Page 42 of The Swan Detective (The Swan Syndicate #2)

When the carriage reached the manor, Beckworth jumped down to let the women out, then returned to the bench.

Anger hovered at the edges, and he needed more time to let it wear off.

Lincoln didn’t say anything. He’d been around enough of Bart’s tantrums to know when to stay quiet.

When they reached the carriage house, Beckworth squeezed the lad’s shoulder to let him know everything was fine before he trudged back to the manor.

He’d barely entered the foyer when Libby darted around a corner and out of sight. His fear and concern for Stella came tumbling back, as did the fact she’d gone behind his back to sneak around the docks in the middle of the night.

That nagging feeling of double standards poked at him as he raced up the stairs to their room, but he pushed it aside when he reached the bedroom door. Who would he face on the other side? The spitfire or the diplomat?

Stella sat at the dressing table, brushing her hair.

She didn’t glance his way, nor did she say anything.

At first, he thought she might be contrite about her actions.

It was possible. Then he caught a glimpse of her stubborn expression in the mirror, and his fear-induced anger flared before he could pull it back.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

She brushed her hair for another ten strokes before setting down the hairbrush and opening a jar. The lavender scent wrapped around him as she spread the cream over her arms. Her nightly ritual.

When she turned toward him, her head tilted to one side. “Exactly what are you referring to?” Before he could answer, she stood, tied her robe closed, and planted her fists on her curvaceous hips.

He swallowed and waited for the storm. It hadn’t taken him long to learn, back when they were running from Gemini, that it was best to let her get it all out. Then they could speak rationally about her poor decisions.

“Are you angry because two women shouldn’t have left the house without a proper escort?

Oh, but wait, Lincoln was with us. Or perhaps it’s because we were tracking a thief.

Well, perhaps we should have waited for the indifferent inspector to figure it all out.

Maybe we should let the crews continue to take the heat for some interloper.

Or, maybe I should have just told Elizabeth that her precious necklace, a special one-of-a-kind necklace that her dead husband had commissioned for her, was gone forever, and she needs to suck it up.

” She tapped her foot in rhythm to her heated speech. “Well, which is it?”

He waved his hand in the air to stop her, refusing to be taken in by another one of her lists, as if he were in the wrong for worrying about her. He had every right to worry over her. He loved her. And she had to understand how dangerous her actions had been.

“All of it,” he snapped. “First, Lincoln isn’t an appropriate escort. He’s too young, and you left him at the carriage.”

“Too young to escort us, but not too young for the Royal College of Surgeons?”

“He should have been at your side. But then, you shouldn’t have been crawling around the back alleys of the docks. It’s too dangerous for women on their own.”

“Would it have been too dangerous if Libby were working a job for the crew? Or are you going to tell me that Chester doesn’t have young girls and women all over the East End in the middle of the night without proper escorts?”

“You’re not one of the crew.”

“And I’m not part of the aristocracy, either. I’m simply accepted, or partially accepted, because I’m your consort.” Her eyes narrowed. “Or perhaps it’s more that I’m an oddity to be examined.”

That made him step back. “That’s not true.”

She shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. The point is, there was a theft. More than one. And no one—no one—is doing anything about it.” She pointed a finger at him.

“But the women got together and we figured it out.” Her gaze lifted to the ceiling for a moment.

“Well, we almost have it figured out. The thief was tracked to a pub near the docks. We were just trying to see where he goes after that. We got lucky tonight and tracked him to that building without any signs. Doesn’t that seem odd on a street full of vendors and pubs? ”

“And whose idea was it to track them on your own? Elizabeth? Mary?”

“Don’t pick on them just because they’re bold enough to help a friend.

Besides, they’re enjoying their part in finding the thief.

And all of our work before tonight has been at the balls, keeping an eye on the women who wore jewelry the thief was after.

” She hesitated, wanting to say more, but was considering her words carefully, which meant he wasn’t going to be like what came next. “We used the crew to follow the thief.”

