Trouble & Treasure - Dave Moyer (reading rainbow books .TXT) 📗

your drawing room, the burglars were in your hall, and the soldiers were in your kitchen?”

I nodded, head stiff, hands flat against the cool wood of the door behind me.

“But Sebastian is such a good boy,” Elizabeth pointed out with a flat nod, “He's always been there for me when I've needed him.”

For Sebastian's part, he hadn’t once taken his eyes off me. While his hands were still raised, his fingers still and straight, there was such a stiffness and tension to his shoulders that it didn’t look like a move of submission.

“He had a gun.” I stabbed a finger at him.

“Is that right, Sebastian?” Elizabeth crossed her arms. “Did you go to Amanda's house last night with a gun?”

Sebastian, still with his eyes locked on mine, put his hands down. He offered a simple bare nod. “That's right, Elizabeth.”

He said it with such ease, with such a truthful look in his eye, that you couldn't help but believe him.

I shook my head, messy hair bunching around my face. “They broke into my house, Elizabeth, they tried to steal my globes.”

At the mention of the globes, Sebastian's expression changed. Where he’d once had a keen but even look on his face, he now looked dangerously interested. His lips spread back, a glint of his straight and perfect teeth peeking from underneath. He sliced his hard gaze towards Elizabeth, and for the first time looked concerned. Then he shot that gaze right back at me, those eyes hardening again. “You told her about the globes?”

I receded back, clutching my arms around my middle. This wasn’t how it was meant to go. Elizabeth was meant to call a lawyer, a kindly old gentleman who would have sat there and listened to my story and gone out and made it all okay. She wasn’t meant to call Sebastian Shaw, and Sebastian Shaw sure as hell wasn’t meant to show up and get angry at me for sharing my story.

“Do you have any idea what you did?” His arms were no longer raised in fake submission. He held them stiffly at his sides, hands rounded into soft fists.

For the first time I noticed the numerous cuts and bruises across the back of his hands and fingers.

“Excuse me?” My voice was about as high as it was possible to be. This couldn’t be happening. Criminals didn’t act with such sincere indignation, as if you had somehow broken their trust by telling the kind old lady down the road about their misadventures. “You broke into my house last night,” I began.

“Oh grow up,” he snapped, “I saved you from those men in your drawing room. I saved you from those men in the van,” he gave me a stiff, unfriendly nod, “If it wasn't for me, god knows where you'd be but probably tied to a seat answering questions from real criminals.”

“Excuse me?” My voice was even higher this time; I couldn't understand what was going on here. Who the hell was this guy to get so angry at me?

Sebastian grabbed one of the kitchen stools on the other side of the bench and sat roughly, pulling out the tails of his expensive suit jacket as he did.

Elizabeth, who was still watching us with great interest, sniffed and turned towards the kettle. “How about I make us all a cup of tea? Sebastian, would you like some pancakes?”

Sebastian turned to Elizabeth and offered her a friendly smile. He appeared to look at her with real affection, and the smile that played across his lips was most charming. But my oh my was it at odds with the steely look he offered me next.

“What's going on here?” I tried again. But no matter how much I questioned this ridiculous situation, nobody else seemed to have a problem with it. For the love of god, I was about to sit down and have pancakes with a man who broke into my house only last night. This is not how things are meant to go. Then again, perhaps this was how things went when you had forgone calling the police and had gone to bed after your home invasion instead.

I still stood with my back to the door, my arms clutched around my middle as tight as they could go. With Sebastian seated, my gaze darted to the door behind him. If I somehow managed to get around the less-than-legal lawyer, I might be able to make it down the corridor and out the front door. Then it would be the old game of avoiding the criminals until they got bored and went home.

Sebastian saw where I was looking and shook his head. He didn't even bother telling me I had no chance, he just got comfortable in his seat and shook his head like he was a master telling his dog not to jump on the bench.

I hardened my jaw, clenching my teeth.

“There are a lot of people out there looking for you, Amanda.” Sebastian drummed his fingers on the table, his large golden watch on his left wrist slipping and showing deep cuts along the flesh. “Trust me when I say they will not be as nice as I am.”

“Stop threatening me,” I said bravely, letting go of my middle in order to clamp my hands on my hips. “I’m going to call the police.”

He chuckled. “Well, if you were going to do that, you should have done that last night. That was what I expected you to do. But you do look a bit stupid.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Then again,” he leaned forward, still tapping his hands on the table, “You didn't call the police, and that would be the only reason that you are not in the hands of Maratova and his men.”

I gasped. “Was he.... Was he the man who was after me last night?”

“One of the men, Amanda.”

“They’re working with the police?” I clutched a hand over my mouth.

“I wouldn't say they are working with the police.” Sebastian leaned back easily. “But you're still in a lot of trouble.”

“I haven't done anything.” I shook. “I haven't done anything wrong at all.”

