To Love a Thief (Steel Hawk) (10 page)

Glad of the diversion, Rose forced herself not to reach up and touch her lips. The feel of Nathan’s pressed against hers was still very real. She scooped up the piece of paper. “Then it’s time we set off. The sooner you get your precious diamond—”

“The sooner I can get out of your hair.” His smile was back. A broad, beautiful smile showing his shockingly white teeth against the golden tan that he had never had when he’d lived on England’s shores.

Nathan didn’t look back at her as they descended the stairs in silence. Rose was lost in thought and totally unable to drag her gaze from his back.

The door opened to the street, but instead of walking out, he halted abruptly and turned to face her.

She should have been alert, not lost in what-ifs and fantasies that had no hope of becoming reality. Nathan was not reliable. Here one day, gone the next.

So why don’t I marry Floyd if I want reliable?

“I want to kiss you again,” he murmured.

Rose went to protest, but too late—Nathan kissed her.

Shock and something more, something exciting and real and wonderful shot right through her, riding the crest of a wave of desire.

Desire! Yes, beautiful desire.

So beautiful.

His mouth held hers captive. No sweet kiss, but something more. Something tantalizing. Hard. Fast. He cupped her head with one hand, the other holding her to him, which was just as well because she had the distinct impression her legs wouldn’t hold her upright much longer.

Then as suddenly he had kissed her, he pulled away, leaving her with a mind that reeled and a body that shockingly wanted more.

He reached for her hand. “Come on, we’ve got some detective work to do.”

Desperate to take stock of what had just happened, not just that Nathan had kissed her, but the way her body had responded, Rose said nothing. Neither, however, did she take her hand from his.

Chapter Eight

“This is it.” Nathan nodded toward the elegantly proportioned white stone building at the end of the tree-lined Mayfair cul-de-sac.

Rose clutched the tiny piece of paper that was their clue. “Now all we have to do is get in.”

Worry lines creased Nathan’s forehead. “Could be trouble. Unsurprisingly, there are guards at every entrance, so unless you can make us invisible, that’s going to be a hard task.”

Rose glanced up and down the street. Typical of the wealthy areas of her great city, hawkers walked the length of it chiming their wares, hoping for a sale so they could feed their families for another day.

Fish. Pots and pans. Fresh milk, vegetables and meat. Flowers.

An idea blossomed, and she spun round to Nathan. “Give me some money.”

“Pardon?”

“You heard me, Nathan. Hand over a few shillings.”

“If you’re trying to shake me down, then you’re going about it the wrong way.”

From the corner of her eye, Rose saw a young woman loaded with bunches of flowers about to turn the corner. “I don’t have time to waste.” She held out her palm while one foot tapped with impatience.

Nathan dug into his pocket, the clink of coins rattling.

“Hurry up.”

The moment he withdrew the coins, she grabbed what she needed. “Wait there, I’ll be back.”

She raced off toward the young woman and reached her the moment she turned into the next road. Breathless, Rose caught up with her, quickly negotiated and, basket in hand, returned to Nathan.

“If it was flowers you wanted from me, Rosie, you only needed to ask. Though I’ve never had a woman I’m courting buy her own flowers.”

She caught his innuendo. “Just as well we’re not courting, then.”

Nathan glanced toward the towering edifice of the Zarrenburg London residence. “So now I’ve bought you just about all the flowers in London, I’m presuming you’re going to tell me what they’re for.”

“It’s simple, really, probably too simple for you to understand. There’s a side entrance, like most of these grand residences have.”

“And?”

“And we go down there and get in.”

“Easier said than done, given the multitude of guards.”

“They’re men.” Rose rolled her eyes. “Easily distracted.”

“We are?”

“Of course. You’ll go for anything in a skirt. A flutter of eyelashes, a smile.”

“You make us sound like simple creatures.”

“You are. Everything centers on…” Her words stopped dead as she realized what she was about to say. Heat scorched a path across her cheeks, and she quickly disconnected her gaze from his.

Oh, this is ridiculous. The man makes me think things, say things.

She hoisted the basket of flowers between them. The scent assailed her nose. “I’ll use this as a distraction for that guard down the alley while you sidle down and then come up from behind.”

“And?”

She rolled her eyes again as if he were a simpleton who couldn’t grasp at a thing. “You knock him out so we can get in.”

She stared at Nathan, seeing his hesitation as he considered her plan. “It just might work.”

“Of course it will. It has to.”

“You’re right. Getting inside is our only option.”

“So are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” Nathan searched the ground around them.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for a weapon.”

