Reyn leaned in a little closer to him. “Don’t. You. Dare.”
With an audible sigh—for her benefit—he turned his attention to the other hats in the shop. Reyn had bullied him into buying a waistcoat with a bit more ornamentation and color than he preferred, but he had to admit, her design was elegant. He couldn’t force a hideous hat on her in return. Well, he could, but he wouldn’t.
“How may I help you?” A man in his late forties materialized next to them, his hands clasped in front of him.
“Lady Reyn is looking for a new hat,” Velario said.
The man turned his attention solely to Reyn. “What styles are you interested in?”
“I need a hat to go with a new afternoon dress. Something small, with exquisite details that only those close will ever notice.”
Velario blinked. It sounded like such an odd design to aim for when she said it. Thinking it through, though, he realized it matched her style perfectly. From a distance, her attire always looked elegant and simple, but up close there were always intricate touches to catch the eye.
“This way,” the shopkeeper said, leading them to a table covered in some sort of metal tree with dozens of shelves supporting tiny hats.
One hat immediately drew Velario’s eye. It looked like a miniature top hat in black, with a black satin ribbon around the base, and a small pouf of black netting falling from the brim. A peacock feather—this time just the colorful tip—sprouted from the ribbon, but stayed pressed against the hat.
He picked it up. A dozen tiny, iridescent, black glass beads decorated the netting and the base of the feather. “This one.”
The shopkeeper plucked it from Velario’s hands. “An excellent choice.”
He held it in place on Reyn’s head—no doubt it needed several pins to stay secure otherwise—and pulled on a watch chain, which dislodged a tiny mirror from his waistcoat pocket. He held it up in front of Reyn’s eyes, though there were plenty of larger mirrors spread throughout the room. “What do you think, my lady?”
Reyn angled her head this way and that. The netting fell over a single eyebrow, drawing attention to her eyes without obscuring them. The black looked striking against her golden hair. And the tiny beads and peacock feather caught the light, sparkling much the same way as her eyes did.
She looked over at Velario. “It is lovely, but my new gown is pink.”
“If you like it, then I’m buying it. We can keep searching for something else to go with the new dress.”
Reyn was too sophisticated to squeal in a public shop, but she made a humming sound that was the lady-like alternative. Her excitement made Velario smile.
This was all a ruse, he reminded himself. She could buy the hat herself if she really wanted it. She was pretending to be overjoyed that he was indulging her because it was the expectation for a couple. And he was pretending to indulge her for the same reason. He was not some idiot who would buy her an entire hat shop to hear her make that sound again.
“What shade of pink?” the shopkeeper asked, pulling the black hat from Reyn’s head.
“A deep, dusky rose.”
Velario let Reyn and the shopkeeper discuss her dress and the various hats that might go along with it, only offering opinions when specifically asked. Luckily, it was easy to compliment Reyn when she tested each of the hats. Everything looked stunning on her.
“That one,” Velario declared. Reyn wore a small teardrop-shaped bit of bronze velvet, adorned with ribbons of the same shade. “You look exquisite in anything, but that color is perfect on you. Do you have a fan that shade?”
The shopkeeper didn’t wait for Reyn to answer. He was probably envisioning all the ways he could coax more money out of Velario as he hustled them over to a collection of fans.
For once in this fake courtship, Reyn was the one looking dazed. Velario didn’t know if it was the merchant’s intense sales pitch, the variety of hats and fans on display, or his own compliments and attempts to play the part that had accomplished the task, but he didn’t care. It was enough that he was not the one fumbling to keep up.
If only he had been putting on more of an act. Suggesting Reyn should get a matching fan hadn’t been a calculated comment. Words like ravishing and captivating had fallen from his lips naturally.
When Reyn held a fan in front of her face, her blue eyes peeking out between golden hair and bronze accessories, Velario reminded himself that they had a purpose for this visit. Buying hats and fans was merely a means to an end.
Time for the investigative portion of the afternoon. Velario pulled out his billfold. “How much for both hats and the fan?”
The shopkeeper tried to entice Reyn to look at another fan, but she gracefully demurred. Somehow, she led him to the counter, discussing ribbons, lace, and Velario didn’t even know what else. The shopkeeper boxed up their purchases without seeming to realize that she had led him away from making another sale.
Velario cleared his throat. “The price?”
The man looked up at Velario. “I’ll tally it up for you.”
He scribbled a few numbers on a receipt and slid it across the counter to Velario, no doubt expecting him to sign for the purchase. Instead, Velario pulled out a banknote with a value much higher than the total and handed it over.
The shopkeeper looked at it in surprise. He probably had plenty of customers who paid in cash, otherwise he never would have made a deposit to the bank with counterfeit bills mixed in with the rest, but seeing such a large banknote would be rare. Normally, Velario would never carry it around with him. But he needed the shopkeeper to count out the change in front of him. Or rather, in front of Reyn.
If she saw any counterfeits in the shopkeeper’s till, Reyn would ask him about previous customers. She had a way of asking probing questions without raising people’s hackles. In one shop they had visited, she had somehow convinced the owner to detail all the customers who had paid in cash in the previous week. Velario had been right there, and he still didn’t understand why the merchant hadn’t bristled. It wasn’t just because Reyn was beautiful and flirted. That particular merchant had been a woman who had given Velario an appreciative look when they first entered her store. She had still fallen over herself to give Reyn the information.
The hat shop had no more counterfeits, though. Reyn thanked the shopkeeper for helping her find the perfect hat and waited for Velario to gather up her boxes.
Another cold trail.
