She koew Jason was watching her even before she looked up. "Okay, so I wassent here to smuggle some sort of secret information into England. What isit? And which one of these has a serret compartment?"

"All of them have sscret compartments," Jason informed her. "Your uncle supplied some of the Soveragn 's most valuable dispatch cases, and Sir Douglas was amcious to make sure he got them back so he could keep on using them."

"Butthat's not the main point, is it?" Noel persisted. "One of these littlebeauties is stuffed full of illegal documents that Frye's waiting for. AndMontgomery wants. And the customs service thinks I have. Who am I beqqg ?The U.S. government? A private corporaqi !qnqq Jason tossed the shirt he was holding onto the end of the bed and crossed the room. He gave Noel a long look before taking the bracelet out of her hand.

When he pressed his fingers across the face of a daisy, it slid aside, revealing a small compartment.

Noel reached inside and plucked out a tiny, folded sheet of paper. "What is it?"

Jason's features were grim. "A fake."

Chapter Eleven.

Noel looked from him to the folded paper. "I-I don't understand."

"The real information was on the chip."

With a horrible feeling of disbelief, Noel sat down heavily on the end of the bed.

"I had a good look at it after you went to sleep. The qviss lab supplied thecircuitry. Someone else added a micro dot '

"A micro dot Noel struggled to understand.

"Yes. They're used to compress hundreds of words to lese than a millimeter.

Like the old saw about the " Itqventyq

Psalm engraved on the head of a pin. Frye was using you as a courier, allright. The jewelry was simply a niqe bonus: '

"He told you?"

"Of course not! I figured it out last night. Now we tnow why Sir Douglas was so anxious to get you to Casq Lcqckwood. Which means it's going to be damn hard q qonvince him that he doesn't want you there tomorqq jq qbled from Noel's numb hand onto the Jason stooped to pick it up and replaced the tiny of paper in the braoelet. He continued to speak, al most to himself. " " If Frye sees the fresh incision, he's going to know I've double-crossed him. Unfortunately, after considering all the angles, the best delaying tactic I can think of is to get the thugs who tried to kill me to come after us again. " " "That's insane."

"Exactly. I'd be a lunatic to set us up for something like that. Which is why the Sovereign just might buy it. Also, he wouldn't want us to lead them straight to the castle. If they attacked the place, it might upset his big plans."

Noel was trying to come to grips with that information when Jason knelt again and began to dig in his luggage' You better put this on. "

"What?"

He held out his hand. In it was a gleaming yellow band. A wedding ring.

Noel's breath caught as she stared down at the circle of gold. A wedding band. It symbolized so much. Yet in this case, it symbolized nothing.

"It goes with the passport. The customs servioe isn't looking for Mrs. Jason Zacharias." Without waiting for an answer, Jason grabbed her hand, thrust the ring into it and brushed past her into the bathroom. Noel's fingers closed around the metal circle. It was warm from Jason's touch.

For a moment, she couldn't see though the blur of tears in her eyes. The old phrase, "better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" stole into her mind.

In this case, it wasn't true. Still, there was something compelling about the ring clutched in her fist. Opening her hand, she stared at it again. With a little gulp, she slipped it on. It was the corrert size. And it felt achingly right circling her flesh.

What kind of ring had he given her before they'd gone on their honeymoon?

Noel shook her head in denial. What a question. There had been no honeymoon and no ring. But apparently she still couldn't stop the memories of what might have been from ambushing her when her guard was down.

She sank to the edge of the bed, pressing her fist against her mouth to keep from moaning. No matter how many times she told herself the emotions were counterfeit , she couldn't let go of the feeling that she loved Jason qv r. q' Still Water Farm forty-five minutes later, after a big English breakfast in the farm dining room. At least, Jason had eaten eggs and bacon. Noel had barely got ben through the toast and cereal. Jason had asked their hostess which area sights they should visit and had thanked her for recommending Bath and Stonehenge. But when he'd reached the main road, he turned in the other direction.

Sq qnq his tension as he drove.

"What's wrong?"

"I have to check in with Frye. He's going to want to know why I didn't do it yesterday."

"What are you going to tell him?"

"Thatyou were sick. I'm going to make it sound as if Ypu were having some sort of reaction to the chip."

She felt her chest tighten. "Will he believe that?"

"I'll make it convincing." ;q. q Pqq into the parking lot of a pub along the high and walked to an outdoor phone booth partly by a neatly trimmed hedgerow.

As Noel watched him pick up the receiver and dial, she felt every muscle in her body clench. He was getting new instructions from the master criminal, the Sovereign.

Since she couldn't hear the conversation, she conoentrated on Jason's body language. Sometimes he stood up straight and spoke rapidly. Sometimes his shoulders hunched as he gripped the receiver. Sometimes he looked as though he was vigorously arguing an important point.

She saw him take a deep breath as he ended the call, and she realized she was imitating the gesture. He didn't say anything as he climbed back into the driver's seat. "what's wrong?"

Jason slid his hands along the circle of the steering wheel but said nothing.

