Sebastian’s chest burned from the fast breaths he took. Sweat coated his face and neck as he pushed himself to catch up to the bloke. As he ran under a tree, a hanging branch scratched his face. He pushed the brief interference aside and kept running.
Although the thief hadn’t glanced back at Sebastian, they would be a complete imbecile if they didn’t know if someone was chasing him. It didn’t matter if Sebastian’s lungs tightened, he continued in his pursuit.
The thief dodged around a thick tree. His steps faltered as he sidestepped a hole that had recently been dug in the ground. This helped Sebastian considerably. He was now close enough to reach out...
Once his fingers tightened on the back of the man’s shirt, he tugged, slowing the man considerably. Confident in his capture, Sebastian jumped and landed on the thief, bringing him down quickly. They both landed on the ground in one hard thump.
Breathless, Sebastian grasped the man’s wrists and yanked them behind his back. The man released a small cry.
“What were you doing climbing out of Lady Alder’s manor?” Sebastian demanded.
“I-I-wasn’t.”
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “You cannot lie to me. I saw it. You used a rope to climb in her window.” He scrunched his forehead. Where was the rope now? Unless the thief left it in the bushes underneath the window.
He struggled. “I didn’t... take anything.”
Scanning over the man’s attire, he couldn’t see any cloth bags that proved he’d been taking money. However, the thief could have stuffed the jewels in his coat pocket.
“If you didn’t take anything, then why are you wearing black and sneaking out of the window?”
“Y-y-you don’t understand, Sir.”
Sebastian stood, pulling the man with him. He kept a tight hold on the man’s wrists as he glared at him. “Then make me understand.”
Surprisingly enough, the man was younger than Sebastian assumed. Perhaps in his mid-twentieth year. Wide eyes of the thin-faced man stared back at him. His complexion was red from exertion. Within seconds, his expression hardened and he clamped his mouth tight.
“Ah, so we’re going to play that game, are we?” Sebastian shook his head as he pulled off the man’s cap. Auburn hair fell in disarray to his shoulders. “Fine. Then we shall finish playing it down at the police station – or with the constable – or whatever you call your lawman here in Italy.”
He jerked along the thief as he headed back toward the front of the estate. While they walked, Sebastian scanned the area. Hard to believe they’d run this far, but it was harder to fathom that Felicia owned so much land. She’d definitely known what she was doing by marrying Lord Adler. Sebastian figured she had this planned all along.
Up ahead, Felicia hurried toward them, lifting the hem of her gown as she moved. Her ringlets bounced in the breeze, and her cheeks were pink. Worry covered her expression as she aimed her glare toward the thief. She slowed right before reaching them. Her gaze skimmed over the other man and she frowned. Sebastian brought the other man to a stop just when Felicia came up to them.
“Who are you, and why were you in my house,” she snapped.
The other man scowled. “I wasn’t stealing anything.”
She gasped and swung her attention toward Sebastian. “Is he jesting?”
“That seems to be his story.” Sebastian moved in front of the thief and dug his hand in the man’s pockets. It surprised Sebastian to know they were empty.
Felicia folded her arms smartly across her chest and cocked her head. “Listen here, if you were not stealing, what were you doing leaving my home... through my bedroom window?”
The stubborn man didn’t answer. In fact, he didn’t even meet Felicia’s gaze. She grumbled, grabbed him, and fisted her hands in his shirt. Finally, the man’s eyes jumped up.
“Tell me, or I swear I’ll take you back to that second-story window and push you out myself! And you won’t have a rope to help you this time.”
Shock passed through Sebastian. For such a petite woman, she sure had a rough voice when she was upset.
The man’s face paled. “I was paid to sneak into your room, my lady. My job was to search for a certain item, but I couldn’t find it, and that’s why I left.”
Sebastian and Felicia traded glances. He moved closer and narrowed his gaze on the culprit. “What were you being paid to find?”
“The topaz diamond ring from India that once belonged to a prince.”
“What?” Felicia’s voice lifted as she released the thief. “Why would someone think I had a ring from India? I’ve never even been to that country.”
The man shrugged. “I cannot tell you. All I know is that’s the reason he paid me.”
“He? Whom are you working for?” Sebastian asked.
“I don’t know his name.”
“You’re lying!” Felicia snapped. “Why would you work for a man and not know his name?”
The thief’s eyes moistened. “Because he knows I’ll be tossed out of my house soon, and I don’t have a job. This man told me he’d pay me well if I did this one thing for him.”
Grumbling, Felicia paced in front of Sebastian and the thief, shaking her head. “I don’t understand why this man would think I’d have the topaz diamond ring... from an India prince, no less.”
“I cannot tell you, my lady.”
Sebastian studied Felicia. She didn’t appear to be hiding anything. He genuinely believed she was telling the truth. Perhaps miracles do happen and she had changed. Nah, he couldn’t start believing fables like that.
And yet, he found it strange that this thief was searching for a jewel from another country, which was the very case Sebastian was working on. Was it a coincidence that he thought Felicia to be his thief, and yet this man was the one searching through her room to find the jewel as well? Certainly, this case was more complicated than he first thought. Unless...
