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silently upstairs to her bedchamber. A light shone beneath the door.
    Nora smiled. Hattie, one of her two co-conspirators who masqueraded as workers in her modest household, had waited up.
    Nora pushed opened the door.
    'A successful evening, I take it?' Hattie asked, reaching for the bag of goods Nora carried in her right hand. 'Shall I hide this in the usual place?'
    'Yes and yes Nora pulled off her mask and plopped unceremoniously into a chair.
    'Did everything go the way Alfred and I laid it out? Was the tree branch a good entrance into the house?' Hattie moved efficiently around the room, laying out Nora's night things.
    'The plans were accurate, as always.' Nora paused before

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    Pickpocket Countess
    adding, 'I met the Earl.' She hadn't wanted to tell Hattie that part, but the household needed to be prepared. News of the break-in at Stockport Hall would circulate the village tomorrow and Nora wasn't sure how the Earl would present the story. It wouldn't do for Hattie or Alfred to discover her encounter second-hand. There was no question Hattie wouldn't hear of it. She heard everything.
    Hattie turned from the dresser. 'Did you, now? No wonder you were so late. Got into a bit of a scrape?'
    'Nothing I couldn't handle.' Nora passed off the incident with a wave of her hand, when in
    she'd been in over her
    head. 'I had to go to Squire Bradley's or I would have been empty-handed. That was why I was late.'
    Hattie clucked her disapproval. 'That was dangerous, Nora.
    We've hit the Squire's home too many times. One of these days he'll be on to us and there will be trouble.'
    Nora tightened her jaw at Hattie's censure. 'We must have funds for the Christmas baskets. We're running out of time and so many people are in need this year.'
    'Still, you're no good to the people if you're caught.'
    'I won't get caught,' Nora said in a conversation-ending tone. She softened. 'Off to bed with you, Hattie. It's been a long night.' Hattie had been with her through too much for her to be cross with the redoubtable lady for long.
    'Should Eleanor Habersham expect visitors tomorrow?'
    Hattie asked
    the door.
    'Wednesday tea as usual with the ladies.'
    'And the Earl? When should we expect him?'
    'Not for a while. I would be very surprised to see him tomorrow. He has no reason to come
    for Miss Haber-
    sham,' Nora said confidently.
    'Good night, then.' Hattie shut the door quietly behind her.
    Nora undressed quickly, careful to conceal her black garb in the false back of her wardrobe behind the mounds of ridicu-

    Scott
    19
    gowns belonging to the persona she showed to the town, the eccentric spinster, Miss Eleanor Habersham. Miss Habersham was a silly, giddy lady with a penchant for gossip. By four o'clock tomorrow afternoon, Nora expected Miss Habersham's tiny parlour would be
    by local ladies exchanging the
    latest tittle-tattle about the night's escapades.
    Nora forced herself to doze. It wouldn't do for Miss Habersham to appear with dark circles when everyone in town knew the spinster had no call for such sleeplessness in her mundane life. But sleep was hard to come by. Usually after such sprees, Nora's mind was occupied by the results of the evening and the valuables stashed with her disguise, myriad questions running through her head: how would it be dispersed, how much more would be needed to help those in the most desperate straits?
    There was never enough to go around. Her raids had become bolder and more
    in attempts to narrow the gap.
    Tonight, the disturbing memory of Stockport's hot mouth and the firm fit of his body against hers consumed her thoughts.
    She had played the wanton in hopes of distracting him to ensure her escape. She'd not expected his active participation or her own enjoyment in the act. There was something erotically compelling about a virile man's compliance.
    She had made her point tonight. There would be no reason to go back to his estate. It wasn't an easy target. His patrols were harder to elude than she'd