“I don’t,” she said as she traced little circles on his chest with her fingertips. “But I suppose now that I have what I bargained for, you would like the same.”
He leaned back. “That was our arrangement, wasn’t it?”
He didn’t sound particularly pleased by that reminder, but she ignored it. She was probably imagining that hint of wistfulness. A man like Ellis didn’t give a damn about sex. He was versed in pleasure and it meant little to him beyond the moment certainly. She had to harden herself in the same way.
She cleared her throat. “That’s fair. The Duke of Coningburgh lied to me when I asked after his family. Specifically, when it came to my supposedly innocent question about whether all his sons were in Town for the Season.”
She quickly recounted her conversation with the duke and his daughter. The one her sisters and brothers-in-law had dismissed. But Ellis’s gaze lit with interest with every word. As if she had truly contributed something to his cause.
When she had finished, he stroked his hand over his chin as if he were pondering the information. “Rook and Harcourt could be correct that he was simply avoiding embarrassment.”
She pulled away from him a fraction as frustration replaced any pleasant emotions their encounter had created. “Then you think me a fool as well?”
“No, I think your explanation is far more realistic. If you say Coningburgh was afraid, then I believe you,” he said. “You’re certainly one of the most observant people I have ever encountered.”
Relief rushed through her, followed by a flush of pleasure she knew she shouldn’t dare feel, and yet…
“Thank you,” she whispered. “You cannot know how much it means for what I’ve said to be heard, not dismissed.”
“I know a little,” he assured her as he took her hand between his own. “What about the daughter, Lady Lydia?”
“I have known Lydia a few years,” Juliana said. “We aren’t friends, but acquaintances. Still, she seemed confused by her father’s lie. And angry when they got into their carriage. She…I think she may bear some of the weight of Leonard’s bad behavior. She may have to clean up the mess and it is a frustration to her.”
“What makes you think that?” Ellis asked, and seemed genuinely interested in her observation.
She shifted, for that answer was more revealing of herself than perhaps Ellis knew. More revealing than she wanted to be, given the transactional nature of their new arrangement. Did she want to give a part of herself to this man? More of a part than just her body?
The answer was a little terrifying. The answer was that she did want to share her mind and her heart. She wanted to so desperately, even though she knew the end would not go well. Maitland used others. He had declared that himself.
He would certainly be finished with her once this trouble was resolved, and he was ready to throw himself back into his underground life of sex and trickery. A place she most certainly did not belong.
“Juliana?” he asked. “What is it?”
She shook her head. “I…I saw something in her that I…I feel in myself. Perhaps we recognize kindred pains in others.”
He stared at her a moment. “You are the one who cleans up the messes,” he said softly.
She nodded, but the intensity of the connection was too much. She shrugged like it didn’t matter. “Perhaps that is a way to wheedle more information out of Lady Lydia if I were to encounter her and her father again.”
He arched a brow. “You think you could arrange that?”
She laughed. “You must know that those of thetonare creatures of habit. If the duke walked with his daughter today, that could mean it is a regular occurrence.”
“Every day,” he mused. “According to those who follow him.”
“Then it would be easy to repeat the encounter if I wished to do so,” she said.
“You think Rook would let you out of the house without a guard,” Ellis said with a laugh she didn’t feel contained much true humor.
She folded her arms. “You doubt me? I can surely convince my family that I have abandoned my interest in this topic. And in you. We had a row about it, after all. I pouted and locked myself away. I could tell them that reflection led to realization. And they would believe me. That would leave me much freer to move about the world, I think.”
“Then perhaps you and I should encounter the lady and the duke tomorrow.”
She stared at him. “Together? What would you say to explain that?”
“You would introduce me as your beau,” he explained. “A rich merchant you met while in the country at your sister’s wedding celebration. Then I’ll be able to see Coningburgh’s reaction for myself if we can maneuver the situation to our advantage.”
Juliana considered the plan a moment. She certainly wanted her place in this investigation and Ellis was offering it. As a partner, even. Which felt a little different from the arrangement of quid pro quo they had originally discussed.
