Her Officer and Gentleman (20 page)

“Father was already gone by the time your mother was arrested.”

“I know. Do you think Charlotte capable of such intrigue?”

“No. She is not strong enough and I cannot see her being so heartless. I do not know who was the villain. I only know there is a connection between Massingale House and your mother’s false imprisonment and I will help you find out what I can.” A noise drew her gaze to the door.

“Beth, I—”

“Shhh!” Beth hissed. She tiptoed to the open door and looked out. The two footmen stood in stoic silence.

“What is it?” Christian whispered directly behind Beth, his breath warm and unexpected on her cheek.

She had to rein in a shiver, but she managed to whisper back, “Wait!”

There was no sound until, from a distant door, Beth heard Annie’s voice. It grew louder until Beth could tell her maid was speaking to Jane, one of the downstairs maids, the one Grandfather was forever calling “that horrid flirt.”

Sure enough, as soon as Annie and Jane were within range of the front hallway, they began calling out a greeting to the footmen.

Christian watched with Beth from around the edge of the doorway as the two maids flirted with
the footmen, asking them to come and help with their laundry baskets.

“It will never work,” Christian whispered. “They will not leave their posts.”

“You don’t know the power of Annie.” Sure enough, moments later, Annie and one of the footmen disappeared down the hallway, Jane and her beau following after.

Beth grabbed Christian’s hand. “We haven’t much time!”

“Time? For what?”

She tugged him along, leaving the sitting room and making their way to Grandfather’s library. Beth opened the door, pushed Christian inside, then followed, glancing over her shoulder.

As soon as the door closed, Beth turned on her heel to face Christian, crossed her arms over her chest, and managed a smile. “Well?”

He looked around, realization dawning. “This is your grandfather’s library.”

“Yes. If he has hidden anything, it would be in here.”

He caught sight of the desk and began to move toward it, but then stopped. Instead, he walked toward Beth, bent, and placed a gentle, sensual kiss upon her lips. “Thank you,” he said simply.

Her whole body burned and she began to realize what Annie meant by an “itch.” “You had better hurry. He is sleeping. He normally naps for an hour, but you never know.”

He nodded curtly, began to say something else, then changed his mind. “Come.”

She looked around. “Shall I begin looking through the bookshelves for a false book or a hidden cupboard?”

He glanced at her, amusement curving his lips. “Beth, this is not a novel. If your grandfather has anything to hide, it will be where he keeps his usual things.”

“Oh,” she said. It would have been nice to have found a secret chamber, or at least a hidden safe.

Christian laughed softly. “Stop looking so disappointed. This is my quest. Not yours. I don’t wish you to do anything that might put you in a bad position with your grandfather.”

“Like sneak you into his library when he’s taking a nap?”

Christian paused. “You are taking a chance for me, aren’t you?”

“No. I am taking a chance
on
you. That is much riskier.”

“I will not disappoint you, Beth.” He crossed to the desk and ran his hands over the surface. He sat in the large leather chair. “That necklace has to be somewhere.”

“How do you know that whoever took it didn’t sell it?”

“It was a spectacular piece. I made inquiries and it has not shown up in any private collection.” Christian found the knob of the top drawer and pulled. It slid out the tiniest bit, then stopped, the lock thunking at the pressure, “Damn.”

Beth had begun running her hands over the bookshelves, looking for irregularities. She looked over at him at that. “What is it?”

“It’s locked.”

“Of course it is.”

“Why ‘of course’?”

Her brows lowered. “Because Grandfather always keeps the desk locked.”

Bloody hell. Christian tugged at the drawer again. It didn’t budge. He cursed, then glared at Beth. “Doesn’t that strike you as strange? That he keeps his desk locked in such a fashion?”

“No,” she said baldly. “Don’t
you
lock
your
desk?”

He paused. He did, of course. There were servants about, some of whom he never saw, like the sweep boy and the underfootmen who beat the rugs every month. Christian only knew about them because once or twice, he’d come to the library unannounced and found those individuals there. “I suppose I do keep my desk locked,” he said grudgingly.

“No man of sense would do otherwise.” She crossed her arms over her breasts, her shoulder against the bookshelf. “This is why you should not investigate your theory by yourself. You need someone impartial to assist you.”

He cocked a brow in her direction.

“You, my Lord Westerville, have lost your ability to judge people and things.”

“I have not.”

“I think you have,” she replied with unabashed good humor. “You want to believe my grandfather did this horrid thing so much that you are interpreting everything you find to prove it true.”

He reached for the second drawer and found it locked as well. He rattled it for a moment and then pushed back from the desk and sent Beth a dark glare. “I have not confronted your grandfather, have I?”

