Free Pale Moon Rider by Marsha Canham Page B

dark stretch of road tonight not knowing what to expect. A thief was a thief; they had sly, shifting eyes and half-rotted teeth. They were brutish and coarse; they smelled of ale and sweat and debauchery, with the grime embedded so deeply into their flesh, it corrupted their souls. They were cowards and murderers who deserved to be put behind bars, and she had been able to ease her conscience somewhat by convincing herself this highwayman was no different. He was a thief and a criminal, and, as Roth had so brusquely pointed out, whether she helped capture him or not, his life was fated to end on a noose, hanging from Tyburn Tree.
    Yet she had been startled almost beyond breath when she had seen the tall, mist clad highwayman emerge from the shadows behind the coach. Sly he may have been, and certainly cunning enough to have eluded his hunters for six years, but his demeanor was not that of a common drayman. His laugh had been deep and rich, and when he had extended his hand to seal their pact, his grip had been firm and strong, the gesture almost courtly in manner.
    Renée tipped her head up and stared at the luminous circle of the moon.
    She had thought—seriously thought—of attempting to steal the jewels herself, but Edgar Vincent was not the kind of man who let anyone who picked his pockets get away unscathed. He had given her the rubies in London when their engagement had been announced, and for the following fortnight had allowed her to wear them in his presence. But he always reclaimed them the instant they boarded the coach for home and whisked them away somewhere safe until the next occasion arose when he wanted to display his vulgar extravagance. When Roth had come to her with his proposition—to elicit her help in setting a trap for the elusive Captain Starlight—she had thought it pure fantasy to use the jewels as bait. Madness, even. But now she wondered.

Could a man who had outfoxed and outmaneuvered the king’s men for all these years manage to slip through the teeth of a trap one more time? She was certain Roth would plan for every possible contingency, but …
    What if the legendary Captain Starlight could actually steal the gems? The suite was worth over fifty thousand pounds, and with that much money she and Finn could take Antoine far away from Roth and his false warrants.
    They could go to America . To New Orleans . Her father had been there just after the American revolution and …
    Her breath fogged the glass pane and she placed her fingertips over the dampness. She was not staring at the moon anymore. Her gaze had been drawn to the reflected glare of candlelight that originated inside the dressing room. She had deliberately left the door ajar to let some of the light spill into the darkened bedroom, but over the course of the past few moments, the gap had grown narrower and narrower, the movement gradual enough for her to have credited it to an errant draft pushing the door slowly closed. Now, however, with only inches of light to go, she knew the door was being pushed by something far more ominous than a ghostly current of air. Something … someone was standing beside the door deliberately cutting off the light and plunging the room into darkness again.
    The skin across her breasts tightened and a fine spray of gooseflesh rippled up her arms. She turned and searched the shadows, but they were too dark and her eyes too disbelieving to discern more than a vague shape against the wall.
    It was not possible. She had imagined him only a moment ago galloping free across the open fields, yet there was no mistaking the configuration of the tricorn and the multi-collared greatcoat. And no mistaking the silver scrollwork on the brace of snaphaunce pistols that were leveled at her chest.
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    “ Y ou!” she gasped.
    “Don’t be frightened, mam’selle. I am not here to harm you.”
    It was hardly a reassuring statement with the two pistols glinting in the moonlight. She needed a