A Kiss In The Dark by Kimberly Logan Page A

much as a rag doll in the grip of a giant. “If you’ve done anything to harm my sister—”
    Desperate to make him listen, Deirdre tightened her grip on his arm. “Tristan, this isn’t helping Emily!”
    Finally, her words seemed to penetrate the wall of anger that surrounded him and he glanced down at her, his eyes focusing on her pleading expression. Slowly, as some of the tension started to seep out of his rigidly held muscles, he lowered Mouse to the ground.
    The rat-catcher didn’t hesitate. Taking immediate advantage of his newfound freedom, he whirled and scurried off into the shadows, Sally at his heels.
    As his fleeing figure disappeared into the darkness, Tristan let out an expletive and started forward in pursuit, but Deirdre flung herself into his path, placing a restraining hand against the broad expanse of his chest.
    “Let him go, Tristan.”
    “Let him go? He might very well be the only tie I have to my sister!”
    She shook her head. “He told us everything he knows.”
    “He told us nothing, except for a bunch of lunatic ramblings that make no sense. I want the truth.”
    “That was the truth, as Mouse sees it. Chasing him down and terrifying him won’t make him change his story.”
    “What are you saying? That the devil has Emily?”
    Deirdre bit her lip. That might very well be the case, she thought. There was no doubt in her mind whom Mouse had seen chasing Emily, and she could only pray that he’d been right when he’d said the angel had escaped. Telling Tristan of her suspicions now, however, would serve no purpose other than to worry him even more.
    No, she would wait until she was certain of what had transpired.
    “I don’t know,” she finally answered, turning and starting back down the alley toward the waiting carriage.
    Tristan caught up with her in a few long, furious strides, bringing her to a halt with a hand on her arm. His eyebrows were lowered in a menacing scowl. “If I find out that—that rat-catcher harmed my sister in any way—”
    “No! He wouldn’t!”
    “He has her ribbon!”
    “Which proves nothing except that he saw her, just as he said. Mouse wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
    “And you’re so certain of that because …?”
    “Because I know him.”
    Tristan’s eyes narrowed. “You never really know a person like that, Lady Rotherby. You can’t trust them.”
    Pivoting on his heel, he stalked ahead.
    Deirdre felt her temper flare at Tristan’s contemptuous words, and she hurried after him, stopping him just as he stepped from the dimness of the alley. “Wait a minute. What do you mean, people like that ?”
    He paused and looked down at her, one corner of his mouth tilted cynically.
    “Look around you, my lady.” He gestured with one hand at the neighborhood just starting to bustle with morning activity. Merchants up and down the street were opening their shops to the growing number of people on the sidewalks, and a ragged group of urchins played a rowdy game of jacks on the steps of a nearby building, their laughter mingling with the cries of the costermongers.
    “If I turned my back for one minute,” Tristan continued, his tone bitter, “half these people you seem so intent on defending would have my wallet out of my pocket in less than two seconds.”
    “And half of them wouldn’t,” she argued, glaring at him. “How can you judge them? You know absolutely nothing about their lives.”
    “I know enough to know what they’re capable of. I’ve been a witness to it. People like that are the reason my mother is dead.”
    Deirdre froze, going cold all over at the mention of Lady Ellington. “Your mother?”
    A muscle started to tick in his jaw and a spark of pain flared briefly in his eyes before he looked away. “Never mind. It’s in the past and I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t know why I brought it up.”
    “But—”
    “We still have Emily to find, remember? You promised results by noon, and so far all we have is one of her hair