Turning it over, she looked at the back side of the handle.
"Ah, James Ross's mark. He's one of the more noted silversmiths
in Glasgow. That makes it an expensive piece." She
turned it back to the front and then returned it 'to him,
adding, "Unfortunately, the monogram reduces the trading
value by a good bit."
"Would you happen to have any matching pieces to this
one?"
Why would Barrett · Stanbridge want pieces of silver
monogrammed with a W? she wondered. And how ... ?
Alex knitted her brows, considering him, suspicion niggling
at her mind. "How is it," she finally ventured, "that you
know I deal in silver, Mr. Stanbridge? How did you know to
bring a butter knife with you tonight?"
Aiden shifted on his feet, threw a quick look her way, and
then went back to his contemplation of the far wall.
Barrett smiled. "I was telling my mother over dinner the
other evening that John Aiden was working with you and she
mentioned that a friend of hers had purchased some replacement
pieces for her formal set from you. Luncheon forks, I
believe she said."
She couldn't recall any such transaction. Warily, she prodded,
"And you're looking for replacement pieces for this
set?"
"Actually, this is the only piece that I have at the moment.
I'm looking for the rest of the set that goes with it."
And he thought she had it? The implication was clear and
it made her angry. Aiden didn't look at her, but he shifted his
stance again and took a long, slow breath. It might have been
wordless, but it was an admission if she'd ever seen one.
None of this conversation was coming as a surprise to him.
Was the knowledge of Barrett's suspicions what had preoccupied
him during dinner? Did he suspect her of trading in
stolen silver, too?
No, she instantly admitted. He knew her better than that.
He would have dismissed the possibility out of hand. Had he
been worrying that she would feel insulted and hurt and angry?
He was right, but the apparent fact that he'd known how
she'd react was most decidedly to his credit.
Deciding there was nothing to do but to address the matter
squarely, she faced his friend and bluntly inquired, "Was
the rest of the set you're looking for by any chance stolen?"
His smile studiously pleasant and his brow twitching ever
so slightly, Barrett explained smoothly, "A recent guest of
Lord Westerham walked off with it while he was sleeping.
Lady Westerham is due back from Paris before the week is
out and he'd prefer to avoid having to explain its absence."
"And he's hired you to find the set in time," she guessed.
"And I, in turn," he said before she could ask her next
question, "would like to hire you for the task. Would you be
willing to consider it? The finder's fee is considerable."
"So is the risk," Aiden said quietly, meeting her gaze.
"Understand that if you decide to accept Barrett's offer, you
won't go looking without me."
There were so many emotions in his eyes. Irritation. Resolve.
It was the depth of his regret and embarrassment that
spoke the loudest, though. He didn't like this at all. Not one
little bit. "And who would guard Mohan in your absence?"
she asked, thinking that he might be wanting her to provide
them an excuse to evade the task. "He's most certainly not
going with us. Not where we have to go and not among the
kinds of people we'll have to meet."
He nodded and gave his friend a tight smile. "The boy
needs a riding suit and a decent pair of boots. You can see to
getting him outfitted while Alex and I are conducting your
investigation."
"I suppose-"
"Good:' Aiden declared, cutting him off and effectively
out of the conversation. "Is tomorrow all right with you, Alex?
She sensed that his desire to have the task behind them
had nothing whatsoever to do with Lord Westerham's desperation.
''There's an auction at Christie's I had hoped to attend
in the morning but given the circumstances, I-"
"I don't see any reason why you should miss it." he interjected.
"We'll go and then see what we can do about finding
the missing silver. We'll make a day of it. Barrett will cover
any of our incidental expenses." He turned to his friend.
"Won't you? And the cost of the silver when we find it."
"If we find it," she corrected before Barrett could answer.
''There's a reasonable chance that it's been melted down. The
monogram makes it both more identifiable as stolen and more
difficult to sell. Even unscrupulous buyers have certain standards.
A monogram matching their own surname initial being
a primary one. Whoever acquired it from the thief would have
a better chance of a faster profit in melting it all down and
moving it back into production. When was it stolen?"
"A fortnight ago," Barrett supplied.
Well before she'd met either one of them. They'd had to
have begun looking for it immediately. Had to have developed
a list of people they suspected of having purchased it
from the thief. Had she been on that list? Aiden had a good
many answers to provide. God help him if they weren't good
ones.
