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She sipped her tea while he looked over the sentences. “If I could just find something unusual, but all of the sentences are so ordinary.”
“I keep coming back to the one about Saturday. Today is Sunday. What if it refers to an event yesterday?”
She stood and moved beside him. “Did it rain yesterday?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Sure and it rains every day this time of year.”
“What other words stand out to you?” she asked.
“Yard is used twice.”
“What about rail? I tried to play with rail, but I haven’t found anything. Perhaps chicken or east are important?”
“Rail, yards, east, chicken,” he muttered.
She grabbed his shoulder. “Railyard. That’s a location. Let me see again.” She bent over the paper and then copied the lines out again, scratching out the second and fourth sentences. “It’s the first, third, and fifth sentences that matter. And then the first word”—she crossed out the others—“the last word and the first word. Look.”
“Saturday. Rail. Yards.”
“Does Dublin have a railroad and a rail yard?”
“I’m sure it does.”
“What if something happened there yesterday? A meeting or some sort of exchange?”
“Then we’re too late.”
“We need to go.”
Callahan gave her an incredulous look. “Where?” Then he shook his head. “It’s after dark, and you’re not even dressed.
“I can dress, and we’ll bring a lantern.”
“It’s cold and wet,” he called as she disappeared behind the screen to pull on her warm yellow dress.
“Then we won’t tarry.” She came out from behind the screen to find him already in his coat and hat. She smiled. “I thought you would argue more.”
“Lass, I know a lost cause when I see it. Let’s make this quick.”
***
HE WAS STILL ANGRY with her—not because she dragged him into the cold, wet night, although that didn’t endear her to him—but because her accusations earlier had struck him hard in the chest. Hard enough they took his breath away.
She thought he had agreed to participate in this swindle in order to take advantage of her. She claimed he used his charm to manipulate. She didn’t think she could trust him.
It was all true.
Yes, he wanted the money from the swindle, but he hadn’t admitted he also wanted to seduce her. In fact, he’d told himself he wasn’t the sort of man who seduced women like her. But the truth was he liked a challenge.
He never felt more alive than when presented with a challenge—whether stealing a woman’s ring and replacing it with a paste one or making a woman who disdained him burn for his touch.
But he wouldn’t have gone through with it.
Would he?
“Do you have any idea where the railyard is located or are we walking aimlessly?” she asked tartly.
“I have some idea,” he answered blandly. “Not that I expect you to believe me.” He led her along a well-lighted street, the gas lamps flickering in the occasional heavier bouts of rain. The streets were all but deserted now, especially those full of shops and merchants’ residences, like this one. Those who had homes had gone to them and the rest were holed up in whatever warm, dry spot they could find.