Sebastian shrugged. The prick looked as if he was enjoying this. Then again, he didn't seem like an upstanding character; it would take someone with a particularly flexible view of the law and morality to break into someone's house in the middle of the night.

“Sebastian,” Elizabeth called from over by the stove, “You stop baiting that girl. I called you here to get this sorted, and if you want to be fed you should jolly well get professional.”

Surprisingly Elizabeth's reprimand had an effect on Sebastian, and he cleared his throat, leaning forward and straightening up.

“I have no idea what’s going on here,” I said weakly.

“You put a spotting globe up for sale at an auction house, and that spotting globe...” Sebastian shook his head, swallowed, and briefly looked as lost as I did. Then he hardened up and cracked his neck from side-to-side. “Well let's say that you've got the whole world's attention. More important than that,” he leaned forward and he looked interested. His eyes widened, showcasing his dreamy blue irises, “Where are the other globes, Amanda?”

I still had my hand clutched over my mouth.

“It is important, Amanda; those globes are worth more than you can imagine. The one you sold at the auction house may have only fetched you £15 million. But altogether those globes....” He shook his head. He locked those blue eyes on me again. “Where are the rest?” He leaned even further forward, and it almost seemed as if he wanted to stand up from his seat, walk over to me, grab my shoulders and squeeze the information out of me. “You have no idea how important this is.”

“What are those globes?” Elizabeth asked, sounding interested but not awed or scared by what was going on. “They must be something to have so many strapping men interested in them.”

Strapping men? Was that the most appropriate way of describing them? Surely horrible, evil criminals was better. I held my tongue, bit my bottom lip, and watched as Sebastian started to carve up his pancake pile.

“Well, Elizabeth, I have to tell you that these globes are dangerous; you probably shouldn't know more than you already do.” He shot me a particularly mean look at that.

Elizabeth waved a hand that him. “Oh pish, it doesn't matter at all. Tell me, or I will not be paying your fee. So why don't you go ahead and tell me what those globes are, and why my dear Amanda is in so much trouble here.”

“They are treasure maps. Perhaps the greatest treasure maps in the world. At first glance, and to those who know nothing of their true origin and purpose, they would look like ordinary spotting globes. Once each of the globes are put together, across their surface are the locations of innumerable treasure hoards.”

Elizabeth clapped her hands together, a true smirk crossing her lips as her ruby rings banged together lightly. “Oh, how exciting.”

Sebastian snorted. “I think the word you are looking for, Elizabeth, is dangerous.” Sebastian put his fork down and gave me a pointed look. “I wasn't kidding when I said that I have no idea how much those globes are worth. I'm not kidding when I tell you that every Government, every henchman, every crook, and every Mafioso will kill,” he stressed the word kill, “To find out what that sum is.”

I put a hand up to my chest, my heart beating so strongly I could feel it vibrating.

“Amanda sold one of these at auction?” Elizabeth put her head to the side, looking genuinely curious. “How unlucky. I imagine it would be an adventure to traipse around the globe finding hidden treasure.” She leaned back on her stool.

Sebastian snorted again. “An adventure indeed, but not nearly as fun as dodging all the hit men, thugs, and mercenaries who will be after Amanda so they can get their hands on the other four.”

I wasn't sure whether he was making things out to be more dangerous than they were just to get a reaction out of me. As he sat there, leaning back in his seat and taking deliberate mouthfuls of the pancakes without spilling any sauce down his middle, he seemed far too collected and calm to be trustworthy. Plus, he had that annoying boyish look about him. The one that told me this lawyer had never gotten over teasing girls in the playground.

I sniffed, straightened up, held my head high and tried not to be as frightened as the uneasy gurgle in my stomach suggested I was.

“So, Amanda, you want to tell me where those globes are? Or would you like to call the police and end up in Maratova's hands by the end of the day?” He leaned forward, smile unpleasant.

“Look here, Sebastian,” Elizabeth leaned in, slapping her hand flat against the table to get his attention, “I imagine she would be a lot more willing to help if you would at least offer to help her first.”

Sebastian looked mildly chastened, played with his jaw as if it were bothering him for some reason, and opened his hands. “We will cut a deal: you tell me where those globes are, and I promise I will do everything within my power to keep you safe.” Though he had a truculent look on his face, his tone sounded sincere. “And don't tell me they're back at the manor; I don't want to have to deal with Maratova again today.”

“Who is he anyway?”

“Not much to say: works with the army, Special Forces, heads up their unit that looks for... shall we say the valuable antiquities that governments, let alone museums, would kill for.”

I snorted. Governments and museums killing to get their hands on antiquities? Was this supposed be some stupid movie? Governments didn't send out Special Forces to go find artifacts that “belonged in a museum,” to borrow a phrase from Indiana Jones. They were far too busy doing real, proper, democratic things with