Page 23 of The Duke’s Defiant Love

"Amelia." Her father's voice carried a stiffness she rarely heard from him. "His Grace has requested a private word. I shall be just beyond the door, should you require anything."

The door clicked shut behind him, leaving them alone in a silence that stretched a moment too long before Sebastian finally spoke.

"You have my papers."

"I do not know what you mean," She answered, while crushing the incriminating evidence tightly with one hand behind her back.

"You do know precisely what I mean, Miss Hartwell. I left several pages of handwritten notes at Bell’s bookshop four days ago. I have searched my study, my carriage, and my solicitor's office twice over, and found nothing."

"That sounds unfortunate."

"It was."

"I am sorry."

"I am sure you are."

Amelia fidgeted under his gaze still holding one arm bent behind her. He was watching her far too closely.

"Perhaps you simply misplaced them."

"I did not misplace them. I am, whatever else you believe of me, a scrupulously organized man, and I do not generally misplace my own notes." He tilted his head slightly, studying her with an attention that made her feel, uncomfortably, as though he could see straight through whatever composure she was attempting to maintain.

"And yet you appear to have done precisely that. I have no idea where your papers are, Your Grace."

"No?"

"No."

Sebastian reached into his coat and withdrew a small sheet of paper.

"Do you remember this passage?"

Amelia glanced at it.

"No."

"It concerns the distinction between historical omission and deliberate suppression."

She hesitated.

Then, before she could stop herself, she said, "Your conclusion on that point is too cautious."

He was silent. Amelia closed her eyes briefly. When she looked up again, his mouth had curved, no longer fighting it. Heat rose straight up her neck.

"And yet you appear remarkably familiar with their contents."

Her stomach tightened.

"I am familiar with your published arguments."

"Not the argument in those pages."

"I may have read something similar."

"You have my papers. I merely wished to see whether you would confirm it before I admitted as much, and you have now done so rather conclusively." He was fully smiling now, and it transformed his face in a way she found considerably more dangerous than his usual careful composure. "I confess I suspected you had them from the moment I verified they were no longer at Bell’s. You did not strike me as a woman capable of leaving an argument unfinished, particularly not one you disagreed with as thoroughly as you disagreed with mine."

"I was going to have them returned."