

"It doesn't make any sense," Tania said. "Nothing at all has changed. It's as if the poisoning had never happened, as if Corbett had never been here. From what you said, I expected hidden microphones in every room and a security man dogging our footsteps at every turn. Instead we're still being allowed the run of the chateau as if there weren't even a possibility that we'd want to escape."

Jared nodded, his eyes fixed thoughtfully on the valley below. "I saw Betz before I left the chateau to meet you here, and his primary concern seemed to be whether I was warmly enough dressed to withstand the rigors of a short walk so soon after I got out of the sick bed." He shook his head, a faint smile touching his lips. "He was like a mother hen with its first chick. I almost expected him to zip up my jacket and tuck a scarf around my neck."