Roderick sobered slightly, though amusement still glinted in his eyes. “You mean to be seen.”
“I mean,” James corrected, “to stop being watched for the wrong reasons.”
Roderick held his gaze for a moment. Then his tone shifted, lighter but not careless. “So you are still hunting?”
James did not answer immediately. He did not need to. Roderick knew him too well.
Roderick swirled his brandy. “I have been asking around.”
“And?” James prompted.
“Nothing definitive yet,” Roderick said. “But thetonis a well-dressed swamp. Things rot beneath the surface, and someone always knows where the stink comes from.”
James’s mouth tightened. “Do not embellish.”
“It is not embellishment,” Roderick protested. “It is observation. I have spoken to gambling hell owners, to discreet solicitors, to men who owe me favors, and to women who collect secrets the way other women collect ribbons.”
James’s gaze sharpened. “Women.”
Roderick smiled faintly. “Do not look scandalized. You think men hold all the information in London? They rarely know what their own wives are thinking.”
James did not respond.
Roderick leaned back again, stretching his legs toward the fire. “Someone moved in your parents’ circle. Someone with access. Someone who knew their routines.”
James’s fingers tightened around the edge of the armrest.
Roderick’s voice softened, just slightly. “I am expecting a name within days.”
James nodded once.
For a moment, the fire crackled between them, the only sound in the room.
Then Roderick’s expression shifted back toward mischief as though seriousness made him itch. “So this bride of yours. Miss Eleanor Barker. Tell me about her.”
“There is nothing to tell,” James said.
Roderick’s brows rose. “You met her?”
“Briefly.”
“You spoke?”
“Yes.”
“And yet there is nothing to tell? I meanIhave met her. Now tell me what you know about her.”
James’s jaw clenched. “She is intelligent.”
Roderick’s smile widened. “Oh?”
“She is stubborn.”
“Even better.”
“She is… difficult,” James added, as though it were a flaw.
Roderick’s eyes gleamed. “Now we are getting somewhere.”
