Page 105 of His Wicked Charm

Lilah thought that a task checked off on a piece of paper was scarcely evidence of the truth of the statement. As they returned home, she said flatly, “It’s not true. He didn’t send it to me, let alone deliver it. I wouldn’t have forgotten.”

“Of course not. Something happened. Mr. Cunningham Senior was not as careful as his son would like us to believe—or he wasn’t as honest. Either the man read the letter himself or he gave it to someone other than you. Did you notice the entry in the ledger above yours?”

“No. What was it?”

“A meeting with Jasper Holcutt. Not only that, the date was the same as the supposed delivery to you.”

They discussed the topic the rest of the way home, but Aunt Vesta greeted them with eager questions, so Con and Lilah had to sit down with her and go over it all again.

“Sir Jasper?” Aunt Vesta said doubtfully when they had finished. “He seems far too dull, doesn’t he? It’s more likely Niles is playing a deep game, trying to get our key by making us believe he lost his.”

“It seems too coincidental that Cunningham met with Sir Jasper and delivered my letter on the same day,” Lilah pointed out. “I never got it, but Sir Jasper started courting me a few months later.”

“You think he paid Mr. Cunningham to give the letter to him instead?”

“I intend to find out,” Con replied. “It’s possible Sir Jasper might not have even had to pay him. Perhaps Sir Jasper offered to take the task off Cunningham’s hands and give the letter to Lilah himself. It would have been unethical of course, but it wouldn’t be the first time a lawyer handed over a woman’s business affairs to her closest male relative.”

“That’s true. Mr. Cunningham was rather old-fashioned.” Aunt Vesta shook her head in disapproval. She looked thoughtful. “And it would explain, I suppose, why Sir Jasper kept poking his nose in everywhere when he was here. He asked me a number of questions that I thought were quite rude, really.”

“What sort of questions?” Con asked, his gaze sharpening on Vesta’s face.

“Oh, I don’t remember exactly...things about Papa’s office. And the Clock Room of course. He was very interested in that. Why, once I walked out of my door and saw him standing in Virgil’s bedchamber—can you imagine the gall of the man? As if he were measuring the master bedroom for his possessions. He was even making a list.”

“A list?” Lilah asked, exchanging a glance with Con. “What sort of list?”

“He was writing things down?” Con added.

“Well...” Vesta said vaguely, turning her gaze upward, as if the answers were written on the ceiling. “I don’t know that it was a list, really. It was just a piece of paper.” She drew in a sharp breath and looked at Con. “Ohhh. You think it was the letter. He was using it to help him find the key!”

“I think it’s worth a look.”

Con stood up, holding out a hand to Lilah, and they left the room. Aunt Vesta trailed after them as they went up the stairs and down the hallway to the bedroom where Sir Jasper had slept during his brief stay. Their steps grew faster by the moment, and Lilah’s heart beat faster in anticipation.

“He wouldn’t just leave it here,” Lilah said, trying to temper her hopes.

Con opened the door and they surveyed the disappointingly tidy room. The linens had been removed; the dresser top stood empty; the floor had been swept. Lilah let out a sigh. If anything had been dropped here, it obviously had been picked up and thrown away.

Still, she began pulling out the drawers of the dresser and looking inside them. Con went to the wardrobe and opened the doors, moving next to the washstand and bed.

“Nothing,” Lilah said in disgust. She turned away from the dresser to see Con lying on the floor, peering under the bed.

“Wait.” Con’s voice was muffled, his head partly under the bed. He backed out quickly, scrambling to his feet. There was a streak of dust down the side of his face. “The maids, it seems, are less meticulous where it’s unseen.” He climbed onto the bed, reaching his hand through the spindles of the headboard and groping down. “There’s something here. Ha!” He pulled his hand out and turned to Lilah, a triumphant grin spreading across his face.

He reached out to Lilah, offering a folded piece of paper.

It felt as if every drop of blood in Lilah’s body had just drained down to her feet. “You found the letter.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

LILAH STARED AT the notepaper as if Con were handing her a snake.

“Go on.” Con waggled the note. When she still hesitated, he said, “Would you rather read it alone? I can leave.”

In the doorway, Aunt Vesta let out a little squeak of dismay. The sound seemed to break Lilah’s paralysis, and she shook her head, reaching out to take the letter from him.

“No, I’d rather you were here.” She smiled. “Though that was a handsome offer, I must say, given your curiosity.”

“Perhaps I’ve turned over a new leaf,” he replied lightly. “I’m glad you want me to stay.”