She walked on, amazed at the small opinion he had of her. “I learned where you live, didn’t I? You had no idea you were being followed.”
His damned boots matched her stride. The mood pouring off him changed to one of thought. “You are not doing this alone,” he said after twenty paces. “You have others helping, including men. You had others at the house as servants and now they will aid you in your future inquiries.”
She just let him chew on that.
“How long has there been an Office of Discreet Inquiries?”
“Not long.” She would never admit just how not long. Let him wonder.
“I trust you will not be doing anything dangerous. There have been times when I barely got out of a bad situation alive. I would not like to think of you—people can become vicious if they believe themselves cornered, Minerva. Domestic inquiries can be the most volatile. If you persist in this, you must take care.”
His voice, honestly troubled, touched her. That drained her belligerent indignation. He sounded truly concerned.
“I will be careful,” she said. “I doubt I will ever face what you have. Those who need a soldier will seek out a soldier, not Hepplewhite’s.”
He stopped walking. His slow smile offered a truce.
“Let us enjoy a ride in the park. Nicholas will give us a carriage to use, so we can do it right now.”
She gazed up at the blue sky and bright sun. A ride would be delicious. Only, she wondered if he intended to try and kiss her again. He looked as if he might. Would that she could keep it at just that, a few kisses and some sensual warmth that ended soon after it started. They were neither of them innocents, however, and she doubted he would treat her like one. Nor could she afford herself the luxury of an hour in the park.
Yet he looked so appealing in the bright light. Handsome and dashing, his stern face softened by that smile that quirked up on one side, forming an adorable and unexpected dimple in that one cheek. She would not mind gazing at him for an hour or so during the ride he proposed.
“It sounds lovely, but I must be on my way,” she said. “I have much to do and the day is passing.”
He accepted that, but the look he gave her made an ember glow at the bottom of her stomach. “Another time, then.”
She walked down the lane. She felt him long after she had parted. Felt his gaze on her, and his spirit stretching toward her.
* * *
“The first thing you must do is sell those urns.” Kevin voiced the opinion while he drank port in Chase’s sitting room.
He spoke to Nicholas, who had stopped by to collect Chase and brought Kevin along, to distract Kevin from his brooding. Brigsby had fed them, and they now lubricated their senses in preparation for a few hours of gambling.
“They are very valuable,” Nicholas said. “And very numerous. It will take some time to sell them if I decide to.”
“Then at least move them. The way he set them up on that landing, in close rows—I almost knocked one over today, when coming up to your chambers. Who would present precious items in such a precarious manner? One can’t even appreciate their beauty, they are so tightly packed.”
Chase chuckled. Those urns formed a forest on the first landing, interfering with easy access to the drawing room. “I have to walk among them sideways, to make sure one of my shoulders does not send one crashing to the floor.”
“If I move them, then I lose the joke of watching you slide along like that, Chase. Or of men of more girth inching along.” He grinned. “Or of Aunt Agnes being flustered by their fragility.”
“It is a strange sort of joke,” Kevin said. “I hope you are not going to assume his habits as well as his title.”
“That danger more likely lies with you, young man.”
“Uncle Frederick never had to slide, of course,” Chase said. “He set them out perfectly measured so his own shoulders could pass with an inch to spare. He could stride through them, then wait and watch others try to navigate their ways. He never smiled or laughed, but he enjoyed the show.”
“They have been there a long time,” Nicholas said. “Do you remember how we would tempt fate as boys and play tag among them? I did break one once. He made me repay him by cleaning out