“Aye, sir. I thought the same.”
“So give me what you’d picked from the uppity lord.” Richard held out his hand, palm up.
David dug through his tattered coat, searching for the item. The longer the lad searched, the more panic filled his expression.
“Well, where is it? Hand it over.”
“I… I don’t have it, sir.” David’s voice trembled.
“Ye don’thaveit? Where, pray tell, could it have gone?”
Suddenly the boy’s movements stopped and he scowled. “Louisa took it from me.”
“What makes ye think that?”
“She jumped in front of me as I was getting away. She surprised me, and I hesitated. Ye knows how quick her hands are. She probably took it right outta my pocket.”
Richard rolled his eyes. Aye, his best thief would have done that, and nobody would have felt a thing. “Well, because of yer foolish hesitation, ye will go without food tonight. Now get out of here before I decide to give ye a harsher punishment. Ye disgust me and I don’t want to see yer face again tonight.”
David’s sad eyes filled with tears. “Aye, sir,” he muttered before turning and leaving.
Incompetent idiots, all of them.
His skull throbbed with a headache and he walked back to his desk and picked up his flask of ale. The liquor burned as it slid down his throat, which he enjoyed because usually it kept him alert. Most of the time, anyway. And he needed help right now. How could he get that girl back so he could make more money? Never in his life did he think he’d be sitting on top of the world, but Louisa brought many talents with her—which is why he couldnotlose her.
His last meeting with Percy Featherspoon had been an eye-opener, indeed. Richard had learned many things—one being that the man’s own niece was blackmailing him—the very same chit Richard used to blackmail Percy with.
Chuckling, Richard lifted the drink to his lips. Poor Featherspoon had it coming both ways. The man was a fool for punishment, to be sure. But threatening Featherspoon to take his niece and make her Richard’s mistress was the very thing that kept Percy working for him.
Richard sat in his chair and stared at the amounts he’d added earlier. He shook his head. One way or another, he needed to bring Louisa back. But how? Featherspoon had promised to keep looking for the girl—for his own purposes, of course. Unfortunately, she couldn’t be found. But now…
His mind came to a screeching halt. David said she’d been with the Duke of Kenbridge. Although Richard did not know where the gent lived, he was quite certain finding a lord would be easy work. By the end of the week, Richard would have Louisa back in his clutches.
*
Louisa sat onher bed, staring into the shadowed room. Knees pulled to her chest, she gently rocked back and forth as her mind recalled what happened today in front of the pastry shop. She’d acted on instinct—without thinking of the consequences. All she knew was that Trevor was being robbed and she had to stop it.
When she ran in front of that boy, she didn’t question her actions. She didn’t think of why she slipped her hand in his coat pocket so quickly and pulled out Trevor’s watch.
Now she thought about her actions, and she didn’t like them one bit.
I’m a thief.Or at least shewasa thief.
How else would she know what to do at that precise moment? How else could she have accomplished taking the watch back without the boy even knowing it? And that boy…
Squeezing her eyes closed, she took a deep breath. Louisa only remembered bits and pieces about her past, but when she’d met his stare for that brief second, sheknewhe’d been an acquaintance at one time in her life. She knew it like the sun would rise tomorrow.
And Trevor had suspected as well.
His attitude after that incident had changed drastically. On the drive back to the estate, he hardly said five words to her. Rarely did he even look her way. He focused primarily on the children, but his tone of voice had changed for the worse.
A tear slipped down her cheek as the pain in her chest tightened.
She turned in her bed and slipped under the covers. The single candle on the stand by her bed burned low. She didn’t have the strength to lean up and blow it out. Instead, she closed her eyes and tried to remember her past.
Why couldn’t she remember? She groaned and slammed her fist into the mattress. What was blocking it from coming forth?
Silently she prayed for help. For a miracle. Foranythingthat would help her remember.
