Crystal Gardens by Amanda Quick

which the suitor was also present, a garden party, a reception, a ball, that sort of thing. I knew the first time I saw him that Mason was a fraud, of course. The problem was proving it.”
    Lucas frowned. “Your talent allowed you to perceive his deception?”
    Evangeline hesitated a beat too long before she answered. “In a manner of speaking. Naturally he never looked twice at me.”
    Lucas smiled. “Because you were just the grandmother’s companion.”
    “It is amazing what a pair of spectacles, a gray wig and an unfashionable gown will do to alter a person’s appearance,” Beatrice said.
    “I am well aware that most people see only what they expect to see,” Lucas said. “Go on with your story, Miss Ames. I presume you informed your client that her suspicions were correct.”
    “Yes, and she tried to persuade the girl’s parents to look more deeply into Mason’s finances. But, as I said, he was very clever when it cameto concealing his true nature. Lady Rutherford was beside herself with anxiety. So I set out to find proof.”
    Lucas realized he was fascinated, as if he were gazing into a crystal ball. “You obtained this evidence?”
    “Yes.” Evangeline moved one hand slightly. “That is my talent, you see. I am very, very good at finding things. It’s just a knack, really, an occasionally useful knack, mind you. But it was nothing more than a parlor trick until I joined the Flint and Marsh Agency.”
    “I can see where it might be a useful talent in your career as an investigator,” Lucas said.
    “To make a long story short, I was able to locate some documents that made it plain that Mason was a fraud. The young lady’s father was shocked and outraged. He immediately sent Mason packing. Lady Rutherford dismissed me quietly and paid her bill. That should have been the end of the matter and the conclusion of the case.”
    A whisper of dark knowing iced Lucas’s senses. “But it was not the end of the matter, was it? Mason somehow discovered that you were the one who had exposed him.”
    Evangeline turned her head in sharp surprise. Clarissa and Beatrice were equally startled.
    “How did you—?” Evangeline stopped. “Never mind. I should have known you would guess the truth. You are correct, of course. He must have watched me after I left Lady Rutherford’s house. He set a trap. I received what I thought was a message from one of my father’s old friends. Something to do with the discovery of some old shares of stock that Papa had owned that had suddenly become valuable. I immediately went around to the address that I had been given.”
    “The deserted building near the docks where Mason’s body was later found,” Lucas said. “You met him there.”
    Evangeline tightened her folded arms. “Yes.”
    Beatrice sighed.
    Clarissa stirred. “You are very intuitive, Mr. Sebastian.”
    “Please continue, Miss Ames,” Lucas said.
    “When I arrived at the address I had been given I had to go up a steep flight of stairs. Mason had concealed himself in a room at the top of the landing. He put a knife to my throat.”
    “Just as Hobson attempted to do last night.” Lucas suppressed the dark fury inside him with an act of will. “Damn the bastard to hell,” he said very softly.
    He became aware of the crystalline silence that had enveloped the terrace. All three women were staring at him, he realized. He reined in the unfocused energy that he was generating.
    It was Clarissa who spoke first. “He came so close. It chills me even now to think about it.”
    “You may as well tell me the rest of the story, Evangeline,” Lucas said.
    Out of the corner of his eye he saw Beatrice and Clarissa exchange glances. It dawned on him that he had used Evangeline’s first name. The small act of familiarity had not passed unnoticed. Under the circumstances, Evangeline’s friends very likely found the implied intimacy more shocking than the strong language he had employed a moment earlier to describe