My Favorite Thief by Karyn Monk Page A

saw his face—he kept his mask on the entire time,” pointed out Tony.
    â€œDoesn’t matter,” Lord Shelton insisted. “She might be able to spot some mannerism he has, or perhaps recognize the sound of his voice.”
    â€œCan’t imagine charging someone with murder based on their voice,” scoffed Lord Beckett dismissively, stroking the wiry gray point of his beard. “He could have disguised it while he was with her.”
    â€œAt any rate, he damned well got away.” Lord Chadwick took a hefty swallow of his wine, unnerved by the fact that he had come so close to death. “Now all the police can do is wait until he strikes again.”
    â€œI doubt Miss Kent was much help to them.” Lord Reynolds’s voice was laden with disapproval. “After all, she’s well known for her sympathies toward criminals.”
    â€œThat’s what comes from having bad blood,” complained Lord Shelton. “You can try to cover it up, but you can’t change it, no matter how much money you throw at it.”
    â€œYou think Miss Kent has bad blood because she wants to help the less fortunate?” Harrison’s tone was mild.
    â€œOf course not,” Lord Shelton assured him. “Lots of ladies work to help the less fortunate—my own wife included. But there are reputable, well-established charities for these causes, which only ask that respectable women help to raise funds for them, by making handicrafts to sell at their bazaars, for instance, or getting their husbands to donate money.”
    â€œMiss Kent lives with thieves and whores,” Lord Reynolds added. “No decent woman would permit herself to sleep under the same roof with the scum of society. It’s shocking. I’m surprised Lord Redmond allows it.”
    â€œShe lives with them because she’s one of them.” Lord Beckett’s lip curled with disdain. “All of Redmond’s wards came from thieves and whores—and every one of them was jailed at one time or another for their filthy, criminal ways. Redmond has done his best to clean them up, but you can’t turn pigs into horses, and he’s been a bloody fool to try.”
    Harrison casually studied his wine, maintaining a demeanor of complete indifference. It had never occurred to him that Miss Kent had sprung from a criminal background herself as she primly lectured him on the unpleasantness of prison and the merits of leading a respectable life. The idea of her being jailed as a child bothered him. Although he was well aware that British jails regularly incarcerated urchins, somehow he always imagined that they were invariably a tough lot. Miss Kent scarcely fit his profile of a common street urchin.
    â€œI believe she was working with the Dark Shadow to rob Chadwick that night,” Lord Shelton theorized. “If that maid hadn’t come upon the two of them in Lady Chadwick’s chamber, they’d have made away with all her jewels.”
    â€œThat’s ridiculous,” objected Lord Chadwick. “Let’s not forget that Miss Kent was an invited guest in my home, and that she is the ward of Lord Redmond.”
    â€œDon’t you think it strange Miss Kent just happened to come upon the Dark Shadow in your wife’s chamber while everyone else was down at dinner?”
    â€œBut the Shadow is well known for breaking into houses while the owners are there,” Tony pointed out. “He likes to slip in and out with no one noticing.”
    â€œBut why was she upstairs when everyone else was dining?” Lord Beckett’s eyes narrowed cryptically. “Seems suspect, if you ask me.”
    â€œMiss Kent told my wife she wasn’t feeling well and asked if she could be excused for a few minutes,” Lord Chadwick explained. “Since all of the guest chambers had been assigned to overnight guests, my wife quite sensibly told her to use her own chamber.”
    â€œAnd