Page 5 of The Detective and the Baroness

Lady Addington sipped her tea thoughtfully. “I genuinely like the ladies working at the agency and have come to know them a little since meeting them at a tea party. I was going to hire Miss Ellingford, but she is taking a temporary leave to get married.”

“And my name came up?”

“Why yes, it did. Do you mind?”

“Not at all, my lady,” Mitchell replied.

“I can’t blame you for wanting to get involved with them. The last time I visited Althea, I offered to assist her by moving about society and gathering information on any of their cases when needed. They haven’t used my services yet, but I stand at the ready. You see, I’m not one for sitting about parlors sipping tea all day, although there is nothing wrong with that. Since I have more invitations than I can handle, I might as well put that to good use. The sisters have their duke husbands to gather information among male peers. I simply offered to gather any information among the ladies.”

No, he couldn’t imagine all that sparkle contained within a stuffy parlor setting. “Good for you. I admire that. But why do you wish to hire me, my lady?”

Lady Corrine sighed. “I need you to follow my husband and report his activities to me. He’s presently staying at his old residence, the one he lived in before becoming Baron Addington. Travis has been there for nearly a month. He owns the Camden Town property. I will give the address before you depart.”

Mitchell placed his half-eaten sandwich on the saucer, then retrieved a notepad and pencil from his side pocket. “You can give it to me now, my lady.”

“Seven Carol Street. Does this mean you are taking the case? I haven’t told you the particulars as yet.”

“After what you have done for me—and my friends—I-I will gladly take your case.”

I would do anything for you.

He had almost said those words. How disturbing to find it was the complete truth. No other woman had caught his attention like this. It bloody well rankled that she was married.

Her ladyship smiled warmly. “Thank you, Sergeant. So, as to my situation… Like most marriages in the aristocracy, ours is a business arrangement, pure and simple. Travis was one of the presumptive heirs to the barony but never expected to take on the title since the old baron had a son. Unfortunately, the boy drowned when he was sixteen. A second cousin was next in line but he, too, died before the old baron. Next in succession was Travis’s father, but he passed ages ago.”

“So your husband moved to the top of the list.”

Lady Addington nodded. “Yes. He felt it his duty to find a wife, or so I assume. Travis is forty-one and claimed he didn’t wish to look for a bride amongst the younger, eligible ladies. We had an acquaintance but hadn’t seen each other for years. So, he sought me out. He knew how to entice me to consider marriage. Money.”

Mitchell stopped writing and looked up at the baroness, who watched him closely over the rim of her teacup. “That would be an inducement for anyone, my lady.”

“My family has lived on the edge financially for years, so I took up nursing, as it was one career open to women. My younger brother works at a bank. I wanted to give my family financial security. So Travis settled a substantial amount on me, and I agreed to marry him. There were a few conditions.”

Mitchell frowned. “If your family desperately needed money, why didn’t your brother marry one of the many American heiresses haunting London ballrooms? After all, he is the heir apparent to a viscountcy. That would be quite an inducement. Why should it be left to you to take care of your family?”

Again, he knew he’d overstepped the bounds, but if the baroness wanted to hire him, he had to know all the facts.

Lady Addington reached for an iced biscuit. “I recently turned thirty. I had no illusions that I would marry for love—or at all. But I want my brother, Jeffery, to fall in love before he marries. As he is only twenty-three, that may take time—which we did not have.”

Somehow, Mitchell had thought she was much younger than his thirty-two years. He turned the page on his notebook. “And the conditions? It may be relevant to the case.”

The baroness thrust out that enticing lower lip. “It is also very personal.”

“You may count on my discretion, my lady.”

“Yes, I know I can. Besides the money, I asked that we try for a child. Travis did not keep up his end of the bargain. At all.” The baroness’s cheeks flushed as she popped the rest of her biscuit in her mouth and chewed furiously.

What kind of man would not want to bed her? My God, her beauty took Mitchell’s breath away. But it wasn’t only that; it was her confidence and how she was so vibrantly—alive. Also, he admired her frankness. What to say to such a pronouncement?

“I now realize I made a mistake,” Lady Addington continued. “So I need grounds for a possible divorce. I have tried to talk to Travis about this. But that only resulted in him returning to his former residence. Something broke between us, not that there was much to start with. We could stay married and live apart as so many have done before, but I want more. Being a baroness is not important to me—not enough to stay in an untenable situation. So I want to know if I have grounds for divorce.” She sipped her tea. “I am sorry, Sergeant. That was too much information. I have a habit of prattling on longer than I should.”

“I understand.” What else could he say? He couldn’t comprehend such upper-class arrangements. Mitchell always thought such emotionless marriage transactions were strange and coldly cynical at their core.

The baroness shot him a look. “Do you?”

“No, I do not understand since I’ve never been married. As you say, it is an untenable situation.”

“And I have been far too outspoken. But you need to know that this isn’t some whim of a spoiled peer. I did not want you to think, ‘She’s got her money, and now she is kicking the baron to the cobbles.’ I’m unsure why I care what you believe, but I do.”