In Their Footsteps & Thief of Hearts Read Online Free PDF

romance in her life, anything to make her forget that chron-ically unfaithful surgeon.
    Beryl whisked up a glass of champagne from a passing servant and headed Jordan’s way. “Having fun?” she asked him.
    “Not as much as you, I suspect.” He glanced across at Richard Wolf, who’d just been waylaid by some American businessman. “So,” he whispered, “did you wring a confession out of him?”
    “Not a thing.” She smiled over her champagne glass.
    “Extremely tight-lipped.”
    “Really?”
    “But I’ll have another go at him later. After I let him cool his heels for a while.”
    Lord, how beautiful his baby sister could be when she was happy, thought Jordan. Which, it seemed, wasn’t very often lately. Too much passion in that heart of hers; it 40
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    made her far more vulnerable than she’d ever admit. For a year now she’d been lying doggo, had dropped out entirely from the old mating game. She’d even given up her charity work at St. Luke’s—a job she’d dearly loved.
    It was too painful, always running into her ex-lover on the hospital grounds.
    But tonight the old sparkle was back in her eyes and he was glad to see it. He noticed how it flared even more brightly as Richard Wolf glanced her way. All those flirtatious looks passing back and forth! He could almost feel the crackle of electricity flying between them.
    “…a well-deserved honor, of course, but a bit late, don’t you think, Jordan?”
    Jordan glanced in puzzlement at Reggie Vane’s flushed face. The man had been drinking entirely too much.
    “Excuse me,” he said, “I’m afraid I wasn’t following.”
    “The Queen’s medal for Leo Sinclair. You remember Leo, don’t you? Wonderful chap. Killed a year and a half ago. Or was it two years?” He gave his head a little shake, as though to clear it. “Anyway, they’re just getting ’round to giving the widow his medal. I think that’s inexcusable.”
    “Not everyone who was killed in the Gulf got a medal,” Nina Sutherland cut in.
    “But Leo was Intelligence,” said Reggie. “He deserved some sort of honor, considering how he…died.”
    “Perhaps it was just an oversight,” said Jordan. “Papers getting mislaid, that sort of thing. MI6 does try to honor its dead, and Leo sort of fell through the cracks.”
    “The way Mum and Dad did,” said Beryl. “They died in the line of duty. And they never got a medal.”
    “Line of duty?” said Reggie. “Not exactly.” He lifted the champagne glass unsteadily to his lips. Suddenly he In Their Footsteps
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    paused, aware that the others were staring at him. The silence stretched on, broken only by the clatter of an oyster shell on someone’s plate.
    “What do you mean by ‘not exactly’?” asked Beryl.
    Reggie cleared his throat. “Surely…Hugh must have told you….” He looked around and his face blanched. “Oh, no,” he murmured, “I’ve put my foot in it this time.”
    “Told us what, Reggie?” Jordan persisted.
    “But it was public knowledge,” said Reggie. “It was in all the Paris newspapers….”
    “Reggie,” Jordan said slowly. Deliberately. “Our understanding was that my mother and father were shot in Paris.
    That it was murder. Is that not true?”
    “Well, of course there was a murder involved—”
    “ A murder?” Jordan cut in. “As in singular?” Reggie glanced around, befuddled. “I’m not the only one here who knows about it. You were all in Paris when it happened!”
    For a few heartbeats, no one said a thing. Then Helena added, quietly, “It was a very long time ago, Jordan.
    Twenty years. It hardly makes a difference now.”
    “It makes a difference to us, ” Jordan insisted. “What happened in Paris?”
    Helena sighed. “I told Hugh he should’ve been honest with you, instead of trying to bury it.”
    “Bury what? ” asked Beryl.
    Helena’s mouth drew tight.
    It was Nina who finally spoke the truth. Brazen Nina, who had never bothered with subtleties.