The year is 1806. Bastard-born jewel thief David Lambert has few rules in his personal life. Never bed the staff, never more than once with the same man, and never, ever, kiss. Attending an aristocratic party and relieving some of the wealthy of their possessions should be easy, but in the space of a weekend, one by one all his rules are shattered by a footman with a secret.<br><br>Jeremy Naylor thought he had found the man of his dreams, the one man who might understand him. Someone passionate, handsome, and respectable. But in one shocking moment his world is destroyed, and he is forced to run for his life.<br><br>Flung together to escape the hangman’s noose, the passion between David and Jeremy burns fiercely. But Jeremy yearns for respectability, and David refuses to admit what lies in his heart. Will they find a way together, or will their differences lead them to the very brink of disaster and the shadow of the gallows?

Thief of Hearts

“Oy, fancy boy. What you in for?” a voice from above him rang out. As Jeremy’s eyes accustomed themselves to the dark, he could see some of the men opposite laughed. “Oooh, let me guess,” one of them said, flapping a hand about.


Jeremy clasped his knees tight to his chest and put his head down on them as roars of laughter echoed through the room. Tremors ravaged his body, and the panic sliced through him again at being penned in such a tight, tiny, dark space. He couldn’t breathe. He put his hands over his head, buried his nose in the fabric of his breeches to dull the stench and to hide the tears that clogged his nose and eyes, and let the freezing cold seep into him and numb him.


“What?” David lifted the pistol again. “Of course, it was you. It was exactly what you threatened to do.”


“I know,” Charnley said, holding up both hands. “I know what I said, but you have my word as a gentleman, Naylor was not imprisoned on my order. Where is he?”


Chapter 57