Moonglow. Part 27

"And what of the stickpin?" Northrup countered.

"Perhaps someone nicked that stickpin from him."

"Nicked?" Northrup repeated with a repressed smile. For a breath-stealing moment, his blue eyes warmed and her insides fluttered, but he shook his head as if to clear it, and the connection was broken. "A nice thought," he said with his silk- and-gravel voice.

"Well, could it be yours? Maybe someone nicked it from you."

He didn't laugh at her tease. "No, la.s.s. My stickpin is long gone." A shadow of grief fell across his face. "I buried it with my son."

She touched him then, because she couldn't bear not to any longer. His hand was warm beneath her palm. "Maybe it isn't that stickpin at all, but one that resembles it. Victoria was crowned forty-six years ago," she added when he shook his head. "It was so long ago, you can't expect your memory to hold so well."

His smile was wide and wolfish. "So you blame my faulty, old-man memory, do you?"

"You are not old."

An amused snort filled the air between them. "I am going on one hundred and thirty-one."

"That is different," she said tartly.

"Oh?" His brows slanted upward, his smile shrewd. "How so?"

"You have the vigor and appearance of a man in his prime, as you well know, you arrogant b.a.s.t.a.r.d." She tried to sound annoyed, but for the first time in the day, he was acting himself. She hadn't realized how much she need his teasing, his joy, him.

Northrup's white teeth flashed. "Yes, vigor is quite important, is it not?"

"Do be serious, Northrup."

"Ian."

"Ian," she corrected, something inside of her squeezing tight.

His expression softened at the name, and she leaned closer, noting the way his nostrils flared and how the look in his eyes grew heated. She swallowed, her mouth dry. But the moment died when he spoke again. "Stickpin or not, have you an explanation for Miss Montgomery's both working at Ranulf House and being intimately a.s.sociated with not only a victim but the perfumer?"

Daisy did not. "We must warn her then. Is this what you plan to do tonight?"

Slowly, his thumb stroked her knuckles. "No, sweet, I believe Miss Montgomery is long past help. Lane describes her as being fair of hair, blue eyed, and pretty." Ian's lids lowered. "The woman we found in Ned's shack might have been so once. And Miss Montgomery was let go from Ranulf House about a month ago due to illness. Cancer, she claimed. But I'd bet my hat that it was syphilis, given to her by this mystery lycan who is now a were. Lane apparently thought as much, too."

"Well." Daisy sat back. "It appears that Winston is a better detective than you gave him credit for."

"He is a good man," Ian said. "And I will not let his attack go unanswered."

"Then tell me what you plan to do," she said, not without a little exasperation.

He hesitated for a fraction of a second. "Well, that's the thing, love. It appears that Conall has been hiding something in Buckingham Palace."

"Buckingham Palace." She did not want to hear this. She did not.

"The one and only."

It stunned her how well she could read him now. And she did not like what she saw. "Do not tell me you plan to break into Buckingham Palace."

He did not so much as blink. "Fine, I won't."

Wily b.a.s.t.a.r.d. "You are mad."

Ian grinned in acknowledgment, but he remained undeterred. "It's not as cracked as you a.s.sume. Only a few guards remain to watch the palace. Which is most likely why Conall has been using it. The little s.h.i.te probably loves to thumb his nose at Victoria by hiding the werewolf there."

"Only a few guards." The table creaked as she leaned over it. "And if you get caught, you can be charged with high treason."

"I will not be caught."

Daisy had to take a breath to keep from shouting. "Just how do intend to get in?"

Ian blinked then. "I'm taking Mary Chase with me."

"Oh-ho no." Daisy's hand curled into a fist upon the table. "Not that, that... moll."

His lips quirked. "She is not a moll. All right, perhaps she is, but she is also a very good spy. I need her to guide me in."

"Of course you do. Perhaps she'll let you feel her bosom as well." And Daisy would hunt her down and claw her gleaming, golden eyes out.

Being a fool, Ian wagged his brows. "D'ye think she might?" Squinting, he stroked his chin. "Perhaps she would at that, grat.i.tude for me bringing her into danger, I suppose."

