Page 13 of A Bluestocking’s Secret Courtship

Five

The air was cooler after sundown, but Jonathan’s lawn shirt clung to his skin as rivulets of perspiration dripped down his face. Gritting his teeth, he pushed the cart up the incline while Dom’s servant pulled.

Moonlight illuminated the younger man’s light clothing, his black hair shiny with sweat.

“Let’s enter through the back gate,” Jonathan said between panting breaths.

Petros grunted, straining to tug their load the last few feet to the service alley running behind the villa.

Jonathan could have sent two men to retrieve Wedmore’s trunk, but he had wanted to question Mrs. Bellini without Miss Darlington and her family present. As suspected, Mrs. Fanny Flibberquick bore a remarkable resemblance to the Earl of Wedmore—tall for a woman, slender build, blue eyes, silver hair.

Miss Darlington’s claim that Wedmore and Flibberquick were siblings could explain the similarities, but Jonathan knew there was no living sister. Mrs. Fanny Flibberquick would have been listed on the dossier.

So she’d lied.

He grimaced. How much did Miss Darlington really know about her uncle’s activities in Greece?

As they neared the back gate, he ordered Petros to stop.

“Be as quiet as possible,” Jonathan said, “and help me carry this upstairs.”

The trunk was locked, but he had tools in his quarters. He would arrange for the servants to deliver the trunk to Wedmore’s nieces tomorrow after he examined the contents.

He left his coat crumpled in the bed of the cart and grabbed one of the thick leather handles, pausing to unlatch the back gate. The solid wood panel swung into the courtyard on well-oiled hinges.

Neither he nor Petros spoke as they passed the kitchen garden and headed for the cistern bubbling in a corner of the courtyard. He stopped long enough to splash his face, the water running down his neck and chest. Petros took a turn next and gulped water from his cupped hands.

“Is that you, Sir Jonathan?”

He jumped, biting off a startled curse.

“Oh! You’ve returned with Aunt Fanny’s trunk already?” Miss Darlington rushed toward the trunk sitting on the stone pavers. “I wasn’t expecting it until tomorrow.”

“I…erm. I thought you might want it sooner.”

“How lovely. I am surprised you personally retrieved it.” Her eyes glimmered in the torchlight when she looked up at him. “Xavier would have helped if we had known. You’ve done so much for us already.”

“It—It was no trouble, miss.” He swiped a sleeve across his face, embarrassed to be found in such a state of dishabille.

“I am grateful nonetheless.” Her fleeting smile made his heart thump harder than the exertion had.

She gestured toward the open glass doors leading to the private sitting room she shared with her family. “Should I retrieve my brother-in-law to help carry it into my bedchamber?”

“No, thank you. Are you certain you don’t want it stored until your aunt returns? It might be in your way.”

“There is plenty of space,” she said, turning on her heel. “Follow me.”

Jonathan frowned at Petros when he didn’t grab the other end immediately.

“I want to go through her belongings,” Miss Darlington explained. “Perhaps she left a clue about where she has gone.”

“It’s—” He snapped his mouth shut. He had almost told her the trunk was locked, which he would only know if he had tried to open it.

Reaching the glass doors to her bedchamber, she glanced over her shoulder. “It is…?”

“It feels full. Hopefully you will find something useful inside.”

She stopped in the threshold to face him. A lamp was lit in the room behind her, casting her face in shadows.