Siren's Secret by Trish Albright Read Free Book Online

for your time, Mr. Riedell.”
    Olivia left the offices upset. If Mr. Stafford would not take her and Mrs. Tisdale to Egypt, she would have to wait two weeks. She did not feel safe staying in London after Sturges’s visit earlier. Meggie had been murdered. Choked to death. Her room had been torn apart as well. The killer was looking for something. Something Olivia still had. Would he come back when he realized he had killed the wrong person? Olivia tried to swallow, tension in her throat tightening against the effort as she picked up her pace again.
    What if the man who’d killed Meggie was still looking for her?
    Samuel stared at the freshly poured pint. He hadn’t worked his way through two pitchers yet in the hours he had been sitting there. The world was still in very sharp focus and his mind all too clear. The vision of
her
all too clear.
    He should have insisted on the truth when she fell through the damn window. She had obviously been escaping from someone or something. But she had been so damned …
English.
Dammit. The one time he didn’t get involved … and it was fatal.
    He raked a hand through the top of his hair and rested his head in his palm, his elbow holding him up. Closing his eyes did not block the vision of that unusual silver sparkle of her flashing eyes. Remembering would do no good, and there were plenty of women in London who could help him forget. It was just that … she had been different.
    The door to the Crow’s Nest opened, and he heard footsteps walk toward the bar. A man sat near him at the counter. With irritation, he rubbed his neck to stop the tingling sensation.
    The barkeep came over to take the request, and after a pause a husky voice said, “The same as Mr. Stafford.”
    Samuel glanced down and saw slender legs in a brown suit. “I don’t know you, and business hours are over for the day.” He rubbed the strange sensation tickling the back of his neck again, annoyed.
    “Actually, we bumped into each other this morning. Outside Lady Olivia’s home.”
    Samuel looked again. He barely remembered anyone from this morning. He studied the profile more clearly. The small man in the brown suit was vaguely familiar. He’d looked upset when Samuel told him the news.
    “I’m sorry for your loss,” Samuel said.
    “Thank you.”
    Samuel winced, then rubbed his temples, wanting to scrub his ears. That voice was making him insane. Familiar. Yet not.
    “Are you a relative?” Samuel asked.
    “Actually …” The stranger paused. “Yes. I’m Professor Hill. Lady Olivia’s cousin. I find myself in the regrettable position of informing her father of the news.”
    That did it. A cousin? There was certainly a family resemblance. He wouldn’t have expected the dark beard and mustache, though. The man’s eyelashes were fair under the glasses. The hairs on the back of his neck pricked again.
    Finally the man looked at him.
    Silver gray eyes. They became more silver with Samuel’s inspection. As if reacting in worry. Or something else. The man looked away. Samuel didn’t. Something very unnatural about that mustache … and the skin was incredibly fair and smooth for a man.
    He took a long drink of ale and laid it down with pleasure for the first time that day, closing his eyes. His sister always said his eyes gave him away—especially when he was willing to give in.
    “Mr. Stafford, as a friend of Lady Olivia, I need your assistance. I need passage—”
    “No.”
    The gentleman sputtered. “But I haven’t finished.”
    “I’ll take a message. I don’t take passengers. And I leave tomorrow, so write quick.”
    “But … I need your help!”
    “Yes, I can see that.” Samuel sat up and leaned over to the creature posing as Olivia’s cousin. She turned to him, eyes wide, as he loomed unnaturally close, her pupils following his index finger as it pressed gently over her lips to silence, then moved left and pressed down the edge of her false mustache where it had lifted.
    He got