He laughed. "See, you also judge them before knowing them."

"Tell me about the woman, Mora." She noted the distaste in her own voice.

"Mora is a strange one," he said. "Mysterious. She says she is from the East, where she once lived the pampered life of a concubine within a sultan's harem. Marguerite, the dancer who ran away with a merchant two fairs back, shared her wagon for a time. Marguerite once confided to me that she believed Mora had unleashed her snakes among the harem. A ploy to narrow her competition for the sultan's favors."

A cold hand gripped Elise's heart. "You mean, she murdered the other women?"

He shrugged. "Who knows? As I said, she is mysterious. She seldom talks about herself. If I were you, I would keep my distance from her."

"What about the other woman?"

"Sarah Dobbs, and the stinky fellow is her husband, Tom. Sarah tells fortunes, although she is not truly blessed with the sight. Her husband, Tom, fixes the wagons when they break down and has a skill with crafts. Sarah discovered some time back that if she dressed like a Gypsy and told people what they wanted to hear, she could make more than she did working in a factory."

"Oh, I see," Elise clipped. "She deceives people to earn her way."

"I prefer to believe that she entertains people to earn her way," Sterling said dryly. "But that is the difference between your thinking and mine."

"Which brings us around to the reason I wanted a private word with you." Elise rose from the cot and stretched her legs. "I did not agree to perform, and certainly not to do anything indecent, to earn my passage."

Sterling rose as well. "I knew Philip would not allow you to stay unless he saw some gain to be had by doing so." He stared down at her. "We all pitch in to do our share of the work. You are unnecessary unless you have a talent. Can you sing? Perhaps play a musical instrument?"

Singing was not her strong suit. She could pound out a tune or two upon the piano, but certainly that wasn't an instrument she either was in possession of or could easily cart around with her.

"No," she admitted.

"Then the way I see it, you have no choice." He reached out and tugged a lock of her hair. "Now might be a good time to come to your senses and return to London. We'll reach a coach inn soon. You can use your money to hire a hackney to return you to your uncle."

Sterling's forward action had momentarily startled her, but Elise quickly regained her composure. She would under no circumstances return to her uncle. She'd wanted to be an adventurer. Now was her chance.

"All right," she said.

He sighed. "Good. You'll do better back where you belong."

When he started for the door, she realized he had mistaken her answer.

"I meant I will perform."

Sterling thought he knew how far he could push a proper English miss before she turned tail and ran, but he'd obviously been mistaken. He glanced back at Elise. She stood straight, her chin held high. He might have misjudged this particular young woman. He thought he knew a way to convince her further.

"Wait here," he said. "I'll be back shortly."

The troupe members had abandoned the fire, leaving Sarah to clean up. "Where is Mora?" he called.

"Stormed away to her wagon," Sarah answered. "Had the look of the devil in her eyes. Don't want to make that one jealous."

He dismissed Sarah's concerns with a wave of his hand and headed toward Mora's wagon. Raja growled at him from inside of his cage as Sterling passed. Sterling growled back. He needed to exercise the cats, but first he would make certain Elise knew exactly what type of a performer she had agreed to become.

At his soft rap, Mora opened her door. Her brow lifted. "You tire of the pasty-faced girl already?"

It took effort to keep from rolling his eyes. "I have come for Marguerite's costumes."

The snake charmer motioned him inside of her wagon. "Her basket uses valuable space. Take her things."

Sterling had never been inside of Mora's wagon and felt hesitant to enter now. Did she allow her snakes to roam about freely? Most of Mora's "pets" were harmless, but she had a king cobra that could kill a man with one strike of its deadly fangs.

"Are you afraid?" she goaded. "Is the big, strong Beast Tamer only a kitten in disguise?"

He stepped up into her wagon.

"I did not believe so," she purred, then trailed her fingers across his chest. "I sense something wild beneath your skin. Something dangerous. I could bring him forth, this beast that lives inside of you."

Sterling snatched her hand. His heart speeded a measure over her prophetic words. Maybe Mora had the sight that Lady Fortune did not. Could she see the beast slumbering within him? "I don't think you really want to see him," he said. "In my country we have a saying: Do not play with fire unless you wish to be burned."

