The Devil's Thief (30 page)

Julianna
nibbled on her lip for a moment in mock concern. “Well, I’m not sure, but I
thought Mr. Sharp ought to be warned there might be thieves around the
neighborhood.” At everyone’s blank stare, she nibbled her lip a little more and
smiled tentatively. “Yes, um, thieves.”

Her
father’s brow was furrowed and he stared at her intently.

She
nodded and nervously cleared her throat. “We can only be thankful that nothing
was stolen.”

Sir
Hilary was fighting a smile. “Well, perhaps the thief was politely waiting for
someone to simply offer him the family jewels,” he suggested.

Alasdair
coughed behind her, but Julianna nodded eagerly in agreement. “Yes, well, I’m
sure we’d have only the best thieves in this neighborhood, after all.”

Her
father and stepmother were looking at her as if she were deranged.

“Oh,
absolutely,” Alasdair finally joined the conversation. “It’s not as if they’d
creep into our beds in the middle of the night for nefarious purposes.” He
smiled at the private joke. “And you haven’t a balcony to climb. Don’t most
thieves climb the balcony?”

They
all stared at one another as if no one knew the answer to that one.

“Yes,
well, thieves or not, shall we go back inside?” her father suggested tersely. He
offered both Lady Linville and Julianna an arm, and Alasdair and Sir Hilary followed
them back to the house.

Julianna
heard Sir Hilary quietly tell Alasdair, “Your hat is askew,
Sharp
.”

If
her plan worked, Julianna hoped to keep his hat askew for many years to come.
But first she had to get that dratted pearl back.

*
         
*
         
*

“Psst!
Wiley!”

“For
cryin’ out loud, I’m here,” he answered, clearly disgruntled. “Hasn’t anyone
ever taught you anything about how to conduct a clandestine meeting? First you
drag me to some hoity bakers, and now this.”

Julianna
turned on the bench where she’d been waiting to peer into the thick stand of trees
and brush behind her. She was sitting on a lesser-used path in Hyde Park, and
Wiley had insisted on hiding in the trees, which she thought was ridiculously
unnecessary.

“Turn
around,” he whispered urgently at her. “Do you want everyone to know you’re
talking to me?”

Julianna
looked around at the almost deserted path. The only people in sight were two
nurses and their very young charges. “Exactly who would ‘everyone’ be?” She
huffed in exasperation. “Honestly, Wiley, you are being ridiculous. It is long
past the fashionable hour, and I chose this path because no one ever uses it.”

“And
today could be the day it becomes the most popular path in the park,” he
muttered angrily.

Julianna
sighed and faced forward again. “Do you think they’ll report me to the
authorities when they see me talking animatedly to myself on this bench?”

“Ha-ha,
very funny, miss,” Wiley said sarcastically. “They may think you touched in the
head, but what if they saw you with me?”

“Well,
I suppose they’d think I was meeting my highly inappropriate young lover for a
tryst in the park,” she teased.

“Exactly!”
he whispered heatedly.

“Well,
if the truth were known, Wiley, I’d far prefer a rumor of debauchery than dementia.”

He
ignored her remark. “What is it now? I’m hardly getting any of my own work done
with all of the running around I’ve been doing to get to these meetings.”

“I
think the front of the Black Horse will continue to stand without you leaning
against it,” she drawled.

He
was silent for a moment. “You are so naive, I swear it’s frightening,” he
finally said. “You have no idea what I had to do to be able to stand around seemingly
idle. You have no idea how many people rely on me to support them and keep them
safe. I may seem idle to you, but if I wasn’t propping up the front wall of the
Black Horse every day, there would be babies going hungry and young boys dying
in the street.”

The
lecture was delivered in a flat tone, missing all of the animation she’d come
to expect from Wiley. Julianna realized she really didn’t know anything about
his life or the hardships he had to endure. Once again she’d been considering
only her own wants and needs. It hadn’t even occurred to her that Wiley might
be too busy to meet with her. She’d asked him to come and she’d expected him to
be there. And he had been. With dawning horror, Julianna realized he had shown
up because she was yet another burden for him to shoulder, another person under
his protection.

