“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He teased, then lightly flicked her nose.
Theo tsked her tongue and batted his hand away, laughing.
“You are a pest!” She exclaimed.
“Yet you love me,” he said with a grin.
“Yes,” she sighed, rolling her eyes. “I suppose I do. So what are you doing for the rest of today? Will you stay for dinner?”
“I am afraid I cannot,” he replied, standing up, “I have some business to discuss with Alistair then I must take my leave. I have a busy evening ahead of me.”
“Doing what?” Theo asked with a raised brow, “Holding lectures on perfecting a gentleman’s manners?”
“Something of the sort,” he said with a grin, then leaned in to place a kiss on her cheek.
Theo rolled her eyes and waved him off.
“Go. Speak with your brother-in-law. I believe he is in his study today.”
Tristan nodded as he picked up his portfolio and turned to leave.
“Oh, good, you found it!” Theo said.
“What?” He asked, turning back to her.
“Your portfolio,” Theo answered, pointing to the one he had in his hand. “The one you had me search Alistair’s office for. Where was it?”
Theo glanced down at the leather portfolio in his hands. Arousal poured through his veins as he recalled how he and Ophelia had kissed when Theo had left the dining room to go searching for it.
“Right,” he murmured. “I had left it in one of the carriages.”
“Silly man,” she goaded, shaking her head.
“Go. Talk with my husband. I am sure he is eager to hear whatever sort of success story you have to share today. But come and say goodbye to me before you leave, otherwise I will be very cross with you.”
“I will,” Tristan promised, flashes of his kiss with Ophelia still flickering through his mind. Uncomfortable and disconcerted with the excitement he suddenly felt, he turned away from his sister, and headed to Alistair’s office.
“Tristan. I owe ye an apology,” Alistair said.
He brought his eyes up from the file Tristan had brought him, his gaze full of remorse.
Tristan’s jaw ticked, but he said nothing.
“I should have investigated him more,” Alistair went on, the large, Scottish man growing flustered, “He just seemed to have everything in order at first glance. I…I dinnae know what to say.”
“It might have been a blessing in disguise,” Tristan finally begrudged. Tension roiled through him as he sat across from Alistair. He couldn’t stop rubbing his thumb against the side of his middle finger; he kept crossing and uncrossing his legs in his chair. His teeth ached from keeping them gnashed together.
“How?” Alistair asked.
“The death of Theo and mine’s father never settled well with me,” Tristan confessed, “I thought for the longest time that I was just a boy not ready to say goodbye to my father, but…with these records, his passing just seems too suspicious.”
“We need to get Dominic on this,” Alistair urged, “His little spies have to be able to dig up something about his whereabouts.”
“Have him send them to the bailey first,” Tristan instructed.
Alistair’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Why?”
