Free A Private Duel with Agent Gunn (The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard) by Jillian Stone Page A

quick—slow. Draw me to you.” Finn swept her close. “Place your right leg between mine and pause.” The moves returned to him quickly as they whirled around the stage. Soon they were extending the glide of their steps together.
    For a large man he was graceful and very much in charge of his partner. He swiveled his body with hers—inserting his leg between hers. “Press your thigh against mine, and hold.” At times, in the turns, she felt as though their bodies moved as one. Perfecto, sensual, glorioso. Hips swaying, legs interweaving—coming together, drawing apart.
    Cate smiled. “You remembered.”
    He pulled her back and held her against his body. “How could I possibly forget?” The last strains of the waltz ended on a quiet note. His gaze lowered to her lips. “Lovely piece of music. ‘The Kiss Waltz,’ is it not?”
    Her eyes fell to his mouth. She allowed herself a brief fantasy then stepped back, breaking the spell. “You never answered my question. Why are you here?”
    His gaze tracked her every move. “I’ve had a chance to study your uncle’s list and have a number of questions. If you have time before the—?”
    She shook her head. “I go straight from rehearsal to the bathhouse and return in time to ready myself for evening performance.” Cate ducked her head to peer through the raised piano lid. “It appears Mérante has missed rehersal. Thank you, Mr. Skym.”
    “Tomorrow morning then, say ten o’clock, at your uncle’s residence?” Finn asked.
    “Ten is fine.” She picked up a Turkish towel and patted her forehead. “You might have offered to take me to supper.”
    “I’ve a rather a busy evening ahead of me. A few errands and obligations to attend to.” There was something deliberately evasive in the way he avoided her gaze. “And there is a necklace to return.”
    She draped the towel around her neck. “I take it Lady Lennox is recovered?”
    Finn shrugged. “Hardy claims all is well. The earl has left town—cooling off in the country.”
    She stopped a slow pivot midturn. “You mentioned obligations?”
    He stared for a moment before clearing his throat. “I think it best I settle affairs with Miss Hebert.”
    A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. It would seem this pas de deux with Phineas Gunn was far from over.

Chapter Six
     
    F inn sat in the darkest corner of the lady’s bedchamber and listened to the padding footsteps and soft murmurs of the servants as they closed up the house for the night. A rustle of leaves whipped up by a gust of wind carried the chill of evening across Lady Lennox’s sumptuously appointed four-poster bed.
    He had purposely left the window ajar.
    This surveillance would likely go nowhere this evening. Then again, he might catch a jewel thief.
    Gwen had been a good sport about the whole thing. “Something devilishly romantic about a night visitor to my bedroom.” Her reaction to the idea of a second-story man had gone from amused to angry in so many seconds. “Let the burglar have it. I shall never wear the bloody thing again.”
    “Yes, why not? Collect the insurance and be done with it,” Finn had replied. After a good deal of flirtation and cajoling, Gwen had allowed him access to her room.
    Finn had always enjoyed Gwen’s pluck and he knew exactly what his brother saw in her. But this amourette with Hardy was different somehow. Gwen had encouragedgossip and flaunted the affair. Worse than that, she allowed herself to be seen in public with her lover. And his devil-may-care brother had indulged her. The fact that Gwen enjoyed a tryst now and then was entirely her own business. But she was dragging his brother into something that could end badly.
    Shortly after midnight, Gwen had escorted him up to her room and unlocked her jewel safe—if one could call it that. The lady’s jewelry case was more akin to a heavy, cumbersome cabinet. She leaned against the dresser as he dropped the necklace into one of the flat