thought he was courting me,” again, he tensed, and the smile that played across her lips in that moment made him think that she didn’t mind, “and so he asked about my favorite pastimes, trying to win me over.” She swallowed, and her lips thinned in distaste. “At first, I was loath to have his company forced on me, but then I came to see it as an opportunity.”
Pierce frowned. Still, he could not help but be proud at how her mind worked.
Caroline shrugged. “He asked me questions, and so I asked him some of my own.”
“Questions about what?”
A devilish smile came to her lips. “I learned that, in all likelihood, he’d been at a house party that night, and I suspect that Lord Kearsley and Lord Amhurst had been with him as the three of them still seem to be close friends. The way he spoke of them, I believe that they have his trust.”
Pierce stared at her. “You learned this by speaking to him? It took the Bow Street Runners I hired a week to collect that information.” He scoffed before another thought sent new fear to his heart. “Did he suspect anything?”
Caroline paused before she shook her head. “At least not that I’m aware of. However, he seemed to be very interested in speaking about you.”
“Me?” Pierce’s eyes narrowed. “Why me?”
Caroline shrugged. “I cannot be certain, but he always found ways to mention you. He fished for information about your friendship with Lord Pembroke and, at some point, I thought he might suspect that we…knew each other in a deeper way than simply through my cousin and your friend. Perhaps he got wind of your investigation and suspects something.”
Pierce nodded. He would need to be more careful until he had all the information he needed to prove Coleridge’s guilt. “You said you suspect Lord Amhurst was there that night as well?”
His little mouse nodded. “It would not surprise me. Why?”
“I’d wondered about him myself,” Pierce admitted rather sheepishly, “but have so far been unable to confirm it.”
A brilliant smile came to her lips. “Do you see now that we’re at our best when we work together? And not step in each other’s way?”
Nodding, Pierce sighed. “I admit your way proves highly effective. There, was that what you wanted to hear?” he asked, slowly lowering his head toward hers.
Her gaze darted to his mouth slowly closing in on hers before meeting his eyes once more. “It might make me petty, but, yes, that’s what I wanted to hear.”
Pierce chuckled as he slipped one hand into her hair. “From the first moment I laid eyes on you,” he whispered against her lips, “I knew there was something extraordinary about you. However, I admit not even in my wildest dreams would I have believed that a woman like you could exist.”
“Is that a compliment?” she asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.
“Nothing but,” Pierce whispered and then his lips brushed against hers.
“Wait! There’s something else,” she suddenly exclaimed, her hands pushing against his chest and her head craning backward as she tried to escape his kiss.
Pierce growled under his breath, refusing to let her extract herself from his embrace. “This better be important,” he snarled with a longing glance at her mouth.
Caroline chuckled. “Oh, I believe it is.” For a moment, a faraway look came to her eyes as she gathered her thoughts. “We spoke about friends and family,” she began, and Pierce could not help the tension that settled on his limbs once again. “I spoke of Rebecca and her wayward ways, exaggerating in order to justify my deep concern for her well-being. I told him that I did not understand her, that she acted without thought, that I was disappointed in who she’d become.”
Pierce frowned. “Why would you do that?”
A sly smile came to her lips. “Because I wanted to know if he had such a person in his life as well. Because I thought that would be a good person to speak to; someone who knows him well, but does not feel bound to him by loyalty because of their differences and his disapproval.”
“That is brilliant!”
His little mouse rolled her eyes. “Don’t sound so surprised!”
“I didn’t mean—”
“I know.”
“Well, then?” Pierce pressed, a familiar need to move, to do something beginning to hum in his limbs. “Is there such a person?”
A slow smile claimed her lips. “I believe there is. I don’t know his name but, at one point, Coleridge called him his cousin. He said he’d had such