Winter's Heat: A Nemesis Unlimited Holiday Novella Read Free

why Nemesis had called in a favor from her when a woman with a housemaid’s training was needed.
    “The guests,” he said. “Two in particular.” He lowered his voice even more, so Ada had to lean closer. “The Larkfields.”
    “The esteemed Larkfields,” she quoted.
    “Maybe in society’s eyes. But rotten as a side of ten-day-old beef.”
    She made a face. “A smelly comparison.”
    “Fitting, though. Most aristos of their status have their little charities or causes they support. Some of the patrons are more involved than others.”
    “And the Larkfields have their own charity,” she surmised.
    “An orphanage,” he said. “They were the patrons.”
    “Were, meaning something made them give it up.”
    “Last week, the authorities raided the place. Found it wasn’t an orphanage so much as a workhouse.” His jaw clenched. “The children were forced to work fourteen hours a day making cheap jet mourning jewelry.”
    Ada brought her hand to her mouth. “My God.”
    Footsteps sounded outside. He and Ada froze, breathless and waiting, until whoever it was outside passed.
    When he was sure they were safe, he continued quietly. “The jewelry was sold to the mourning emporiums for a tidy profit, profit that went straight into the Larkfields’ pockets. But the coppers weren’t able to link the Larkfields directly to the workshop at the orphanage, even after the raid.” Frustrated, he fought the urge to smash the bottles of distilled liquors lining the stillroom walls. “Nemesis has been keeping a close watch on them, but they’re slippery eels, those Larkfields. With all the tools in our kit, even we can’t come up with anything to prove the nobs were the ones pulling the strings at the orphanage. Can’t even find anything in their banking accounts.”
    Ada lowered her brow in thought. He’d come to savor that look, knowing that it meant her clever brain was hard at work. But tension still snapped between them, her mistrust of him plain as a house on fire. Watching her think was a rough and jagged pleasure.
    “The Larkfields wouldn’t go abroad this year,” she murmured, “not with the law on them like hounds. So it’s off to see the country cousins instead. There’s got to be something in that.”
    “So Nemesis thinks,” he said. “That’s why we’re here. To keep an eye on them. Find out whatever we can. What they’ve done can’t go unpunished.”
    “It bloody well can’t,” she answered hotly, then blushed at her language.
    He almost smiled. All her years in service had ingrained in her the decorum demanded by the senior staff. Though servants out of the eyes of the butler and housekeeper could talk as rough as sailors.
    Service had been nearly half of Michael’s life, ever since he was a lad of fifteen waiting on the upper servants. He knew the rules and ways of grand households the way some men knew how to navigate the seas, or the workings of the Stock Exchange. His father and grandfather had both been in service, and he’d naturally followed in the family trade.
    If he hadn’t crossed paths with Nemesis, he might still be in service, hoping one day to become a valet or butler, and enjoying the fine ladies and village girls who loved to bed a vigorous young man in livery.
    Everything changed when he’d managed to find and contact Nemesis. He’d been working in a house where the butler had been bilking the servants out of their pay, but no one could prove it. Only through Nemesis stepping in had the evidence come out, and the weasel butler blackmailed into paying the servants what they were owed. Michael’s eyes had been opened to the world of Nemesis, and soon after joined their ranks, helping to dole out justice where he could. It didn’t even bother him that he had less time for the ladies. The work meant more than his cock.
    Sometimes Nemesis received temporary help from those they’d assisted in the past. From people like Ada.
    And everything had changed again.
    He went