Book 02 - Bitter Gold Hearts Read Free Page A

hint of scandal since the old girl left
town.”
    One more scowl.
    The door sprang open and a man stomped into the room.
“Willa, has there been any more word
about . . . ?” He spotted me and pulled
up. His eyebrows crawled halfway up his forehead, a trick for which
he was famous. To hear some tell it, that was his only talent.
“Who the hell is that?” He was renowned for being rude,
too, though among people of his class that was a trait the rest of
us expected.
----

IV
    Willa Dount spoke up. “There hasn’t been anything
yet. I expect we won’t be contacted for a while.” She
looked at me, her expression making that a question.
    “They
like to let the anxiety level rise before they come after you. It
makes you more eager to cooperate.”
    “This is Mr. Garrett,” she said. “Mr. Garrett
is an expert on kidnappers and kidnappings.”
    “My god, Willa! Are you mad? They said don’t tell
anybody.”
    She ignored his outburst. “Mr. Garrett, this is the
Stormwarden’s consort, the Baronet daPena, the father of the
victim.”
    How he twitched and jerked! Without changing her tone or
expression, Domina Dount had hit him with a fat double shot,
calling him consort (which labeled him a drone) and mentioning his
baronetcy (which wasn’t hereditary and purely an honor
because he was the fourth son of a cadet of the royal house). She
may even have gotten in a sly third shot there, if, as you
sometimes heard whispered, Junior wasn’t really a seed fallen
from the senior.
    “How do you do, Lord? He has a good question,
Domina.” I’d been working up to it when he burst in.
“Why bring me in when the kidnappers said don’t tell
anybody? A man with my reputation, and you sent out what amounted
to a platoon of clowns, with the girl dressed flashy enough to
catch a blind man’s eye. It’s not likely the kidnappers
won’t hear about it.”
    “That was the point. I want them to.”
    “Willa!”
    “Karl, be quiet. I’m explaining to Mr.
Garrett.”
    He turned white. He was furious. She’d made it clear who
stood where, who was in charge, in front of a lowlife from down the
Hill. But he contained himself. I pretended blindness. It
isn’t smart to see things like that.Willa Dount said,
“I want them to know I’ve brought you in, Mr.
Garrett.”
    “Why?”
    “For young Karl’s sake. To improve his chances of
getting through this alive. Would you say they’re less likely
to harm him if they know about you?”
    “If they’re professionals. Professionals know me. If
they’re not, chances are they’ll go the other way. You
may have moved too soon.”
    “Time will tell. It seemed the best bet to me.”
    “Exactly what do you want me to do?”
    “Nothing.”
    She blind-sided me there. “What?”
    “You’ve done what I needed you to do. You’ve
been seen coming here to confer with me. You’ve lent me your
reputation. Hopefully, Karl’s chances have been
improved.”
    “That’s it?”
    “That’s it, Mr. Garrett. Do you think a hundred
marks adequate recompense for the loan of your
reputation?”
    It was fine with me, but I ignored the question. “What
about the payoff?” Usually they want me to handle that for
them.
    “I believe I can handle that. It’s basically a
matter of following instructions, isn’t it?”
    “Explicitly. The payoff is when they’re most
nervous. That’s when you’ll have to be most careful.
For your own safety as well as the boy’s.”
    Senior snorted and huffed and stamped, wanting to get his hand
into the action. Willa Dount kept him quiet with an occasional
touch of her icicle eyes.
    I wondered what the Stormwarden had left her in the way of
leashes and whips. She sure had the old boy buffaloed. Karl Senior
was still a handsome man though he was running away from forty—if
he had not already sneaked past fifty. Time had dealt him a few
wrinkles but no extra pounds. His hair was all there, curly and
slickly black, the kind that might not start graying for