Free Hooper, Kay - [Hagen 09] by It Takes A Thief (V1.0)[Htm] Page B

here as planned."
    Dane met his host halfway back to the veranda, and
Garrett Kelly's brows lifted at the sight of him.
    "We were wondering about you," he said
politely.
    "I'm part cat," Dane told him in an easy, lazy
tone. "Never happy until I've found all the comers. Lost track
of time, I'm afraid."
    "You should have worked up an appetite, then."
Kelly said.
    "Yes. Yes, I certainly have."
     
Five
     
    Jennifer hardly knew how to respond to her mother's
inevitable questions after she returned from Belle Retour and Dane.
She was still trapped in that peculiar feeling of suspension, of
waiting, poised without breath on the edge of something. But she had
underestimated her mother. Francesca, after one penetrating look at
Jennifer, merely smiled and asked nothing.
    That reaction bothered Jennifer, and when she went to
wash up before dinner she took the opportunity to look into a mirror,
searching for whatever it was that her mother had seen. But she
looked familiar to her own eyes, unchanged. A bit pale, perhaps, but
that was nothing.
    Surely that was nothing.
    She slept fitfully that night, waking often with a
start, her heart pounding. Morning brought her the grim awareness of
her own scattered emotions, and she made a determined effort to gain
control over herself. The result, and one she was all too aware
of, was that she achieved a kind of surface calm, beneath which
nothing changed.
    She didn't want to think, and retreated to her study
immediately after breakfast to work. Since she was a freelance
commerical artist, she usually worked at home, and managed to immerse
herself in her routine. For at least several hours, she kept her mind
blank, trusting to automatic awareness of her work. But after lunch
she couldn't recapture that mood, and sat at her board, a
half-finished layout pinned before her.
    Damn. She wondered who had triumphed In the test of
poker skill last night between Dane and Kelly. She wondered if Kelly
had let slip anything that might have told Dane the plate had been
recovered. She wondered if she'd ever see Dane again.
    The last was a haunting question. She had met him only
the night before last, after all, and knew almost nothing about him .
. . except that by his own admission he was a gambler and a
thief. He was after something from Kelly, that much appeared
obvious. But what? A counterfeit plate, he had said. But what proof
did she have that such a thing even existed? She hadn't seen it.
    Yes, Kelly had clearly been robbed of something –
but had it been a plate? And she had only Dane's word that whatever
the item was, it had been returned to Kelly.
    The sheer force of his personality had carried her
along, unsettled but obeying, doubting his explanations yet
allowing him to half convince her he was telling the truth.
    She realized suddenly, miserably, that he would make an
excellent confidence man; he had the uncanny ability to inspire
belief even in the face of doubt. And Jennifer couldn't help but
wonder if he was playing on her emotions like a master manipulator,
using her in some dark game of his own.
    Her own response to him was easy to explain, she assured
herself. She had been out of control for the first time in her adult
life. That was why she had responded so wildly, why she had reacted
with such abandon. It hadn't been him, it had been herself. She had
been ... oversensitive to everything, including his touch, his
kisses. That was all. All.
    "Jennifer! Those trousers – "
    "Jeans. I'm working, Mother." She picked up a
pencil, frowning, trying to look as though that was the truth.
    "You have a visitor," Francesca said gently.
    Jennifer felt her heart catch, but managed to keep her
voice even. "Oh? I wasn't expecting anyone." And she hadn't
heard the doorbell.
    Her mother's laugh was throaty. "This one would
always be unexpected, I think. So handsome! And such charm, ah, I
knew he was your man!"
    Wincing, Jennifer murmured, "Dane?"
    "But of course. Such manners, that one. He asked me
if he