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At first, he was taken aback with awe. The room was enormous!

At the far end was a two-story wall of windows, like one would see in a hothouse.

Framed art hung over every inch of the plaster walls.

Heavy, wooden tables were adorned with busts and statues and more framed art.

A few dimmed electric lamps gave an eerie glow to everything and threw long, severe shadows.

Somehow, Ollie slipped inside noiselessly.

Then another memory unexpectedly flashed, of him tiptoeing through a dark hallway.

It was very late. He turned into a room and set his eyes on a mahogany wood box.

Small, chubby hands lifted the lid. Inside the box, lined in red satin, were the most beautiful jewels he had ever seen in his life.

He stuffed his pockets with them, and the memory ended.

Ollie held his breath, surprised. He’d never recalled being a jewelry thief.

A man’s voice brought Ollie back to the present and he pushed the memory away for now.

Sliding soundlessly through the room, Ollie took care to stay in the shadows. When he heard a man speak again, he went in that direction.

Ollie’s fear was realized when he found the idiot thief in his even more idiotic costume. And in front of the thief, with her back to Ollie, was Evelyn. In a chair. Her wrists tied behind her.

Calm down. That little voice spoke again. She’s alive and isn’t in mortal danger. You have a moment to determine how to act.

But Ollie wasn’t patient enough and ignored his own advice.

A wooden shipping box was up ahead, containing something quite tall. It was the perfect spot for Ollie to hide close enough to Evelyn where he could hear their conversation. He slid over to it and listened.

*

In the midst of running behind Ollie, Evelyn was unexpectedly yanked into a room and gagged one second before a blindfold was secured over her eyes.

She made muffled sounds of protests and squirmed with all her might while flailing her legs and arms, hoping to make contact with the Signature Swindler, who had, apparently, decided to kidnap her.

And she promised to make him regret it.

The thief mumbled curses to himself as he tried to secure her limbs. There was a brief scuffle in which something knocked into her hat, pushing it askew. Moments later, the thief managed to twist her arms behind her back. Both of them heaved for a moment, trying to catch their breaths.

He began tying rope around her wrists and didn’t keep it loose for comfort.

She swore at him.

“’Tis not very ladylike of you, Miss Sparrow,” the man replied gruffly in his heavy Irish accent.

Evelyn could hear the amusement in his voice, which only made her madder. As she had done before to the police officer, she kicked behind, making contact with his shins.

The thief hissed a curse. “Do that again, and you’ll be hogtied.”

She asked, “What do you want?” but the gag made it impossible to speak clearly.

“You want the answer to that question? Then you’re going to come with me, as quiet as a wee mousie.”

Evelyn had to decide quickly what to do. She could try fighting back, running away, screaming, or complying.

If she tried fighting back, she would lose.

The Signature Swindler was slighter in height than Ollie, but she couldn’t recall who was taller between her or the thief.

Even if he was shorter, he was still likely significantly stronger than her due to the unfortunate fact that he was a man.

Also, she was at a disadvantage with her arms tied behind her back and her eyes covered.

Fighting back wasn’t an option.

And if she ran, she would run into something and knock herself out. Not a helpful option, either.

If she made lots of noise, there was no telling how he would react. He wouldn’t run away—she could judge that already—but she wasn’t sure how far he would go to stop her.

Nor was she eager to find out.

Unfortunately, it seemed as if complying was her only choice. “Fine, I’ll go with you.” Her voice was muffled against the gag.

For a moment, nothing happened and Evelyn wondered if he’d changed his mind.

But then he removed her eye covering. Blinking to adjust her eyes, she was startled to find, right in front of her, the terrifying man dressed head to toe in black, the Volto star mask and tricorn hat covering everything but his dark eyes.

Still gagged, she glared back.

The dark eyes smiled through the eye holes. “Now you can see so you don’t go walking into anything. If you cooperate, I’ll remove the gag. And then after that, the rope around your wrists. But only if you do as I say.”

She nodded, as there was nothing else she could do.

“Excellent.” The thief peeked out into the hallway and Evelyn noted she couldn’t hear anything. Had Ollie realized yet she was missing? Would he come looking for her?

Of course he would.