"Oh, stop!" She tossed the table linen at him, which he ducked with a laugh. "I am going with you," she said when he straightened.

He laughed again, and not without a little humor. "You see, la.s.s, there is where you are wrong. You"-he pointed a long finger at her scowling face-"are going to be nice and safe at home with Talent keeping guard."

She grabbed the finger and hauled his hand, and thus him, close. "I do believe you must be suffering some malady of the mind if you think that will come to pa.s.s."

"Daisy..."

"I am not without resources, Ian."

Her curt response gave him pause. "What are you saying?"

Daisy took a breath. "I have a power as well."

Oddly, he didn't look as shocked as she expected, but rather relieved. "Were you planning to tell me anytime soon?"

"I'm telling you now. I found out the night you let your despicable brother tear you to shreds. And"-she braced herself-"it involves dirt."

"Dirt," he repeated.

She wrinkled her nose. "Bother. I hate dirt."

When he lifted his brows in exaggerated query, she sighed. "You see, I can move the earth, make it quake, part, surge, and so forth. I can control the plants, trees."

He closed his eyes. "I did not dream those lycans being speared by tree roots, did I? Or the flowers in the garden."

"I fear not."

Azure blue eyes opened. "Daisy-girl, I cannot tell you how much it pleases me to hear that you can defend yourself when threatened." His fingers, still caught in her grip, threaded through hers and Daisy felt the warmth of his affection. Something in her relaxed.

The grip on her fingers tightened, and he jerked her against him. "But if ye think that such revelations will cause me to take leave of my senses and put you in the direct path of danger, then ye've gone as daft as a wee loon."

It appeared that Daisy had not gone "as daft as a wee loon."

Ian's colorful phrasing aside, she could not fully justify coming along with him. One fool breaking into Buckingham Palace was enough. She wouldn't distract him by waiting outside, a sitting target for whoever happened along. So here she was, cosseted away like a b.l.o.o.d.y child with Talent to nanny her while Ian ran off with Mary Chase.

Smothering another curse, she glared into the crackling fire burning merrily away in the small upstairs library hearth. Beside her, Talent brooded for reasons of his own. When she could no longer take his burning stare, she turned to glare back at him. "It was his idea for you to watch me, not mine, so kindly stop looking at me in that manner."

"Of course it was his idea." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Before you came along, he relied on me for important tasks. Now I'm stuck watching over one of his women."

One of his women.

The little rat. Talent thought he knew how to get to her, did he?

"Is that why you do not like me?" She gave Talent a thin smile. "I know you don't. You have made that quite clear."

Talent smirked. "I wasn't going to deny it." He leaned forward suddenly, and his broad cheekbones flushed. "I don't like you because you make him weak. You distract him."

"Well, I'm here, aren't I?" Daisy's words came out in a hiss. "While he's off with that GIM."

She expected Talent to jump on her weakness but he looked equally disgruntled. "She's an unnatural piece, that one." Quickly he crossed himself.

"Does everyone revile the poor GIMs?" Daisy asked, a little shocked by his vehemence.

His lip curled. "Poor GIMs? They're body thieves. Unholy. The dogs of our world. And untrustworthy."

"Northrup trusts her. It should be good enough for you." And for me, she thought with a qualm.

"He's a fool around women," Talent said with a sneer. "Loves them too much."

Daisy's nails tapped along the arm of her chair as she studied the young man. He wasn't particularly handsome, not in the traditional sense of the word. Though hard, his features were even and well-formed. She suspected that when he smiled, he would be devastating in his own way. And he was not a boy, no matter how often Ian treated him as such. Talent continued to frown into the fire.

"Are you in love with Northrup?" she asked.

He jumped within his seat, his mouth hanging open. "You are barmy."

She offered a smile. "Stranger things have happened. And you do go on rather like a jealous lover."

"Good G.o.d," he snarled before leaping up to pace. "In love with him?" Talent spun on his heel and glared down at her. "He is like a father to me. Do you understand? I've been with him for years. Years, I've witnessed his loneliness. And now you come along, and he's out of his head."

