‘Why do you ask?” With the back of his knuckle, he swept a last bit of dirt from her bodice. If he had his way, he’d never leave her again. But that wasn’t the way of life.
“Don’t you need to go investigate with your friends. If Liverpool sent them, the situation must be serious.”
“She does have good hearing.” Summerset righted his chair which had been lying on its side. He flicked the tails of his coat out and took a seat. “Pray tell, Lady Dunkeld, what else did you hear us say?”
Sin’s body tensed. “She already knew my business.”
“My, my,” Summerset said. “Our inner circle does keep expanding. Pretty soon all of England will know we’re spies.”
“I’ll never speak of it to anyone.” Winnifred stood next to Sin, the back of her hand brushing his. “You have my promise.”
“Good enough for me.” Sutton smiled at her and grabbed another mutton pie. “Besides, it’s just not practicable to keep such secrets from one’s wife. You’ll understand when you marry, John.”
“Oh, I’m not concerned.” Summerset pulled a monocle from his waistcoat pocket and buffed it against his sleeve. The gold chain attaching it to a buttonhole clinked softly. “After all, a woman who’s worked so hard to attain her position wouldn’t be so foolhardy as to risk it by exposing her husband.”
Sin was going to toss him through the window. It didn’t matter that the windows in this room were only a foot wide; he’d shove him through without his skin if necessary.
Winnifred’s hand clutching the back of his jacket was the only thing that restrained him. “Summerset, a word outside please.” Where Winnifred didn’t have to see him pound his friend black and blue. John had gone too far with his insinuations. They were friends. The best of friends. But that didn’t mean Sin wouldn’t still enjoy bloodying his damn nose.
“Not when I’ve just arrived.” His mother swept into the room, Horatio at her heels. “John. Max. Let me look at you boys.” She kissed both men’s cheeks, earning a blush from Sutton and a dramatic hand clutched to his chest from Summerset. “It’s been too long since any of Sin’s friends came to visit.”
“Not long enough,” Sin gritted out.
Sutton gave Sin an appraising look. “Summerset, why don’t you take the dowager to our carriage and show her the gift you brought?”
“A present?” His mother’s eyes lit up. “For me?” Like such a thing was unheard of.
Sin gritted his teeth. “I buy you gifts all the time, mother.”
She wagged her finger at him. “It’s not the same. It’s your duty to be kind to your mother.”
Summerset crooked his arm, and she slipped her hand into the hollow. “A woman such as you should be inundated with presents. Positively buried with them. It’s every man’s duty to see to that.’
Sin watched them leave, torn between smiling at the ass his friend could be and still wanting to rip his head off. Which was about how he normally felt around Summerset.
Sutton rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, now that the annoyance has left the room, perhaps you’ll answer your wife’s question. Will you leave for Glasgow with us?”
Sin blew out a breath but nodded. “Not immediately,” he said to Winnifred. “I’m waiting to hear back from a couple of contacts.” He hesitated. He’d already heard back from some, and one of them had an interesting account. “Winnifred, did you know MacConnell used to write a column inThe Messengerwhen he lived in London?”
A small divot puckered the skin between her eyebrows. “No, he never mentioned it. Why?”
“That paper was a revolutionary one. All his columns were about Scottish independence.”
She lifted one shoulder. “Donald never hid that he wished Scotland to be an independent nation. As every other Scotsman does, as well.” She gave him a pointed look.
Sutton coughed back a laugh. “She’s not wrong. If the Crown picked up every one who wrote a column for Scottish sovereignty the prisons would be full.”
“The prisons are full,” Sin grated out. He rested his hands upon Winnifred’s shoulders and gave her as soft a look as he knew how. From Winnifred’s frown, he had to assume he wasn’t successful. “You do not object if I investigate your … acquaintance?” He couldn’t call MacConnell her friend. The word for such an intimate relationship refused to leave his lips.
“No objections whatsoever.” She stepped back and made another quick examination in the mirror. She brushed at a spot on her collar. “Although I think you’ll find he is no rebel leader. If he is causing trouble, it is unwittingly. Donald is high-spirited and loves his country. That is all.”
Sin inclined his head, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Winnifred clasped her hands in front of her and took a deep breath. “The dowager has invited me to help tend the gardens. I believe I’ll run my own soil experiments on them. If you gentlemen will excuse me, I have research to do.”
Sutton turned to him after she’d left. “Soil experiments?”
Heat spread through Sin’s chest, and a satisfied smile curled his lips. “Yes. My wife is a woman of science.”
