Page 34 of His Improper Lady

“That I could tell if they were lying. He’d call me in and ask me if somebody who worked for him was lying, and I didn’t want to do it. I was glad if they’d managed to hold back something from him or lied to him.”

“Why didn’t you just tell him they weren’t lying?”

“I did sometimes. But others told such obvious lies that I think he knew before I told him. And some people...well, I was happy if he tossed them out. If I hid too much from him, he wouldn’t believe me when I said someone was innocent.”

“So you had to decide who to let go and when?” Tom felt a pang in his chest. “That’s a terrible thing to put on a child.”

“I suppose. I didn’t know any different, though. I had to stay on his good side. To protect Wells and me, to have better food and a warmer place to sleep, to not get a kick or a cuff to the ear. You know.”

“Yeah, I know.” He knew the life all too well.

“Look! There’s one of those intersections!” Desiree pointed ahead of them, where four streets ran into one another at odd angles, creating a sort of misshapen star.

“Excellent. We need to walk a large square all around this place, looking for a white stone row.” Tom paused and glanced around, then turned and started back the way they had come. “Let’s begin a couple of streets up.”

“How shall we do it? Divide it into quadrants?” Desiree asked.

“Yes, that’s good.”

Tom saw a man in the next block striding toward them, but the man suddenly stopped, then whipped around and began to walk the other way. Just as Desiree and Tom were doing.

They were being followed.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“LET’S TURN RIGHT HERE,” Tom said when they reached the first cross street.

“Why? I thought you wanted to go to the next one,” Desiree said, but she matched her movements to his.

“I did. But I’m running a test on someone I saw.”

“A test?” She was silent for a moment, then said, “You think someone is following us?” Clearly, her mind ran along the same lines as his.

“That’s what I’d like to find out. It might have been pure chance.” Tom slowed his steps a bit.

“I’m not a great believer in chance,” Desiree responded. She took his arm and looked up at him, smiling as if they were in pleasant conversation. It was nice to have someone who quickly understood and fell in well with his pretense. It was also a trifle disturbing that she took so easily to the nefarious and the deceptive.

“Neither am I,” Tom responded and turned his face toward hers, glancing behind them. “Blast. If he followed us, he’s too far back for me to see him without being obvious.”

“Look. I see a square ahead. There are probably benches where we could sit.”

“And see who turns up?” Once again, her thoughts meshed with his. “Would you care to rest for a while?”

“That sounds like an excellent idea.”

They continued to stroll along. Desiree was much closer to him now that she had taken his arm, her body almost but not quite touching him. Her posture had changed, subtly turning in toward him and becoming somehow more pliant.

“You’re damnably good at this.”

She laughed, looking up at him in a way that probably appeared flirtatious, but Tom clearly saw the mischief dancing in her eyes. “Well, after all, it’s best to seem innocent when one is scouting a place before a job.” When he made no reply, she squeezed his arm. “Come, Mr. Quick, have you really grown so sanctimonious you’ve forgotten your past?”

“Of course I remember it. I know exactly what I did. It’s helpful in my line of work to be able to think like a criminal.” Tom knew he sounded like a terrible prig. He gave in, and the corner of his mouth twitched up. “And before you ask, yes, sometimes it was fun.”

Desiree’s smile was pleased rather than gloating. “There’s good and bad in all of us, isn’t there?”

“Some of us are better than others, however.”

“Your beloved Morelands?” Her voice hardened. “They, I take it, are saints.”