“Verity said the marquess agreed we could see this. Perhaps we can determine how the vault was sabotaged.”
“We?” Asher said with a smirk. “Or you?”
Does it matter?” she asked, looking back over her shoulder at him, noting he was staring at her bent over the paper.
She took a seat on the sofa beside him, their thighs pressed against one another as they looked over the document together.
“I’ll be honest, Evelyn, I am not entirely sure what I am looking at,” Asher said.
She pulled out her notebook and set it on the table beside the blueprint. “When we were studying the vault, I took measurements. We can compare them to the original blueprint and see if there were any differences.”
“Smart,” he said, and she smiled at him before concentrating for a few minutes, the two of them sitting in focused silence.
Finally, she glanced over at him as it all began to settle into place, the puzzle pieces locking together in her mind.
“Some of the measurements do not align,” she said, pointing in front of her. “Look at the diamond’s setting. The top was already lifted so that someone could easily slip the diamond out from within.”
“Then it would look like no one had been there,” Asher murmured. “But why would it matter if they ended up taking the diamond anyway?”
“Maybe they never meant to,” Evelyn said. “Maybe they meant to remove the diamond, take out what was within, and then put the diamond back into the vault without anyone knowing what they had done. Perhaps they ran out of time to do the job as planned.”
“So then they left with the diamond and removed its contents elsewhere.”
“It’s a possibility.”
“If we can figure out why they wanted it, or what was in the diamond, we could discover who stole it.”
“Or possibly, who is trying to place the blame on us and why.”
Asher nodded.
“Your father was always interested in the diamond, was he not?” Evelyn asked, tapping a finger against her chin.
“He was.”
“Would he have any information on it?”
“If he did, it would probably be in the study,” Asher said, standing from the sofa, holding his hand out toward her. She placed her hand in his, letting him lead her out of the room, enjoying the warm press of his palm against hers. When he wound his fingers through hers, it felt more intimate than even coming together had been, so much so that she stopped walking.
“What is it?” he asked, looking back over his shoulder, his brows raised, those blue eyes glinting at her.
“Nothing,” she said hurriedly, pasting a smile on her face so that he couldn’t tell she was affected. She tried to walk forward again, but he tugged on her hand to stop her.
“Don’t do that,” he said with a frown.
“Do what?”
“Pretend nothing is wrong. Smile at me like you would everyone else, hiding what you’re truly feeling.”
“I don’t?—”
“Evelyn. You do it all the time. I understand with others, but please don’t do it with me. I’d rather know the truth.”
He was right. And she didn’t want to lie to him, but she also had no desire to tell him exactly how she felt, only for him to kindly tell her that he didn’t want anything more from her, that they were an arrangement and nothing more.
“I just want this all to be over, is all,” she said, and he nodded, his brow furrowed, his expression grim, but he kept their hands together as they continued to his study, not releasing his grip until they were within, the door firmly shut behind them.
“Do you know where we should start?” she asked.
