“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said, shaking his head before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a piece of linen, which was wrapped around a lemon scone. “I brought this for you, in case you hadn’t eaten.”
“My favorite,” she murmured, taking it from him, hoping he couldn’t see how bright her eyes had become, shining in response to what he had done for her, what he had noticed abouther. Did that mean that he cared more than he had let on, more than he had put into words?
She couldn’t think about it, however.
She had another purpose. One right in front of her, and Asher was the man she needed.
For this — and for so much more.
“Thank you,” she said. “Now, I need your help with something.”
“Anything,” he said, his eyes boring into her, and somehow, she knew that he meant it. “Anything at all.”
She wondered just how far that promise extended. And what it might cost to find out.
23
Asher had found himself surprised more than once that morning.
First, that he had missed his wife when he didn’t find her lying next to him in the bed.
Then, that he had set aside his usual routine to seek her out and how much his heart had jumped when he had found her standing there in the light of the library, the sunlight glinting off her hair as she bent over a book, her perfect profile dipped down.
And finally, just how deeply she was absorbed in what looked like a rather boring ledger.
“Are you hiding from me?” he asked as lightly as possible, trying to veil that he was rather hurt at the thought, especially when he had been seeking her out.
“Never,” she said, her lips curling up briefly, and he longed to lean down and kiss them until they were red, bruised from his touch as they had been last night, but he figured he’d better wait a beat and let her become accustomed to all that was so quickly changing between them. Besides, he hadn’t even determined just what direction that was yet.
“You’ve created quite a mess for how early the hour is.”
She lifted her head, looking around the desk, blinking as though she hadn’t realized it — which she likely hadn’t. At first, the messes she had left behind her had irked him, but now he had come to discover that it was her process, her way of trying to understand what was in front of her. Not everyone had been raised by a duke who put order above nearly everything else.
“I was actually going to come find you.”
“You were?” he said, annoyed by that bit of hope flaring in his chest.
“I need your help,” she said, before her expression turned into a frown of annoyance. “I have discovered something, but I can’t quite determine just what I’m looking at. I wasn’t exactly well-schooled in arithmetic.”
“Of course. I’d be happy to help,” he said, even though, deep within, he wished she were seeking him out for much more than deciphering old ledgers.
“I discovered these account books by accident when I was looking for one of my puzzles. It was almost as though someone was trying to hide them, but I’m not sure what they were about. They are labelled ‘parliamentary committee,’ and they include your father’s name, as well as Lord Norwood’s and Lord Eastclere’s. Does that not seem unusual?”
Asher shrugged. “All would be part of Parliament. They could have been appointed to the same committee.”
“All three men who are tied to the diamond? Who owned it, or who wanted it? That seems to be too coincidental to me.”
“Sometimes these things happen.”
“Sometimes,” she said. “But not often.” She bit her lip as she looked up at him. “I hate that I don’t understand, but…”
He saw then the vulnerability she was allowing, a vulnerability she so often hid, and it warmed his heart that she trusted him not only to see this side but also to ask him for help.
“Of course,” he said. “I’m happy to help. Why don’t we sit?”
Her desk being too small for them both to comfortably fit, he led her over to a small sitting area near the window, taking a seat next to her as she laid the book of accounts on the table before them.
