That everyone thought the Faceless Fox had to be a man was sometimes irritating. But oh, what one could get away with when others underestimated one!
“You should have come to me first,” Vale was saying, and it drew Selina back to her present position. “Why bring me as your pretend companion if you don’t intend to use me for at least advice and support?”
Selina frowned. She hadn’t meant to keep Vale out of her plans. The woman had been her friend and a partner to the Fox for years. She’d even saved Selina’s life. That moment had bonded them and inspired Selina to bring her into the fold.
“It was a spur-of-the-moment decision,” she explained. “I had to make my move before the gentlemen met with my brother in his study. I barely had time to crack his window and take a hidden position to hear.”
Vale seemed comforted by that explanation and smiled at her, the expression softening her pretty face. “It sounds as though it went well, at least. They don’t suspect you. But then,theynever do. There have been investigators before. The guard, even Bow Street Runners. None have come close to you.”
Selina worried her lip as she thought of Derrick Huntington and Edward Barber. “I don’t know. There’s something more…competent in them both. And when Huntington looked at me on the drive when we met…”
She trailed off as she relived that stern expression as he looked into her eyes. It had done things to her body, that smoldering expression. Things she more than understood the consequences of. But she’d retained enough common sense to also realize this was a man who could read others. A man truly dedicated to his duty, whatever he felt that to be.
A man who wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted. She shivered.
“This time just feels different,” Selina said. She worried her hands before her. “I wonder if we should walk away. I could probably find some excuse for us to go back to London so that Huntington and Barber’s interest isn’t heightened. There will be other opportunities to get the Breston necklace. God knows Lady Winford flaunts her receipt of it to all who will listen.”
Vale tilted her head. “Is the great Faceless Fox actuallyscaredof a man?” she said with a laugh.
“No!” Selina said, and then shifted in discomfort as her friend pierced her with a stare. Vale was too long an acquaintance not to know some of the truth of her. “Yes,” she corrected. “Perhaps. He and his partner just feel…unique. Dangerous.”
Vale leaned back in her seat and folded her arms. “Well, you’ve never backed down from a challenge, my dear. And that’s what this is. A challenge, nothing more.”
Selina wasn’t certain and it must have shown on her face, for Vale let out a long sigh. “At the very least, you should determine whether or not these men are even as competent as you’ve told yourself. Plenty look to be and turn out to be worthless.”
“How do you expect me to do that?”
Vale shrugged. “I see you get all fluttery when you talk about the one, Huntington. You’ve mentioned more than once that he is handsome.”
“Yes,” Selina admitted through gritted teeth.
“Well, then you find out his worth…byanymeans necessary,” Vale teased.
Selina tensed. Sex. Vale was talking about sex, or something close to it. And she wasn’t wrong. Seduction in a case like this would certainly allow Selina to find out things about Derrick Huntington that would be harder to determine by other means. Unlike many women of her day, Selina had never believed it when she was taught sex was inherently sinful for a woman to participate or revel in. She did both. There were lovers in her past and there would be lovers in her future. She felt no shame in either fact.
So if she decided to test the limits of the spark she’d felt flare between herself and Huntington, she was certainly equipped to handle the experience. Anyway, it would be fun to tease a man like that. A man with such control pulsing through every single inch of him.
Breaking that control would certainly be a game worth playing. And if it got her what she wanted? What she needed? All the better.
“Well,” she said at last. “There is that.” She settled back and folded her hands behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling. “At any rate, I have a few days to decide. Lord and Lady Winford are coming late to the party now. So I won’t have to think about my mark while I play with the hound who is trying to tree this fox.”
Only Huntington didn’t put her to mind of a hound. A wolf, maybe.
Vale seemed more relaxed now that Selina had accepted her advice. She picked her book back up from the side table and flipped it open to begin reading again. “Excellent. There is no one more capable than you, my dear. And I can’t wait to see this man who you find so interesting.”
Interesting. Derrick Huntington was definitely that. Now Selina just had to figure out how to play her interest…and his…to her advantage.
Derrick stood in the middle of the Duke of Roseford’s vast library, looking up around him at the beautiful bookcases that vaulted high into the room above his head. Hundreds of books, all waiting to be read.
He’d always appreciated a library. When he was taken to visit his grandfather as a lad, he’d loved nothing more than to go to his library. First to escape, for there had always been yelling during those visits. But escape had transformed to pleasure as he lost himself in stories and history and learning.
Now he rested his fingers against the woven spines of the books, dragging the tips across their uneven rows and breathing in the scent of pages and words and adventures yet to be had. Before he could choose one of these future friends to pluck from the shelf, he felt a frisson of awareness up his spine. He was being watched.
He turned, guarded but trying to keep that from being obvious before he knew who was staring at his back. What he found made his heart thud.
Selina Oliver was standing in the doorway. She wore a red dress with a deep v-neckline, one that only skirted the limits of modesty because of a silk rose that rested between what appeared to be lovely breasts. Her hair had been curled and piled artfully on the crown of her head, with a silk ribbon laced within that matched the scarlet gown to perfection.
She was stunning, just as she had been on the drive. With her bright blue eyes that flitted over him and dusky pink lips curled into a cocksure smile, the kind most women were forced by Society to hide.
