Chapter 1

New York City Late April. Present.

I was probably the only undercover agent in history who'd get fired for removing her prosthesis in an airport and pissing off a French gendarme. But the hyper frog barking at me in French at the security checkpoint at Charles de Gaulle had far exceeded my limit of patience when he refused to understand that my leg was setting off the alarm, not a hidden weapon.

Ever since the accident, I'd been sensitive about my leg. So when my cell phone rang shortly after my flight touched down in New York and I was summoned to tea at the Gotham Rose Club, I was sure the ax was about to fall and I was going to get booted out of their secret agency.

The car service dropped me off in front of the gray cut-stone townhouse that housed the Gotham Rose Club on Sixty-eighth Street between Park and Madison on the Upper East Side. I stood outside the black wrought-iron security grate over the carved wood front door with its rose design and pretended to admire the architecture. Mostly I was composing myself.

Renee Dalton-Sinclair ran the Gotham Rose Club, an elite, members-only club intended to attract young, wealthy New York women like me to fund-raise and volunteer their time for charity. I was doing both for the Horses of Hope Foundation long before Renee asked me to join. But Renee also had another use for the club—taking down high-society criminals. And that's why I was here today, and why I couldn't decide if the nerves jumping around like fleas on a barn dog were from anger or anxiety.

I tugged at the hem of the silver-leaf sleeveless V-neck top and smoothed the ivory Vera Wang cotton-tulle skirt with my sweaty palms, then pressed the doorbell. Olivia Hayworth's voice sang across the intercom. "Welcome, Alexa. Come on in."

A security buzzer released the latch and I walked into a white Italian marble foyer that reminded me of a gilded cage. The place smelled of old money and older traditions. And despite my background, I never felt like I quite fit in.

Olivia, Renee's assistant, greeted me with an extended hand and a bright smile that eased some of my anxiety. Okay, so maybe I'd just get a warning.

"Hello, Alexa, how was your trip to Paris?"

"Nonstop crazy."

Olivia chuckled. "With Nathalie Huston, what else did you expect?"

I winced. Maybe this was about the incident with the gendarme.

My silver Delman ballet flats echoed against the marble as Olivia led me back to the Irish tearoom, one of the many that served as meeting rooms. Renee sat alone at the table. That couldn't be good. My stomach took a sharp dive south.

Renee's hair was pulled into a French twist. The hint of gray snaking through her auburn locks here and there merely added to the air of dignity that surrounded her. The winter white of her Chanel suit complemented her creamy complexion. As always, her smile was warm and welcoming and her striking royal blue eyes assessing.

The reason I'd joined Renee's secret agency was to prove to myself that I could do anything I wanted—even catch bad guys. Not to mention the promise of excitement—which, I should mention, had failed to materialize. Unless you counted poring through piles of business reports as exciting—which I did not. For some reason, Renee insisted on treating me as if I were Swarovski crystal.

Frankly, I don't know why Renee asked me to join the Gotham Rose Club when she barely made use of my skills. My guess was that it was some sort of employer requirement—round out the roll call with a token cripple and get patted on the head for following all the equal-employment opportunity rules. She knew how I felt, and that didn't make me one of her favorite agents.

I often thought that the illusive Governess was the one who'd insisted Renee hire me, and Renee had done so only reluctantly. Of course, who the Governess was and what she had at stake in this cloak-and-dagger agency was as mysterious as why Renee had agreed to play front woman for the agency. I had to admit curiosity was one of the things that kept me coming back.

Renee pushed away a file and rose. A small smile lifted the corners of her lips. "Come in, Alexa. Sit. Tea?"

A file was a good sign, right? Unless it contained a list of my transgressions.

I greeted Renee with a stiff air kiss. A vintage linen tablecloth covered the round Charles X table set with Hewitt Gold bone china and Pelham Gold flatware. Scones from my favorite bakery on Madison crammed a three-tiered silver Tiffany tray. Steam curled from the blue-and-white Lynn Feld porcelain teapot. White tea roses in a Lalique vase spiced the air. Renee had impeccable taste and it served as a perfect veil for the true work she did here. Still, I couldn't help wanting to throw a Tupperware tub on the table at one of the functions just to hear the proper ladies gasp.

"I'd love a cup of tea." I took the chair across from Renee's. Fragrant bergamot scented the air as Renee poured hot Earl Grey tea with slow precision into pale-blue, gold-trimmed cups.

"Where is everyone else?" I asked. Tea with Renee usually meant dealing with Tatiana Guttmann, Becca Whitmore and one or two more of the agents. I didn't have anything against them personally, but they got all the good assignments.

"It's just the two of us today." Renee slanted me another one of her cryptic smiles as she served me a cup.

Copyright © 2005 by Harlequin Books S.A.