“Exactly.”
Roger fell back in his chair. “I’ll be damned.”
Alasdair went still. “What are you saying, Hil?”
“This is no ordinary thief, Sharp. I believe the woman you seek is a gentlewoman, quite probably someone you’ve met before.”
“She reminded me of someone. And she knew my name.” He hadn’t even considered the ramifications of that. She’d known his name, and she’d obviously known about the pearl. It was the reason she had come to his room last night. “She came specifically for the pearl. She took nothing else.”
“The existence and location of the pearl is hardly a secret,” Roger argued. “Anyone in London could have found that information. And certainly a well-versed thief would be able to act the part of a gentlewoman.”
Alasdair expelled a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Of course, of course that’s what she did. I’m sure no young woman of my acquaintance is a criminal.”
Hil shrugged negligently. “The woman you described does not sound like a criminal, Sharp. I’m sorry if you do not wish to believe a true gentlewoman would stoop to steal your pearl, but I am quite convinced that is exactly what happened.”
“She said she needed the money to pay the rent,” Alasdair argued. “What gentlewoman is in such dire need?”
Roger laughed mirthlessly. “I’m afraid more than we know, Sharp. No one in society likes to admit falling on hard times, but it happens often enough for it to be considered a possibility.”
Alasdair turned to him with a frown. “I thought you were on my side.”
“We are both on your side, Sharp. I am merely trying to see it from all sides.”
Alasdair took several deep breaths and nodded. “You’re right of course. I’m sorry.” He nodded again, as if to convince himself. “It could be a gentlewoman of my acquaintance.” He looked grimly at Hil. “But I sincerely doubt it.”
“What else did she tell you?” Hil asked. “Besides why she needed the money.”
Alasdair began to pace as he thought back on the conversation they’d had right before he fell asleep. “She said her mother died when she was young, and her father had recently remarried, but that it wasn’t turning out as he had planned.”
“Excellent!” Hil exclaimed, jumping up from his seat. “That will be very useful in narrowing our search. What else?”
Alasdair wrinkled his brow as he thought hard. Their conversation was overshadowed in his mind by the physical intimacy they had shared. “She said her father thought she hung the moon and stars and would not be happy were he to find out how she spent the evening.”
Roger snorted. “I should think not.”
“That might mean she didn’t learn her dubious trade from her father,” Hil said. “But then who educated her in the art of burglary?”
“She wasn’t a very good thief,” Alasdair observed. “I did catch her, after all.”
“Good point. And how did you catch her?” Roger asked.
“I heard a noise, and when I looked over, there she was silhouetted perfectly in the moonlight against the back wall of my bedroom.”
“And you called out, ‘Stop, thief!’ ”
Alasdair laughed. “No, I told her not to move unless she wished to be shot.”
Hil gave him a curious look. “You had a gun?”
“Yes. Brightmeyer made some threats the other night when he found me in bed with Pilar.”
Hil shook his head, while Roger thumped his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Why on earth would you tup Brightmeyer’s doxy?” Roger exclaimed. “Everyone knows he is so jealous of her he can no longer think straight. Even I know that, and I’ve only just returned to London.”
Alasdair really had no answer. It had just…happened. He shrugged. “She made herself available and I did not disagree. I think she’s in the market for a new protector, or she’s negotiating with Brightmeyer. ”
Roger just looked at him with wide eyes, as if he were speaking a foreign tongue. “Clearly we have different definitions of what it means to live licentiously. Was she at least worth it?”
Alasdair scratched his jaw as he considered the question. Honestly, he remembered very little about their tryst. He was relatively sure he’d hit his mark, but that was the highest praise he could give. “Not really. I was expecting more, given the level of Brightmeyer’s jealousy.”
“Not like your experience with your little thief last night, eh?” Hil asked nonchalantly.
Alasdair didn’t even want the two women mentioned in the same conversation. Juliet was nothing like Pilar.
He shook his head. “I have never before experienced anything like it,” he told Hil firmly, “and I doubt I ever will again.” Truly, it was like a dream. If his pearl hadn’t been missing this morning, he might have dismissed the whole evening as such.
Hil smiled briefly. “No. No, I don’t suppose you have. Well, there is no need to turn her over to the authorities when we find her. It doesn’t sound as if she makes a habit of this sort of thing.”
“She did steal his pearl, Hil,” Roger said as he stood up, holding the paper on which he’d scrawled their clues.
“Not exactly,” Alasdair confessed. He hadn’t planned on admitting this, but he didn’t want Hil and Roger to think the worst of Juliet.
Both men stopped and looked at him, Hil with interest, and Roger with narrowed eyes.
“There’s that ‘not exactly’ again,” Roger said. “What exactly do you mean by it?”
Alasdair sighed. “I may have, in a moment of pure, unadulterated stupidity, promised her the pearl in exchange for one night in my bed.”
Roger barked with laughter. “Poor Sharp! And she accepted this bargain, did she? It was certainly well made on her part.”
“I didn’t mean it,” Alasdair bit out, “and I certainly never expected her to do it. Clearly I was mistaken, and quite misguided.”
Hil was shaking his head and Alasdair felt like a schoolboy, standing before his headmaster awaiting a scold. “That was not well done of you,” Hil said gravely.
“Well, excuse me for thinking that I needn’t take the moral high ground with a thief who crept into my bedchamber in the middle of the night.” Alasdair sounded defensive. He didn’t like being put in that position. “I had planned on taking care of her,” he said more calmly. “I was going to offer her carte blanche in the morning. I wanted to make her my mistress, buy her a house, take care of her. She never gave me the chance.”
“We must make our own chances,” Roger said. He was uncharacteristically somber. “You should have told her if that’s what you wanted.” He sighed, and stood there looking out the window for a moment. Then he looked back at Alasdair. “Is that still what you want? I’m not sure I’m willing to help you find her otherwise. She didn’t take anything that didn’t rightfully belong to her.”
Hil was watching him, the same question written on his face. Alasdair shook his head in confusion. “I don’t know what I want. Yes, I want to find Juliet.” He stared hard at the other men in turn. “But I must get the pearl back. It means something. It is a true legend among the Scots and even here in England. But more than that, it is my legacy, my mother’s legacy, and the pride of my family is at stake. I cannot be the one responsible for losing it, even if it was my own folly that caused its loss. No matter who she is or what I want from her, the pearl must come first.”