“I’ve no intention of leaving my position as a runner,” Maria assured her.
Grace’s smile broadened, turning genuine. “I thought not, but I needed you to know that you have my support regardless of what you choose to do. Not all assignments will be so all-consuming as this.
“Now,” she continued, giving Maria a swift wink and a pat on the arm. “Best get back to work.”
The woman swept from the room, leaving Maria to continue her task. She brushed a hand over her newly repaired maid’s costume, straightened her mobcap, then strode toward the external wall.
Snick. She secured the lock on the dining room window and moved on to the next.
“The morning room is secured,” Heather said from the doorway, before drawing close and linking their arms. “Are you well, Maria?”
A snorted laugh escaped her. “You are the second person to ask that question in the past quarter of an hour. Do I truly look so miserable?”
“Oh! Dearest, no?—”
“It is well, Heather.” Taking a deep breath, she rested her head upon her friend’s shoulder. “I’ve been better.”
“The others are securing rooms as well; we have some time. Talk to me.”
Maria sighed, and her heart gave a twinge. “I’m afraid.”
“You are worried that Jasper will not understand your devotion to Thomas, and that Thomas will not approve of the man that you love?”
“That is part of it, yes,” Maria whispered, nodding against Heather’s shoulder before stiffening her spine and turning to look at her friend.
“You’ve been half in love with Jasper for years, and now that you’ve had relations, it’s blossomed into?—”
“Hush!” Maria hissed, darting a glance toward the opened door before returning her stare to Heather. “How could you possibly know that we had…” She gestured wildly, hoping that she would not have to say it aloud.
“It was in the way that you looked at each other today. I must say, it’s about bloody time. The two of you have been dancing around it for some while.”
Maria put her hands to her suddenly hot cheeks, the nerves in her stomach taking flight. “Do you think thateveryonenoticed?”
Heather shook her head and opened her mouth to speak, but a voice from the doorway halted her.
“The rooms on this floor are secure,” Jasper said, his gaze warm on Maria. “I’ve spoken to Harris as well; two of his men are on patrol belowstairs, and he and the remainder of the staff are in the gardens and mews.”
She cleared her throat, heat spreading across her chest. “Thank you.”
His look, while warm, didn’t appease her worries.What does he think of Thomas?He might even regret their connection. Her chest squeezed painfully. Would he jilt her after all?Damn, but that thought hurt far more than it ought.
* * *
Hours passedwith excruciating sluggishness as they awaited any sign of Jasper’s infernal cousin. The bastard was taunting them with his sudden silence, no doubt deliberately wishing for them to grow increasingly discomfited by his absence.
Jasper and the Bow Street women had withdrawn to the drawing room, their weaponry close at hand as they waited. But hours had passed, and Jasper’s hope of apprehending his cousin that night was waning.
Despite occupying the same space, he’d not had the opportunity to draw Maria aside for another discussion.
His chest squeezed, and the knot in his stomach twisted deeper.
The notion that Maria thought their engagement to be anything but genuine was painful. And the probability that he hadforcedher… His heart fluttered with fear. It was not to be borne.
He flipped the page of the book in his hand, though he’d scarcely registered the previous one. Juliana had recommended the works of “Mr. Mystery” to him and, despite himself, he found the adventurous stories rather engaging.
The women’s whispered conversation drew his attention, and he glanced at them from overtop his spectacles. Maria sat between his sister and Miss Morgan, her features forbidding, and her grey eyes darkened as she spoke. She wore the maid’s costume that her brother had remarkably mended in time for the women’s “assignment” to begin.
Damn, but he needed to speak with her.