“I’m
sorry, Wiley,” she said in a shaky voice. “You’re right, of course. I don’t
know any of those things.”

He
snorted, sounding like the old Wiley. “Well, don’t shed any tears over it. It’s
not like I haven’t been compensated with wine and women aplenty. Now, why am I
here?”

Julianna
wasn’t fooled. She knew that for a brief moment Wiley had dropped all pretenses
and she’d seen the real man.
The man who took his
responsibilities seriously, and who lived his life for others.
He might
be a streetwise criminal, but circumstances beyond his control had put him
there, and it was his indomitable spirit that had helped him survive and
thrive.

“Mr.
Sharp has asked me to marry him,” she told him, injecting a carefree happiness
into her voice. “Yesterday. Isn’t that wonderful?” She didn’t add that she had
refused him.

“Bloody
beggar better be asking you to marry him,” Wiley scoffed, but Julianna heard
the relief in his voice. “So the plan’s off, then?”

“Oh,
definitely,” Julianna lied gaily. “There’s no need to get the pearl back now. I
thought you’d be happy to know. That’s why I wanted to meet with you.” She
worried her lip, her back turned firmly to him. She could do it without Wiley.
She couldn’t risk him now. Too many people depended on him. She’d gotten them
all into this mess, and she’d get them out. If all went as planned, Alasdair
would have his pearl back, the Bow Street runner would leave Wiley alone, and
she’d have Alasdair.

“Well,
you could have just put it in the note,” Wiley complained. “I’ve wasted half a
day sneaking out here to hide behind this bloody tree.”

Julianna
laughed in genuine amusement at his aggrieved tone. “I’m sorry, Wiley. What a
bother I am to you.”

“Well,
I owe you, then, don’t I? For taking care of my boys?”

“Oh,
Wiley! I almost forgot to tell you. We’ll be moving the home soon, to a better
area, I think, and hiring some more people to help. We shall be able to take in
more charges. Isn’t that wonderful?” She turned to smile at him and was taken
aback at the intense look he was directing at her. “Wiley?”

“Did
you use the money from the pearl for it?”

She
frowned. “No. I asked my father and my stepmother for help, and I couldn’t have
been more surprised when they agreed. The changes were their stipulation for
helping, but I quite agree with them. And I’m searching for other patrons for
the home, too.”

He
smiled at her, and Julianna basked in the approval she saw in that smile. “Good
girl. I knew you’d find a way. And it’s about time you moved those chicks to a
better place. That area isn’t safe at all. It’s why I’m always checkin’ up on
it.”

“Wiley,
I want you to feel like you can come and see the boys.”

He
waved away her offer. “They don’t need to know about me. They’ll be trained for
something better. It’ll be a relief to cut the tie. One less thing to worry
about.”

“You
are a terrible liar,” she told him quietly.

He
smiled back sadly. “No, I’m a very good liar. That’s what makes me so good at
what I do.” He dusted his hands together suddenly, as if his job was done. “All
right, then, I’ll be off.
Things to do and people to rob.
You come find old Wiley if you need him.” He wagged a finger at her. “But not
too often, hear? I’ve got me own life to live.”

Alasdair
was shown into the earl’s study after waiting in the parlor for only a few
minutes. It was unprecedented. Normally Ernest made him wait for at least half
an hour. Actually it was a bit of a disappointment because he usually got tea
and biscuits while he waited.

“Good
afternoon, Sharp,” the earl said in an annoyed tone. “What do you want today?”
He was sitting behind his desk and he didn’t even bother to get up and offer a
hand in welcome. As a matter of fact he didn’t even bother to stop reading his
correspondence.

