Page 8 of An Enchantress for an Earl

It was just her general need to be suitably knowledgeable – it had nothing, she assured herself, to do with the fact that Lord Westerhazy, Lord Merryfield’s father, was on the committee looking into anti forgery measures. Nothing at all.

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The soft tinkling of the bell on the shop door brought him back to himself. No doubt, that had been a signal of Lady Violet leaving. Determinedly, he turned back to the shelves, and selected another book – a most non-contentious volume on the history of coinage – then took both to the counter.

Mr Bigglesworth greeted him cheerfully.

“Lord Merryfield – still studying, I see.”

Arryn almost flinched, for those words implied that even the bookseller had heard of his disgrace.

“Always, Mr Bigglesworth. I am sadly compulsive about such things.”

Mr Bigglesworth wrapped the books, raising an eyebrow slightly when he saw ‘Paper Against Gold’.

“Not often we sell two of these in one day – they’re getting hard to get, and I don’t expect there to be a reprint.”

“I’m lucky to have come in when you had one, then. It’s a work which raises some interesting questions related to my area of study, as it happens.”

“So you don’t regard Cobbett as seditious?”

“A radical, definitely, but seditious? No, I don’t personally see him as quite that.”

Mr Bigglesworth nodded, and handed him the parcel.

“I’ll let you know if I get in anything new that you might be interested in, Lord Merryfield.”

“Thank you. Good day.”

When Arryn stepped out onto the pavement, there was, of course, no sign of Lady Violet – indeed, he wondered why he had even looked. She was not a woman he wished to further his acquaintance with, after all.

Even if he had wanted, for that one moment, to kiss her…