“No, please continue,” he said, smiling down at her with a spark in his eye. “I would love to hear what the ladies have to say.”
“Everything you would suspect,” she said, waving her hand in the air, wishing she could create a spark of magic that would allow her to disappear from this conversation. “That you are handsome, unmarried, and need a duchess.”
“I see,” he said. “And what doyouthink?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think.”
“Actually,” he said, stepping closer to her, closer than felt comfortable, “it matters very much.”
“I—”
“Evelyn!” her father’s voice cut through the growing tension between them as he stepped into the corridor, seeking her out. “What has taken you so long? Were you finally foiled?”
Their quick stop at the British Institution each morning usually didn’t last longer than the few minutes it took her to solve the puzzle.
“I must go,” she said. “Good day.”
And without a glance behind her at the very attractive and very unattainable Duke of Ravenscar, she escaped.
2
Asher waited impatiently in front of his solicitor’s office door.
He didn’t appreciate the request to meet here. This was a matter that would have been far better dealt with in his own home, where no one would be aware of the meeting.
But the solicitor had been adamant that this would be for the best.
Finally, two minutes too late, the door opened.
“Your grace, thank you for coming,” Mr. Pine, the solicitor said, holding the door open wider. “Please accept my apologies for my tardiness and my thanks for meeting me here.”
“I am still uncertain as to why that is,” Asher said as he took a seat in front of the solicitor’s desk, causing images to flash back in his mind of the days he satin frontof his father’s desk rather than behind it.
“When I learned of your issue, I was quite surprised,” Mr. Pine said, taking a seat behind his desk.
“You and I both,” Asher said wryly.
“The issue is surprising, but so is the fact that you are not my only client to receive such a note,” Mr. Pine said.
“You mean to tell me that someone else is receiving mysterious, threatening notes?”
“Precisely. Regarding the same incident.”
“How can we both be accused of the same crime?”
“That, I don’t know.”
There was a short rap on the door. “Ah. Here they are now.”
“They?”
Before Pine could respond, he was welcoming a slightly older and certainly much taller man, while the figure behind him was most decidedly feminine.
When the older man stepped out of the way, Asher froze.
It was her.
“Lord Stratford, Lady Evelyn, it is good to see you again,” Pine said, ushering them in. “Are you acquainted with the Duke of Ravenscar?”
