Sins of a Virgin Read Free Page A

solve quickly if Potts would just see reason. But he now had to waste precious time as Potts fawned over London’s favorite courtesan, forgetting he was old enough to be her father.
    “That will be all, Huntford.”
    Potts might tolerate Gabriel’s arguments in private, but Gabriel knew better than to question the man in public. “Yes, sir.”
    Miss Valdan watched them with amused tolerance, somehow making the cracked leather chair look soft and comfortable, as if she’d climbed onto the lap of a lover.
    He had better things to do than provide amusement. Gabriel strode from the room, glad to be out of the stilted air of Potts’s office so he could pull oxygen more easily into his lungs.
    Potts quickly shut the door behind him.
    Chaos erupted as the criminals and constables alike regained their senses now that Miss Valdan was no longer in sight. The shouting started. The crying. The gruff orders.
    Gabriel ignored them, locked his arms over his chest, and waited. What could she need? Help finding some bauble she’d misplaced? He had a murder to solve. Despite Potts’s denial, there was no doubt that it was the same murderer. Both women had been strangled and their bodies arranged in a cheap rented room. They had both been dressed in a white nightgown with a mourning brooch pinned at their throats. Gabriel fingered the brooch in his pocket, the one that had been pinned to his sister. It held a lock of her hair sealed under glass. The one pinned to Miss Simm had held a piece of hers. The brooch was a taunt by the murderer to show he’d known his victims in advance—known them well enough to get a lock of hair. Every day Gabriel was tempted to crush the damned thing beneath his heel. But he couldn’t. It was a clue, one of the only ones he had.
    The door suddenly opened, and Miss Valdan appeared. “I shall expect him at eleven tomorrow.”
    Potts bowed deeply from his place near the door. “It’s our pleasure, Madeline.”
    Gabriel held his ground outside the doorway so Potts wouldn’t be able to avoid him. Miss Valdan would have to step around him to exit, but she could survive the slight inconvenience. Everyone else might bow to her whims, but Gabriel had more important priorities.
    Yet rather than skirting around, Miss Valdan sauntered straight forward as if he weren’t there. For a second, Gabriel feared she might careen into him, but despite the possible collision, he wouldn’t scamper out of her way. She could damned well alter her course.
    She didn’t.
    Her chosen path brushed so close to him that her dress caressed his leg and the hint of vanilla in her hair teased his nostrils.
    A small smile lifted her lips. “I’ll see you soon.”
    She had to have been talking to Potts. Yet dread settled in Gabriel’s gut.
    Potts cleared his throat. “You have a new assignment, Huntford.”
    M adeline handed the heavy bouquet of scarlet orchids to the wan-faced girl who waited at the kitchen entrance.
    The girl’s eyes widened as she tucked the blossoms into her basket. “Lawks, miss. I doubt any of the fellows on the street will be able to afford this.”
    Madeline tried not to notice the threadbare patches on the girl’s shawl. After paying her butler and coachman for the two remaining weeks of the auction, and her trip to Bow Street, she was about equally poor. Besides, advice was worth far more than her few remaining farthings. “You have two options. Either break it down into smaller bouquets or sell it to one of the flower shops. These are from the Duke of Umberland’s private hothouse. They’re the only ones of their kind in England. Don’t take less than a guinea for the bunch of them.”
    “Thank you, miss.” Tears glistened in the girl’s brown eyes.
    Madeline stepped back. Why did they always complicate things by becoming emotional? “Just make sure you don’t spend the money on trinkets. Use it to buy more flowers.”
    The girl nodded, holding the basket to her chest. “Think you’ll have