Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase Read Free Book Online Page B

candidate.”
    â€œYou seemed to enjoy his company before,” Giulietta said.
    Francesca looked at her.
    â€œBefore you saw the servant at La Fenice. He gave you ideas, I think.”
    â€œOf course he did,” Francesca said easily. “As an amusing fantasy, yes. As a lover—impossible. Unless he’s a jewel thief.” She grinned. “A very good jewel thief.”
    Giulietta grinned back at her. Jewelry was a powerful form of financial security. Better yet, unlike bank notes, it was security one might display to the world. Francesca knew—and Giulietta understood—that Lord Elphick gnashed his teeth every time his wife sent him word of one of her acquisitions. It was one delicious form of revenge.
    Thinking of him, she laughed, and Giulietta, knowing what she was thinking, laughed with her.
    A few hours later
    While Zeggio watched, fascinated, James stood at the mirror, carefully removing the thin mustache and beard.
    â€œI’ve always found simplest disguises the most effective,” James explained. “People sort strangers into categories—servant, foreigner, and so on. Remember, too, that they notice only what’s unusual: a scar, a curious mustache, a flamboyant hat. The Florian was well lighted, and being indoors, I was obliged to take off my hat and keep it off. But Bonnard found my hair so revolting, she took no notice of my facial features. The next time she sees me, she won’t know me.”
    Zeggio nodded. “She remembers the pomade, and the hair flat upon the skull. She does not know it curls.”
    Curl it did, in thick, crow-black ringlets. But at the moment, no one would guess that.
    â€œWhat do you reckon about my hair, Sedgewick?” James said. “Strong soap, or do you want to try scraping it off first?”
    â€œI reckon I wished you’d decided on a wig instead, sir,” Sedgewick said.
    â€œToo easy to lose in a tussle,” James said. “I had no way to be sure her gondoliers wouldn’t heave me overboard first and ask questions later. I think she’s hired the biggest gondoliers in Venice. That Uliva? Hands the size of hams. Water wouldn’t damage this, though.”
    â€œShe must expect trouble, signore,” Zeggio said. “The house is protected very well. Two porters.One on the canal side and one on the land side. We have tried to get into it, but for us this is impossible. Even if we could get in, we do not know what to look for and where to look. How will you do it?”
    â€œI won’t,” said James.
    Zeggio’s dark eyes widened. “No?”
    James laughed. “She thought she was so clever, leaving me in Countess Benzoni’s clutches. I could have escaped and followed La Bonnard—but to what purpose? When she wants to be rid of a man, she gets rid of him. She’d had enough of me. There was nothing to be gained by plaguing her. There was a great deal to be gained, though, by listening to what people said of her after she left.”
    â€œPrince Lurenze went after her,” Sedgewick told Zeggio. “Where did it get him?”
    James had not followed her but Sedgewick and Zeggio had. They blended in easily among the gondoliers and servants idling about St. Mark’s.
    â€œI took advantage of the opportunity she offered me,” James said. “The Countess Benzoni is charming, lively, and most informative. I found out more from her in half an hour than I should have learned from Bonnard in a week. This, combined with my own observations, tells me what to do.”
    He looked up from the mirror into Zeggio’s eager face.
    Once I felt the same zest for adventure, the same zest for the hunt, James thought. Where did it go? When did it go?
    â€œEveryone chases her,” James said. “She knows how to deal with that. So she’s going to chase me.” He smiled grimly. “Until I catch her.”

Chapter 3
    I’m fond myself of solitude