Thick as Thieves (Bexley-Smythe Quintet, Novella 3) by Catherine Gayle

Author:Catherine Gayle
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Night Shift Publishing
Published: 2014-08-05T12:00:00+00:00

FREDDIE’S FINGERS TRAILED over the ruby-encrusted brooch while she marveled at how the gemstones could glimmer and glint so much, even after years of dust and grime accumulating upon them. This was a true treasure.

One of the two men grunted, and the squeak of a table shifting across the hardwood flooring broke into her thoughts.

“That’s even more exquisite than how Goddard described it to me.”

“Once the dust is off it, imagine how beautiful it will be.”

They were looking at marble busts and enormous, gilt-framed portraits on the opposite side of this abandoned library, leaving Freddie to marvel over the precious jewels near the window.

They had brought in a few candles with them, and the moon was particularly bright tonight. The play of the lighting against the red, blue, green stones—every color of the rainbow—made them appear to almost dance like a flickering fire.

She couldn’t look away if she tried.

Which, of course, she didn’t.

In her mind, she was attempting to calculate the value of all of these stones. They each had to be worth a few hundred pounds, maybe more. And this was just what Mr. Goddard and the servants had discovered in this unused library today. Deep within its cavernous confines, there were stacks of abandoned furnishings, rugs, draperies…endless places in which more treasures might be stored.

Heavens, but there could be thousands of pounds worth of diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and Lord only knew what else.

Freddie felt almost faint at the thought of such a grand amount of money.

“If you sell all of this at auction, you’ll easily have enough to see to the needs of Darlingshire House for five years or more,” Lord Upton Grey said, breaking through her fog of money-lust. “You could possibly even think about starting another house in another county, so you could help even more women in need.”

“I couldn’t take it all, though.”

Like the jewels?

As soon as she’d thought it, Freddie mentally berated herself. Even if Lord Preston didn’t auction the jewels for this Darlingshire House, whatever that may be, the stones wouldn’t belong to her. She had no business even looking at them, let alone thinking about what they could do for her mother and Edie.

“Of course you can. I didn’t even know I had it, so I couldn’t possibly need it or miss it. I’d rather it all be used for something where it can help.”

The two men came back over to where Freddie stood, still gawking at the glittering array on the table. Her hand hovered over them, almost touching but not quite.

“Emeralds are the best for you.”

Freddie jerked her hand back at Lord Upton Grey’s pronouncement. “I wasn’t—”

“You were thinking about what they would look like on you, I would imagine. I’ve never known a lady who didn’t like wearing jewels such as these.” He picked up the ear bobs she’d just been admiring and held them up to her ears. “The emeralds. They’re the perfect gem for you. Don’t you agree, Preston?”

Once again, Lord Preston’s gaze was burning into her very soul, only this time with accusation instead of whatever it had been earlier.

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