She worried her lip. He was trying to avoid her questions before she even asked them. And his smile wasn’t real anymore. It was tight and false and part of his act.
“The others don’t often discuss anything to do with Leonard in front of me. I suppose they are trying to protect me.” She sighed. “But I did overhear Rook say something to Harcourt about removing the code from his safe and hiding it in a book because of…” She trailed off because she didn’t want to repeat the rest of the sentence.
“Because of me?” Ellis supplied, so she wouldn’t have to.
Her eyes went wide. “How did you know that?”
“Because my cousin knows me very well,” Ellis said, his tone going distant again. “And I know him. He must have guessed I would come searching here eventually, and the safe would be the first place I looked.”
They reached Harcourt’s study and she tried the door. It wouldn’t open. She pivoted. “It’s locked.”
Ellis didn’t look worried. He motioned her aside gently and then bent, retrieving some kind of tool from his boot. He fiddled with the door a moment, and then there was a click and it opened.
Ellis got up with a shake of his head. “That wasn’t even a challenge. Tsk, tsk, cousin.”
He entered the room first, holding her back with his arm as his gaze moved from one side of the room to the other.
“Are you expecting an attack?” she asked softly.
He didn’t look at her but motioned her in and shut the door behind her. “In my world, I’m always expecting an attack,” he said.
She shook her head as she moved to the shelves. “I’m sorry.”
He had gone to the fireplace to raise the light in the room, but now he jerked his head up. “You needn’t be. I’m accustomed to it.”
She wrinkled her brow. “You shouldn’t be. It’s not a way to live your life, never trusting anyone, always believing someone is coming to get you.”
“I trust a few people,” he said, holding her gaze evenly. Then he darted it away. “Now, let’s see. What book would we look for…”
He moved to the shelves across the room from the ones where she stood. For a few moments, they were quiet, glancing at titles. She caught one and pulled it free.
“What about this?” She read from the cover. “Conrad Madison’s Crop Rotation Manual.”
His eyes went wide. “Riveting. Why do you think so?”
“It was pulled out on the shelf a fraction and there isn’t any dust on the top. I can’t picture anyone reading this for fun.”
“Harcourt’s a bit of a bore, though,” Ellis said, coming across the room to stand beside her.
“No one could possibly be this much of a bore,” she laughed as she opened the book and gave it a shake in the hopes what they were searching for would flutter from the pages. When nothing did, she twisted her mouth in defeat.
He patted her arm. “Try, try again,” he sing-songed as he went back to his shelf. “Though the lack of dust on the books is a good way to track, I think I will take a different tactic. My cousin was likely involved in hiding the code, so I have to believe he would have a heavy hand in the choices.” He rubbed his chin. “Let’s think about favorite authors.”
“Hm, Anne is a fan of Byron.”
Ellis pulled a face. “Met him once. Not an admirer.”
Her mouth dropped open and then she laughed. “Are you sure you aren’t just jealous that his skills at love games rival your own?”
He winked at her. “Perhaps. Look for Byron then. It’s possible Rook had your sister’s desires in mind. And what about Thomasina? Where would Harcourt hide something with her reading habits in mind?”
“She is more interested in Walter Scott,” Juliana said. “And I saw a collection of his works on this shelf.”
She pulled a handful of books from the shelf and began to skim through them, looking for the paper Ellis so desperately wanted. When she found nothing, she turned to find him shaking out a few books from his shelf, the Byrons, she assumed.
Their eyes met and she could see that as playful as he was being, he was frustrated and upset at not finding what he sought. There was desperation to his intent now. And that scared her.
“What else?” she said. “Shakespeare is always loved.”
