“If you want the woman to respect you,” he went on, “you have to look the part of lady of the house.”
“Very well, I’ll change my clothes.” She turned with a swish and started down the family corridor. Jamie followed her.
“You brought extra?”
“I brought it all,” she said, looking sheepish again. “It seemed wasteful to keep rooms while this house sat empty.”
Blood rushed to his head. “You moved in? Alone?”Of course she lives alone.Jamie cursed himself.How could it be otherwise?“Where is Wat?” he demanded.
Nora turned toward the lady’s chamber and smiled over her shoulder. “Keeping watch, of course,” she said.
Jamie stopped dead where the corridor turned to the right. “Where shall I meet you?” he called.
“In the foyer,” she replied. “Or you can wait in the sitting room,” she said, gesturing to the little salon he remembered between the lady’s bedroom and the master’s.
He groaned. He refused to go further toward the master of the house’s private quarters. “I’ll be in the foyer,” he called back as she disappeared into her bedroom.
An odd sound held him in place—a giggle. It appeared to come from the room next to him. He opened the door. Two maids bobbed curtsies, rags in hand. They were polishing the four-poster bed in the master suite, the husband’s room, the one he had no intention of using. Both women blushed scarlet when he stared at the bed. He mumbled some words of praise for their work and sprinted back to the foyer.
Nora pausedat the entrance to the foyer, lifted her chin, put on what she hoped was a lady-of-the-manor expression and swept in. If Jamie thought she needed to play a part, play it she would.
She found him on his knees, and her theatric airs evaporated.
“What are you doing?” she laughed.
“This lock has been loosened. Did you force it?” He didn’t sound amused.
“No. I noticed it was loose when I arrived,” she said. “I had to jiggle the key to open it.”
“Was it like this when Capello showed you the house?” he asked sternly.
Nora searched her memory. So much had happened that day she could be certain of very little. With his head bowed and his back to her, Nora couldn’t think clearly. The set of his shoulders and the ripple of muscle in his back distracted her too greatly.
Jamie turned and looked up at her. “Nora?” he asked. “Was it?”
“He opened it without trouble,” she said at last. She felt her cheeks heat and hoped he hadn’t caught her gawking like a schoolgirl.
Jamie rose in one fluid motion and brushed his hands. “I’ll hire a locksmith. Someone damaged that lock. What did you find disturbed this morning?”
“Nothing! That is, I don’t think so, but I don’t really know the house, do I? The valuables are still locked at Robert’s bank. I didn’t see anything missing,” she said.
“Think, Nora. Was anything rearranged?”
“What other reason could there be to break in except to steal?” Something in Jamie’s intense gaze frightened her.
“Wait,” she said. “There was one odd thing, but too small to be of any significance.” She shook her head.
“Nothing is insignificant, Nora. Tell me,” he said, brown eyes boring into her.
“A doll. I went to Isabella’s room to find a replacement for the missing Marietta,” she said.
“And?”
“Nothing looked disturbed,” she told him, “except, when we were here before I thought there were five little dolls in the doll bed. This morning there were four.”
She knew Jamie’s spew of foreign words were surely curses. Nora felt blessed she didn’t understand them. “What? How can a missing doll be significant?”
“An intruder came in here and made it to Isabella’s room. Isabella!” he exclaimed.
