Jade Star (Star Quartet 4)

She started to deny it, but knew it would do no good. “So,” she said coldly, “I cannot even trust Thackery. When did he tell you?”

“He didn’t.”

“Then how do you know?”

Saint shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Now, where is it?”

She looked mulish, and he grabbed her reticule from the dresser and riffled through it. She said nothing, merely stared at him tight-lipped.

There was no gun in the reticule.

“Where, Jules?”

Now was the time for a lie, she thought, squaring her shoulders. Otherwise, he would tear the room apart looking for it. “I decided that Thackery was right. I don’t need a gun. He will protect me.”

Saint stopped, turned very slowly, and looked at her. “Are you telling me the truth?”

She shrugged pettishly. “Why shouldn’t I? I told you, I realized it was silly for me to have it. Besides, I don’t know the first thing about derringers.”

“I see. Just what did you do with it, Jules?”

She held his gaze steadily. “I threw it in the ocean this afternoon.” She lowered her eyes quickly. That wasn’t a good lie at all. All he had to do was ask Thackery.

“If,” he said, “I discover that you aren’t telling me the truth, I will thrash you.”

She said nothing, merely twiddled her thumbs.

“What I should do is buy Thackery a leash. A short one.”

She shrugged, still saying nothing, and kept her eyes on her thumbs.

“Another matter,” Saint said after a moment. “I understand you paid a visit to Maggie the other day. No, let’s not repeat how I found out. Suffice it to say that I did, quite by accident. Would you care to tell me why you went to a brothel?”

“I wanted to meet her. Chauncey Saxton told me how very nice she was.”

“She runs a brothel,” Saint said. “It doesn’t matter how nice Maggie is. If you wish to make a friend of her, you will invite her here, you understand?”

“She won’t come here.”

“Then that’s an end to it.”

“No.”

“What?”

“I said,” Jules said very calmly, “that I shall do as I wish. And that’s an end to it.”

“Jules, listen to me.” He stopped, knowing that nothing he said would make any difference. He knew she was stubborn. He simply hadn’t guessed how stubborn. And she thoroughly disliked him, so why should she care what the hell he thought about anything? He suddenly remembered Victoria, her body viciously beaten by a mean drunk. God, he hated prostitution. Even willing women could be brutalized, just as Victoria had been. “Several months ago, Maggie called me to the brothel. One of the girls, Victoria is her name, had been badly hurt.” He paused a moment, realizing that he didn’t have her complete attention. “Actually,” he continued, his voice hard, “the man had not only beaten her, he had used her unnaturally, and torn her.” Should he be more graphic? He couldn’t bring himself to be. “I had to stitch her up, Jules. She was ill for several weeks.”

“Why are you telling me this? It is terrible, of course, but it has nothing to do with me.”

He frowned. “I don’t know. I don’t want you hurt, Jules.”

“Then why did you go visit Jane Branigan?”

“She wanted to speak to me, that’s all. Nothing more.”

“About what?”