"We'll be diligent in our efforts," she told Barrett. "But I
think it's only fair to warn you that the odds of finding the
set intact are very slim, Mr. Stanbridge. If I might make a
suggestion?" She didn't wait for his permission. "If we can
find a set of Ross Fiddle without monograms, they could be
engraved and Lady Westerham might never know the difference."
"How likely is it that you'll find even a plain set?"
She smiled weakly. "I hope Lord Westerham isn't holding
his breath and has somewhere else to live. If you'd come
to me for help the day it was stolen, you'd have had a far better
chance than you do now."
"I didn't know then that you could be of help. I sincerely
wish I had."
No, at the time he'd considered her suspect. A fence. A
dealer in stolen goods. Had Aiden thought of her in a similar
light? He had asked her about stolen silver that day Polly
had brought in the set of Roberts and Belk. Had his question
been an idle one based on passing curiosity as he'd said? Or
had it been grounded in genuine suspicion?
"Well, as much as I hate to eat and dash," Barrett announced,
"I really must be going. Having been gone from the
office for the better part of a week, I'm behind in my paperwork
and desperately need to catch up as quickly as possible.
Thank you for the lovely dinner, Miss Radford. My compliments
to Preeya."
"I'll see you out," Aiden offered crisply. "What time is
the auction tomorrow, Alex?"
"It starts at nine in the morning," she provided, feeling almost
sorry for Barrett. Aiden was angry and she suspected
that his friend was going to get a solid lashing the moment
they w
ere alone. "We should leave here by eight to get a
number and good seats."
"You have a lot of midnight oil to burn, Bare." He motioned
toward the dining room door. "You probably shouldn't
tarry another moment."
Barrett took a step in that direction before he paused and
offered her a slight bow. ''Thank you for being willing to
help me with the investigation, Miss Radford. I trust you to
come up with a solution one way or another. And to further
that end, I'll be here well before eight tomorrow morning."
She nodded her acceptance of it all and watched him
walk away. Aiden, glowering at his friend's back, followed.
He'd reached the threshold before she couldn't stand the wondering
any longer.
"Aiden? Before you go, might I-"
He wheeled around and came back, stopping only when
he was standing in front of her, so close that she had to tilt
her head to meet his gaze. "Yes," he said firmly, "you were a
suspect. And yes, he asked me to look into the possibility. I
did only because I knew he'd turn up and press the issue just
as he did. But I knew the truth before I even broached the
subject, Alex. You don't have a dishonest, deceitful bone in
your beautiful body. Not one. Anyone who knows you knows
that."
She believed him. To the center of her honest, reputedly
beautiful bones. And she wanted, just as deeply, to slip her
arms around his narrow waist and hug him tightly. Resisting
the urge, she said instead, "I should be offended that I was
ever under even the slightest suspicion."
The tension in him disappeared in an instant, replaced by
an impish smile and slightly cocked brow. "Should be?"
It was impossible to even pretend to be angry with him.
And no real reason to, either. "I think we're even."
"You had suspicions of me?"
"Not so much suspicions," she admitted, "as unflattering
assumptions."
"Such as?"
It was amazing how easily he could lift her mood, how
effortlessly he could banish even the darkest thoughts. Just
by being himself. She smiled up at him and slowly shook her
head in appreciative wonder. "I thought you were uncommonly
arrogant for being a toady."
"A toady?"
His amusement prompted her to add to her confession.
''And that you were no gentleman."
"Well," he drawled, his smile quirking, "since I do actually
work at that when I remember to, I'll allow you that one
as being fairly accurate."
"I also thought that you were a brazen rogue, an unabashed
hedonist."
"I certainly can be," he admitted, his eyes twinkling. "If
you're attracted to that sort of man."
Had temptation ever been wrapped in a package more
handsome and captivating than Aiden Terrell?
"You are, aren't you?"
Her heart shot into her throat as her blood sang with hope
and desire. Dear God, when he smiled like that her good
judgment turned to pudding. "No," she managed to lie. She
moistened her lower lip and then raggedly, honestly, added,
''Not as a general rule."
"If you also assumed that I'm exceptional," he whispered
with a wink, "you'd be right."
