“According to Mrs. Privet. We cannot afford anything, but—”
“I’ll be ready in a moment!” Moving with surprising speed given how sick she’d been all morning, Evie rolled off the mattress and disappeared behind a changing screen tucked away in the corner of the room.
With a long sigh, Joanna sat down to wait. When Evie and clothes were involved, there was no such thing as “in a moment”. While she had only brought a single traveling trunk, neatly packed with three dresses, a shawl, and an extra pair of shoes, Evie’s wardrobe had taken two sailors to haul it onboard the ship.
After a small eternity, Evie emerged from the screen in a sunny yellow gown with a full skirt, cinched waist, and elbow-length sleeves trimmed with ivory lace.
“Can you help with the buttons?” she asked, scooping her dark hair out of the way as she presented her back to Joanna.
Tucking her tongue between her teeth, Joanna made quick work of the long line of black glass buttons that ran from Evie’s neck all the way to the base of her spine. When she’d finished, she waited several more minutes for Evie to pick outjustthe right hat and then they were off, passing Mrs. Benedict on the way down the narrow, creaky staircase.
“Aren’t you two lovely!” exclaimed the young widow. “Off to explore a bit of the city, I take it?”
“Bond Street,” Joanna confirmed with a nod.
“Do you know if there will be any dukes there?” Evie said anxiously.
Mrs. Benedict blinked. “There’s always the possibility, I suppose.”
“You’re welcome to come with us,” Joanna invited.
“That’s nice of you to ask, but I am having my sister over for tea. Another time, perhaps.” Mrs. Benedict started past them, then stopped and glanced over her shoulder. “Were you able to speak with Kincaid?”
“I did, just this morning.” As her heart gave a sudden and unexpectedthump, Joanna bit back a smile. “He is going to take our case. Thank you again for recommending him.”
“My pleasure. If anyone can help you, it’s Mr. Kincaid. Such a kind fellow.”
Joanna did not know if she would describe Kincaid askind. Polite, perhaps, in that he hadn’t tossed her out on her ear when she’d revealed she had no money with which to pay him. But there’d been an edge beneath that disheveled, bookish veneer. A sense of danger. A lingering hint of the man he was before he took up as a private investigator helping widows find their missing sisters and old ladies retrieve their misplaced jewelry.
“Joanna is going to be his secretary,” Evie put in.
Mrs. Benedict’s brows rose ever-so-slightly. “That’s wonderful. Kincaid has been a bachelor for as long as I’ve known him. His home and office would benefit greatly from a woman’s touch.”
“I’m not going totouchhim,” Joanna began, only to stop short at Mrs. Benedict’s resulting expression. “That’s—that’s not what you meant.”
“Enjoy town,” said Mrs. Benedict. Then she dashed up the stairs.
“I must say, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you in such a state,” Evie said as the two sisters continued on outside. The rain from the earlier in the day had finally cleared and the clouds were beginning to lift, exposing a sky painted in various shades of clear, crisp blue. “Blushing. Fumbling your words. It’s really not like you, Jo. If I did not know any better, I’d believe youwerequite taken with Kincaid.”
“Evie?” Joanna said sweetly.
“Yes?”
“Shut up.”
Chapter Six
All things considered,Kincaid had a better chance of finding a virgin in a brothel than the stolen ring of an American. Make that the stolen ring of an American’s deceasedmother. Who may or may not have received said ring from a British lord with the initials JW.
Twenty-two years ago.
It would be like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. And ever since he’d received eighteen stiches across the back of his skull following a scuffle with a bloke who very much didnotwant to be dragged in front of the magistrate, Kincaid had a particular aversion to needles.
The fact of the matter was that he never should have agreed to take the case. Hecertainlynever should have allowed himself to become bewitched by guileless, blue eyes and a siren’s smile. But he had, and he was, and there was no going back on it now. He’d given his word. He would honor it. Then he’d put Joanna Thorncroft on the first ship setting sail for Boston and never think of her again.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he muttered to James when the cat slanted him a cool, unblinking stare from his lofty perch atop the bookshelf. “Fat lot of helpyouwere this morning. If you’d acted like the devil I know you to be instead of preening about like a besotted idiot, we wouldn’t be in this bloody predicament. Was a tiny, little bite too much to ask?”
James yawned.
