(Ladies of Lantern #1) Crystal Gardens by Amanda Quick

Author:Amanda Quick [Quick, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Mystery, Romance Suspense, Sff
ISBN: 9780515152999
Publisher: Jove Books
Published: 2012-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

Sharpy Hobson had failed. That much was now maddeningly evident.

Two days had passed since the blade man had taken the train to Little Dixby. Hobson had not come around for the remaining portion of his money and there had been no reports in the press of violent murder done in the countryside. Nor was there any news of a London criminal having been arrested in a small town.

There was only one explanation. Hobson had not been able to carry out the contract. He had likely returned to London and was even now swilling gin in his favorite tavern, reluctant to face his old partner with the bad news.

Garrett Willoughby paced the small dressing room. He was still wearing his stage makeup and costume. The house had been less than half full tonight. Hardly surprising, Garrett thought. The ridiculous melodrama with its cheaply staged excitements—the fake fire and the train wreck—had run its course after less than a month. The theater manager would soon be closing down the play.

Garrett came to a halt in front of the mirror and contemplated his reflection. He had been an actor long enough to know when it was time to seek another role. But it was not supposed to have come to this. The scheme had been damn near perfect. If it had been carried out the way they had planned it, Douglas would have been engaged to the Rutherford heiress by now. In a few months he would have married the young lady.

The heiress had been fated to die in a tragic accident soon after her wedding day, leaving her grieving husband a wealthy man. Garrett and Douglas had shared everything all their lives. They had intended to split the girl’s money as well. It had all seemed so simple and straightforward. But the plan had gone wrong. It was Douglas who was dead and Evangeline Ames was to blame. Garrett did not know how a mere woman had overcome his street-hardened brother, but somehow she had done so. Perhaps she had managed to trip Douglas at the top of the stairs. Whatever the case, it was her fault that Douglas had been exposed, her fault he was dead, her fault the scheme had come to naught.

Her fault, Garrett thought, that he would soon be forced to find another ill-paying role in another cheap melodrama instead of living the life of a gentleman.

The rage churned inside him like a terrible poison. The only cure was vengeance.

He had hired Hobson because the three of them, Douglas, Sharpy and himself, had known one another most of their lives. They had grown up on the streets together. But while he and Douglas had been able to take advantage of their looks and brains to climb out of the criminal underworld, Sharpy had been too slow-witted to follow them. Not that Sharpy had cared. He had been content to rule his own little corner of hell, taking satisfaction in his reputation as a throat-slitter for hire. He never failed.

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