Rose’s stomach rolled over, and Nathan caught her shock. “Flowers are all very well, and I’m certain you have the wiles to entice any man, but my role requires something with a bit more weight to it than knocking the guard out with a bunch of roses.”

His words were true and suddenly made everything once again all too real.

“You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” he questioned.

She glanced toward the building. The Zarrenburg Embassy.

It had taken a while to decipher the partial address. Inside the building, she prayed might be a clue that would lead her to her father. All they had was this address. That it was the Zarrenburg Embassy had to be a link. It had to.

She stifled her nerves. “No second thoughts. Let’s go. I’ll walk ahead of you. You take the right side of the alley. There’s less sunshine, and hopefully the shadows will give you some cover.”

She stepped across the road, Nathan beside her.

“I’m impressed.”

“By what?” She didn’t take her eyes off the guard now only fifty yards ahead.

“You’ve got this all planned.”

“Thinking on the run, that’s all. We don’t have time for plans, only action. Now, let me walk ahead. Hit him when he has his back to you and make sure it’s hard enough to knock him out.”

Nathan saluted her. “Yes, ma’am. Who would have thought that little Rosie would become a sergeant major!”

“I am not.”

But for her denial, she received a swift kiss that stalled her breathing and thinking, though certainly not feeling. She felt everything about that kiss. “You kissed me again.”

“I did.” He drew the back of his hand down her cheek. “All in the name of hunting out the villains, of course.”

Her brow creased. “Kissing and hunting. How so?”

“You look rather well kissed, and with those smoldering violet eyes of yours, you’ll entice that guard without even trying.” With a jaunty wave and a teasing smile, Nathan strode to the other side of the alley, hiding himself behind a horse and cart that resided at the entrance.

For a moment, Rose didn’t move. Had she enticed Nathan? She hadn’t meant to. In fact, he was the last person on earth she wanted to entice. Unforgivably, he’d kissed her and run. What was to stop him from doing that again? Besides, his life was no longer in England, and she was not about to abandon her father.

Rose shook off thoughts of Nathan. As long as he did what she needed him to, that was all that mattered.

After adjusting her dress and undoing the top button of her lace collar, she hoisted the basket of flowers to her hip and fixed her gaze on the guard. She pasted a smile on her face, trying to figure out how to actually entice.

When she was ten yards from the guard and ensuring she kept to the left side of the alley, the man heard her footsteps and turned toward her. Rose put a swing of her hips into her walk and was sure if she smiled any harder, her face would crack.

“’Ere, what you doing down this way? You should be at the other entrance.”

Rose closed the distance between her and the guard. “Surely you want to buy some flowers for your sweetheart?”

“Ain’t got one.”

“Really?” Rose put some wistful hope into her voice. “A handsome man like you should have lots of lady friends.” She held a bunch of roses right beneath his nose. “Don’t they smell delicious?”

The man leaned forward to inhale the fragrance.

Nathan lunged from the darkness, cracking a length of wood against the man’s skull.

He dropped hard to the ground, and Rose jumped back, the flowers falling from her hold and spreading a cascade of colorful petals in every direction. “Is he…is he dead?”

Nathan bent over him, holding a finger to the man’s throat. “Still breathing, so don’t panic, we haven’t killed him.”

Air fled from Rose’s lungs, her relief complete.

As Nathan lifted the man beneath his armpits, Rose grabbed the guard’s booted feet, and they drew him into the shadows, hiding him behind the few wooden crates left beside the back-alley doorway.

Sweat beaded Nathan’s brow as he straightened. “Let’s go.”

Up the few steps to the doorway they went, and then Nathan eased it open.

Rose held her breath, expecting shouts. Silence returned, and Nathan beckoned her with the crook of his finger.

She followed close behind him. “Where are we going?”

“I have no idea. Have you ever been in the royal residence before?”

“You are jesting.”

“Well, it was a hope.” He shrugged. “I imagine this place is a maze of corridors and rooms.”

“Who are we looking for?”

“Someone who’ll squawk for a few shillings. Someone from here wrote to your father. We just have to find out who and why.”

Keeping close behind him, able to feel the tension rolling off him, Rose quickly realized Nathan’s words were true. Zarrenburg’s royal London residence was indeed a maze.

They came to set of stairs that would lead to the main floor. Nathan halted at their base, and Rose came up hard against his back.

He turned to her with a questioning expression and held her away from him.

Heat rode through her in an instant, and she did her best to ignore it. “What are you waiting for?” Her tone was sharp, but better that than she fall into his arms. Or worse, that she kiss him.

“If we go up here, we could win, or we could lose. We have no idea where this leads.”

