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'How long has be been gone?' he asked softly, all harshness leaving his voice.
'I… I'm not sure.' She heard the sob in her voice with a feeling of despair, but she couldn't help it. If lie had been curt and uninterested she could have coped, but the sympathy in his voice was her undoing. 'Mr Jones was looking after him, as he usually does if I'm away, but Mog didn't have his food last night and he hasn't been back all day. He's never stayed out for more than a night before; he's not that sort of cat.'
'I'm sure he's not.' It wouldn't be until much later that she would remember the slight thread of amusement in his voice. 'Has anyone had a look round the neighbourhood?' There was the barest pause before his voice changed abruptly. 'That's where you've been, isn't it? Did Mr Jones accompany you?' he asked sharply.
'I— No. He's busy; he's got a friend staying the night and—'
'So you've been wandering about on your own?' Luke asked grimly.
'Look, I had to.' If he started a row now she would put the phone down, she thought desperately. 'He might be hurt—a car or something. Or those people who steal cats for their fur. Or—'
'I'm coming over.' She held the phone a fraction from her ear and stared at it in surprise, her mouth dropping open slightly.
'What?'
'I'm coming over, and damn well stay put till I get there, OK? I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. He's probably just found a lady-friend who has decided that he is the love of her life… which is more than can be said for some of us,' he finished wryly. 'I won't be long.'
'There's no need…' But there was. She longed to see him. The thought of a whole night in the lonely isolation of her flat with this anxiety eating at her was dreadful.
'And if he arrives back before I get there ask him for the lady's address,' he added just before he put the phone down. 'He's obviously doing far better than me in the romance stakes.'
She literally paced the flat until he arrived, and when she opened the door to his knock and saw him leaning against the far wall, his eyebrows raised questioningly—to which she responded with a shake of her head—the impulse to fling herself into his arms in a storm of weeping was so strong that her body became rigid with control.
'Right, first things first. When did Mr Jones see him last?' Luke asked quietly as he followed her into the lounge. 'Exactly.'
'He actually saw him the evening before yesterday,' she said, as calmly as she could. 'But Mog has access to the garden himself, so he comes and goes as he wants. He could have been back some time after that.'
'And where have you looked?' he asked gently, his eyes soft as he took in the terrified golden eyes and vulnerable mouth.
'I've walked all the streets in the immediate area, calling him,' she said. 'And I checked the alley that runs at the back of the shopping precinct, and the park that's almost opposite.'
'In the dark. By yourself.' He shut his eyes for a second, and when he opened them she knew, although neither his body nor his voice betrayed it, that he was struggling not to shout at her. 'I will do everything I can to find him, Josie, but only on the condition that you don't put yourself at risk again like that Do I have your word?' tie asked flatly.
'I can't…' She stared at him as she wrung her hands helplessly before realising what she was doing and putting them quickly behind her back. 'If someone said they'd seen him—'
'You would contact me,' he said sternly. 'Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you? I want your promise—I mean it—or I won't lift a finger to help you.'
She stared up at him for a long moment, looking very tiny and fragile in the dim light from the standard lamp she had switched on at his knock.
She had been wandering about alleys and parks on her own? He felt murderously angry and fiercely protective at the same time, and knew he couldn't show either emotion. A tiny little thing like her would be eaten alive out there. It wasn't just down-and-outs who frequented such places, but drug addicts, perverts—and the crimes they committed when they were high on heroin and such-He shut his mind off from the picture of her lying beneath a demented madman and repeated his warning, ice in his voice now. 'You won't act so foolishly again—promise me.' The damn cat! He'd wring its neck himself when he found it!
'I promise,' she said shakily. It felt strange to be worried over; she hadn't had anyone show any real concern for what she did for so long that she had forgotten how good it felt.
'Right. Give me the torch you used and I'll go looking for an hour or two,' he said quietly, watching her with intent, narrowed eyes and noticing the exhausted droop of her shoulders and the downward tilt to her mouth.
'I haven't got a torch,' she admitted shamefacedly, expecting a further lecture on the seriousness of her crime, but he merely stared at her for another moment without speaking, shaking his dark head slowly as though he was lost for words, before turning to leave. 'I want to come too—'
'No.' He turned in the doorway, his voice determined. 'You're all in, Josie, and I can search more quickly and thoroughly by myself.'
'I can't stay here…' she began obstinately, but when he moved back to stand in front of her, lifting her chin with a gentle finger, she fell silent.
'I can look after myself—and you, if necessary,' he said quietly. 'But I have no intention of knowingly taking you on a long and tiring jaunt at twelve o'clock at night when the dregs of London society are out and about. I, at least, will have a torch to light my way—I always keep one in the car—and I'll be back shortly. OK?'
'OK,' she said tremulously. 'Luke?' He paused in the act of turning away, his dark brows raised enquiringly. 'Please look as hard as you can.'
'Harder.' His lips touched hers briefly, and the spicy lemon scent of his aftershave teased her nostrils fleetingly as he left.
He returned just before three—alone—and it was all she could do to stop herself wailing out loud. 'Oh, Luke, what am I going to do?' she asked helplessly as her heart hammered painfully. 'I can't stand not knowing if he's all right. Even if he's…' She gulped but couldn't say the word. 'Even if he's hurt, I'd rather know and face it. If he's lost or—'