“You got the crew involved with this? I should have known. It’s Libby I should be reprimanding.”

Her green eyes flashed with a fire he hadn’t seen for some time. “Don’t even think about bringing her into this. You know this has nothing to do with her, and being in service to me, she was only doing what I asked.”

He opened his mouth, then shut it. There was something he was missing. Libby still held some sway with the crew, but enough to gain resources for their scheming? Would Stella have asked her to do that? Not when she had direct contact with the crew leader.

“You went to Chester.” Saying it out loud made it even more unbelievable.

Had Chester worked with her behind his back?

Had this all occurred during the three days he’d been gone to retrieve André?

He’d been so involved in his own mission that he hadn’t spoken to Chester since their party. The thought gutted him.

The steam seemed to go out of her until she turned the conversation to his activities.

“Lando mentioned someone by the name of André. I’ve been racking my brain ever since we left the docks, and I could only think of one André.

But then, I must have been mistaken, because last I heard, André Belato, Gemini’s brother, was in Newgate prison.

That couldn’t be the same André that Lando spoke of.

I’m just curious, because the name sounds French to me. ”

Had he really thought she wouldn’t discover what he was up to?

Over the last week, they’d grown apart. Oh, they had their dalliances, but they had a deeper connection than their intimate moments.

They shared everything, until this trip.

Until Hensley stepped in between them. Hensley didn’t do it on purpose.

The man was single-minded, and with the war, his pursuit to protect England only became more dogged.

Beckworth was suddenly quite weary, and he leaned against the dresser. He wanted to sit, but he was feeling too defensive, and it was time to come clean.

“Sometime after the Daphne docked, Michelson and Lane heard rumors of smugglers in port who might be working for McDuff.” When Stella’s face drained of color, most likely thinking of Cheval more than McDuff, he hurried to explain the rest. “Jamie’s crew found the ship, the Nighthawk , but Hensley needed confirmation of someone on the ship who’d been seen with McDuff. ”

Stella turned away from him as she paced, not something she typically did, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad sign. She had that look that she was mulling over what he’d shared and was trying to connect the dots.

“So those times you told me you were in the East End or taking care of other business, you were running surveillance.”

“There are only a few of us who’ve seen the men in McDuff’s circle.

Since we don’t think McDuff is in London, we suspect someone he trusts is.

We’ve been able to identify the ship’s captain as someone we’d seen on the Tidewater .

That’s the ship that was with The Horseman when they were loading crates in that cove.

We’ve seen the man go in and out of the same unidentified building that your thief entered. ”

“And no doubt, Hensley told you to leave me out of this.” She tapped a finger on her chin. Now she was in thinking mode and didn’t expect a response. His assumption proved correct when she strode to the window that looked out over the manor’s garden.

There were a dozen things he wanted to say, but she wouldn’t hear them. At least not consciously. She was working through the past week, trying to make sense of things.

“For some reason, you need a Frenchman, and you thought André could help, so you got him out of prison. At least, I assume he was still in prison if he’s in England.

” She spun around. “You think McDuff sent someone here to find a source for French guns since Cheval is out of the picture and Lady Swan disappeared?”

That had only taken ten minutes for her to suss out. How had he or Hensley ever expected to hide anything from her?

“They have to pay for the guns, right?” She turned to him, her forehead still scrunched in thought.

He chuckled, even though it was strained. “That’s usually how it works.”

“What if the one-of-a-kind jewelry created by a Frenchman is more valuable than we think? What if these thefts were a way to pay for the guns?” Her excitement built as she stepped through it.

“It’s probably not enough to cover the entire payment, but it seems more than a coincidence that the thief went to the same building where you’ve seen McDuff’s allies. ”

He’d been thinking the same thing on the drive back to the manor.

As much as he’d been irritated with Stella’s escapades, the fact they’d both followed different men and ended up at the same unmarked building spoke volumes.

Had Hensley foreseen this possibility once he’d heard about the provenance of the stolen jewelry? He should have seen it himself.