Free Moonflower Madness by Margaret Pemberton Page B

desperately to think in what way she could be useful. ‘I can help find flowers. I’ve already found one that I’ve never seen before. It’s in my saddle-bag. I can paint the flowers that we see. I am a very good and accurate artist. I can …’
    Charles raised a hand protestingly. ‘Please, Gianetta. I am sure that you could be very useful indeed, but the decision is not mine to make.’
    She looked at him blankly and he said apologetically, ‘The expedition is not my expedition, Gianetta. It’s Zac’s. I am merely an invited amateur. I can make no decisions as to who may join us, or where we are to go. All those decisions are Zac’s.’
    â€˜So you see, Miss Hollis,’ a dark, smugly satisfied voice said from behind her. ‘You will be returning to Chung King after all.’
    â€˜She dug her nails into the palms of her hands and lifted her head a fraction higher. ‘At least you can have a look at the flower that I brought with me,’ she said, still speaking to Charles. ‘It’s very pretty.’ Her voice was suspiciously thick. ‘I’ve never seen one like it before,’ and she turned away from him, running into the concealing darkness towards Ben and her saddle-bag.
    Neither man attempted to follow her and it was several minutes before she returned. When she did so her eyes were overly bright, but her voice was once again normal. She handed the cutting she had taken to Charles. ‘Have you any idea what it is?’
    He took it from her and to her relief did not laugh. ‘I’m not sure. It looks a little like a potentilla. What do you think, Zac?’
    Zachary Cartwright lifted the cutting from the damp handkerchief around its stem and laid it flat on the palm of his hand. ‘It’s a Potentilla Veitchii’he said with sharp interest. ‘Where did you find it? Where there many of them?’
    She shook her head, disappointed that he had known immediately what it was and that it was obviously very common. ‘It was growing near the river where I camped last night. There was only one bush. I didn’t see any others.’
    â€˜You should have had the sense to take a root cutting …’ he began angrily.
    She had had enough of his anger and his comtempt. ‘Why should I?’ she flared, interrupting him. ‘I’m not a member of your expedition, as you have so rightly pointed out. And if it’s only a common old Potentilla Veitchii, what does it matter?’
    â€˜Potentilla Veitchii isn’t common,’ he snapped back at her. ‘It’s usually to be found in the far west, on the border with Burma. I’ve never come across it so far east before.’
    She forgot her fury at his bad temper and her crushing disappointment at having to return to Chung King. ‘Really?’ she said, her face brightening. ‘You mean I’ve actually found something interesting? Something rare?’
    â€˜Yes, which makes your negligence in not taking a root cutting, and not knowing exactly where you found it, even more reprehensible.’
    â€˜I can draw the cutting for you,’ she said, refusing to be browbeaten. ‘Do you have pencils and a sketch-book?’
    â€˜We’re a scientific expedition,’ he retorted. ‘Of course we have pencils and a sketchbook.’
    In the light from the leaping flames, with his thick black hair tumbling low over his brow and his winged brows drawn together demonically, he looked so like a storybook picture of Lucifer that she burst out laughing.
    â€˜What is so funny?’ he asked, startled.
    â€˜You are,’ she said, still laughing. ‘You look exactly like Lucifer!’
    Charles hooted with laughter. ‘She’s right, Zac. I can’t imagine why I never saw the likeness before,’ he took Gianetta’s arm. ‘Come on. Stop wrangling with Zac and let’s eat. I’m starving.’
    As he