didn’t take a Philadelphia lawyer or a Pinkerton spy to figure out what was happening He was back. It happened once or twice a year. The arrival and departure of Johnathan Hazard sent the entire office into a tizzy, a frenzy of swishing skirts and sighs and giggles. Last spring, Martha Epsom had broken her ankle racing down the hall Today, Judith and Mayetta had nearly come to blows while wedged between the doorjambs. All for a glimpse of Mad Jack Hazard. All for the sake of a fluttering heart. A fleeting sigh.
Such silliness.
Anna was about to turn and go back to her filing when someone grasped her elbow.
“Come along, Mrs. Matlin.” Miss Nora Quillan’s voice was brisk and efficient. Her gnp on Anna’s arm was secure. “There’s a batch of expense sheets somewhere in there.” The woman cast a dour glance at the door of the anteroom. “Perhaps you’d better get them before they’re trampled.”
There was no refusing Allan Pinkerton’s steelwilled longtime secretary. Not if one had a thimbleful of sense, anyway, or if one prized one’s employment at the agency, which Anna most certainly did.
“Yes, ma’am,” she said, even as the tall, broad-shouldered woman ushered her down the hall.
“I’m glad to see at least one of our young ladies has a sense of decency,” Miss Quillan muttered. “Some modicum of pride.”
They had reached the door to the anteroom now. Beyond the threshold was pandemonium—the sighing, simpering and swooning of a dozen or more of Johnathan Hazard’s devotees.
Miss Quillan clucked her tongue in disgust. “I’m helpless. Mr. Pinkerton insists this…this frenzy is good for morale, although for whose, I really couldn’t say. Certainly not mine!” She narrowed her eyes on Anna now, and her mouth crimped in a small smile. “I’m glad to see you’re immune, Mrs. Matlin.”
“Well, I’m not exactly…”
“Yes. Well. You’re a sensible girl. You’ll find the expense sheets over there by the window. I hope. Good luck.” Nora Quillan sniffed and waded into the feminine melee, clapping her hands and shouting, “Ladies! Ladies! Could we have a little order in here, please?”
It wasn’t that she was immune, Anna thought as she made her way to the window. That wasn’t the case at all. It was rather that she didn’t believe in expending useless emotions. She wasn’t the sort of person who wasted dreams. Not that she had any. But if she had…
She gave a little shrug, and was reaching for the sheaf of papers on the library table when the door of Allan Pinkerton’s office opened. There was a lastmoment jostling in the anteroom, a flurry of movement followed by a communal sigh that dwindled to a breathless hush as Pinkerton’s most illustrious spy appeared.
Anna’s hand halted in midair. Her heart, like countless others in the room, gathered speed, bounded into her throat and then plummeted to the pit of her stomach.
Johnathan Hazard—Mad Jack—was the most beautiful man in the world. From his jet-dark hair to the tips of his high glossed boots. He was broad of shoulder, narrow of waist, and perfectly tall. His bearing was straight and military, although Anna knew he had never been a soldier. His air of command was that of a duke or baron, even though he was the fourth son of an earl. Still, he was beautiful. Hazard was fashioned, Anna thought suddenly, not as a man at all, but as a model for what a man might be, if all the gods could agree on a single definition of masculine beauty. Or if they consulted her.
Which they hadn’t. Anna reminded herself quickly and firmly, redirecting her gaze to the stack of papers and the task at hand.
“Well?” Allan Pinkerton stood at Jack Hazard’s shoulder. He spoke with the hushed tone of a conspirator. “That’s the lot of them. A bevy, if you will. Take your pick, Jack. And be quick about it. I’d like to get back to business.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Hazard shifted his stance and crossed his arms, surveying the roomful of women. “I’ll need her for a month or so. Which one can you spare?”
“None of them, damn it.” Pinkerton shot back. Then he demurred. “Well, anyone but Miss Quillan, I suppose. The whole place would come undone without her.”
“I don’t want your ramrod, Allan. God forbid.” Hazard laughed as his gaze cut to the dark-haired secretary, who was poised like a pillar of salt behind her desk. And then, just at the edge of his vision, there came a sudden flash of light, a glint of gold that made him turn toward the window.
“What about her?”
“Her?”
“Over there. The little mouse. The one in the brown dress and the spectacles who’s doing her best to blend into the woodwork.”
Pinkerton squinted. “Oh. Mrs. Matlin.”
“Mrs. Matlin?” A frown creased Hazard’s forehead. “Is she married?”
“No. At least I don’t believe so. She’s a widow, as I recall. Been here for years.”
“I never noticed her.”
“I don’t suppose many do.”
Jack Hazard grinned. “A widow ought to do nicely. See that she’s on the train tomorrow morning, will you?”
Pinkerton cleared his throat. “I’ll ask her, Jack, but I can’t promise—”
“Don’t promise, Allan. Just do it.”
Then, with what seemed like a gust of audible sighs at his back, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency’s most illustrious spy walked out of the room.
Nora Quillan already had her hat and gloves on. As on most days, she had worked late. Today in particular, with all the commotion, she had been hard-pressed to get the agency back to some semblance of order. Having done that, Nora was ready to go home to a cold supper, a single glass of ale and a good night’s sleep. Still, she knocked on her employer’s door and walked into his office before he was able to call, “Come in.”
“You’re making a dreadful mistake, Mr. P.,” she said.
“Another one, Nora?” Allan Pinkerton turned from the window, hands clasped at his back, an indulgent grin upon his lips. “And just what is this dreadful mistake?”
“I know you think the world of Johnathan Hazard, but—”
“He’s the best man I have,” Pinkerton said, interrupting her.
“He was.” Nora sighed now as she crossed the room and settled on the arm of a chair. “His imprisonment during the war changed him. And now, after that Von Drosten woman sank her claws into him—and probably her fangs, as well—he’s worse. Much worse.” She narrowed her gaze on the man at the window. “Frankly, I’m surprised you haven’t noticed it. And I must say I’m shocked that you’d risk letting him fall into her clutches again.”
Allan Pinkerton was accustomed to his secretary’s candor. He valued her opinions. Nora Quillan was rarely wrong. In this instance, however, he prayed she was. Dead wrong.
“Did Jack say anything to you?”