Daisy's fists clenched. "Yet you begrudge his happiness with me?"

"Because he will not survive it when you leave," Talent shouted. "He was better off closed up. Better off not feeling."

She did not know what happened to the man to make him have such a dim view of life, but she understood his fear. Feeling too much was a dangerous endeavor. It was on the tip of her tongue to shout at him that she would never leave Ian. Doing so would be like ripping out her own heart. But that would make her a liar. Try as she might to forget what she knew, the truth could not be ignored. It burrowed into her heart and made her feel ill, and so very frightened that she wanted to curl up and hide. Daisy sighed and sank back deeper into her seat. "You're right."

Whatever cutting retort Talent had been about to utter died a quick death in the face of her confession. "What are you going on about now?"

Daisy's bottom lip trembled, and she ducked her head, cursing herself for crying now, and in front of him of all people. "I shouldn't have let it go so far," she whispered. "I am not for him."

She might have laughed at the way Talent's head c.o.c.ked to the side, his expression utterly confounded. But she couldn't. Not when her heart was breaking. d.a.m.n it, but Ian had been right; distraction worked for only so long.

"You..." Talent ground his teeth before continuing, "You make him happy."

It was an admission dragged out with the greatest reluctance. Of that Daisy was sure. She did laugh then, but without any humor. "Yes. And he makes me so very happy, too." She sniffled as she went as leaky as a blasted kitchen tap. With a sound of disgust, Talent handed her his kerchief.

"Thank you," she said. "You know, I never used to cry. It seems all I'm capable of now."

"If you make him happy, and he makes you happy," Talent said, "then why should you care a whit what I say?"

She looked up at him through her watery gaze. "Admitting that you aren't all-knowing now, are you?" When he glared, she smiled. "I am human, Jack." Tears welled up again and she blinked hard. "I'm going to die." She swallowed hard. "Eventually, I will die, and he will remain."

He opened his mouth to protest when a sharp noise from below brought him up short. He stilled and held up his hand as if to bid her quiet while he listened. The sound came again, of breaking gla.s.s. His green eyes gleamed with determination as he looked at her. "Stay here."

Daisy lurched to her feet, her heart pounding a wild rhythm. Before he could move away, she caught his arm. "Don't go down there."

Talent looked at her hand upon his arm and then up at her with pointed annoyance. "Are you joking? Of course I'm going. It's my duty."

Daisy didn't let go. Talent might be abrasive and pompous half of the time, but she couldn't see him hurt. "It might be the werewolf."

"I b.l.o.o.d.y hope so. I've been itching to get my hands on that b.a.s.t.a.r.d." He tugged at her grip. "Let it go, will you?"

"No." She clutched him harder. "Ian said you weren't a lycan. How do you even expect to fight it?"

Talent snorted. "Now you ask me?"

"I trust Northrup's judgment," she said. "But you have no idea how strong that thing is."

He laughed with equal parts mirth and outrage. "h.e.l.l, woman, I am a shifter."

She had no idea what a shifter was, but it did not sound very impressive. "A shifter is what exactly?"

"b.l.o.o.d.y... A shifter is its own beast. I can shift into any living thing." An evil smile spread over his face, and then the air about him shimmered and his body distorted. It was a quick thing, a blur of movement.

Daisy gave a cry of shock and nearly fell on the floor.

Talent laughed. "What? Don't like what you see?"

She gaped back at herself. He'd turned into her! Her face, her figure dressed in Talent's clothes looking back at her.

"Good G.o.d," she sputtered. A thought occurred to her, and she yelped. "You were that blasted crow who followed me!"

The air around him stirred as he shifted back. "Quick one, aren't you?" He leaned in, and all the humor leached out of his expression. "I can turn into anything," he said with emphasis. "Even another werewolf."

When Daisy blinked back at him, too dumbfounded to speak, Talent laughed, heartily. She'd been correct. He was devastating when he truly smiled. "Haven't you learned, woman? You've fallen off the map. Here there be monsters."