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“May I come in?” I asked.
“It would be my honor to have your company,” he answered.
I really dug this guy.
I came in and made my way with some difficulty to the lone chair in front of his desk.
At long last, I wedged myself between some boxes and found my seat.
“I know my mother has been in here, Carling,” I noted as I sat.
He waited until I was down before he sat too. “She has.”
“And she hasn’t shared you should make it so there’s some air that you can breathe while you’re in it?”
He cleared his throat and stated, “We’re receiving bids to…alter some of the belowstairs. And the lady of the house wishes this seen to with all due haste.”
I sat still as a statue.
“We’re making it into a wine cellar and buttery,” he continued.
“I see.”
What he meant was, the dungeon Dad-not-Dad had down there for whatever reason he had it was being repurposed.
“It will be in the way during construction. There’s nowhere to put all of it until it’s done,” Carling said quietly. “And I’m used to it, milady. I can wait.”
“Of course,” I replied. “But could you, perhaps, use my father’s study in the meantime?”
Hs expression grew tender, because of my words, as well as what he was about to say.
“Lady Corliss suggested that same thing. You are both most kind, but it simply wouldn’t be proper.”
One thing Carling exceled at was being proper.
“Very well,” I murmured. Then said, “Though, this does segue us rather well.”
And surprisingly, it did, thank gods, because I had a plan, but I didn’t have a plan on how to broach it.
He appeared confused.
Damn.
As mentioned, I had a plan. It might come to nothing, but considering I had a man to look after, it was worth a shot.
I took that shot.
“Lord Remington shared that my father had access to some rather…colorful characters.”
Carling’s eyes widened.
I hurried on.
“I don’t know if word reached your ears, Carling…” I did know. Everything reached his ears. “But my intended had a spot of trouble last night.”
“I had heard something of this, milady.”
“Well, you see, he’s very strong, so you couldn’t tell this morning, but he was injured in the fracas. To the point a physician had to attend him last night.”
“My goodness,” he said with alarm.
“He’ll be fine…eventually.” I put more weight on the last word than was needed.
“Well, that’s good to hear.”
“He’s supposed to be resting.”
Carling said nothing.
“He’s not.”
Carling stared at me.
“Because he’s concerned about this matter, and he is rather a man of action.”
“He is that, milady,” Carling mumbled.
Yes.
He knew everything.
“And it has me wondering, if…perhaps…some of Father’s, erm…associates might know something of the foes my betrothed is facing so that, if I were to learn what they know, I can help him—”
I spoke no more as Carling bopped up from his seat, zigged and zagged through the barrels and crates, shoved his head out the door, looked this way and that down the hall, and then, with some effort due to its heaviness, he closed it.
He zigged and zagged back, sat down at his desk and leaned conspiratorially to me.
In turn, I leaned toward him, hopeful at this behavior.
But all he said was, “Milady, it’s my honor. Leave this with me.”
He sat back and spoke no more.
“Pardon?” I queried.
“I know precisely what to do,” he shared.
“And that would be?” I pressed.
“With respect, never you mind. Trust it’s in hand. Or it will be.”
“I…um, Carling—”
“I know his ways. I can handle this.”
“His ways?”
“Indeed.”
“Whose ways?”
He leaned forward again, so much farther, he was out of his seat and resting on his forearms on his desk.
“Your sire’s,” he whispered, and sat back.
“Carling—”
“Don’t think again of it.”
“Carling!” I snapped.
He shut up.
“You are truly the most wonderful houseman a house could have,” I announced.
His face went scarlet.
“And as such, I cannot put you in danger. Not only because I cannot, but also because, if I did, Mother would murder me. Therefore, if you’d advise, I will take care of…whatever I’m doing to take care of things.”
Ulk.
Lame finish, Satrine!
“I can’t allow that, milady.”
“Well, I can’t allow you to put your neck on the line either.”
He grew quiet.
I did too.
Impasse.
Bloody hell!
Carling broke it.
“We’ll work together.”
I felt my face beaming.
He grew stern.
“Milady, I won’t do this if you don’t have a mind that I know what I’m doing…and you don’t.”
I sat forward on my seat. “Oh, I’ll have a mind. I promise.”
He studied me.
And then he shared, “When your father would need some information, he’d send the hall boy with a note and the appropriate coin to some urchins in the Quarter. They would see to it that the request in that note was disseminated as it needed to be. We have your father’s stationery, though I assume everyone knows his current condition. That matters not. I’ll sign the notes in his stead. Anyone will think I’m acting on his behalf.”
