Page 60 of A Rogues & Gentlemen Christmas

To her relief, they would not need to visit any of the family homes, for Mr Middleton also kept an office in the city.

“Well, if we must, I ought to call in and see to some business of my own on the way,” said Ludo, his tone suggesting he was still unenthusiastic about the idea, but accepting at least.

“Of course,” she said brightly, tying her bonnet.

She looked up as he moved before her and tweaked the bow, before leaning down and kissing her.

“Gorgeous,” he said, leaving her giddy and happily dazed with nothing more than a word and a peck on the lips.

Bunty kicked her heels in the hallway of the large red brick building, a little irritated to have been abandoned, but not wanting to pry. Men were funny about matters involving money, and Ludo was obviously very much on his dignity about the state of his finances. Still, her curiosity burned, and she dared to wander down the hallway a bit and peek into the room at the end. A huge printing press was set up here, and the smell of ink hung heavy on the air.

“I knew you’d not be able to resist.”

Bunty spun around to see Ludo watching her.

“Oh. Well, no. I’m sorry. Only I had nothing to do and I was curious. Is this part of your business? Printing?”

“In a way,” he said. He seemed rather tense, anxious and yet also pleased.

“Did your meeting go well?”

He nodded, turning this hat around and around in his hand.

“It did, better than I expected. We’ve….” He laughed, a glint of astonishment in his eyes. “We’ve made some money. Not… Not a huge amount, but more than we’d expected.”

“Well, that’s marvellous,” she said, meaning it. “But how, Ludo? Won’t you tell me?”

He hesitated. She moved towards him and took his hand, aware that he was nervous, but uncertain why.

“Promise you won’t laugh.”

Bunty stared up at him. “Why on earth would I laugh at something that makes money?”

He ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in a riot of thick dark curls. Bunty reached up on her toes and enjoyed the miraculous delight of smoothing it back into place.

“Well,” he said, staring down at her. “Oh, come along. I’ll show you.”

He tugged at her hand and Bunty hurried beside him as he strode down the corridor and up a flight of stairs. He opened a door, guiding her into a cramped, dingy office. Weak daylight filtered in through the grubby windows, and the place needed a good sweep, but Bunty strove to ignore that, too curious about what he wanted to show her.

He closed the door and tapped his hat on his thigh a couple of times before clearing his throat. “Have you ever seen those dissection puzzles? I had one as a boy. Well, what was left of one. Half the pieces were missing by the time it came to me, but it was a map of the world pasted onto board and cut up into sections. It was supposed to teach geography, and it did, rather cleverly. I always thought it would be more fun if there were other things to put back together, though. Pictures, for example.”

“What sort of pictures?” she asked, more than surprised at his words.

He shrugged, a little diffident, and then gestured to a table where there were a dozen or more boxes stacked. Bunty moved to the table and, as he seemed to be waiting for her to do so, lifted the lid on the box nearest her. There were a jumble of pieces inside and she tipped them onto the table.

“Oh,” she said, enchanted to see what he meant. Putting aside her reticule, she organised the pieces, putting them back together to make a picture of a smug-looking cat, his paw holding down the tail of a mouse. The poor mouse was yanking at his tail like fury, trying to get free. “Oh, Ludo, it’s marvellous. A child would love this.”

Ludo grinned at her.

“That one is for a younger child. There’s a dog, too, and a rabbit. Then here, these are for older children.” He tipped over another box, scattering more pieces, smaller and more complex this time. “There’s a farmyard scene, and a knight fighting a dragon so far.”

Bunty exclaimed with delight and said nothing at all for some time, deep in concentration until she had completed the farmyard scene, complete with a pretty cottage, a milkmaid and chickens and ducks, sheep and cows.

“It’s beautiful. What a clever artist you have to draw such beautiful pictures too.”

She looked up to see his face filled with pleasure. “Well, the pen drawings are printed out so we can reproduce them in numbers, but then they are hand-painted so they’re colourful.”

Bunty stared at the puzzle a little longer, considering, studying the way the light glimmered on the duck pond and the sunlight glittered on the puddles in the cobbled yard, as if it had just rained.