One Penny Surprise (Saved By Desire 1)

“They haven’t vanished like Balgravia did?”

“No. They are very angry,” Jeb replied. “Sir Hugo is smoothing things over and picking out faults with the house security. As always though, nobody appears to have seen or heard a blasted thing.” He paused and threw Poppy an apolog

etic look. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” she replied with a smile. Frustration hung over the table to such a degree that she wished she could help them in some way.

“Barnaby wants you, Marcus, to go help him. Joshua has news about a couple of items that have appeared in one of the shops. I don’t know what yet, so don’t ask, but that’s your job, Luke.”

Luke nodded. Poppy watched them and felt a little left out. She wasn’t entirely sure what she could do with her day. She could hardly go out shopping, and wouldn’t even if she could. Not with Clarence and his accomplice hanging around somewhere. That left her with little to do to occupy her time except think of the man seated beside her and wonder where the future would now take them.

“You need to stay here,” Luke said. He looked at her as though he had read her thoughts, and she felt a guilty flush stain her cheeks even though she had done nothing wrong.

“I am going to,” she replied, determined to do just that.

“I can stay here for a bit,” Marcus added. “I have some paperwork to go through before I leave.”

“I will go and meet with Joshua then. I should be no more than a couple of hours,” Luke replied.

Poppy tuned out while the men discussed their arrangements for the day. She wanted to assure them that she was perfectly capable of being by herself but then hated the thought of having to rattle around this huge house all by herself. Although Marcus was going to be busy at least there was someone she could talk to if she needed to; and someone to answer the door if anyone knocked.

“Right, well I will be off then,” Luke said once Marcus had gone upstairs, and Jeb had left to look for anyone watching the house. “You stay inside and keep warm. I will see you later.”

“Be careful,” she whispered. “You were gone this morning before I –” her cheeks blushed prettily.

Now that they were alone, Luke wasted no time letting her know just how important she was to him. By the time he let her up for air she was gasping and leant limply against the table while she watched him leave the house. Once the door was closed behind him she hurried toward it and slid the bolt across, a soft smile of delight on her face.

Once outside, Luke met with Jeb. “What do you plan to do about her father?” Jeb asked with a nod toward the house they left behind.

“I am going to take a look at that house in Camden. Then I am going to see the man who gave her that money. I want some answers. Then I will go and find Joshua and see what he has discovered about the jewels.”

“You can’t go to the house in Camden by yourself. If Clarence is still there with an accomplice you will need help.” Jeb grinned. “I am just in the mood for a skirmish.”

Luke sighed and rolled his eyes as he rubbed a particular sore spot on his chin. “You should have been there last night, you would have loved it.”

Jeb laughed. He had long since learned that a good brawl was a perfect way of divesting oneself of excess energy; that and, well, sex, but the last time he had indulged in any of that he had barely made it out of the parson’s trap with his bachelorhood intact. There was no way he was going down that route again so preferred a good scrap instead.

An hour later, they reached the house Poppy called the hovel. They studied the unwelcoming sight of the empty windows for a moment before they entered the alleyway at the rear of the property. They sidestepped past the worst of the filth piled into every corner of the litter-strewn yard and climbed up several stone steps to reach the back door.

“Damn it,” Luke whispered once he saw the damaged lock. “Someone has beaten us to it.”

The freshly splintered wood around the lock added to the abandoned atmosphere of the place. They entered the house cautiously. Once inside, they stepped around overturned chairs, and a dresser that had been literally pulled apart. The rest of the house was no better.

“It’s abandoned, but whoever is after that money wants it badly,” Jeb said once they were assured the house was empty. He kicked the remains of a spindle backed chair out of his way to study the gap in the floor where the floorboards had been yanked up. “Why here?”

“What?” Luke asked with a frown.

Jeb nodded toward the gap in the floorboards. “Why would they pull this particular part of the floor up?”

The rest of the floor in the hallway remained untouched. In fact none of the floors in any other part of the house had been yanked up as unceremoniously as this bit. Why?

Luke studied the distance to the front door and shook his head in disbelief. “There is no rhyme or reason to it, is there?”

The gap in the floorboards was about four feet away from the front door, right at the bottom of the stairs. There was no secret hiding place underneath. In fact there was nothing beneath the floorboards except for rubble and soil. It didn’t make sense.

“Whoever it was, I doubt they found what they were looking for,” Jeb drawled.

“I know. The bag is at the safe house,” Luke sighed and threw his colleague a look. The house was disappointingly empty and with no choice but to concede defeat, the men decided to leave. “I think it is safe to say that this isn’t Sayers’ work. He is the kind who would take someone off the streets and beat them to a pulp until they told him everything he wanted to know, or coughed up the cash. He wouldn’t resort to things like that.” Luke tipped his head backward to indicate the house they had just left and watched Jeb nod. “I cannot help feeling that destruction is staged.”