She didn't have a doubt. Not even the tiniest one. Not
about him. "I'm sure you are," she agreed breathlessly.
"However, such magnificent abilities would be utterly
wasted on someone like me."
She saw astonishment flicker in his eyes, saw him swallow
and take a slow, even breath. The roguish edge slipped
away from his smile. "If Barrett wasn't likely to come back
through that door at any moment looking for me," he said
softly, "I'd prove you wrong right here on the spot."
Alex summoned every shred of her tattered common
sense to keep her arms at her sides. "No one is ever going to
accuse you of lacking self-confidence."
His good humor unaffected, he shrugged and eased away,
saying, "We'll address your lack of it when I get back."
A vivid image, intoxicatingly carnal, instantly filled her
mind. "No we won't," she countered hastily. "I'll bid you
good night now, Aiden."
He stopped and slowly turned. The look in his eyes stole
her breath and filled her with heart-thundering certainty.
"What about Barrett?" she reminded him as he came back
to her.
"He can wait," he replied, slipping one arm around her
waist, the other around her shoulders. He drew her closer
and, his gaze searching hers, lowered his head.
It wasn't a light, tentative kiss as the others had been.
No, this one was slowly, heatedly deliberate and undeniably
possessive. Her senses instantly, blissfully reeling, Alex
wrapped her arms around his waist and melted against him,
abandoning reserve and surrendering conscious thought.
When he traced her lips with his tongue, she sighed with
pleasure and granted him admission. When his arms tightened
around her and he tasted more deeply, she clung to
him, reveling in waves of heady sensation. And when she
boldly sought a taste of him in return, his moan swept
through her like liquid fire, igniting a hunger that pulsed and
flared through every fiber of her being.
From the farthest recesses of his awareness came the tiny
voice of reason warning that he was teetering on the edge,
telling him that he had to do the right thing, had to let her
consciously choose to tumble into oblivion with him. It hurt
to heed the wisdom, but he forced himself to ease his claim
to her mouth and shift her in his arms. Holding her close, her
head tucked under his chin, he sucked in greedy breaths and
marveled at the furious beat of his heart.
God, she was the most amazing woman. His abilities
wasted on her? He closed his eyes and breathed in the scent
of her hair. Never. Such genuine acceptance, such a complete
lack of artifice. It was so utterly, extraordinarily foreign
to his experience. He craved more of her. All of her. He
could only hope that she didn't reduce him to a pile of smoldering
ash. And if she did ... Aiden smiled, knowing that
she was worth that risk and ever so much more.
But his conscience spoke the truth. The choice to give was
hers to make. Sweeping her unknowingly past the point of no
return wasn't right. She deserved respect and he'd honor her
even if it killed him to let her go. He opened his eyes and deliberately
focused on the world around them, on the reality of
where they were and the tasks needing to be done.
"I have to leave. Now," he whispered, his voice rough, his
hands gentle as he set her from him and steadied her on her
feet. He trailed his fingertips along the curve of her shoulders,
up the slim column of her neck. Her pulse thrummed
beneath them and almost undid his resolve. Clinging to the
tattered remnants of it, he stepped away and let his hands fall
to his sides.
Her eyes were inviting shadows as she looked up at him
&nb
sp; and his heart wrenched at the sacrifice. "Yes, now," he said,
more for himself than her. "Or I won't be able to go at all.
Good night, Alex."
Alex choked back a cry of protest. Then there was only
the thundering of her heart and the desperate, aching want in
the center of her soul as she watched him leave. And in those
moments a realization budded and bloomed full. For as long
as she could remember, she'd lived one day at a time, fulfilling
the expectations of others as best she could and always
assuring herself that someday there would come a reward
for enduring. That reward, a tangible thing she could hold,
would magically make all the loneliness, all the emptiness
of the days that had gone before, .worth bearing.
Alex stared into the shadows of the hall. She'd never
known, never guessed that it was possible to feel as magnificently
alive as she did now. How incredibly naive she had
been. The reward wasn't a thing at all; it was a feeling from
deep within her. It was joy and wonder and a wanting to dare
to reach for more. It was in discovering a vibrant path, in
making the journey. Where it ended ... Alex took a steadying
breath. Where it ended didn't matter nearly as much as
being able to travel along it-even for just a short while with