Free Seeing a Large Cat by Elizabeth Peters

before-and the soft pink mouth was a good deal more experienced than it had appeared.
    The interval might have lasted even longer had he not been distracted by the crash of shattering glass. The flame of the nearest lamp-the only one along that stretch of the path- popped and hissed and went out.
    Though he could see nothing he heard the sounds from the shrubbery and knew what they meant. He tried to pull away from Dolly's clinging arms, but she tightened her stranglehold round his neck and buried her face against his chest. His hands were raised, trying to loosen hers, when an indistinct form emerged from the shrubbery, snatched the girl away, and kicked his feet out from under him. He heard a strangled squawk from Dolly and managed to twist in midair, so that it was the side of his face instead of his nose and forehead that came into jarring contact with the gritty ground. When he scrambled up his eyes had begun to adjust to the darkness. He could see the glimmer of Dolly's light-colored frock and the pale oval of her face. He wondered why she wasn't screaming.
    The fellow let her go and darted at Ramses. He blocked the blow but was somewhat disconcerted to feel a sharp pain run along his forearm. He had not seen the knife. Simultaneously he landed a blow of his own, a hard backhanded swing that struck the man across the side of the head and sent him staggering back.
    Then Dolly screamed. The sound startled both men; it was, as Ramses later remarked, rather like having a shell explode right next to your ear. The other man turned and plunged into the shrubbery.
    Instinctively Ramses started in pursuit. It was perhaps just as well Dolly stopped him, stepping out into his path and fainting gracefully but decisively against him.
    Her screams had attracted attention. A few belated strollers were coming their way, calling out questions. There was no chance of catching up with the attacker now, even if he had not been encumbered with a swooning maiden.
    Ramses hoisted the girl unceremoniously into his arms and began to retrace his steps, politely declining offers of assistance from the curious people he encountered. "Thank you our friends are waiting-she is unhurt-frightened by the dark-you know how women are. ..."
    Thank God, he thought piously, his mother had not heard him say that. What his mother would say to him he dared not think. "Another shirt ruined? " Not to mention his new suit, which he had owned less than forty-eight hours. He had got blood all over Dolly's dress, too. It looked very expensive.
    His family was waiting at the entrance to the gardens. He was not surprised; his mother had an uncanny instinct for being in the wrong place at the right time. They were all staring at him-all except Nefret, who was examining her face in a small hand mirror. She glanced in his direction and shook her head, smiling as if at the antics of a naughty little boy.
    Which was, of course, precisely how she thought of him.
    Since it seemed clear that God was not going to do him the favor of striking him dead on the spot, he tried desperately to think of something to say that would not make him appear more of an idiot than he already felt. "Er-I beg your pardon for being so long. I assure you the delay was unavoidable."
    "The would-be abductor must have done something to attract her attention and draw her away, into the gardens," I said thoughtfully. "Hence her exclamation. Didn't she tell you what she saw?"
    "There was not time," said Ramses, staring intently at his empty glass.
    "What was he wearing?"
    "Amelia," said my husband. "May I interrupt for a moment?"
    "Certainly, my dear. Have you thought of something you want to ask Ramses?"
    "I do not want to ask him anything. I do not want you to ask him anything. I do not want anyone to ask him anything."
    "But, Emerson-"
    "I don't care who is after Bellingham's daughter, Peabody-if anyone is. She is not our responsibility. Neither," Emerson went on, smiling at me in a fashion that would