To Love a Thief (Steel Hawk)

It’s one thing to lose your heart. Quite another to have it stolen.

Steel Hawk
, Book 1

Years ago, notorious jewel thief “The Raven” vanished into the shadows. In 1851, Nathan Hawk emerges into a life of respectability, determined to make up for past sins.

He and his business partner are introducing a lock they’re so sure can’t be broken, they’re displaying a priceless diamond, the Pasha Star, at the Great Exhibition. It’s bad enough catching a light-fingered young man trying to steal the stone. Worse when he realizes it’s the daughter of his old mentor.

Rose Valetta’s father has been kidnapped, and she needs the Star to buy his freedom. She never expected to come nose-to-nose with Nathan. Their reunion is fraught with tension, especially when they discover the diamond in Nathan’s impregnable case is not the Pasha Star.

With Nathan’s reputation in tatters, they race to find the real stone before it’s too late for Rose’s father. Too late to save the empire from a usurper. And too late to keep from losing their hearts.

Warning: Contains a woman who dreams of a world with a level playing field, and an ex-thief who can run from his past but can’t hide from it.

To Love a Thief

Jane Beckenham

Dedication

To authors, and friends Eve Devon and Sarah Balance, for their support.

Many thanks.

Chapter One

“Just do it, old man.”

About to enter her father’s workshop, Rose Valetta hesitated, the threatening voice firing fear down her spine. Instinctively, she reached up and clasped the tiny bell wired above the door to prevent it from ringing.

She didn’t recognize the voices, but she knew the dialect. These were not English born, but émigrés like her father.

What do they want?

“I cannot help you.” Her father’s voice had a distinct wobble to it.

“You can, and you will, old man. A perfect match so that no one will know.”

“
I
will know.”

“Twenty-four hours and no more. Or how do you think she’ll react when the truth comes out? When the entire country knows of your role, for that matter?”

“You cannot condemn her. She is innocent.”

“The truth is not important. Just do what you’re told.”

Rose had heard enough. She released the bell, and it jangled as she shoved open the door and careered into her father’s small downstairs workshop. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

A giant of a man swiveled to face her as she barged in. “Ah, the daughter.” He offered a silky smile that did not touch his cold, ruthless eyes.

Rose swallowed back her fear.

Releasing his hold on her father, though his colleague stood at Alex Valetta’s back, the giant took a step toward her. A bullish hand reached out to her, the nails blackened with dirt, his clothes no better.

Rose willed her feet to stay glued to the spot.

The man offered a thin-lipped sneer. “You show spirit. I like a woman who fights.” He drew his knuckles down the side of her face. She sucked in a breath, refusing to flinch, nor did she lower her gaze from his sleazy inspection.

He cast a glance over his shoulder toward her father. “Your daughter is another reason to do what you’re told, old man.”

Fear bleached her father’s complexion. “You leave my Rose alone. She’s innocent.”

The man shrugged his massive shoulders. “Not my concern, Valetta. But definitely yours.” He shoved her dear papa against the wall. “You’ve been warned. I’ll be back.” Pivoting, he elbowed Rose out of his way and stormed out the door, his massive frame barely able to fit through. In silence, his partner followed him, slamming the door behind him.

Rose closed the distance between her and her father. “Papa!” Hands beneath his armpits, she levered him away from the wall. He shook bodily, a sheen of sweat slicked across his brow.

“Who are they? What do they want?”

“Nothing. It is nothing.”

After getting her father settled on his workshop stool, she picked up a few of his tools that had been tossed to the floor. “That bully was not nothing.”

Alex Valetta, the only relation she had left, brushed his scraggly gray hair from his face and tugged at his shirt collar with a shaky hand. “Leave it, my child. It is simply something I must do.”

“Must? It sounded to me like you were being coerced into…” She frowned as she remembered the man’s words. “Into doing what, Papa?”

“He wants a diamond.”

“Paste?”

“Of course.” Her father shook his head, eyes leaden, and though he was only in his fifties, he looked ancient beyond his years. “Paste is what the Valetta name is famous for, after all.”

The pitch of that man’s hostility ran through Rose’s brain. “But this isn’t a normal order, is it?”

Her father’s gaze shifted from hers. “I have no choice, Rose. They have left me no choice.”

She heard her father struggle to speak, acknowledging that even after years in his adopted England, his accent had never truly left, and at moments like this, when he was upset, his tongue seemed to twist the language that he had made his.

Wrapping an arm around his shoulders, she felt the frailty there. When had that happened? Why had she not noticed before that her father had aged?