Could this man be the person setting Felicia up to look like the thief? There was only one way to find out.
“I have an idea,” he said. Felicia stopped and met his gaze. “To know if this man is telling the truth, I think we should go to your room and look around.”
She folded her arms again. Her expression turned to one of distrust. “Bash, what is going through your mind, now?”
“I’m wondering if he is planting jewels in your room, hoping you’d be arrested for the thefts.”
The other man took a quick intake of air. Sebastian grinned. Perhaps his hunch was right, after all.
FOUR
Unease flitted through Felicia’s chest. She wasn’t certain that she should have Sebastian and a strange man in her bed chambers. It was really none of their business what she had – or didn’t have – in there. However, Bash had a point. If this man was trying to plant the jewels on her, she definitely wanted to know about it.
Before she led them upstairs, she grabbed Alberto to accompany them. Alberto wasn’t considered a callous person by any means, but he pretended that he was her protector and could scare off men by just his glare. Alberto had been her husband’s best servant and friend. She thought of him more as a father figure, since she couldn’t remember her own father.
With any luck, she’d be able to find out quickly what this stranger was doing climbing out of her bedroom window. Her mother’s disappearance was more important, and she should make that issue a priority.
Felicia briefly glanced over her shoulder at Sebastian. His amber eyes were on her. They’d made her heart flip too many times to count, and she really wished she’d get over him.
Shame washed over her as she continued to lead them toward her bedchamber. She couldn’t believe she had begged for his help. What had she been thinking when she fell into his arms and allowed his tender comfort? If she could relive that moment, she would. Sebastian Harrington was the one man she could never love, mainly because he couldn’t be trusted. Unfortunately, he was the only man that could find her mother. He was that skilled at being a
n investigator.
She opened the door to her bedchamber and walked inside. In haste, she swept her gaze over everything to see if anything was amiss. The room appeared exactly as she’d left it. The burgundy quilt was smoothly laid out over her large bed. The pink and yellow cushioned chairs sat near the hearth, still in the direction as she’d placed them toward the fire. Her armoires continued to stand side-by-side and hadn’t been opened... at least they didn’t appear to have been tampered with. Even the burgundy and lavender rugs on the floor were exactly where she’d left them. Felicia had always been a tidy woman, and she preferred to straighten her room every morning, even though she had maids who could do this duty. Perhaps it was the spy in her that made her this way, since she needed to always be in control.
As her gaze flew to the jewelry box on her vanity table, she immediately noticed it lay open. Her quick step moved her until she stood over the table, peering inside the cedar box carved with yellow and blue birds. She didn’t recognize anything that had been added to her jewelry collection, but she couldn’t tell if anything was missing, either.
Bash marched directly to the opened window, peering outside. He studied the window ledge before his gaze dropped to the ground below. He nodded and turned to the burglar.
“Tell me, Sir,” Bash said, linking his hands behind his back as he faced the stranger. “How did you get inside this room? I cannot see any way you could have scaled up the wall and entered through the window.”
The man’s face turned a bright red, clashing greatly with his auburn hair. “B-but I did climb up through the window.”
Sebastian looked at her and arched an eyebrow. “Lady Adler? When you left your room this morning, was your window open?”
“No. The air was too chilly this morning.”
Turning his attention back on the burglar, Bash narrowed his gaze. “If you had climbed through her window, there would be marks on the windowsill of you prying it open. There are no marks.” He stepped closer to the other man, staring him down. “I’ll ask you one more time, how did you get inside?”
“I-I-I...” The man gulped nosily as he swung his gaze around the room.
Felicia folded her arms and moved toward the man, taking calculated steps as she narrowed her focus on the liar. “Mr. Harrington?” she asked Bash without looking at him. “I do believe we have someone who cannot find any words to explain himself. Am I correct?”
“Yes, you are, my lady. What should we do with him now?”
She glanced quickly at Bash just in time to see the teasing twinkle in his eyes, before she aimed her scowl on the burglar. “Mr. Harrington? Did I ever tell you that Lord Adler kept a torture chamber down in the cellar? Years ago, he used it to discipline his servants,” she lied convincingly. “I think we should take this man downstairs—”
“No!” The stranger shook his head, frantically. “I came through the servants’ entrance when I entered the house.”
Bash grasped the lapels on the man’s overcoat and shook him once. “Where did you get the key to the servants’ entrance?”
“Uh...” He licked his cracked lips. “I threatened one of Lady Adler’s servants—”
“Which servant?” Felicia snapped, standing close to Bash as they stared at the man.
“Y-your laundry maid, Anna.”
Inwardly, Felicia groaned. She’d hired Anna not even a month ago. Had the thirty-year-old woman been planted in Felicia’s home for a reason? Suspicion swirled inside her head. Who else in her employ couldn’t she trust?
She spun around and met Alberto’ wide eyes. “I want her out of the house today. Will you see to it?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“But before she leaves, I would like to meet with her in the study.”
“Yes, my lady.”
She met Sebastian’s questioning eyes. “You may now take this vermin from my home and take him to the police in town. I want this man locked up immediately.”
