“Bumbling fool!” Viscount Dudley snarled. He stared malevolently at the hired thug. “You let her get away, and you don’t even have the locket to show for it.”
“It were lost on the street, guv.”
“How do we know that? How do you know she didn’t pick it up after you ran like a scared rabbit?”
The man scowled. “You said you didn’t want anyone ‘urt. The locket is gone. She doesn’t ‘ave it.”
“Are you willing to stake your life on that fact?” the viscount snarled. “Because if she still has it, I’ll have you killed.”
“Don’t threaten me, guv. I did me job. You didn’t say nuthin about no lover coming to save her. I’d watch me back if I were you. I don’t take kindly to threats.”
Dudley drew a pistol from his pocket and had the satisfaction of seeing the glimmer of surprise in the man’s face before he fired point blank into his chest. The man crumpled to the darkened street, lost in a swirl of fog. Dudley shoved the pistol back into his pocket and hurried off into the shadows before the gunfire drew unwanted attention.
This was becoming absurd. Did she have the locket? If she did then they could carry on with the marriage arrangements and dispose of her shortly after. And he would launch another effort to retrieve it. But if she didn’t have it, where was it? He could ill afford it to fall into the wrong hands.
A curse exploded from his lips as he climbed into his carriage and rode away. Short of breaking into the chit’s room, he didn’t see another way of finding out if she still had the locket. And that’s precisely what he would do. Only he wouldn’t leave this one to chance. He’d do it himself. The chit was off seeing her lover every night, so he’d make sure her brothers were going out for the evening then sneak in and have a look.
###
Jenna slipped from the carriage and hurried up the path to her house. Gray had assigned two extra men to escort her home, and she felt a great deal safer with them watching over her. But still, she could not shake the fear that she had stumbled into some twisted plot she didn’t belong in.
On tiptoe, she eased past the drawing room and to the stairs. With agonizing slowness, she took each step, fearing the creak would give her away. Was Sebastian home? Had she been discovered?
At the top of the stairs, her eyes darted down the hall, looking for light underneath Sebastian’s door. But both his and Quinn’s rooms were dark. She’d opted to come home earlier than normal, fearing a meeting in the foyer if her brothers had indeed stayed out late.
They were either still gone, or had already come in and were asleep. She darted past their rooms and to her own, opening the door and easing it shut behind her.
Thank God.
She undressed and sank into bed, grateful to have escaped discovery. Her eyes fluttered closed then opened wide when she remembered the bloody box under her bed.
She rolled over and dangled her head over the side, reaching blindly under the bed for the box. Finally her hand touched it, and she grabbed hold of it.
Swinging back up to her bed, she stared at the box as if it were a cursed idol. What was it that was so damned special about a bunch of letters?
With a muffled curse, she flipped open the box and took out the letters, ripping off the ribbon and picking up the first piece of paper. She laid back in her bed, and held the letter up to the dim candlelight.
“Today was near perfection,” she read aloud. “The family gathered for an outing to the river.” Her arm fell to her chest in exasperation. It was a bloody diary entry. What a complete waste of her time.
With a disgusted grunt, she put the letters back in the box and shoved it back under her bed.
Chapter Nineteen
Jenna rose early despite knowing her brothers wouldn’t be up for some time. Any other morning she would have taken advantage of the opportunity to catch up on much needed sleep. But she couldn’t sleep when her mind was churning in constant rhythm. She couldn’t go on like this. Last night’s scare had rendered her unable to relax.
She took breakfast in the garden, determined to calm her nerves and enjoy the morning sun and the multitude of fragrant blossoms her mother had lovingly planted. Unlike many, they owned their London townhouse. Most of thetonrented a house for the season, but Penbury Two, as the family liked to call it, had been in the family for over a hundred years.
After she ate, she opened the book she’d chosen and began reading, losing herself in pages devoted to the Egyptian pyramids and the ancient Pharaohs. Imagining her and Gray experiencing them together.
A few hours later Quinn and Sebastian ambled out into the garden and sat down across from her at the small breakfast table. “Good morning,” she greeted, looking up from her book.
“Good morning,” they returned.
“How was the gaming hell?” she asked innocently.
Sebastian arched an eyebrow. “What do you know about a gaming hell?”
“Quinn told me you were going last night.”