She was his daughter, his only child, and his caregiver since his wife, her mother, had died. It had been a mantle she had happily carried. She loved her father. He was all she had in the world.

That and your superb craftsmanship.

Oh yes. She had that. She was a Valetta to the bone. But what use was it to a woman? According to society, she should be married and bearing baby after baby by now.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to. It was…

Rose shook her head, annoyed at how easily her thoughts had been swayed.

Do not daydream, Rose.

She took a deep and steadying breath, stamping down such whimsical thoughts. “So we go to the authorities.”

Her father shook his head, resignation already set in. “And tell them what? That I am being asked to make a fake diamond? No, my dear daughter, I am cornered. They know…” He trailed off.

“Know what? What is it you’re not telling me?”

“I cannot tell you, for I promised to keep the secret all my life. But whatever happens, my darling Rose, the real diamond must be protected at all costs.”

“Diamond. What diamond?”

“The Pasha Star. Its beauty outshines all others. But do not worry, my child. Now, I must go out. I have something I must do.”

* * * * *

Nothing could alter Nathan Hawk’s optimistic mood.

Not a thing.

Not even being back on his home soil.

Not even the fact that the sun had barely shone since he and business partner, Ben Steel, had disembarked from the steam ship,
Ivanhoe
—that thankfully had cut the travel time by weeks from New York to Southampton—and then taken the train to London. A second-class compartment—but who cared? They were here to exhibit Steel Hawk’s locks in what the newspapers were headlining as “the Greatest Exhibition on Earth”.

And he and Ben were to be a part of it. That was what was paramount.

Who would have thought that after ten years, Nathan would come back to his home shores as a man of substance, and not hunted?

Yep, nothing could douse that feeling of success. One more day and the exhibition would open to pomp and ceremony, as Nathan knew only his fellow countrymen could do. After all, Britain had colonized most of the world, and this exhibition would showcase his and Ben’s company, Steel Hawk, and Britain at the forefront of the industrial age.

Striding up the flagstone steps to the entrance of his hotel, he nodded to the doorman. “Morning, Mr. Hawk. Been out for a walk, have you?”

Nathan flicked off his hat, dusting the few drops of early morning dew from its brim. “Nothing like a bit of London mist to start the day.”

Just looking, that’s all
.

London was his past, and he was determined those days would remain buried. He did not want to visit his past. Charged with a crime he didn’t commit, he’d been lucky to escape to America. It had been either run or be transported as an indentured worker to a penal colony. For who would have believed him? A boy from the slums didn’t change.

Inside the lobby, Nathan made for the stairs, ignoring the smiles and nods of a group of elderly women and blatant inspection from several rather severely suited gentlemen.

He redirected his attention elsewhere as the feeling that he should hide suddenly resurfaced. Even now, after all these years, he worried about being seen. About being recognized. And though the years had passed, and he was no longer a boy but a man, still he remained vigilant. Only when he reached the third floor of the hotel did he let down his guard.

Coming to a halt outside his and Ben’s suite, he knocked on the door and heard a muffled call from inside.

Nathan tried the door, surprised it wasn’t locked. “For a locksmith, Steel, you’re pretty lax with security.”

Ben turned from the window across the other side of the room. “Oh, sorry, I got mesmerized by the view.” He nodded toward the view below. “Look at it, Nathan. London. The city is at our feet. Success. I can smell it. Taste it, even. If you look through that gap there, you can see the building.”

“I expect you mean Prince Albert’s colossus, the Crystal Palace.”

“The one and the same.”

Ben’s enthusiasm was contagious. Nathan understood his longtime friend and partner’s excitement. He felt it too. “Who would have thought we’d get that invite?”

“Well, Princess Mary didn’t want to use the big boys for the Zarrenburg diamond’s security.”

“Which means we get our chance to play.”

“That’s the way it goes. From what her advisor, Carl Hoyt, said, Queen Victoria wants to keep a low profile. Not many of the ruling royals of Europe are attending the exhibition.”

Nathan shot Ben a surprised look. “Why the hell not?”

“There’s unrest in Europe, and the newspapers say leaders and the royal families are scared if they leave home, there might be uprisings, and they could be ousted permanently.”

Nathan stared down at the city as it woke to a new day. Once, it had been his city—the center of world commerce. Carriages paraded up and down the street, hawkers shouting their wares as drays pulled their carts. Anything and everything from all over the world was brought to London.

