Page 59 of Sinfully Daring

“Hargreaves?”

“Sebastian,” he corrected.

She sighed, shaking her head. “It’s difficult to get used to that, and I like Hargreaves.”

He chuckled. “Very well, but I insist on Sebastian when we are intimate. Hargreaves reminds me of my father.”

“Oh!” she said, blushing. “Very well, then.”

“What did you wish to ask me?”

“Well….” She hesitated, glancing up at him.

“Go on,” he urged her. We can talk about anything, I promise.

“Even subjects that are rather… uncomfortable?”

“Especially those,” he assured her.

Absently, she traced a hand over the embroidery on his waistcoat. It was a light satin and her touch tickled through to his skin, making him wonder if she knew she was circling his nipple and making his nerves leap.

“Well, I just wondered if Adelia had enemies?”

His excitement died instantly at the mention of his wife, and he frowned, concentrating on the question. “There were certainly plenty of people who disliked her, but enemies? No, I do not think so. Why?”

She shrugged, giving him an apologetic glance. “What if she was pushed? Just not by you.”

He frowned at the idea. “Isn’t it more likely she tripped, like you said?”

Rosamund nodded but her expression remained troubled. “Yes, probably, but now I have the idea in my head it’s sort of stuck there. What if she was rude to one of the staff and they lost their temper, or… or what if one of the men she was flirting with tired of being led about by the nose? It might not have even been on purpose, but…. Oh, am I being ridiculous? Too many Gothic novels, I expect.”

“You could never be ridiculous,” he assured her, but he was disturbed by her words and rather wished she’d not said anything because now he was considering it too. “She was always vile to the staff. Why would they react now, though, after so long?”

“Perhaps it was the last straw?”

Sebastian frowned, remembering that Adelia’s lady’s maid had acted rather oddly when he had dismissed her with a letter of recommendation and a generous last payment. He’d assumed it was because she thought him a murderer and blamed him for losing her position, but could it have been something other than that? Surely not.

Rosamund was quiet for a moment, but it was clear she did not wish to let the matter drop. “What about her flirts? Who was a part of the group always trailing after her? Would any of them do such a thing? That awful Humphrey Price was always with her, and we know he and his friend Travers helped her to set us up in the library.”

Sebastian battled a swell of fury at the reminder of Price and his crony. One day, he would have the satisfaction of breaking their noses if there was any justice in the world. Sadly, justice was in short supply most days, but one lived in hope.

“But the staff would have said if someone had come to the house,” Sebastian pointed out, all too happy to accuse the men of a heinous crime but not so dishonourable as to condemn them with no evidence.

“Unless they didn’t know, or they were covering for them,” Rosamund suggested.

“My word, what a Machiavellian mind you have, child,” he said, staring at her in wonder.

She pulled a face at him. “Just because it works quicker than yours, old man.”

Sebastian smothered a grin, delighted that she was comfortable enough to provoke him again. “Old man, is it? Well, you asked this wicked satyr to marry you, might I remind you, so you must have a fondness for decrepit old goats.”

She pinched his chin, a mischievous look in her eyes. “Perhaps I just felt sorry for you, seeing as how you’re so ancient. Thirty, at least,” she added, all innocence.

“Next year,” he grumbled, glaring at her but he could not keep looking cross even in fun when she was so adorable. “I want to kiss you,” he said, not wanting to think about Adelia anymore, even though they must.

“I want to kiss you too, but this is important, isn’t it?”

He nodded and leaned towards her, pressing his mouth to hers. “Just one kiss,” he promised.