“And we have no choice. We knew that when we entered. There’s no way I’m turning back.”

His lips softened into a smile, and her breathing hitched as she focused on that beautiful mouth and remembered its taste.

“You sure are determined, but then I always knew you were.”

“When the world says you can’t do something, I’m not listening. Now, are we going, or do you want to stand here and blabber all day?”

Nathan offered her a mock salute. “Yes, Captain. Whatever you say.”

She offered a snort. “That will be the day.”

But Nathan did turn back to the stairs and took the first step, and stilled, listening for voices.

Hearing nothing, he took another step and another and another, Rose mimicking his motions until they reached the top.

The door was closed.

“Ready or not.” Nathan eased it open a fraction until daylight peeped through the small gap.

For several heartbeats, Rose strained to listen. Again, silence returned.

Nathan peered through the opening. “It’s a library of sorts.”

“So what are you waiting for?”

“I’m cursing myself for not procuring another a pistol, and praying no one is on the other side of the door.”

“I thought finding
someone
is the entire purpose of this escapade.”

“Who is it?” The rich tone of a woman’s voice sounded from the other side of the door.

“Looks like we’ve failed step one.” Nathan pushed the door fully open.

The breath Rose had been holding exploded from her lungs as she stepped with Nathan into the room.

As he’d said, it was a library, grand with its wall-to-wall bookcases loaded with beautifully bound books. But what was more shocking was the woman who stood not more than five feet away from them, haloed by the arch of a floor-to-ceiling window. Late sunshine poured in behind her and cast a pink-gold glow around her. She could have been an angel.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

Rose recognized her straight away. Elegant and sophisticated, she spoke with a definite upper-class accent that Rose had heard many a time from the toffs and wealthy society women who came to her father requesting paste replicas of their jewels.

Though Rose knew that she must be in her late forties, the woman did not look to be more than thirty. With her blonde hair pulled back, a cascade of ringlets draped her neck and shoulders; the soft blue silk gown with the wide sleeves edged in fine lace definitely belonged to a woman of substance.

Rose forced her shock and nerves into abeyance and stepped forward, offering a deep bow as she did so. “Your Royal Highness, I am sorry we forced our way in, but I promise that you are under no threat from us.” Rose witnessed Nathan’s shock and watched his stumbling attempt at a bow.

“She’s right.” He straightened. “We’re not here to hurt you, but we do need to find out something.”

Though her expression was guarded, Princess Mary did not panic, and surprisingly, she stepped forward. “That is a relief, though coming in via my private entrance is not the usual way to visit me.”

Rose linked her fingers in front of her, twisting them every which way, wondering what on earth they were to do now. “It wasn’t quite you we came to see, Your Highness.”

The princess’s brows rose. “Really. Just who is it you want to see, and, as I said, you still have not advised me who you are.”

“I came to find my father.”

“Your father is here?”

“I don’t know. Someone took him, and I need to find him.”

“So why do you think he is here? This is the London residence of my family.”

“I’m aware of that, Your Highness. My father was born in Zarrenburg but has been in England for many years.”

“And you?”

“I am English.”

The princess switched her attention to Nathan, her gaze narrowed as she studied him for a moment. “I know you. We’ve met before.”

Rose held her breath, wondering how much Nathan would tell the woman who ruled the tiny mid-European principality.

“We have. I’m Nathan Hawk, and I’m in partnership with Ben Steel of Steel Hawk Locks.”

“The company that has designed the lock for the Pasha Star.”

Nathan nodded.

“So what is your relationship to this young woman?”

“I’m helping her find her father.”

“Ah, we get back to your lost father.”

“I’m Rose Valetta, Your Highness.”

The royal’s face bleached in a heartbeat. “Valetta?” She clutched at the chair at her side, knuckles as white as her face as her knees buckled.

Rose leapt forward. “Your Highness, please take a seat. I did not mean to shock you.”

“It is a name I have not heard for so long.” She lifted gentle blue eyes colored by shock to Rose, trembling. “You are Alex’s daughter?”

Rose nodded as she eased the princess into the sage brocade-upholstered chair. “I am.”

The princess stared up at Rose, then moved her gaze to Nathan and back to Rose, giving Rose the distinct impression that she was summing them both up. “Do I need to call my guards?”

“No, Your Highness, we mean you no harm.”

She nodded toward the stiff-backed sofa opposite her. “Then take a seat, both of you, for I do not wish to stare up at you, given the shock you have just given me.”

Grateful for the seat, her nerves shattered, Rose took it. Nathan sat beside her.

She tried to ignore the fact that she was sitting in the living room of royalty.