To Love a Thief (Steel Hawk) by Jane Beckenham Read Free Book Online

one came within a minute, but as time ticked by, every second dragging, she expected Nathan to race up behind her, a constable in his wake, and demand she be arrested.
    But she had done nothing wrong. Yet.
    Finally, she reached the door of the public house. The landlord, his ample girth wrapped in a large apron, came out and hooked back the doors so early punters could amble in. Rose joined them.
    “Are you Mister Biggins?”
    The man’s step faltered, and he turned to her, clearly suspicious as he spied her scruffy trousers, well-worn boots and long hair. “I am. What do you want?”
    “Information.”
    His offered a toothy grin and dragged his big fleshy hands over his apron. “Everyone wants information, but it depends on what you want, and—”
    “How much it’s worth.”
    His shrewd expression morphed into a broader smile. “So you’re clever, despite being dressed as a boy.”
    Rose’s hand automatically went to her bare head.
    “If you’re trying to hide or get away, your disguise needs a bit of work,” he added. “Though it would be a shame to cover such beautiful hair. ’Tis the color of autumn I think.”
    It was Rose’s turn to be surprised, and she struggled to hold back a smile. “Such poetic eloquence.”
    The man chuckled. “Got plenty of practice when I courted my Alice. She wanted to hear sweet words on my tongue.”
    “And did you succeed?”
    He nodded toward a rather matronly woman stirring a big pot over the fire at the far end of the room. There was a gentleness about her, a softness that reminded Rose fleetingly of her mother.
    A sad sigh circled her chest.
    Now her father was gone, but, she determined, fingering the pouch in her pocket, she would get him back.
    “I can pay you.”
    “Can you now? What would a scrap of a girl like you be offering? Hope it’s not what I think, because Alice won’t like me cavorting with a beauty like you.”
    “ I have this.” Rose pulled out the leather pouch and opened it only partially. Not a good idea to show him all her goods. She might need more to barter with later. She held up one of the paste diamonds.
    The man’s eyes widened to saucers. He thought it real, which was exactly what she intended, and she certainly wasn’t going to correct him.
    He held out his hand, but Rose curled her fingers over the stone. “When you give me what I want.” Her voice sounded calm, but inside, she shook like a leaf.
    She refused to look away, not even offering a blink or hint of concession.
    “So what is it you want to know?”
    Rose looked up and down the street. “Let’s go inside where it’s quiet. You can offer me a glass of your finest ale, and we can talk.”
    * * * * *
    “Bloody hell,” Nathan cursed for the umpteenth time. “She can’t have gotten far.”
    “It appears she has.”
    Stifling his frustration, Nathan turned back to his business partner. “I’m sorry, Ben.”
    “I don’t want your apologies. We need the damned diamond back in the case. The real diamond.”
    “I am aware of that.”
    “So what are you going to do about it?”
    “What I intend to do is rout out an old friend and see what he knows.”
    They were standing a few yards away from the crowd waiting to enter the exhibition’s first day. “You stay here and represent Steel Hawk. The Queen apparently wants to meet us—you now, after hearing reports about our locking system for the Star. Maybe she’ll offer a contract for the Koh-I-Noor.”
    Ben’s jaw hardened and his boot scuffed at the footpath. “How the hell can we contract to the Queen of England, for God’s sake, when it appears your lock failed?”
    “It hasn’t. No one knows about the system.”
    “That’s not quite true.”
    “Well, it was a design I brought up once with Alex Valetta.”
    “The girl’s father?”
    He nodded. He remembered those days. Remembered being so bloody grateful to Alex for hauling him out of the gutter, giving him a chance.
    And then he’d run away without a