Chapter 3 #2
“Livery. I know. If she’s truly a thief, she wouldn’t travel this street.
Come on. I know a shortcut.” Killian cut between two large houses, following an alley until the brothers emerged on the narrow lane behind the grand Mayfair mansions, where the mews were maintained.
Most of the upper class were out this time of night, and the stables were dark and quiet.
The low murmurs of voices and the scent of tobacco wafted out from the servants’ quarters.
Some of the staff would have gone to bed, but others must wait up for the family to return from the night’s entertainment.
Garret spotted a groom standing in the stable door of one structure and paused.
“Did you see a footman come this way? A woman dressed in livery, that is?”
“What’s it to you? Sir.” The groom seemed to add the courtesy grudgingly.
“She’s our sister,” Killian said, making Garret glance at him sharply. But Killian continued smoothly. “We had a bit of a disagreement, and she stomped off. Females.” His tone seemed to include the groom in a brotherhood of men who found women hopelessly frustrating.
“We need to find her before she gets herself in trouble,” Garret added, though his impression of the thief was more that she was the one causing the trouble. Not its victim.
“Why were she dressed as a footman?” the groom asked.
“Costume ball,” Killian said.
Garret felt a grudging sense of admiration. Killian was a half-decent liar and quicker on his toes than Garret might have guessed.
“I might ’ave seen a female like the one you described. She were going that way.” He pointed in the direction of Hyde Park. Just as Garret had suspected.
“How long ago?” Garret asked.
“I can’t rightly remember.” The groom scratched his head.
Killian elbowed Garret in the ribs. “He wants blunt.”
Garret blew out a breath and pulled out his last shilling. He tossed it to the groom, who caught it neatly and pocketed it in one smooth motion. “It were just as I was coming out to light me cigar.”
Garret glanced at the cigar, which was still relatively intact. “Let’s go. We can still catch her.”
Killian led the way again, turning into a narrow alley, housing more mews. After three more turns, Garret was helplessly lost and out of breath. “Where the devil are we?”
“Close to Hyde Park. Rotten Row is that way.” Killian pointed as they emerged from the backstreets, and the dark expanse of Hyde Park lay before them.
Garret had a moment when he called himself an idiot.
How could he forget how large Hyde Park was?
He’d never find her. Then, as though his thought conjured her, he spotted a figure ahead who paused before a group of trees.
“There!” He pointed.
“I see her. Hurry. We’ll never catch her if she ducks into the woods.”
Garret began to run, and Killian followed. About five and twenty yards away, the thief turned. Garret knew the moment she spotted them because her body stiffened, and she darted into the woods like a frightened hare.
“After her!” Garret went into the woods too, but he had to slow his pace or lose an eye from a low-hanging limb. Killian thundered in after him.
“Which way?” he asked.
“Listen.” Garret held up a hand. Surely, they would hear her brush up against leaves or snap a twig as she moved. But the woods seemed eerily silent. No owl hooted or insect buzzed.
Garret blew out a breath. “We’ll never find her now.”
“You made a valiant effort,” Killian said, turning back toward the path. Once out of the trees, he arrowed for a bench, sat, and pulled off his pumps. “Next time we chase after a woman, we need better footwear.”
“Bloody hell!” Garret said, throwing his hat on the ground and then immediately regretting it because it was his best hat.
Killian leaned back. “You really are smitten by this chit.”
“I’m not smitten. I’ve never in my life been smitten. I just want my shillings back.” And possibly one more kiss.
“Mm-hmm. I thought the purpose of tonight was to find an heiress. Why were you in the library? Reading a book on how to woo a woman?”
“Ha ha. I was going over the list Mama gave me. By the time the dancing started, I couldn’t remember half the ladies’ names. I thought I’d ask the Duchess of Belgrave to introduce me to one or two. I didn’t want to be seen consulting a list in the middle of the ballroom.”
“Wise decision. Perhaps you might share this list with me—”
“Not a chance.”
“Fine. Then see if I tell you how to find your thief.”
Garret sat beside Killian on the bench. “You know how to find her?”
“I have an idea…which I will share if I receive a copy of the heiress list.”
“Fine. Three names.”
“Seven.”
“There are only seven on the list. How many heiresses with at least thirty thousand do you think there are? I’ll give you five.”
