“She has to be there.” Helmsley threw up his hands in exasperation. “You set men to watching both the front and back of the house?”

“Lads, not men,” the man replied. “Lads be cheaper, more reliable, and not so fond of their ale, nor as apt to wander off when they’s bored.”

“And in four days,” Helmsley went on, “your… boys haven’t left the place unattended once?”

“Not fer a bleedin’ minute. No bird, at least not the one in yer little paintin’. Maids and laundresses and such, but no lady bird like you showed us. Now where’s me blunt, guv?”

“Stull!” Helmsley bellowed, and the baron lumbered out of his room into their shared sitting room. “The man wants his blunt.”

Stull frowned, disappeared, and reappeared, a velvet bag in hand. Too late, Helmsley realized the cretin they’d hired to manage surveillance of Westhaven’s townhouse was eyeing the velvet bag shrewdly.

“Your coin.” Stull counted out the payment carefully and dropped it into the man’s hand from a height of several inches above his palm. “Now be off with you. She’s there, and we know it. Your job is to tell us when she leaves the house.”

“Not so fast,” their hireling sneered. “You pay us for the next four days, too, guv. Unless you want me sorry self gracin’ yer ’umble abode again.”

Slowly, Stull counted out another fistful of coins.

“My thanks.” The man smiled a gap-toothed grin. “If we see the bird, we’ll send a boy.”

He took his leave, and Stull shrugged, much to Helmsley’s relief.

“We’ll find her,” Stull said. “She’s got a decent job, probably making enough to look after Morgan, for which we must give my Anna credit, and when she pokes her nose out of that earl’s townhouse, we’ll snatch her up and be gone. I’m for a little stroll down to the Pig, Helmsley. You can come along and put in a good word for me with Wee Betty?”

Helmsley smiled thinly and reached for his hat and gloves. He was of the mind that Anna had once again given them the slip, just as she had in Liverpool a few weeks after leaving Yorkshire. He was damned, damned, if he’d spend another two years haring all over England, drinking bad ale and screwing dirty serving maids in Stull’s wake.

Anna had given her word, in writing, and Helmsley was going to see she kept it—or died trying. Either way, the result was the same for him: His troubles would be over, and so would hers.

Fifteen

“I TELL YOU, IT’S TIME TO GO HOME,” HELMSLEY SAID for the fourth time.

“Not when we’re so close,” Stull argued in a whispered hiss. “The lads in the park saw that girl again, the one who looks like Morgan, and they trailed her to Mayfair, just a few streets over from the earl’s home. I’m telling you, we’ve found them both.”

“Morgan is deaf and mute,” Helmsley shot back. “No deaf mute is going to be coddled in the great homes of Mayfair, not in any capacity. Even the footmen have to be handsome as lords, for chrissakes.”

Stull glared at him sullenly. “I am beginning to think you don’t want me to find your sisters. You’d rather have them wandering the slums of London with no protection whatsoever, when their every need will be met in my care. What kind of brother are you, Helmsley, to abandon the chase now, when they’re almost in our grasp at last?”

He was an awful brother, of course. The question was ludicrous coming from Stull. But he wasn’t a stupid brother, particularly, and if he was ever to get out of debt, he needed to find Anna and Morgan, hand them over to Stull, and let them make shift as best they could. They were damnably resourceful; their haring all over the realm for two years on little more than pin money proved that much, at least.

But did he really want to be there when Anna realized what he’d done? When Morgan dissolved into tears? When they realized the extent of his betrayal?

“What aren’t you telling me, Helmsley?” Stull’s look became belligerent. “You threw in with me when the old man died, and don’t think you can turn about now. I’ll go crying to the magistrate so fast the Lords won’t be able to protect you.”

Lie down with dogs, Grandpapa used to say, and you wake up with fleas.

“I’m not like you, Stull.” Helmsley tossed himself down in a chair, affecting a manner of dejection. “I have been nothing but a burden and an expense to you on this trip. One has one’s pride.” He managed just the right ashamed, glancing connection with Stull’s eyes and saw the baron’s ponderous mind catching the scent.

“You found those fellows to watch the park and the earl’s house,” Helmsley went on. “You thought of drawing Westhaven out to the country with that fire, you provide all the blunt for the whole scheme, while I merely stand by and watch.”

“I could spare you for a bit,” Stull said. “If you want to head back north, I can manage things here and send word when I have the girls. Might be better that way.”

His porcine eyes narrowed as he circled back to his earlier thought.

“You aren’t thinking of peaching on me to the magistrate, Helmsley? You’re the one who’s pissed away your grandpapa’s fortune and your sister’s dowries. Don’t think I won’t be recalling that if you turn on me now.”

“I know better, Stull.” Helmsley shook his head. “You know my dirty business, and I know yours, and we both know where our best interests are served.”

“Well said.” Stull nodded, chins jiggling. “Now, what say we nip downstairs and grab a bite for luncheon? You can’t leave today, old man. Too deuced hot, and you must make your farewells this evening to that bit of French muslin we came across last night.”

“I can spend tonight in Town,” Helmsley agreed. “I’ll go north first thing in the morning and leave this matter entirely in your capable hands.”

“Best thing.” Stull nodded. “I’ll send word when I have the girls.”

“The prodigals return.” Dev smiled as Anna and the earl trundled in the back door from the townhouse gardens. “Westhaven.” He extended his hand to his brother, only to be pulled into a brief hug. Over Westhaven’s shoulder, Dev shot a puzzled look at Anna, who merely smiled and shook her head.