The Lure of the Moonflower by Lauren Willig Read Free Book Online Page A

errand.”
    “If so,” said Jane smartly, “why has no one yet discovered her?”
    Jack Reid shrugged. “At a guess? Opiates.”
    “Ah, yes. Opiates.” Among his other dubious activities, Jack Reid had once smuggled opium to a rowdy bunch of bored aristocrats whose Hellfire Club had made a brilliant front for other illegal activities, including a thwarted plot to kidnap the King. “I believe you have some experience of those.”
    Jack Reid held out his hands, palms up. “Sorry, princess. I’m out of that line of work. So unless you’ve brought enough laudanum to drug an elephant . . . Queen Maria is about the size of one, and far less amiable.”
    She had just enough powder in the compartment in her ring to send a man deep into drugged slumber. “That, Mr. Reid, is a chance I have to take.”
    “A chance you choose to take, princess. Not I.” He favored her with a benevolent smile that set Jane’s teeth on edge. “My orders were purely observational. That’s what they’re paying me for, and that’s what I intend to do.”
    “Your orders have changed,” said Jane sharply. “When Don John bowed to Bonaparte’s pressure and exiled the English from Lisbon, he exiled our agents as well. You, Mr. Reid, are what is left. For good or for ill.”
    “I see.” He rubbed the back of his neck, a studiedly rustic gesture. “Rare commodities command high prices. Do you care to start the bidding?”
    She had known he was a soldier of fortune, but it set Jane’s teeth on edge all the same. “You’re already being paid.”
    “Not for this.”
    Jane raised her chin. “I can offer you the accolades of a grateful nation.”
    “One can’t eat accolades, princess. Have I committed a
betise
? My apologies. I ought to have realized that the Pink Carnation is above such base concerns. Myths sup off moonshine and sip drops of dew. There’s no need to bother about such base and vulgar matters as food and lodging. Or expensive gowns.”
    The gown was one of the last of her Paris gowns, refurbished by her own hand. The days when she had money to spare for such things were gone.
    More sharply than she’d intended, Jane said, “I shouldn’t have thought the man who made off with the jewels of Berar would quibble over the odd tuppence.”
    “Ah, we come to the point.” Jack Reid regarded her with mingled resignation and regret. “Shall we abandon this cock-and-bull tale of missing monarchs? If it’s the jewels you’re after, you need only say.” He cocked a brow. “If you want to charm them out of me, you might try a little harder.”
    Jane breathed in deeply through her nose. She could hardly tell him that she’d held his jewels in her hand, that she knew exactly where they were kept. It was he, after all, who had precipitated her departure from Paris when he had heedlessly, unforgivably sent the jewels to his sister Lizzy in England, and with them the interest of one of the deadliest spies in Europe. Jane’s own sister Agnes had been drawn into the tangle. The girls had been lucky to escape alive, and no thanks to Jack Reid.
    He could keep his jewels. They’d cost Jane more than enough already.
    Jane drew herself up, exerting an iron will to keep herself from telling him exactly what she thought. “I have no interest in jewels covered with blood.”
    “Strong words,” said Jack Reid softly. He rested a hand on the wall above her head. “But everyone wants something. What do you want, princess?”
    “I want Queen Maria safely in Brazil.” Jane could see the flecks of gold in the Moonflower’s amber eyes. She could feel his breath against her cheeks, the warmth of his body through his loose clothes. “I want Bonaparte driven back to France. I want England at peace.”
    “How very touching.” Jack Reid pushed away. “There’s a tavern not far from the docks. Several of the Queen’s former servants have been bunking there. They’d been promised passage to the colonies with their masters, but when