“You could be a barrister for how convincing you are,” the manager said dryly. He nodded. “Yes, we’ll investigate any threats on your father. Do I assume you wish to remain in London during the course of this investigation and not return home?” At her nod, he reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a key. “You can use an apartment we keep available for your stay.”
She took the key, squeezing it gratefully. When Mr. Wilberforce chose to be agreeable, he was really quite handsome, not taciturn at all. “Thank you.”
“Now to assign an investigator.” Wilberforce looked around the room. “I assum—”
“I’ll do it,” Brogan grumbled. “I already know the players.”
Juliana bobbed on her toes. “I have many ideas. We’ll work together splendidly.”
His eyebrows slashed downward. “I’ll do it…. But there will be rules.”
“Then I’ll leave you to it.” Wilberforce shrugged on a greatcoat. “I have a play to catch. Rest assured, Lady Juliana, the Bond Agency will do everything in its power to find the truth.” With one last glance at the clock, he hurried outside.
“Now.” Duffy crossed his arms over his chest. “Let’s discuss those rules.”
Chapter Nine
One bloody hour on the case and she’d already broken rule number one.
“Lady Juliana.” Brogan rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the knot tightening his muscles. “You agreed to let me do the speaking.”
He should have left her in the agency’s apartments. He’d only agreed to let her accompany him this morning while he conducted interviews because he’d thought that a female presence would be a welcome influence on Pickens’s sister, the first person on his list to question.
Apparently, Lady Juliana wasn’t the welcoming type.
He’d made sure to introduce her without her title. He’d glared at her sternly whenever she’d opened her mouth to ask her own questions. Even so, it hadn’t been long before Mrs. Waters had put two and two together and realized that the woman before her was responsible for her brother being in prison.
What had been strange was that Mrs. Waters hadn’t seemed angered by Juliana’s presence, only defensive. Did she believe her brother’s guilt? Was she embarrassed by him? All he knew was that the woman had devolved into one-word answers after she’d ascertained Juliana’s identity.
“Did you see the necklace she was wearing?” Juliana took his hand and climbed into the carriage. “She tucked it under her fichu quick enough, but the gold of the chain was close to pure. And I do believe the pendant was an emerald.”
Brogan had indeed noticed that bit of flash. He gave the driver instructions and climbed in after Juliana. But the pendant wasn’t large. There were any number of ways a woman in Mrs. Waters’s position could have obtained the trinket. The widow of a newspaper editor, she could have come by her comfortable set-up quite honestly.
He grunted. But there were several dishonest means she could have resorted to, as well. “Her carpet in the sitting room was new. Looked expensive, too. Regardless—”
“So, if her brother had been paid to hurt my father, he could have left the money with her.”
“Or he could have given her some that he’d stolen.” He shifted onto one hip and leaned towards her. “None of that excuses you speaking when you agreed you wouldn’t.”
She patted his arm, as though having a brute twice her size crowding into her was an everyday occurrence.
Something in his chest shifted. He knew what he looked like. He’d scared more than one opponent out of the ring with a glare and a crack of his knuckles. Something about this high lady seeing him as nothing more dangerous than a child’s doll made his temperature rise.
“I agreedto tryto follow your rules,” she said. “Some of them will come more naturally than others.”
He narrowed his eyes. He didn’t remember her agreeing just to try last night. She’d been so excited that they’d taken her case, she’d readily agreed to everything he’d asked.
Excited.
Or desperate.
He rolled his hat between his hands. “You know we might not find any answers.” Optimism was all well and good, but he didn’t want her to be disappointed if their investigation came to naught. “There’s a good chance that Pickens was just stealing from your father. No grand conspiracy.”
“With his sister buying all those pretty new things?” Juliana shook her head. “And with a real, professional’s help, I know I’ll figure out what is going on.”
Her eyes were wide, her face lit with excitement. Her face looked… well, not quite pretty, but definitely no longer plain.
Brogan shrank back into the corner of the carriage. Her buoyant spirits only served to make him disgruntled. “You still didn’t follow my rules. I’m taking you back to the apartments.”