One side of Bash’s mouth lifted higher than the other when he grinned. “As you wish, Lady Adler.”
Felicia stepped aside to allow them to pass on their way toward the door. When Bash walked by her he gave her a wink. “We shall talk later, my lady.”
She nodded without replying. Alberto followed them out the door.
Emotional exhaustion hit her, and she sagged to the bed. Tears pricked her eyes but she blinked them away. She didn’t have time to cry, or to be weary, she had to find her mother; not to mention uncovering the identity of the person who was trying to frame her as a thief.
Apparently, agents were not supposed to retire or rest. And yet her mother had... or had she?
Felicia shook her head, trying to clear it from all the confusing thoughts running amok inside her mind. Did her mother’s disappearance connect in any way to what happened in her home today? If so, how?
She glanced around the room, searching for one of her spirits, but she couldn’t see anyone. “Please tell me if my mother is all right.”
She waited for one of them to answer, but only silence filled the room.
Forcing herself to get off the bed, she wearily strode out of her room and down the stairs. She needed to be prepared for when Alberto brought Anna to see her. Were there more servants who were unfaithful? Felicia’s stomach twisted. She wouldn’t be able to handle that. Alberto was a devoted servant... at least she hoped.
Nobody disturbed her as she continued into her study and closed the door. The fire was nearly out, so she took the poker and stirred the embers before throwing on another log. The clock on the mantle clicked a steady rhythm, creating a more relaxing atmosphere. But the stirrings in her mind wouldn’t let her relax at all. Too many things needed to be resolved.
Thinking about Sebastian caused shame to crawl over her again. She needed to pull out of the helpless feeling that had consumed her and stand on her own two feet. If she relied on Bash, as she’d done four years ago, he’d only break her heart. She wouldn’t allow him to do that twice in her lifetime.
Slowly, she paced the room, acquainting herself again with all of the artifacts she’d collected over the years when she’d been an agent working undercover for the Prime Minister. Actually, that wasn’t entirely accurate. She had worked for the man who worked under the Prime Minister. Conrad Mortimer had been like a father to her. He cared about his field agents, and many times he’d told Felicia and her mother that women were the best kind of agents because they knew how to separate their personal lives from their jobs.
A sarcastic snort sprang from Felicia’s throat and she covered her mouth. If Mortimer knew she had fallen in love with a suspect four years ago, he would have been greatly disappointed in her, just as she’d been disappointed in herself.
Four years ago in Devonshire, she’d been eager for a new case. Apparently, there was a leak in the Foreign Office, and government activities were being compromised. The suspects had been narrowed down to four. The first three passed her test and were proven to be innocent. She was determined to find something on the last suspect – Sebastian Harrington.
Felicia sat behind her desk and relaxed her head against the backrest. So much had happened since that time in her life, and yet, she remembered their first meeting so well. It was hard not to grin over her memories, especially when Bash played the innocent part very well.
DEVONSHIRE, 1818
It was the perfect day for a walk in the park. And to spy.
Felicia studied the man sitting on the bench as he tossed bread crumbs to the pigeons. Still early in the morning, most of Devonshire wouldn’t dream of strolling through the park until later, but Felicia had always been an early bird. How else was she going to catch her worms... er, criminals?
Standing in the shade of a wide oak tree, she opened her reticule, pulled out a broken piece of a candy peppermint stick, and plopped it in her mouth. She’d been studying her target for the past fifteen minutes, and the only thing she could tell about the man was that he was quite handsome, and impeccabl
y dressed. Wearing the latest fashion in men’s wear, Mr. Harrington’s legs fit perfectly in his dark, gray trousers. The white lawn shirt and cravat, black waistcoat and gray overcoat fit his muscular chest and arms almost too well.
He hadn’t noticed her yet. At least he hadn’t acted as though he noticed her spying on him. When she first saw him sitting on the bench, he was reading a newspaper. She’d walked by him, pretending as though she was with the two older ladies in front of her, and he hadn’t looked up from his newspaper. Once she was well enough past him, she hurried behind a tree to watch his actions.
After reading the newspaper, he folded it and placed it beside him. Whistling, he glanced around the park until noticing the birds off behind him to the left. He fished in his pocket and withdrew what appeared to be a handkerchief wrapped around a piece of bread. He broke off some pieces and threw them to the pigeons. He even tried to coax them to take the food out of his hand, but the pigeons were too smart for that.
Sighing, Felicia folded her arms and leaned against the tree trunk. What was Mr. Harrington’s purpose at the park? He didn’t appear as if he waited for someone, only because he hadn’t looked around as though expecting someone to arrive. Of course, he could be just enjoying the lovely warm weather. However, she didn’t believe that for one minute.
Within minutes, he’d run out of bread crumbs to give the birds. He leaned back on the bench, brushed the excess debris from his trousers and overcoat, before crossing his arms over his robust chest. He turned his head to the right, peering toward the park’s walkway. Four more people had begun their stroll, and as they passed him, Mr. Harrington tipped his hat in a polite greeting.
Felicia's Spirits Page 4
