Read Anne Stuart for Free Online Page B

make it my duty to be sure your sister is safe and unmolested.”
    “ And if I’m no longer so helpful?” She shouldn’t have asked the question. Subtle threats were safer, more easily swallowed. But she couldn’t ignore a threat to Fleur.
    Clegg smiled, and his gold tooth flashed in the afternoon light. “Why then, I’m afraid she might be fair game. You make my work easier, Miss Maitland. Without your help I’d have to work a lot harder in finding and apprehending criminals, and I couldn’t be counted on to protect your little family. You’d be on your own.”
    At least he wasn’t threatening to touch Fleur himself. She was their only hope—a safe, wealthy marriage would mean the end of their never-ceasing cycle of misfortune, but no one would take damaged goods, even someone wrapped in as exquisite a package as her sister, Fleur.
    “ I understand,” she said in a dull voice.
    “ I thought you might,” he said. “Take your money, Miss Maitland.”
    She reached out and put the worn silver coins in her reticule. Her chest was tight, and she felt as if she would suffocate if she didn’t get away from this man into the dubiously clean air of the London streets, but when she started to push away from the table, his hand shot out and clamped around her wrist.
    Too many men were getting in the habit of doing that, she thought absently, holding herself still for the moment. First Lady Plumworthy’s manservant with his thick hands, then the mysterious Glenshiel, who’d haunted her dreams and her waking hours as well. Clegg’s grip was the final straw. “Let go of me,” she said in a deceptively pleasant voice with just the right amount of hauteur left from her more secure days.
    His instinctive reaction was gratifying, if dangerous, as he released her wrist, then glared at her. “There’s a little problem that’s been plaguing me, and I’ve decided to do something about it. I want you to do a reading about the Cat.”
    “ The Cat?” she echoed, carefully keeping her face devoid of reaction. “What is that?”
    “ Who is that, you might say,” Clegg corrected her, leaning back in his chair. “It’s a thief, that’s what it is. A creature who sneaks into people’s houses and robs them blind.”
    “ A burglar?”
    “ But not your common garden-variety burglar. This one preys only on the very wealthy, stealing their jewels and fancy trinkets. And he’s one of them. A bloody aristocrat, robbing his own kind, and he’s been doing it for more than a year.”
    She clutched her reticule in her lap, concentrating all her tension into her unseen hands as she gazed at Clegg. “Why haven’t you asked me before now?”
    “ I didn’t give a rat’s ass, begging your pardon, miss, what the bloody ton does to one another. Besides, he’ll be a sight trickier to catch, much less bring to justice. I prefer the easy cases.”
    “ The fifteen-year-old apprentices?”
    “ Exactly.” Clegg showed no remorse. “But Sir John has entrusted me with the case, and it’s in my best interest to convince him I can handle it better than that country oaf.’’
    “ What country oaf?”
    “ Never you mind. It’s none of your concern—it’s the Cat who should entertain your interest, and no one else. Where are your cards?”
    “ I didn’t bring them.”
    “ Why not?”
    He’d made it clear that she couldn’t tell him the truth: that she’d decided not to help him anymore. The money Lady Plumworthy had grudgingly given her was five times the amount Clegg paid her, and the work didn’t stain her soul. She was promised to her ladyship that afternoon as well, and all sorts of possibilities were opening up.
    Her eyes met Clegg’s small, dark ones. “I haven’t been sleeping well. The cards don’t speak to me if I’m not well rested.”
    Clegg snorted, but there was no way he could refute her statement. “Go home, then. Take a nap. And come back to me tomorrow at the same time—and bring your cards.” He