When a Rogue Meets His Match - Elizabeth Hoyt Page 0,122

half mask that had accompanied the invitation, ensuring it was still firmly in place. As Adeline handed over the expensively engraved missive, she let her cloak fall open to reveal the bodice of her gown, which was a breath away from indecent. This particular gown usually stalled unwanted questions from men like this in situations like this, and tonight was no different.

The guard leered, glancing only briefly at the card, which looked more like an invitation to a coronation than an invitation to an auction. Adeline had considered a stealthier means of accessing the house but, in the end, had decided that this course of action offered the greatest chance of success. Though that was before King had appeared in that alley. And by then the first domino in her plan had already been tipped.

And now the rest would fall as they might.

* * *

Save for the tall fences and gates, Helmsdale House might look like a bucolic country manor from the outside, but Adeline had been in palaces with less sumptuous interiors. As she entered the hall, a golden-haired boy approached and offered her a courtly bow. He was no more than ten, dressed in fine livery and possessing startlingly beautiful features. He whisked away her cloak with nary a word and vanished as another servant, this one a footman in the same livery, offered her a glass of champagne from a gleaming silver tray.

A fire roared in the massive marble-encased hearth, chasing away the December chill and sending a red-orange glow dancing across the polished floor. What looked like ancient Greek sculpture flanked the fireplace, imposing as it was arresting. On a wide canvas mounted above the hearth, a beautiful woman clad in a torn tunic and armed with a bow was forever captured in a bloody battle with an enraged dragon. Yet the display of opulence in the hall paled in comparison to the cavernous ballroom that drew people in through tall, arched doors.

Adeline took a sip of her champagne and allowed herself to be swept into the ballroom in a current of expensively dressed men and the occasional woman, each wearing a copy of the mask that she currently wore. The effect was more macabre than mysterious, but it effectively blurred the identity of each individual, which, she suspected, was the entire point when one was bidding on treasures whose provenance was murky at best.

Adeline continued deeper into the ballroom. Above her head were vast chandeliers, their crystal drops glittering like clouds of diamonds. Somewhere in an unseen corner, a pianoforte was being played, the melody subtle and winding through a hundred hushed conversations. A deserted balcony running the length of the near wall overlooked a low dais that had been set up in the center of the ballroom, no doubt the stage upon which the auction would be conducted.

And scattered throughout the space, lit by a thousand candles, rested the treasures everyone had come to bid upon.

The jewels and smaller antiquities were housed in specially crafted glass cases on the far side, mostly obscured by the crowds that clustered around them. Nearer the entrance, larger sculptures were set up on heavy bases, and on wide easels, paintings that fairly dripped with age and history rested. Adeline wasn’t interested in the sculptures or paintings. What she had come for lay in one of those glass cases.

She sipped her champagne and wandered along the near side of the ballroom, forcing herself not to rush. Closest to her loomed a marble statue of a curly-haired man rendered with exquisite detail, the figure leaning on a long staff, gazing down in what looked like contemplation. Hercules—Michelangelo was written on a tiny card at the base. A lot number was detailed beneath the title, identifying it as a treasure to be sold this evening to the individual with the deepest pockets. She had no idea where King would have acquired such a piece but such details would be immaterial to those here tonight.

She continued beneath Hercules’s silent, unseeing gaze. Her own eyes scanned the ever-growing crowd, but there was no sign of King. She reached the far wall, the items mounted in the polished cases glowing and sparkling on their beds of white satin beneath the abundant light. Clusters of people dressed in lavish evening clothes and extravagant gowns bent over the cases. Muted exclamations of admiration and excitement reached her ears, though she could hear tones of unmistakable greed beneath each word. From a business perspective, Adeline had to