His satisfaction intensified. He had returned, and the world was at his feet. Ben turned to him, his piercingly blue gaze narrowing. Nathan knew that look of speculation.

“So, old friend, what is it like to be home?”

Nathan peered briefly over Ben’s shoulder at the green grass of a small park in the distance, circled by the full bloom of oak trees swaying in the gentle breeze.

London. England. His home.

He shook his head, offering a derisive snort, and turned from the view. “This isn’t home anymore, my friend. I’ve been away for years.” And yet, there was a part of him that would always refute such a statement. Family made a home, and there were only two people he could consider any sort of family. But he’d left them without a backward glance, without word.

Guilt surfaced at what he’d done that day all those years ago, but he shut it right back down. He had a new life now. A good life.

“You even sound like one of us,” Ben said.

Nathan grinned. “I presume that’s a compliment.”

Ben tossed him the newspaper he’d been holding.

He stepped sideways. “Missed.” Their banter was more like that of brothers than of business partners. “I think you spend too much time perusing locks instead of practicing your aim, Bennie boy.”

Ben’s smile broadened as he dragged a hand through his sandy-blond hair. “If I didn’t, we wouldn’t be here.”

“Really? I thought we were
here
because of my superbly advanced steel locking system.”

“And my negotiation skills.”

“Ah yes, the Zarrenburg royal family and their diamond.”

“Well, you gotta admit, Nathan, stashing their fancy diamond in our display case is a coup, secured, of course, by a Steel Hawk lock.”

Nathan shrugged. “Naturally. There’s nothing better.”

For a flicker of a moment, his smile faltered. “It is a big thing, Nathan.”

“I know.” In fact, they both knew this was their chance to play with the big boys of the world of locks. “We’re small fish in a huge ocean, and this is a chance of a lifetime. Are you worried?”

“The diamond hasn’t been out of Zarrenburg for over five hundred years, and the princess is anxious.”

“She doesn’t need to be. You’ve told her that.”

“Repeatedly. But…well, it doesn’t stop the worry.”

Nathan snorted, dragging off his jacket and tossing it onto the sofa, along with his hat. “No one is going to steal the diamond, Ben. The lock system is impenetrable. It’s my own design and only functions with a specific sequence no one else knows.”

Not quite, Nathan.

For a moment, he remembered those days. They seemed so long ago. Hours spent over a workbench with Alex Valetta casting repeated glances over Nathan’s work.

Nathan had loved that time. Loved the thrill of creating something from nothing. The young man he’d been that fatal day when Alex had rescued him from the law had blossomed under the patient man’s tutelage, and in time, he’d received high praise for his diligence.

Nathan could still remember the feeling of those first words of praise from Alex. Nobody had ever thought good of him before. No one had cared until then.

From that day forward, something had swelled inside Nathan and made him feel excited about life. Confident that he could do something and was good at it.

And that it was legal.

“Is it in place?” Ben asked.

Nathan cast aside memories of the past. “What?”

“The display unit.”

“Yes. All set up. I checked and double-checked the locking system yesterday. The wire-laden glass fibers connect with the lock and unlock in sequence. Mr. Hoyt and Princess Mary arrived with the diamond and enough guards to repel an army yesterday.”

“And the diamond?”

“Don’t worry. It’s safe as houses.” Actually, Nathan wouldn’t tell Ben, but he’d barely slept all night himself. He wasn’t worried about his lock system. It was his baby, so to speak, and he had complete faith in it, but still, it was a huge responsibility for Steel Hawk Locks, and he couldn’t help but be extra cautious.

Working with a locking system similar to those used in the pyramids in Egypt, where slabs of stone interconnected, Nathan had designed a system using a series of tiny interconnecting wire chambers that were inserted in a sequence calculated individually for each lock. It was a system he’d been tinkering with many years ago when he had learned his tooling craft with Alex. No lock was the same as another; therefore, the customer was able to choose their own sequence.

Nothing else matched Steel Hawk’s designs. They were unique.

Ben retrieved the newspaper. “You know this publicity won’t do us any harm.” He stabbed a finger at the headline and read aloud. “
Steel Hawk Locks Up A Star!
”

Just then, a sharp knock sounded on the door.

“That should be breakfast. I took the liberty of ordering it. I must say that despite England’s weather, breakfast is one of the best things about this country.”

“And you’ll put on fifty pounds if you keep tucking in the way you’ve been doing. Then what will Lady Stockwell say?” Nathan strode to the door. “The Earl of Stockwell’s daughter certainly cast her lovely brown eyes at you last night, my friend.”