A batting of lashes soon commenced, which left Vernon rather red in the face again. “You’re familiar with Roland Kelly?” Edna asked sweetly.
“He did some work for a friend of mine a few months back,” Vernon admitted.
Edna gave another flutter of her lashes. “Accounting work?”
Vernon shot a glance to Gideon. “This is where I believe I’ll retreat from the conversation and leave the rest of the explaining up to you.”
“You might as well give her a summary, Gideon,” Adelaide said. “I haven’t gotten the impression Edna is a lady who’s easily thwarted.”
Gideon raked a hand through his hair. “You’re probably right, but don’t think it’s escaped my notice that ever since becoming involved with you, my secret doesn’t seem nearly as secret anymore.”
After settling back in his chair, Gideon took a few minutes to explain the basics of what the accounting firm was to Edna before he turned to Leopold. “With all that said, and before Edna thinks up additional questions she’ll undoubtedly demand I answer, I have a pressing question of my own—Howdid you and Vernon become privy to my affiliation with the firm?”
Leopold shifted on the settee, almost falling off because of the limited space he had since Edna had joined them. After righting himself, he smiled. “As Vernon said, a friend of ours procured the services of your firm. He was rather stingy with the particulars, only saying that he had a Mr. Roland Kelly looking into a matter of industrial espionage for him. His reluctance to discuss the matter left us curious. We asked a few discreet questions at the Union Club and learned that if a person needed assistance with delicate matters, Roland was the man to see.”
“We then saw you riding with Roland in Central Park not long after that,” Vernon added. “Didn’t take much for us to put two and two together, especially since Leopold and I became involved in intrigue after our stint in the service was up when we were barely thirty.” He smiled. “It’s difficult to return to a sedentary lifestyle after one has been involved with adventures for so many years.”
Edna’s eyes grew wide. “I never heard a whisper about any intrigues the two of you may have been involved with. I always thought you spent your time managing your families’ many business interests.”
Vernon gave Edna’s hand a pat. “Which is exactly what we intended for everyone to believe, but no. We did have other, far more exciting lives, although that was eons ago.”
“I had no idea,” Edna said, fanning her face with her hand. “I now find myself all aflutter over the idea I’m in the presence of, from what it sounds like, swashbuckling gentlemen.”
Camilla sidled next to Gideon and dropped her voice. “You need to do something before Aunt Edna, who is behaving quite unlike herself, suffers a fit of the vapors.”
Knowing that could be a distinct possibility because he’d witnessed Edna swooning often over the years, especially whenshe got overly excited, Gideon nodded before he directed his attention to Leopold and Vernon. “Have the two of you ever considered returning to a more adventurous lifestyle?”
Leopold sat forward. “Are you offering us a job?”
“It might be worth discussing.”
Adelaide’s eyes immediately began flashing. “You’re going to offer them a job when you won’t even consider bringing me on?”
He refused a sigh. “They evidently have experience in clandestine affairs, whereas, if I need remind you, you’re a lady who got ambushed by book thieves just today.”
“And that I was the specific target of those thieves means I’m directly involved in this latest fiasco, and as such, deserve to be included in any investigating I know you’re already considering doing,” Adelaide said, completely neglecting to address the pertinent facts he’d just laid out that explained exactly why she had no business involving herself in investigating anything.
“Can’t you simply accept that I may know best in this instance and graciously concede defeat?” he asked.
“Not when I know I could be invaluable to this particular investigation,” she argued. “You mark my words, one of those agents—or one of the customers present today at Bainswright Books—had something to do with the attack on me. I’m in the best position to nose around to discover the identity of that person since I spend a great deal of time at that bookstore and wouldn’t draw anyone’s suspicions.”
“Or you could trust that I’m very good at what I do and leave it at that. I’ll visit Mr. Bainswright tomorrow and have him look up the titles of the books that were stolen. If we’re lucky, perhaps one of our informants has heard about a request for a certain title a book collector wants, and we’ll then track that person down.”
“But the books I purchased had only just been delivered to the store. Collectors wouldn’t have known of the new titles. That means there’s something else afoot.”
Gideon scrubbed a hand over his face. “Difficult as this is for me to admit, that’s actually a valid point.”
“And suggests I’d be a true asset to this particular case.”
“No.”
Adelaide’s eyes narrowed. “Why not?”
“I believe we’ve already addressed that, and ad nauseum to boot. To point out the obvious, though, the book, or books, that someone desired has now been taken out of your possession. Given that there were three members of the criminal persuasion sent after you, you were fortunate to have escaped relatively unscathed. If you start snooping around, you could place yourself in danger. One of my main objectives when I became involved with the accounting firm was to keep people safe from threats. I would be failing with that goal if I agree to let you dabble in matters you have no business dabbling in.”
Her eyes flashed with temper. “You’re not responsible for keeping me safe, Gideon, no matter that there are times when it seems as if you’ve appointed yourself my very own personal guardian.”
He found he had no ready argument to that because ... she wasn’t exactly off the mark.
