“What?”
Lucy tapped her cheek, desperately trying to remember details of a conversation that had taken place many years ago. “I asked Collin once why he seemed so bent on refusing to marry.”
“He didn’t answer you, did he?” Derek paced toward the fireplace, crossing his arms over his chest.
“On the contrary, he was quite deep in his cups that evening, which is rare for Collin, and which is also why I sought him out and asked him that particular question on that particular evening.”
Derek shook his head and gave his wife a vague grin as if she was perfectly incorrigible. “Because you thought you’d have a better chance of getting a response from him?”
“Precisely,” Lucy said. “And an honest one.”
Derek chuckled. “What did he say?”
“He said there was only ever one woman he’d loved. One woman in Brighton, someone he’d known as a lad.” Lucy squinted into the distance and pressed the letter to her chest. “He told me she married. I assumed she’d broken his heart.”
“Lucy.” A note of warning sounded in Derek’s deep voice. He stopped his pacing near her chair and dipped his head to meet her gaze. “Don’t you dare even think about it.”
“Think about what?” Lucy stuck her nose in the air and blinked at him innocently. Several times.
“You know precisely what you’re thinking about,” Derek replied. “Regardless, it doesn’t matter. I’m certain this cannot be the same young woman I knew in Brighton. Perhaps it’s a niece who’s named after her.”
“Perhaps.” But Lucy was already pulling out a blank sheet of vellum to write back to Mrs. Griggs’s employment office.
Hughes, the butler, entered the room and cleared his throat. “Your grace,” he said to Derek, “you have a visitor. Lord Swifdon has arrived.”
“Ah, yes,” Derek replied. “Show Julian to my study. I’ll be there momentarily.”
The butler bowed and left the room.
“I’m going to visit with Julian now, Lucy,” Derek said firmly as he started for the door. “Please promise me you’re not going to employ a governess for the care of ourchildrenbecause you think she may have known Collin in the past.”
Lucy dipped her quill into the inkpot that sat on the far side of her desk. “I don’t intend to do anything of the sort.”
“Good.” Derek paused at the threshold. “I’ll help you look at the rest of the letters later.”
“Thank you, darling,” Lucy said, already bent over the vellum, scribbling.
Derek flashed her one last, doubtful look as he strode from the room, and a satisfied smile immediately spread across Lucy’s face in his wake. She had no intention of hiring the woman based on the woman’s past relationship with Collin, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to find out if she was the same young woman in question, could it?
Lucy bent back over her paper and wrote a short missive to Mrs. Griggs, asking the woman to arrange an interview three days hence with one Miss Erienne Stone, formerly of Brighton.
Chapter Two
Collin Hunt crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his commanding officer, Lord Treadway. “You’re forcing me to leave?”
“I’m forcing you to go on holiday. I don’t care what you do for the next fortnight, but you won’t be working.” Treadway reared back in his seat and gave Collin a hard look. “You’ve been at it nonstop without so much as a day off for years now. It’s time you had a break, Hunt.”
Collin smoothed a hand down the front of his woolen uniform. He paced away, then turned to frown at Treadway. “Is it because I snapped at Cooper?”
“Cooper, Martin, and Atwell by my count.” Treadway arched a brow. “Not to mention the incident with Lord Benning last week.”
Collin clenched a fist. “Damn it, Treadway, you know why—”
“He was wrong. I’m well aware of it. I agree with you, but you must admit the way you handled it left something to be desired. You need a break, Hunt. And that is an order.”
“I don’t want a break.” The declaration came out of Collin’s mouth through clenched teeth.
“I don’t care,” came Treadway’s droll reply. “Now leave my office and this building. I don’t want to see you again until after the first of September.”