“It had better be five who are in Town.”
“I can’t guarantee that. I only know two of them by sight.”
“Fine. Five names.” Killian held out a hand, and they shook.
Garret leaned back and looked up at the night sky, which was surprisingly clear. “What were you doing at the ball if you didn’t even know which ladies to approach?”
“Daire wanted me to help with an investment scheme.”
“You?”
“Don’t act so surprised. You wanted my help finding your lady thief.”
“Do you think Daire’s scheme has promise?
” Garret was torn between hope and disappointment.
As much as he wanted the family’s financial woes solved, he wanted to be the one to do it.
Yes, he wanted possession of the summer house, but more than that, he wanted recognition.
It seemed all his brothers had something special about them.
Liam was the eldest and the heir. Even if he hadn’t been, he was unquestionably the most practical and levelheaded.
He was the sort of man anyone would go to for advice or help.
Daire was the smartest and the shrewdest. He was also the youngest, save Mariah, and he’d always been doted upon by their parents.
Killian was the tortured artist. The walls of the town house and country estate were covered with his paintings.
Garret had thought he’d distinguish himself in the navy. He’d become a captain or an admiral and lead His Majesty’s Navy to victory.
But he’d served only a handful of years before he’d been wounded and forced to resign.
And though the injury to his arm didn’t bother him very much now, only aching a bit when the weather turned damp, he hadn’t asked to go back.
The navy had been a revelation, especially the casual cruelness of Captain Armstrong, under whom he’d served.
Garret had been given orders that turned his stomach, and that still made him ill when he thought of them now.
He understood that in the middle of the ocean, under constant threat of attack, tensions were high, and mistakes could not be tolerated.
But Armstrong seemed to enjoy meting out sadistic punishments and forcing others to see them carried out.
Garret had never spoken of those experiences, and his father had never asked.
Garret had wondered why his father never asked why he didn’t return to the navy, but now he understood it had been a sacrifice to welcome him home and once again give him an allowance.
And yet, his parents had never given any indication they weren’t overly pleased to have him back.
Leave it to Daire and one of his schemes to come to the rescue. Garret couldn’t even remember the names of the heiresses he was supposed to meet. He should never have gone after the thief. And yet, he couldn’t quite push her from his mind.
“Honestly,” Killian said, answering Garret’s earlier question, “I think Daire is on the wrong path this time. Something about finding investors to buy a theater. I told him theaters go bankrupt more often than Byron creates a scandal, but you know Daire.”
Garret did know his youngest brother, and Killian was most likely mistaken. If anyone could turn iron into gold, it was Daire.
“Ready to go home?”
Garret rose. “First tell me how I’ll find that thief.”
Killian made a face and muttered smitten. Garret shoved him. “I heard that.”
“I want those seven names in my hand at breakfast tomorrow.”
“Five names, and I’ll slip them under your door tonight, if you want. Now, how do I find her?”
“If she’s a thief, she wants to be paid for what she stole, yes?”
“She’ll have to pawn it.”
“Exactly. You go to the pawnbrokers and ask if any of them have seen her. You’ll spend a fortune greasing palms to make them talk, but that’s the way to find her.”
But Garret didn’t think he would have to spend a fortune. She’d dropped that earbob. Presumably, she still had the other. He just needed to find the pawnbroker with the other earbob, and he’d find her.
She’d probably have spent his shillings by then, but he could haul her before a magistrate. He might even be able to recover the earbob and whatever else she’d stolen from the duchess. Then they’d see just how not smitten he was.
· · ·
From the shadow of the trees, Tamsin watched the two men walk away.
Despite the wool coat she wore, she shivered.
She was so hungry her head spun. She would have liked to spend the nob’s shillings on a piece of bread or a pie, but as hungry as she was, her siblings were probably even hungrier.
Not to mention, it was her own fault she was hungry.
If she hadn’t made so many blunders at the ball, she wouldn’t have had to run.
Her head wouldn’t be spinning now, and she would be halfway home.
Tamsin recognized the two men who’d joined Garret as Kildare brothers.
She’d spied on the town house in Hanover Square enough times to recognize those men as two of the four brothers who lived there.
They’d turned back now and were headed home or returning to the ball, but just in case, she would stay here a bit longer.
She crouched down under the tree and tried to ignore the gnawing in her belly.