AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Uh. Yes. Of course.” Lady Fenwick’s cheeks pinkened and she dipped sharply then turned, leaving Mrs. Crisp hurrying to catch up.
“Not a single useful thought in that woman’s mind,” said Aunt Sarah, still smiling.
“Not a one,” Cassie agreed.
“Was she not the one who accused that poor young woman of thievery when it turned out she had gifted some jewels to a lover many years ago?” asked Chastity. “I recall Mama talking of it.”
Aunt Sarah tilted her head back and released a delighted laugh. “I completely forgot about that. Goodness, the nerve of the woman to speak on such matters. We had to investigate for her, and she still could not admit she was wrong, even after we proved the maid’s innocence.”
“It was just before I joined Mama’s investigative society,” Chastity told her sisters. “Mama was trying to put me off I think, but proving Lady Fenwick to be a dimwitted fool appealed to me far too much.”
Demeter’s eyes rounded and she made a furtive shushing movement. Chastity followed her sister’s gaze to find Valentine looming over her. Her heart skipped a beat. How much had he overheard?
∞∞∞
“What is it?” Chastity twisted slowly. “Did you find something out?”
“Not a damned thing.”
Valentine saw her gaze skip to his lips where he knew a wretchedly stupid half-smile twitched his lips.
“Then what is so amusing?”
Words tangled in his throat and ricocheted around his mind. How to even voice it all, he did not know. I love you was the most simple of them but it didn’t feel simple. He admired this woman more than anyone. She was no pampered duke’s daughter and she certainly cared about more than shoes.
“You and your sisters investigate matters regularly?” he asked.
Her gaze hardened and she folded her arms, sending her dance card swinging from her wrist. “Well, yes. And I do not see why it amuses you. We have—”
“It does not amuse me.”
“Oh, I imagine you think it scandalous—women taking matters into their own hands.”
“No.”
Her gaze thinned. “It is more than silly feminine matters. Why, we even—”
“I can imagine.”
She blinked a few times, her gaze scanning his expression. He hadn’t let it change. He still reeled from the revelation—but in the most excellent way. Chastity liked balls, and beautiful gowns, and shoes. But she also reveled in breaking conventions. How many other women of rank took it upon themselves to help not just their family members but other women in need?
Women investigators. It was certainly a novel idea. However, he’d seen her in action and had no doubt she did a far better job than he ever could. He didn’t need to hear her argument as to why she did it. He understood fully. She didn’t like how Society treated their women any more than he did.
And she was determined to do something about it.
If he’d thought himself in love before, he’d been wrong. Now he was boots over head for her.
“Are you not going to deride it? Or tell me I should not be doing such things?”
He shook his head, then reached for her dance card. She watched, mouth ajar as he lifted the thing slowly from her wrist, drew the silk ribbon down her white gloves, over each little fabric button and freed it. Then he tossed it across the floor. It skidded some distance before coming to a halt in a tangle of velvet curtains.
“What are you doing?”
He shrugged. “You lost your dance card. Now you do not know with whom you are to dance next.”
She put a finger to her lips and peered around. “I think it was—”
He took her wrist and led her onto the dance floor. “Me. It was me.”
