“Thank you. I try to be. Although I hear Melton Park has a grand house, and wondered if the housekeeper ever gives little tours when the family is not in residence.”
The gig rolled for at most a ten count. “I can get you in, of course,” he said. “As my guest. Your companion too.”
“I expect it is worth seeing, being such an important house.”
“I did not know you had an interest in architecture. If so, you really must see it. Why don’t you stay there tonight? We can examine that parapet together. It is of great architectural uniqueness.”
She turned to see if he was serious. “How will you explain who I am to your cousin?”
He thought about that while the gig entered the main lane of the village. “I will tell him that you are one of my agents, who aids me in inquiries on occasion.”
“Your employee, in other words. I would prefer if you told him I am a partner on occasion. A woman who conducts her own inquiries but who partners with you when you require help.”
“I am not going to say that I need help, least of all from you. If we do this at all, you are an occasional employee or you are not coming.”
“If you are going to be so prideful, I will do it that way. It might be best. As a partner I might have to eat with you and the duke and be bored. As an employee I can eat with the servants and actually learn something.”
“As my employee you must inform me of anything you learn.”
“Are you going to pay my fees? If not, I am not an employee. We are only pretending.”
He thought about that. “If your fees are reasonable—”
“Twenty pounds.”
“Twenty pounds?”
“A day.”
He laughed. “No one is going to pay a woman that much foranything.”
“Is it too much? Oh, dear. I should have learned the expected amount, I suppose. What are your fees?”
He didn’t answer. Not twenty pounds, apparently.
“It might be best if we left it at pretending,” she said. “I will inform you of anything I think you need to know.”
That was not what he had demanded. “We will need a name for you. It would be best if you are not known to my cousin as a legatee, just yet.”
“I will be Mrs. Rupert. That will be easy for all of us to remember, since I live on that street. Ah, there is Elise in front of the church, waiting for my return. I will keep her from being with others, lest she give away the ruse.”
* * *
They collected Minerva’s friend, Miss Turner, from the churchyard, and their baggage from the small inn. Chase hired a man to return the gig to its owner, then hired a carriage to take them all to Melton Park.
There he handed the women over to the housekeeper, calling them guests so they would receive good chambers. Once they were gone, he headed for the library. He found Nicholas standing in its doorway, watching the skirts go up the big staircase.
“Who are they?”
“One is Mrs. Rupert and the other is her companion, Miss Turner. Mrs. Rupert does some small inquiries for me on occasion. The sort it is better to have a woman do.”
“I assume she is the gray ensemble with intelligent eyes, and not the pretty one in blue.”
“The pretty one in blue is not for you, if you were thinking that way. Mrs. Rupert would not look kindly on any interference with that girl.”
“She looked to be at least twenty. Hardly a girl, although she has a freshness to her. It was charming how she gawked at the reception hall’s appointments.”
“Whenever I see all those African masks, I’m inclined to gawk too.” He threw himself onto a divan and stretched out his legs. “I visited Edkins today.”
