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“Your manservant will be watching over Beatrice. You said we were in this together now. We’re linked like a chain of daisies, one stem split and the next threaded inside until there’s a chain.”
“A daisy chain. Interesting choice. Are you sure you’re not a country lass?”
“Absolutely not.” She had to make him understand that this was the life she had chosen and she wasn’t afraid of danger. “Since I arrived at Sir Malcolm’s home he’s wanted me to lead a quiet, secluded life and to be happy and content with being his secretary. I thought you’d be just like him, but you’re not. You listen to me. You asked my opinion about the author of the first letter. I think you value my assistance.”
“Well you did find a secret chamber behind my bookshelf and a mysterious coded diary. You’re obviously far cleverer at that sort of thing than I am.”
“It’s distressingly charming and refreshing to meet a man who doesn’t think that I should be sitting in the parlor with an embroidery hoop. Why are you so liberal-minded about such things?”
His lip quirked. “It could have something to do with the fact that you pressed a pistol to my chest the first night I met you. You’re a lady not only equipped to defend herself, but ready to lead the charge.”
“Why thank you.”
“Also, I sensed from the moment I met you that nothing I said would hold any sway over you and that I may as well go with the current instead of fighting it.”
“Very astute of you,” she said.
“Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve had enough secrets for the moment, Mina. Let’s go and find my mother, my sister, and your great-aunt and tell them we’re all visiting Vauxhall Gardens tomorrow evening.”
“Do you think we should bring everyone with us?” she asked. She’d imagined a more intimate evening. Maybe she would even sneak out to meet him there wearing a costume and a mask.
“I do,” he said firmly. “I need to keep Beatrice with me at all times. And obviously you and I require more than one chaperone.”
Chapter17
It’s an enchanted fairyland.
Mina tried not to gawk at the glittering sights of Vauxhall Gardens like a country maiden at her first fair. Tried, and failed. She hadn’t quite shed her country skin yet—she was awed by everything she saw: the performers reenacting famous battle scenes, the orchestra playing from the second tier of the round building decorated like a jeweled crown and topped by the royal arms and crest.
Red, violet, and blue lamps hung in the trees, clustered together to form bouquets of flowers with leaves of luminous green.
Patterned metal lanterns sent golden stars and moons dancing across the archways and the faces of the revelers.
She sat on a bench next to Beatrice and the duchess in a private supper box, open at the front and hung with paintings of rural scenes and men playing cricket. Drew had seen an acquaintance and left for a chat before supper was served, leaving his manservant, Corbyn, to stand sentry outside of their box.
Grizzy had stayed home, complaining of a sick headache, but she’d made sure that Mina was prepared for her first public outing with the duke and his family.
“It’s an honor to be invited by the duke and his mother,” Grizzy had told Mina as she supervised her toilette. “You’ll be the envy of every marriageable lady at Vauxhall. The queen of the evening.”
Grizzy had chosen a gown with a silver-threaded overlay meant to sparkle in the lamplight.
Mina had her mother’s oil-of-roses perfume behind her ears and in the valley between her breasts. Not that anyone would come close enough to her bosom to smell the candy-sweet scent with a lemony finish.
Especially not Thorndon. There could be none of that.
He was still the man her uncle wanted to force her to marry.
Yet he was so much more than that.
He knew what it meant to feel helpless, to feel trapped and alone. He was far more fascinating and complex than your average arrogant duke.
Which changed nothing.
Douse the desire. Squelch the sympathy.They were on a serious mission tonight.
Drew had the silver in a leather pouch. Mina had her pocket pistol. During the lighting of the lamps, they’d hand over the money in exchange for the information.
The danger of what she and Drew must do tonight, the exciting prospect of answers and subsequent action—she’d been dreaming and scheming about intrigues such as this her whole life.
