“Angry?” he repeated faintly.
“Perhaps furious is a better way of putting it,” she replied, not meeting his probing gaze. “In any case, could we simply forget that it ever happened?”
Not bloody likely, thought Marcus, but if that was what she wished, he would try to act as if it was no great effort to dismiss it as easily as she evidently had done. “Very well, Lady Augusta. It won’t be spoken of again.”
Augusta breathed an audible sigh of relief. “Good,” she said brightly. “Now that we have settled everything, you may take me home.”
“Oh, we have by no means settled everything. In fact, we have not even begun to discuss the most pressing issues.”
The brittle smile disappeared from her face. “What do you mean?” Her voice took on a note of apprehension. “I … I thought you said you had no intention of ruining all that I have worked for.”
“I don’t. Of that you have my promise.” He was gratified to see tension in her shoulders relax ever so slightly. “However, there is the serious matter of your investigation.”
For an instant, her lips pressed together in a tight line. “I was afraid you were going to bring that up.”
Marcus couldn’t help but chuckle. “Is it really so odious to contemplate my offer of assistance? It seems to me that I have been of some help.”
Augusta still seemed set on avoiding his eyes. “I don’t deny that you have been useful, sir, but as to everything else …” She bit her lip. “It’s all very confusing. How are we ever going to sort things out?”
Useful, he repeated to himself. She might have been speaking about the bootboy or the under footman. Lud, this was going to prove even more difficult than he imagined.
“Perhaps we might put aside all personal concerns, as well as our penchant for quarreling,” he suggested. “Until we have brought whoever is responsible for these terrible deeds to justice.”
“You mean, work together?”
He nodded.
She seemed to consider the proposal for an inordinately long amount of time. “I suppose the idea does have some merit.”
“How kind of you to think so,” replied Marcus, with a tad more edge than he intended.
Her lips curled upward. “No quarreling, sir. Remember?”
“I doubt you shall let me forget it for a moment.” He edged slightly closer to her. “Now, suppose you begin by telling me everything that you have been holding back. And I mean everything.”
She stole a quick glance at the earl’s diminutive tiger, who was doing his best not to appear fascinated by the unusual conversation that was taking place. “Ah, perhaps we should wait for some other time.”
Marcus tossed the reins aside. “Henry, take charge of the horses,” he called as he jumped down from his perch. “Let us take a stroll among these trees, Lady Augusta. I assure you we will be quite alone, so no more prevaricating.” His hands were already around her waist, leaving her precious little room for argument.
They moved off the carriage path and into the shade of the swaying boughs. It was hard to discern her expression in the flickering light, but it appeared that she had decided to go along with his proposal, at least for the present.
“There is really little that you don’t already know,” she began. As she followed with a more detailed account of all that had happened, it became clear that her words had not been an exaggeration.
The earl rubbed his fingers along his jaw. “Hmm. It does seem as if we have narrowed the probable suspects down to two.” He slanted a sharp glance at Augusta. “That is, unless you have engaged in some other outrageous exploit that has succeeded in eliminating one of them from consideration?”
“Really, sir!”
He thought he detected a slight deepening of her color. “Lady Augusta, you haven’t answered my question.”
“I haven’t done anything,” she said tartly. “Under her breath she added, “At least, not yet.”
“I heard that.”
“Jamison and I were merely having a look at the place,” she said defensively.
“Absolutely not,” he growled.
Her eyes took on a certain spark. “Just because I agreed to allow you to help does not give you the right to lord it over me as if you were?—”
