“Give them back,” she cried, only to watch Luke’s broad shoulders disappear into the gloom. She had little choice but to follow him. At first, when she raced forward she couldn’t see anything except smog. Whirling around in a desperate circle, she battled tears and anger as she tried to listen for any sound of movement, but everything was cloaked in silence that was overwhelming. “You are nothing but a thief,” she screamed.
“Come with me then,” Luke challenged from within the depths of the smog. He was aware that she couldn’t see him, but he most certainly hadn’t lost sight of her. Whoever that man had been who had accosted her in the street was most probably right. He suspected from the weight of the bag he now held that it contained money – and a lot of it. Until he could ascertain who owned it, he couldn’t let her have it back.
Poppy’s stomach flipped when she heard his voice closer than she realised. She stepped forward and peered into the gloom and thankfully could just make out the shadowed outline of a man; Luke. When she reached him her desperate gaze fell to the bags in his hand. She tried to take them off him but he lifted them out of the way and shook his head all too slowly.
“Come with me.” He didn’t wait for her to reply, merely turned around and strode in the direction of what he hoped was the safe house. This damned fog was so thick that he struggled to see his own feet, but he did have his bearings and was at least able to pick out familiar houses around them and knew they were heading in the right direction.
Thankfully, Poppy did indeed stay close behind this time, and within minutes they entered the kitchen of the safe house.
“Take a seat,” Luke ordered, closing the kitchen door behind them. He slid the bolt across, partly to warn Poppy that she was going nowhere until they had talked, and she had told him everything – the truth this time, and partly to keep out unwanted intruders because he couldn’t be entirely sure they hadn’t been followed.
Poppy watched him place the bags on the table and push a chair out for her. She looked at it and contemplated taking her bags and leaving, but suspected he would just stop her before she even got to the door.
It was clear that whoever he was he had no intention of allowing her to evade his questions this time. Still, if she was going to be forced into answering his then he could answer a few of hers in return.
CHAPTER TEN
Luke looked at her. In candlelight she was even more beautiful than he remembered. Even as scared as she was there was an ethereal presence about her that was downright captivating. He wanted to reassure her. He wanted to hold her and coax her to confide in him gently. He wanted to protect her and assure her that everything really would be all right. If only she trusted him. But in the back of his mind he couldn’t forget the man in the street just now, or the huge bags in the middle of the table.
Once he had allowed silence to settle between them, he poured them both a goblet of brandy and, once she had refused the offer of something to eat, settled down into the chair opposite.
“Who was that man?” He asked with one eye on her ring finger. He hadn’t seen any physical similarities between the two but then it had been too gloomy to get a proper look at the man who had accosted her. Whoever he was, Luke suspected that he was just as thuggish as his demeanour toward Poppy had been.
“Who are you?” she countered. With more brazen daring than she really possessed, she stared back at him when he threw her a warning look and made no attempt to answer.
“Is he your husband?” Luke persisted.
“Who are you? Why are you helping me? I think it is safe to say that you are not just some ordinary gentleman.” She eyed his suit but doubted he actually had a job to go to. “Just who are you? Why are you involving yourself in this? What does it have to do with you?”
Luke mentally grimaced at that and tried to warn himself that it was inevitable he would have to face her questions at some point. He contemplated lying to her but suspected she had little trust in men as it was. He didn’t want to exacerbate the problem. If he did, he may never get her to tell him anything. With that in mind, he decided not to threaten her, but adopt a more amenable tactic.
“I work for the government. That is all I can tell you right now. I was trying to capture one of the pick-pockets who accosted you in the park the other day when I stumbled upon you, and the pick-pockets. I gave chase because I needed to get hold of one of them to ask them some questions about what has been going on in the park of late, but then you screamed when you found the body.”
Poppy frowned. “What has happened of late?”
“How long have you been in London?” Luke countered.
“About two weeks now.” She could see no reason to lie.
Luke nodded. “Then you wouldn’t have read the articles in the broadsheets about the spate of quite ruthless muggings at knife-point that have occurred in that park.”
Poppy looked confused. “Those pick-pockets who accosted me carried knives?” She just couldn’t see it. Some of the children had barely been old enough to hold a fork, let alone handle a knife.
“No, I don’t think they were. Did you see any on them?”
Poppy shook her head. “No, the younger one tried to distract me so the older could creep up from behind. They were pick-pockets not hardened criminals.”
Luke’s eyes met hers. “Pick-pockets are hardened criminals, no matter how young they are. They are stealing other people’s belongings and don’t give a damn for sentimental value, worth, or the upset they cause. Don’t lose sight of that. They have masters who demand they steal a certain amount each day, and they get beaten or go hungry if they don’t.”
“Oh, how awful,” she whispered, horrified at the very thought.
“You will never see a w
ell-dressed pick-pocket, Poppy. However, of late I think the gang that usually roam the streets around the park have been shoved aside by a much bigger and considerably more ruthless group of muggers who are vicious. People who have refused to hand over their money and valuables have been beaten, mugged anyway, and on two occasions now, knifed.”
“Was that man I found one of their victims?” she whispered, feeling slightly sick with the knowledge of just how close she had come to danger.
Luke shook his head. “So far, the bigger gang don’t appear to have taken to strangling their victims. They like to bully and beat; they don’t kill. There certainly don’t appear to have been a spate of strangulations in the area as far as I know.”