Always a Princess Read Online Free PDF Page B

good at it had come as a complete surprise. No one had caught either the Orchid Thief or the woman who’d been impersonating him. What a deplorable state of affairs when not one but two thieves as completely inexperienced as himself and the “princess” could go about the city lifting jewels from their rightful owners at will. He ought to write a letter to the Times about it, he really ought.
    He chuckled at the thought. What a wonderful new development that would be—the notorious Orchid Thief writing to the Times about his exploits. He might yet, but if he could find that woman again, he’d have more fun continuing the charade with her by his side.
    Yes, all he needed to do was find that woman.
     
    The door to the flat flew open, and Hubert Longtree stood on the threshold, his silver hair skewed every which way and his blue eyes wide. “Child. There you are. I took the carriage at the appointed time, but you’d already left. Eve, tell me where you’ve been. I’ve been sick with worry.”
    Eve clutched her wrapper tightly around her and rose to greet her dear friend. “I had to leave the ball early, and I had no way to get word to you.”
    “Where have you been?” Hubert demanded.
    Eve walked to the door and shut it against the night’s chill. She turned to Hubert. “Give me your coat and then go sit by the fire.”
    She smiled at him, or did the best she could manage under the circumstances. “As I said, I had to leave early. I hurried home, hoping to intercept you. I was too late.”
    “How did you hurry home?”
    “I walked.”
    “Saints preserve us, are you mad?” Hubert grasped her hands in his own, which were still remarkably strong given his four-and-seventy years. “You walked through London? Alone?”
    “I didn’t have the money for a hansom cab, not if we want to eat tomorrow. Now, give me your coat.”
    “You’ll be the death of me.” He raised a hand and shook his finger under her nose. “You’ll be the death of you, and that will be the death of me.”
    Eve ignored the old darling’s protests, as she always did, and firmly grasped his coat so that she could pull it over his shoulders and free the sleeves of his arms.
    “Imagine a sweet little morsel such as you walking through London after midnight,” Hubert continued. “It’s a wonder you weren’t killed.”
    “I’m not sweet, and I’m certainly no morsel,” she said, still struggling with the coat. “Anyone who tried eating me would get a bad taste in his mouth.”
    “You should have waited for me right where you were. I’d have arrived in that old clatter-trap of a carriage eventually and brought you safely home.”
    “I couldn’t wait.” She finally managed to wrest the coat free and hung it on a peg. “And I’m safely home now. So, go sit by the fire. Please.”
    He cast one long, scolding look at her over his shoulder and then grunted. Finally he walked to the fire and carefully settled his old bones into one of the chairs there. “It’s insane. This plan of yours to impersonate a princess who doesn’t exist, it’s insane.”
    She walked to the second chair and sat in it. “It will work if we just give it a chance.”
    “Insane,” Hubert muttered. “Did you even get the ruby?”
    She looked down at her hands. “No, I didn’t.”
    “What happened?”
    “That doesn’t matter,” she said. “I have a different plan now, in any case.”
    “Oh, no.” Hubert turned his head and stared at her, the light of the fire reflecting out of his eyes. “When you say something doesn’t matter, it usually matters a great deal. Now, what happened?”
    The man knew her too well. She smiled at him again. Or tried to. “It’s really not important.”
    “Eve, what happened?”
    She looked into the fire for an answer that would satisfy him but found nothing.
    “I was discovered,” she said after a moment. “But I got away.”
    “I knew it,” he declared. He looked heavenward. “I knew this would happen.