"Jason?"

"Sir Douglas wanted to know if I'd gotten a chance to enjoy your wifely charms before you took ill: '

"" I told him I had-because we've got to stick as close to the truth as we can: '

Her cheeks heated.

"I didn't like talking about you: He turned to her. " But I had tu give him what he expected from the Jason Zacharias he thinks he knows. " He sucked a long breatfi and let it out slowly. " From the moment I took that chip out, I committed myself to walking a tightrope. "

Noel closed her eyes, thinking about the terrible coniusion in her mind. The inability to trust her own thoughts. The feeling that she'd lost control. Only rennants were left. "I didn't thank you for taking it out " , she whispered.

He leaned toward her, gathering her into his arms. She laid her head against his shoulder, feeling comforted by his embrace. If only Hopscotch She stopped herself before she could finish the thought.

"You had a lot to deal with," he murmured.

"So did you: '

For long moments, neither of them moved. She longed to ask him what he was

feeling, but she didn't dare.Then Jason straightened. "He wants us at Castle Loclcwood next Thursday."Noel's hand rose toward the back of her head. She stopped herself before she touched the new stitches. "That-that's only a week. Is it long enough?"

He chose to answer only part of the question. "If.the incision's not healed,you can tell him it got infected."Jason started the engine and pulled back onto the narrow road."Where are we going now?""We're going to play a game of hopscotch: '"With Sir Douglas?""No. With Montgomery's men. They've got to think we're out in the cold and trying to evade them."

"Out in the cold," Noel repeated.

"And we do have to make sure they don't find us. Until we pick the time and

the place."

"R,ill they think we're going right to Scotland?"

"Yes. They'll assume we're speeding north. So we'll stick around here."

They ended up driving less than fifty miles along country roads, stopping at

an even more isolated farm qith guest cottages. This time, Noel noted with

relief, the qle room had double beds. *;qqiason picked up ham, cheese and pickle sandwiches at b in the tiny nearby village, and they ate at a small q k beside a window that looked out over rolling fields that swept away toward low hills. Nearby, cows grazed peacefully.

After wadding up the sandwich wrappers and tossing them into the trash, Jason opened his duffel bag and got out the tape recorder.

"We've bought ourselves a week to get ready. let's get to work ."

It seemed like an impossible setting for plotting the overthrow of an international master criminal. "Are you going to tell me about Sir Douglas's organization?" Noel asked.

"No. It's safer if we stick with what was on the chip."

She squeezed her hands together under the table and nodded.

Jason rewound the tape and began to play it. His voioe came first. "What do you remember about my coming back to Baltimore?"

Her taped voice answered. " " I was in trouble. You knew I needed you, so you came to help me. "

Noel felt the sandwich congeal in her stomach as she listened to the recitation. It was her. But it wasn't. There was a little hesitation before she began to talk. And then an odd, dreamy quality to the way she spoke.

"What do you remember about the shooting in your uncle' sshop? "

The same pause before she began to speak again. After a moment, she reached out and pressed the Off button'I sound drugged. "

"I know hearing yourself sound like that is upsetting, but it wasn't you. It wasn't your fault."

"I can't imitate that."

"You don't have to. He'll assume that after a week absorbing them, the memories will come more naturally"

She nodded. That wasn't the only thing bothering her. How could she talk to Jason about the way she'd acted when she thought she was in love with him?

He was silent for several seconds, and she wondered if he knew what she was thinking. "You're going to have to listen to the whole tape; " he said gently. " " But not now. Why don't we try something else. Let's make sure we both know the chronology of what Sir Douglas wants you to think happened. Tell it to me in your own words. "

That was hardly any easier. Noel took a deep breath. "We were supposed tohave gotten married five years ago and gone on a honeymoon in the Caribbean.You left me in Baltimore because you had a dangerous assignqent. After thatI went out and found a job with Iaura Roswell"

She wasn't able to keep her gaze from flicking to his face. His dark eyeshad turned liquid with what looked like anguish. When he realized she waslooking at him, he got up and turned quickly away. None of what she'drecounted had really happened. Yet he seemed as disturbed by the recitationas she.

"And the rest of it?" he said, without turning away from the window. "" Thepart in the middle is pretty much the way it happened I guess Sir Douglasfigured he didn't have to fiddle with that. Then you came back to comfort meafter my uncle died. The details of the trip over here are a bit fuzzy-as ifthe scriptwriter figured it wasn't important -or didn't have time to put themin. After you got q away from Montgomery's man, our memories should be thesame. "

He was standing with his hands clenched at his sides. Sq looked at his stiff arms and rigid shoulders, wanting to get up and knead the tightness out of his muscles. A

wife would do that. But Jason Zacharias didn't have a wife.

A sudden image of how it had been making love with him bloomed in her mind,and she was very glad he was standing with his back to her. He had beensweet. And tender. And passionate. And he had made it very good for her.Given her everything she would have wanted from the husband who had finallycome back to her.

Neither one of them spoke. Finally Noel found her voice.