She smiled, her lips turning up seductively. "I charm snakes. I enjoy the danger. I will charm you in time as well."

"The basket," he reminded. "I have other duties to attend to this morning."

Her smile faded and her dark eyes narrowed, then she pointed to a basket stacked on top of several others. "The top one. It holds Marguerite's costumes."

Sterling was forced to brush up against Mora in order to retrieve the basket She smelled of garlic and body odor. He should have known that she wasn't the sweet-smelling, soft woman in his bed last night. After grabbing the light basket, he squeezed past her and hurriedly exited the wagon. Mora laughed softly at his back.

When he entered his own wagon, Elise wheeled around. Her face flushed and he imagined he'd caught her snooping. He set the basket on the floor. "Here are your costumes."

She frowned. "The basket is rather small to hold clothing."

He held back a smile. When she bent to remove the lid, a thought occurred to him. "Stop!"

She froze.

"Stand back," he ordered. "I will remove the lid." The basket might not hold clothing at all. With Mora, one couldn't be too careful. Once Elise stepped back, he eased the lid from the basket. "It's all right. The costumes are indeed inside of the basket."

Elise stepped forward, glanced down into the basket, and gasped.

Sterling tensed, afraid he'd missed seeing a snake hidden within the basket's skimpy confines.

"These can't be costumes," Elise said. "There's nothing here but a pile of sheer scarves."

He relaxed, allowing the smile to surface that had threatened his mouth earlier.

CHAPTER 5.

An hour later, Elise still sat inside of Sterling's wagon, staring down into the basket. He was touched in the head if he thought that she would dress in nothing but transparent scarves and dance around in public. She was an adventurer, not a woman of loose moral standards.

Sterling had left, saying he had chores to attend to. Elise mopped the perspiration from her brow and glanced toward the closed wagon door. During the daylight hours, the wagon certainly heated up. There wasn't much room, although it was tall, built in similar fashion to the brightly colored caravan wagons of the Gypsies.

There was the cot, a trunk where Sterling kept his clothing. A sturdy washbasin and pitcher, which he wrapped and put away when the wagon moved, and a couple of lanterns. She wondered what else his chest held besides clothing. She would snoop if she weren't so blasted hot.

Elise smoothed her hair, rose, and brushed the wrinkles from her frock. She decided that she wouldn't hide herself away in Sterling's wagon but venture outside. A bustle of activity took place around the camp. No one took time to stop and stare as they had earlier. In the process of skinning a rabbit, Sarah Dobbs nodded to her. The woman's smelly husband worked on a wagon wheel. Elise saw Mora in the distance gathering wood.

The hustle and bustle surprised Elise. She'd heard that people like these were lazy and that that was why they preferred their roaming ways. She didn't see Sterling but noticed Dawn, the small couple's daughter, carrying a heavy bucket of water in each hand. The girl struggled with her burdens. Elise decided she would help as well. At least until she figured out her next plan of action.

She joined the girl. "Let me help you."

Dawn didn't protest. She merely shrugged and offered the bucket in her left hand. Elise took it, surprised at how heavy it was, and plodded along behind the girl. They reached a large pot and Dawn dumped her bucket.

"We'll be doing wash as soon as we get the pot filled and Mora gets a flame beneath it," Dawn said. "We may be beggars, but we're not dirty beggars, as my mother says."

Elise smiled. "Your mother seems like a very nice person."

Again the girl shrugged. "She's a dwarf, as some call them. So is my father. But as you can see, I'm not like them."

"You have the look of your mother."

Dawn glanced away. "I need to fetch more water." She left.

Elise went after her, reclaiming the empty bucket the girl had taken from her. "Since I'm at a loss as to what to do, maybe you won't mind if I follow along."

"If you wish."

They walked in silence. She felt Dawn's regard.

"I suppose your parents are normal?"

Her first instinct was to answer to the affirmative... but then, that wasn't completely true. "No. Not by society's standards, anyway. My father came from a grand family, and my mother's family was a modest one at best. My father saw her in the market at Liverpool one day, and he fell in love with her on sight. She fell in love with him that very day, as well. They married in secret, and when my father's family found out that he had wed beneath him, they disowned him."

