"Thank you." She could feel the warmth of his hands through the cotton of her shirt and it sent a little shock of sensation through her. She stepped quickly to the side, breaking his grasp. Too quickly. She could see by his suddenly intent expression she had revealed what she had wanted so desperately to conceal. She promptly made it worse by saying hurriedly, "I didn't see any sign of Medford's tracks on the way from the harbor."
His brows lifted. "Do you think I lied to you?"
"I didn't say that."
He nodded to the west. "Medford's camp is a mile beyond that rain forest. You'll meet him at dinner." He turned and walked toward the carriage.
Kartauk had already stepped down to the ground and was brusquely motioning the servants aside. "I'll help him. He's used to me." He ducked into the carriage and emerged with Ian in his arms. He deftly settled him on the cushioned chair and tucked a silk throw over his knees. "There you are." He grinned. "The last time I saw one of these chairs it was occupied by the maharajah who was being grandly transported around the royal garden. You look much better in it."
"Well, I feel like a bloody fool," Ian said sheepishly. He leaned cautiously back in the chair. "But it's comfortable enough."
"That's all that's important." Ruel's gaze raked Ian's face. "How did you stand the trip?"
"You'd know if you'd bothered to meet us at the harbor," Margaret said as a servant helped her from the carriage. "I'd have thought you'd have had the courtesy to meet us yourself instead of sending that bevy of servants to the harbor. After all, we're here at your insistence."
"I'm properly chastened." Ruel's eyes twinkled. "I realize excuses are unacceptable, but I feel I should explain I arrived here from the mountain only an hour ago. You'd have been even more disapproving if I'd met you in the extremely disheveled and smelly state I was in at that time."
"Then you should have made arrangements to arrive earlier." Margaret cast a glance at the carriage. "However, I must admit the carriage was quite comfortable and your servants eager to please."
"I'm glad my humble efforts weren't wasted." He gestured to a tall, golden-skinned man who had just come out of the palace. "This is Tamar Alkanar. I brought him from his village to watch over Ian."
Like the other servants, Tamar Alkanar wore sandals, a waist-length white coat, and a colorful saronglike length of cloth that draped his narrow hips and ended midcalf. Two broad brass bracelets shone on both wrists. A gentle smile lit his fine features as he inclined his head in a bow. "I am most happy to greet you." He bowed even lower to Ian. "Be assured I will serve you well and obey your every command."
Margaret nodded graciously at him but turned immediately to Ruel. "We don't need him. Jock stayed at the harbor to supervise the unloading of the luggage, but Ian will prefer he—"
"Jock doesn't speak the local dialect," Ruel interrupted. "You'll need Tamar to help you supervise the other servants."
"And to protect you from the heathen hordes," Kartauk murmured, shooting her a sly smile. "They delight in eating virtuous Scots, you know."
"It wouldn't surprise me. But I've managed to survive three years of your barbarity, so I imagine I'll have no trouble evading them." She started up the steps, motioning to the bearers. "Come along, and mind you, be gentle with him. He's not a sack of rice, you know."
"They will be careful. I will not permit any harm to come to him." Tamar's thick, glossy pigtail bounced as he hurried up the steps to open the tall, carved door for them. A moment later Kartauk, Margaret, and Ian's entourage disappeared within the palace.
Ruel turned to Jane. "Tamar will be back in a few minutes to show you and Li Sung to your quarters. I felt it necessary to get Ian settled first."
"Of course."
"Would you like to go around to the back terrace and get your first good look at the rest of the island? The palace is perched directly over the canyon." He didn't wait for an acquiescence but led them quickly around the palace to a many-leveled terrace tiled in cobalt-blue and emerald-green mosaic. The waters of an ornate fountain tumbled leisurely from terrace to terrace into pools arranged with geometric precision and bordered with white jasmine trees.
Ruel led them through the splendid garden, past a number of reflecting pools, and then up three steps to still another terrace. "The view of the canyon is quite spectacular . . . and intimidating."
"More intimidating than Lanpur Gorge?" Li Sung asked.
Ruel stopped at an ornate stone balustrade. "See for yourself."
They stood on the edge of a sheer cliff that plunged hundreds of feet to the valley below where the jungle spread a dense green carpet as far as the eye could see to the east and west. To the north loomed the mountain, rising with the same stark abruptness as the cliff on which they were standing.
"Medford's survey said it was over a hundred miles from the canyon wall to the mountain. It doesn't look that far from here," Jane said.
"I guarantee it will seem a lot farther when you're trying to hack your way through that jungle," he said dryly.
She had no doubt of that. "Has the mountain no name?"
"Why should it? There's only one." He smiled. "I wouldn't have the temerity to give her a name."
He had said that about his pet fox, she remembered suddenly. He had not given the pet he loved a name for the same reason.
"It might offend her and she's been very good to me." A note of affection threaded his words, and his regard held a warm possessiveness that had not been there when he had strolled through the grandeur of the palace gardens.
He is not a man to be truly comfortable in palaces any more than we are, Li Sung had said.
"The river doesn't have a name either," Ruel added.
"River?" She glanced back at the jungle.
"You can't see it from here because of the trees. It runs south to north before curving east to empty into the sea."
"If your mountain was so good to you, why did it take you three years to scrounge out enough gold to get you even this close to your goal?"
He shrugged. "She offered me opportunity. I couldn't ask more than that. I wouldn't have felt the same sense of accomplishment if she hadn't made me work for it." He grimaced. "Which, I assure you, she did."
She understood exactly what he meant. There was no better feeling in the world than work successfully accomplished against odds. It always gave her a—
She experienced a sudden rush of alarm. She must not allow herself to feel this sense of kinship with Ruel.
She quickly shifted her stare from the mountain to the jungle to the east. "I expected to see the sea. The island must be wider than I thought."
He nodded. "It's only three hundred miles long but it's over six hundred wide." He pointed to the west. "But you can see a faint glimmer of sea there."
"Can we see the road you cut through the jungle from here?" Jane asked.
Ruel shook his head and pointed to the south. "It's beyond those trees. You're planning on laying the tracks on the mule track?"
"If possible. We'll have to do more clearing and widening, but it will still give us a head start. What about my supplies?"
"I've had Medford's crew transport them to the base camp on the mountain. See how helpful I'm being?"