But there was a little nagging feeling she couldn’t shake off. What if he didn’t? He wasn’t a fighter, and he’d seemed rather disturbed by the museum at night. What if he was too scared and left? Would he leave her behind?

The Signature Swindler gripped her upper arm and started leading her down the hallway. Evelyn opened her ears as much as she could but didn’t hear Ollie anywhere nearby.

She was crestfallen.

Not a moment later, they came upon double doors and the thief led her through them.

Evelyn gasped when she saw the room. It was enormous, with one entire wall nothing but floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as hundreds of glass panes that looked out over a tree-filled garden. The lighting in here must have been absolutely superb during the day!

As the thief led her farther in, Evelyn studied her surroundings. What was this incredible room? It seemed to be a storage room, with different types of art stored together in nonsensical groupings, but off to the side, she recognized a small conservation area. Wistfully, she stared after it.

“What is this room?” she asked, forgetting about the gag, so it came out almost impossible to understand.

“Did you not see the sign? That’s right, you were blindfolded. It’s the conservation center.”

It was incredibly unorganized for a conservation center. Yet she was still filled with wonder at it.

The thief led her over to a chair and motioned for her to sit in it. She did. It was rather uncomfortable, but she made no complaint. Not that he would care, anyway.

The Signature Swindler stepped forward and crossed his arms as he studied her. What did he want? Why had he separated Evelyn from Ollie when he had already planned to meet the both of them?

Evelyn reviewed the meager clues she had.

He was an Irishman with dark eyes, not blue, as one would generally expect. He had ties to the tenement across the street from the Bethnal Green Museum, though what those ties were, she didn’t yet know. This information didn’t help her in the moment.

He knew where Ollie lived. But she still wasn’t sure if his initial objective was to get to Ollie or to Evelyn.

And he knew her name. That meant he knew about the reward to turn her into the earl. This pushed her toward the idea she was what he wanted. Not her, specifically, but the reward for her.

The good thing about that, though, was he wouldn’t lay a hand on her. He wouldn’t hurt her. The earl wouldn’t give the reward if anything happened to her, of that she was confident.

This provided some relief, at least.

“I’m going to remove the gag,” the thief said. “If you scream, I promise you’ll regret it.”

The threat sounded weak. She was sure he wouldn’t follow through with it. But she also wasn’t about to tempt fate, either.

The thief took a hesitant step forward and—finally—she could talk again!

“Is this all really necessary?” she immediately asked, ensuring her voice was sharp. Her neck was tense and she turned her head to stretch it.

The thief considered her question. “Yes.”

She huffed. “What do you want? You knew we were here—you gave us that silly little note. Obviously, you had planned to meet with us, but you took me instead.”

Unfortunately, because of the mask, she couldn’t read his face at all while he didn’t reply.

“What. Do you want,” she reiterated.

“The man you’re running about with. Ollie McNab, is it?”

She kept her mouth shut. They still weren’t sure whom the thief had originally been after: Ollie or Evelyn. “I’m not telling you anything,” she replied in a haughty tone.

“And he has two brothers, right? They own a pub.”

Again, she kept her mouth shut on this. Why was he asking questions about Ollie when it was she with a reward over her head?

“You know who I am.” She decided to redirect the conversation.

“Yes.”

“Is all of this to get the reward? Turn me in to my jailer to make some money with no regard to why I ran?”

The thief stared at her behind that unsettling mask. “Why did you run?”

She scoffed. As if he really cared.

“A question for a question.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “What does that mean?”

“I ask you a question and if you answer, then you can ask me a question.”

Evelyn gave some thought to this. “Very well.”

The thief began to slowly pace. “So. Why did you run?”

“Because I don’t want to get married.”

“In general, or to the earl?”

“Both.”

“So—”

“Ah!” Evelyn interrupted. “You asked a question. That means I get two now.”

The thief stilled for a moment. “All right. Ask two.”

“What do you want from me?” Finally, he would have to answer.

“I had some questions to ask you.”

Evelyn let out a grunt of frustration. “What kind of questions? This is ridiculous. Why did you have to kidnap me to ask?”

The thief paused and his eyes grinned through the mask. “That was three questions.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I will tell you my questions in a moment. I had to kidnap you”—his feet shuffled as he paused to turn his pacing around—“because it would be the only way to get answers. No chance I would get them with your friend around.”