Free A Gift for Guile (The Thief-takers) by Alissa Johnson Page A

did manage to stumble through one. In fact, she looked half-ready to slice off a portion of his tongue if he so much as tried it.
    Better all around, he thought, if he just kept his mouth shut.

Six
    After changing into dry clothes, Samuel left the hotel to see to a few items of his own business about town. He didn’t like leaving Esther alone, but she was safe enough in her rooms. Besides, he’d seen Esther use her blades. She wasn’t what one might call entirely helpless.
    She also wasn’t what one might call entirely predictable. Keeping this in mind, he completed his errands and was back at the hotel in just over an hour—and was more than a little surprised when he discovered one item of business lounging against the door to his rooms.
    Sir Gabriel Arkwright straightened his tall, lean frame and held up a familiar note. “This was unexpected.”
    “As are you.” Samuel unlocked his door and let them both in. Suddenly, the day seemed much improved. “I left that note with your housekeeper not an hour ago.”
    “Then we missed each other by thirty minutes.”
    Samuel tossed his hat and gloves on the bed and grinned at his oldest friend. “Have you been waiting outside my door like a lost pup for long?”
    “Two minutes at most,” Gabriel replied and smirked. “Were you in Miss Bales’s company for long before you came running to me for help like a frightened child?”
    “It’s been nearly a full twenty-four hours.”
    “And neither of you mortally wounded?” Gabriel gave an appreciative bob of his blond head. “Impressive.”
    Samuel certainly thought so, but it was always nice to have one’s accomplishments recognized by a friend. Or family, in this case. Gabriel was a brother to him in all but blood.
    Renderwell was family as well, but he’d been a baron when Samuel had met him, as well as Samuel’s commanding officer in the military and later with the police. When they’d left the police to become private investigators, Renderwell had naturally stepped into a leadership role. He’d been Viscount Renderwell, the Gentleman Thief Taker. Samuel and Gabriel had been his men.
    Gabriel, on the other hand, had never been Samuel’s superior. They were equals, as brothers should be.
    “I’d be glad of your assistance in this, Gabriel.”
    “You’ll have it.” Gabriel smiled pleasantly as he removed his own coat and laid it over the back of an overstuffed chair with the meticulous care of a valet. “For the next sixteen hours. I’m for Scotland in the morning. Mr. Cobb of Park Lane fears his son has set up house outside Edinburgh with an actress.”
    All of Samuel’s notions of putting a bit of space between himself and the prickly woman across the hall went up in smoke. “Put him off a week.”
    “Can’t be done.” Always impeccably groomed, Gabriel took a moment to smooth down his windblown blond hair. “He has heard talk of marriage.”
    “Hell.”
    “Do you expect Esther to be in London a week, then?”
    Not if he could help it. “That is her intention.”
    “What is she doing here?”
    “I can’t tell you.” Feeling unaccountably embarrassed, Samuel rubbed the back of his neck when Gabriel lifted his brows. “I promised.”
    “God, you and your morals,” Gabriel muttered. “Is she in some sort of trouble?”
    “Not the sort you’re imagining.”
    “Are you certain of that?”
    “I am. But you may ask her yourself, if you like.” Esther meant to tell her family the truth once she returned to Derbyshire. It was possible she could be convinced to tell Gabriel the truth a few days early. “Before you do, I should warn you that she’ll ask you not to send word of this to Renderwell.”
    “She expects me to lie to him?”
    “No, just keep her stay in London a secret until she returns to Derbyshire. She’ll tell him herself.”
    “I see.” Gabriel leaned against the back of the chair. “Have you agreed to this?”
    “I have.” He wasn’t given much choice in the matter