She bit her lip, her gaze dropping to his chin. “I—I do not know?—”
“Barbara.” He squeezed her hand, drawing her gaze back up. “Guess. I dinnae need this to stand up in court, I need yer gut. I trust yer gut.”
It was a strange realization, but as he’d told her last night, hedidtrust her when it came to these antiquities. She’d spent her life living through them, unable to have the adventures she so clearly wanted thanks to her status as a lady, and perhaps in some small way by her foot. Sheknewthese antiquities, and he had to depend on that knowledge.
Perhaps whatever he’d said had convinced her, because her eyes had gone wide.
“Yes,” she breathed. “Yes, I would have noticed the patina inconsistencies, I am certain. At some point since the last time I examined those collections, the sets of jars have been replaced with replicas. Forgeries.”
Kenneth felt his shoulders slump as breath escaped him. Relief? Nay—but the knowledge he was on the trail of a case. Onehe needed to get to the bottom of, if he was going to understand the accusations made against Standish.
Standish and Nuttbothbeing in the scandal sheets thanks to unfortunate rumors? Unlucky. But all seven men? Statistically improbable.
“Kenneth—of the collections I noted, I have only toured three, and those were over the last several years. I could not tell you if anything else has changed, much less been replaced by forgeries.”
“We need to see them.” He jerked his chin up in realization. “Nay,yeneed to get in to see them. To catalog the forgeries without them kenning.”
“Withoutwhoknowing? Kenneth, what is going on?”
This was big.
This was bigger than Standish being accused of treason—another rumor from the scandal sheets!
This was bigger than hisneedto be with Barbara, or his attempts to make the Standish investigation easier.
This was big…and he couldn’t do it alone.
If none of the five collectors she’d named today had forgeries in their collections, this would be a dead end. But if theydid, if that was one more thing which connected them—feminine canopic jars in their collections, forgeries, and ruinous rumors in the gossip columns—then Kenneth’s superiors needed to know. Because the Standish investigation would be so much bigger than they thought.
And in order to determine that, he needed Barbara.
He needed to trust Barbara, needed her brilliant mind. Needed her to trust him.
And that meant she needed to know the truth. All of it.
“Kenneth?” she whispered, concern in those lovely blue eyes.
Decision made, he abruptly twisted, dropping her hand and reaching for the satchel he’d placed on the floor. “MissAnnabelle!” he called, suddenly desperate to make this happen. “I have a proposition.”
“Fie, sir!” the lassie called teasingly, even as she placed aside her book and stood up. “I am too young for you!”
“Notthatkind of proposition,” he grumbled, digging in the satchel. “I swear, ye’re precocious A.F.”
“Yep!” Annabelle came skipping up. “I am also open to bribes, if that is what you are considering.”
“Good.” He straightened, holding a book in his hand. “This isElements of Botany, by Benjamin Smith Barton.”
The teasing light dimmed from the girl’s eyes as soon as her gaze landed on the book, and now he swore she held her breath as she reached for it. “Are there any cacti in it?” she breathed in wonder. “I have always wanted to see a cactus.”
“Well then, ye’re in luck.” He handed the book into her shaking hand, jabbed a finger at a picture, and carefully pulled out a box. “In here is aOpuntia,which the collector I bought it from specifically for its bribing qualities, calls aprickly pear.”
“You have acactus?” Annabelle had lit up in excitement. “Can I see it?”
Instead of opening the box—which he’d insisted the botanist put it in when the damn thing spiked him through the thumb—Kenneth handed it to her, half glad to be rid of it. “Nay,yenow have a cactus. I’m bribing ye. Go away and leave yer sister and me in private?—”
“Kenneth,” Barbara began, but he waved away her objection.
“Och, ye can leave the door open, Annabelle. I just need to speak to yer sister.”
