He lowered his lashes in surprise. "Thank you. As it has been six years since I last attempted to dance, I shall take that as a great compliment." Gideon guided her into another sweeping turn.

Harriet gave herself up to the music, deeply aware of the warmth and strength of Gideon's hand on the small of her back. It brought back heated memories of the kiss in the cave and she knew she was blushing. She prayed that everyone, including Gideon, would attribute the heat in her face to the warmth of the room and the energetic dancing.

"I am surprised to see you here tonight, my lord," Harriet said. She was trying to be blase about the fact that she was actually dancing the waltz. "I would not have thought our little assembly would interest you."

"It does not interest me. You interest me, Miss Pomeroy."

Her eyes widened in shock. "Me, my lord?"

"Yes, you."

"Oh." Then a thought struck her. She smiled brilliantly up at him. "Yes, of course, now I understand."

"Do you?" He gave her a strange glance. "I am certainly glad one of us does."

She ignored that cryptic comment as her brain finally took charge of her spinning emotions. "You no doubt want to inform me about your plans to catch the thieves. You knew it would be difficult to arrange another private meeting without causing comment, so you came here tonight in hopes of being able to speak to me under the guise of socializing."

"I congratulate you on your logical turn of mind, Miss Pomeroy."

"Well?" She looked up at him expectantly.

"Well, what?"

She gave a small, exasperated exclamation. "Tell me about your plans. Is everything arranged? Have you contacted the Bow Street Runners? How have you decided to handle Mr. Crane? I wish to know all the details."

Gideon eyed her for a few seconds. Then his mouth curved in a faint smile. "I have not revealed my true intentions to Crane thus far and I have sent word to Bow Street. The arrangements for removing the thieves from your caves are under way, Miss Pomeroy. I trust you will be satisfied with my performance."

"I am certain I shall be quite satisfied. Tell me the whole of it. What, precisely, will happen now?"

"You must leave that to me, Miss Pomeroy."

"But I wish to know how it will all work, sir," she said impatiently.

"You must trust me, Miss Pomeroy."

"That is not the point, my lord."

"I fear it is very much the point." Gideon's smile was unreadable. "Do you think you can manage to do that, Miss Pomeroy?"

"Do what? Trust you? Of course. I know you will do what you have promised to do. But I wish to know the details, sir. I am involved in this matter. Those are my caves, after all."

"Your caves?"

Harriet flushed and chewed briefly on her lower lip. "Very well, perhaps they do not exactly belong to me, but I am not about to let someone such as Mr. Venable claim them, either."

"Calm yourself, Miss Pomeroy. You have my word that you will have exclusive rights to dig up any old bones that may lie in those caves."

She smiled tentatively. "I have your word of honor on that, my lord?"

His tawny gold eyes glittered behind his dark lashes as he studied her upturned face. "Yes, Miss Pomeroy," Gideon said softly. "For what it's worth, you have my word of honor."

Harriet was delighted. "Thank you, sir. That takes a certain weight off my mind, I assure you. All the same, I really would like to know what you have planned."

"You must possess yourself in patience, Miss Pomeroy."

The music came to a halt with a flourish. Harriet was irritated because she wanted to argue her case further. "My lord, I believe I could be very helpful in this matter," she said urgently. "I know those caves better than anyone else and your man from Bow Street will surely want to discuss the layout of the caverns with me."

Gideon took her arm and interrupted her coolly. "I believe you will want to introduce me to your aunt and your sister now, Miss Pomeroy."

"I will?"

"Yes. I think it is appropriate under the circumstances."

"What circumstances?" Harriet saw the look of anxious expectation on Aunt Effie's face from halfway across the room.

"We have just danced the waltz, Miss Pomeroy. People will talk."

"Rubbish. I do not care what anyone says. You cannot possibly blacken my reputation by merely dancing once with me."

"You would be astonished at how easily I can destroy a woman's reputation, Miss Pomeroy. Let us undo what damage we can tonight by means of a proper introduction to your family."

Harriet groaned. "Oh, very well. But I would really much rather discuss the plans for catching the thieves."

Gideon smiled his brief, fleeting smile. "Yes, I imagine you would. But, as I said, you must trust me to deal with the matter."

Harriet awoke the next morning shortly before dawn. She lay in bed for a while, reliving the events of the previous evening. Aunt Effie had been both thrilled and horrified to find herself being introduced to the notorious Viscount St. Justin.

Effie had handled the situation with admirable poise, however. She had betrayed very little of her flustered condition. Felicity had been her usual straightforward, pragmatic self. She had accepted the introduction with charming grace.

Gideon had managed to compound the effects of his outrageous behavior at the ball by leaving as soon as he had met Effie and Felicity.

The moment he disappeared into the night the entire room full of people had erupted into excited conversation. Harriet was well aware that she had been the focus of several pairs of curious eyes.

On the way home in the carriage Effie had not stopped talking about the incident.

"The local people are quite right to call him a strange and unpredictable man," she said for the hundredth time. "Just imagine ordering up a waltz without so much as a by-your-leave and then singling you out, Harriet. Thank heaven he did not choose Felicity. She cannot afford to have her name coupled with his before she goes to London."

"Actually," Felicity said, "I was quite grateful to him. Now that the waltz has been introduced to Upper Biddleton we shall no doubt be able to dance it again at the next assembly. And it is all the rage in London, Aunt Effie. You told me so yourself."

"That is beside the point," Effie retorted. "I am convinced Mrs. Stone and the others are correct. The man is dangerous. He even looks dangerous. You are both to be extremely cautious around him, do you understand?"

Harriet yawned. "What is this, Aunt Effie? Some concern for my reputation at last? I thought you felt I was safe due to my advanced years."

"Something tells me no woman is safe in that man's presence," Effie said darkly. "Mrs. Stone calls him a beast and I am not at all certain but that she may be right."

"I felt quite safe with him," Harriet declared. "Even when we danced the waltz."

But she had lied to her aunt, Harriet knew. She had not felt safe at all in Gideon's arms. Just the opposite, in fact. And she had enjoyed every dangerous thrill that had shot through her when he had whirled her about on the dance floor.

Harriet knew she was not going to go back to sleep and it was much too early for anyone else in the household to be awake. She pushed back the covers and got out of bed. She would get dressed and go downstairs to make herself a pot of tea. Mrs. Stone would probably not approve. She was a great believer in ladies maintaining their standards, but that was too bad. Harriet had no intention of waking the housekeeper at this early hour and she was quite able to prepare her own tea.

The bedchamber was chilled from the long, cold night. Harriet dressed quickly in a faded, long-sleeved wool gown and pinned a muslin cap on her springy hair.

She passed the window on her way to the door and automatically glanced out to observe the dawn light as it struck the sea. The tide was out and it would have been an excellent hour to hunt fossils. It was too bad Gideon had forbidden her to go near the caves until after the thieves were caught.