Alasdair
took a deep breath. He would not be goaded out of his conciliatory, celebratory
mood. He had been walking on air since Julianna had refused to marry him
yesterday afternoon. She hadn’t actually said no. It was clear she had feelings
for him. A little more persuasion of the seductive variety and he’d have her saying
yes. He’d optimistically spent most of the day shopping for a wedding gift.
What do you get the girl who steals everything? He smiled at the thought.

“I
don’t want anything,” he answered calmly. “Can’t I just come and visit my
cousin?”

At
that, Ernest, frowning, slowly set down the letter he had been reading. “No,
you can’t,” he said, staring at Alasdair. “At least you never have before.”

Alasdair
was suddenly struck with how similar he and his cousin looked. Ernest was his
senior by only a few years, three he thought but wasn’t sure. They were the
same height, and had the same curly hair although the earl’s was brown. And
while Alasdair had always assumed that his blue eyes came from his mother, his
cousin’s were so similar that he couldn’t be sure. He could see the dull gleam
of gray at Ernest’s temples and it shocked him. Surely he was too young to be
turning gray?

“Sharp?”
Ernest called his name with concern. “Are you all right?”

“Alasdair,”
he surprised himself by saying.

“What?”

Alasdair
smiled a little grimly at Ernest’s shock. “We are family, after all. The truth
is you’re the closest family I have. So, please, call me Alasdair.”

Ernest
placed both hands palm-down on the desk and took a deep breath. “Are you
dying?”

It
took a moment for Alasdair to realize Ernest was serious, and he seemed quite
out of sorts about it.

“Well?”
Ernest asked impatiently. He looked as if he were preparing for a blow.

Alasdair
laughed because he didn’t want to cry. He’d been a bastard to Ernest over the
years and yet here he was, worrying about him. What a waste the past few years
had been between them. “No, Ernest, I am not dying. Not, I hope, for a very
long while. I am, however, getting married. When she agrees, that is.”

Ernest
slumped in his chair with relief before glaring at Alasdair. “I have had a
miserable day thus far and I do not appreciate your attempt at levity.”

Alasdair
walked over and sat down in the chair across the desk from Ernest. He crossed
his legs casually and regarded his cousin. “Which part? The dying part or the
marriage part?”

“Neither.”
Ernest picked up the letter on his desk and waved it in the air. “First my
solicitor appears with . . . with this”—he threw it down in disgust—“and
then you show up and scare the life out of me by making me think you’re dying.”

Alasdair
splayed a hand on his chest and regarded Ernest innocently. “Me? I did nothing
of the kind. I merely asked you to call me by my Christian name.”

“Which
is tantamount to the same thing,” Ernest accused. “If I wracked my brain for a
week, I don’t think I’d be able to come up with more than two occasions when
you have been pleasant to me. And one of them was when you had that fall from
your house in school when you were inebriated and you were knocked out cold and
broke your leg.”

It
was Alasdair’s turn to be shocked. “They notified you of that?”

Ernest’s
lips thinned. “Of course they notified me. I was your guardian at the time.
That friend of yours, St. John, thought it best to notify the next of kin. Just
in case.”

“And
you actually came to see me?” Alasdair asked in utter bewilderment. “I was a
complete ass to you in those days. Why on earth would you come?”

Ernest
gave him an exasperated look. “You were my ward and my cousin; in other words,
my responsibility. How would Aunt Pitty have felt if I let you lay there in a
drunken stupor and die alone?”

At
the mention of his mother, Alasdair grimaced. Clearly he had a lot to make up
for between him and Ernest. He would place a bet that most of the man’s gray
hair could be credited to him. But for now he had to deliver the bad news.

“Thank
you,” he started off, acknowledging all that Ernest had done for him over the
years. Ernest grew suspicious again, but before he could say anything Alasdair
rushed on. “But, while I do have glad tidings, I have some rather bad news as
well.” He reached up and toyed with a suddenly too-tight collar as Ernest’s
gaze pierced him accusingly.

“I
knew it,” Ernest said with grim satisfaction. “I knew this could not just be a
social call. You don’t make social calls here.”