“Have you any idea what it could mean?”
“No, but that’s the intention, isn’t it? Should it fall into the wrong hands, it wouldn’t be easily discernable.”
“And you continue to state the obvious.” She sighed. “Anything familiar to you?”
His brows lowered over his eyes as he scanned the letter again, then once more. “It’s the fire, flags, and fray.”
A smile tipped her lip just at the corner as she willed her expression to keep indifferent. “Oh?”
He glanced to her then. “You knew that already, though.”
“Perhaps, perhaps not. Regardless, it’s important.”
“Or nonsense.” He hitched a shoulder and handed back the folded paper.
She took a deep breath. “It could be that as well. Which is why we are off to the next house.”
“It is a bit early…” he stated, studying her.
“And again, with the statements regarding the obvious.”
“It looks suspicious on our part,” he finished.
She regarded him. “Be that as it may, for the discerning eye perhaps, but it also catches them unaware and without any time to hide that which they feel they have time to explore.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning…” She paused waiting for his full attention. They had stopped at a cross street. “…that any missives will not necessarily be hidden as carefully as they would be later on, because they are not expecting callers this early. We’re just throwing the whole thing off balance a bit.”
“I see.”
“If they suspect us, what of it?” She lifted a shoulder. “No one sees me, and you’re simply making social calls. What’s so suspicious about that?”
“Other than the hour and the fact I’ve never paid a social call to these men before? Nothing.” He speared her with a knowing smirk.
“I knew you’d understand. You’re quick like that.”
“Was that a compliment?”
“No. That was me taking a page from your book and stating the obvious,” she returned, but didn’t restrain the grin. “Quick is different from brilliant.”
“Ah, there’s the charm again.”
“Don’t let it get to your head.” The carriage slowed, and Jaxsen gave a nod, forced her mind to focus, and stepped from the carriage the moment it halted. House number two awaited.
Chapter Six
The solitude of the early evening was a welcome reprieve from the polite social calls that had him calculating every word and studying each nuance of the gentleman with whom he was conversing. Not once did he see or hear Jaxsen, nor any indication that someone else had seen her. Like a shadow, she’d surely been there and gone without a trace. Part of him was relieved that he hadn’t seen much of her except for their short carriage rides from house to house. The clothing she wore wasn’t kind to his imagination; rather, it tempted it like a poison apple, promising something sweet but only masking what was truly lethal.
He had no doubt that Jaxsen would be utterly deadly if she wished to be. Besides, she was his superior. It was madness to even consider appreciating the way the men’s leggings clung to her curved hips, dipping down to her legs and leading to her lace-up boots. It was folly to appreciate how her hair was pulled tightly back, covered by a wool headscarf that he imagined a pirate queen would use, and she’d made little effort to mask the form of her breasts hanging above a curved waist that made his hands itch with the need to test the shape.
Madness indeed.
And he was falling quickly into folly as well.
So he’d silently burned, keeping his eyes on hers, his body nearly burning with awareness of her feminine form, close and utterly untouchable.
Each time she stepped from the carriage, her lithe form was all silence and cat-like grace, making each movement strangely erotic, and he’d had to master his reactions quickly, but that didn’t stop him from watching her till the carriage took him from view.