"What does it mean to disown someone?"

"My father's family refused to acknowledge him as one of their own," Elise explained.

"Can a person do that?" Dawn's eyes widened. "Just up and disown their family?"

Elise didn't care for the intrigue she read in Dawn's expression; she liked it less when she caught sight of the girl's mother picking berries. The woman smiled fondly at her daughter, then resumed her work.

"I think it's a horrible practice," Elise said. "Love between families should be unconditional. I wasn't much younger than you are when I lost both my parents to an accident. I still miss them terribly."

They reached a small stream and Dawn dipped her bucket into the water. "At least your parents didn't look different from everyone else. When we stop to perform and I get a chance to play with other children, they laugh and tease me once they realize who my parents are."

Elise squatted beside Dawn and dipped her bucket into the water. She had reacted to the sight of Dawn's parents in a way that made her feel ashamed now. She'd seen the love shining in Iris's eyes a moment ago when the woman had looked at her daughter.

"It's the other children who should be embarrassed... to be so shallow that they only judge a person by what they first see. On the inside, your parents aren't any different from other parents. Even though I've only just met them, it is obvious to me that they love you very much."

"They do," Dawn agreed, then stood, struggling with her full bucket. "But sometimes love is not enough."

Elise glanced up at the girl. "Love is everything," she said, and realized she truly meant her words. How she longed to be loved and cherished by someone. When her uncle had agreed to Stoneham's offer for her, Elise had realized that he truly did not care about her. She felt certain that Dawn's parents would never give her in marriage to a monster solely for the sake of gold.

The girl moved away, lugging the heavy bucket toward camp. Elise stared down at her own reflection in the water. Another image appeared.

"Do you really believe that?"

Sterling gave her a start. She hadn't seen or heard his approach. "What?" she breathed, glancing at him.

"Do you really believe that love is everything?"

How long had he been listening to her conversation with Dawn? "I suppose I do," she admitted. "Don't you?"

He reached down and retrieved her bucket from the water. "Love is a curse for most. Just look at Iris and her husband, Nathan, their big hearts full of love for a girl who cannot forgive their small bodies. Few people possess the ability to love unconditionally. Nowhere on earth can you learn that lesson as well as here."

"Dawn will see what is most important," Elise insisted, rising from her crouched position next to the water. "She's young and hasn't yet learned the value of love."

He reached forward and brushed a curl from her forehead. "You are the innocent. Even an animal will turn on one of its own if it senses a weakness, something different."

Flustered by his closeness, Elise said, "People are not animals."

His silver eyes stared into hers. "There is a thin line, I think."

Since he now held her bucket, Elise started back toward camp. "Maybe you spend too much time with your wild beasts and not enough time with people. I didn't notice you working among the others."

"I took the cats out for exercise."

Elise drew up short. "You let them out?"

He laughed. "They are not as dangerous as you might believe. Both have been raised by humans. Leena is fairly harmless. Raja takes more caution. He has his moods."

A shudder skidded up her spine. "My uncle wouldn't allow me to have so much as a hound for a pet. I'm not certain I like animals... or that they would like me."

"Why don't we see?"

A hint of teasing glinted within his silver eyes. Elise couldn't very well call herself an adventurer if she backed down in the face of every challenge he issued. "All right," she agreed. "Show me your cats."

Sterling wanted to do more than show her the cats. He wanted to taste her full lips again-wanted to introduce her to the darker side of lust. She affected him strangely, had from the moment he first saw her. She was beautiful, but there was more to her than met the eye.

He'd heard her earlier conversation with Dawn. Elise had touched his heart with her innocence, with her sweetness. Something inside of him had stirred. Something so far dormant. This slip of a girl from London might be more dangerous than his cats.

They entered camp and he dumped the water he carried into the washing pot. He took Elise's hand and led her toward the animal wagon. She only allowed the contact for a moment before she snatched her hand from his.

"I cannot wear the costumes," she said as they walked. "I think you knew that when you fetched them for me."

"It's just as well. You don't belong here."