She pursed her lips; her eyes settled on him with consideration. “Not yet. But as soon as you find something—anything—no matter how thin—to implicate him, you will not only leap to a conclusion of total and absolute guilt, you will fly to it.”

“I promise that my judgment is not so obscured.”

She raised her brows but said nothing, that damned seductive half smile on her lips. Christian leaned back in the chair. There was more than one way to skin a cat and definitely more than one way to shatter the false confidence of an attractive woman. “I suppose you think you are better at reasoning than I am.”

“In this instance, yes.”

He let his gaze roam over her, settling first on her full breasts, then her rounded hips.

“Westerville, stop that!”

“Stop what?” he asked as innocently as he could.

“Turning everything we do into a seduction. I am here mainly to protect my grandfather. One or two little heated looks from you is not going to change that fact one bit.”

Christian thought he rather liked the way she said she was there
mainly
to protect her grandfather. He grinned at her now, a strange tightness in his chest. “I was not giving you a heated look.”

“What do you call it then?”

“I was merely appreciating your, ah…finer points.”

“Yes, well, I could do the same for you except—”

“Except what?”

“They are all under the desk.”

There was a moment of splitting silence, then Beth laughed. And not just a little laugh, either, but a loud peal that trickled delicious and cool over his ears.

He half stood and waved for her to be quiet, realizing with some shock that his face was heated. “Quiet! They will hear you!”

She clapped a hand over her mouth, though her eyes still gleamed brightly. After she’d regained control of herself, she said, “Let them hear me. Unlike you, I am allowed in this library. My grandfather would not think it amiss for me to be here at all.”

He returned to the desk. “You snuck me in here. I’d hate for all of your hard work and cunning to be lost for nothing,”

“It would be sad,” she agreed, her lovely lips curving into a grin. “But perhaps worth it, too.”

He shook his head, amused despite himself. “I never know about you. One minute, you are all prim and proper and the next—” He had to grin himself. “I believe I like that about you.”

“Don’t like it too much. I don’t usually say such outrageous things.”

“No, but I daresay you think them.”

Her cheeky grin answered that. “See how horrid I would be at playing society hostess? I am
much better served being left in the library with my own amusing thoughts.” Her lips quivered. “I do wish you could have seen your face. I wonder if anyone ever shocks you.”

They didn’t, of course. That had been his place in the world as a highwayman—to shock and surprise. Yet somehow, it seemed right that this woman, with her extreme intelligence, unusual penchant for boldness, and untailored manners and complete disregard for her own attractiveness, kept him always guessing who she was and why.

His chest tightened as he looked at her. She was his…and yet she wasn’t. Life had never been kind to the Llevanth family. He turned his attention back to the desk, his chest aching even more.

He rattled the drawers again, but nothing happened.

“There is a key somewhere.”

He glanced up at her through his lashes. “I’m sure there is.”

“No, I mean there is one on the desk.” She was still leaning against the bookcase, her arms over her chest. Gone was the humor from a moment before. Instead, she was regarding him thoughtfully, as if measuring him.

He rattled the drawer again, then began to look for a letter opener.

She stepped forward, pushing herself from the bookcase with a graceful move. “Westerville, would you be interested in a wager?”

A wager. With Beth. It was a playful gesture, one that defined this woman more than any. One
that made his lips curve upward of their own accord. She was a joy, this woman. A provocative, challenging female who deserved far more than fate had allotted her. Once he’d proven her grandfather’s duplicity and their relationship was at an end, this would be all that they’d have…memories of moments like this. “My love, what are the terms of this wager?”

Her gaze narrowed. “I am not your love.”

“You are at this moment.”

She harrumphed, sniffed, then said, “The wager is this: every time you jump to conclusions regarding any evidence found, I win a point. Like when you suggested it was unusual to lock a desk. In reality, it is quite a normal thing to do.”

“I do not always make such hasty judgments.”

“You do when you speak of my grandfather. You’ve convicted him already and every bit of evidence you find, you interpret against him.”

“It is not that way,” he growled.

“If not, then you will win the wager. As it stands, every time you make such a rash judgment, I win a point. And every time you find
real
evidence indicating my grandfather is guilty, then you will win a point.”

That seemed fair. As much as he hated to admit it, she was right about his reaction at finding the desk locked. He wondered how much of his thinking about his mother’s death had been faulty. What if all of it had? What if her grandfather was indeed innocent?

Christian nodded. “Very well. It is a wager. What are the terms? Or do I get to name them? If I do”—he let his gaze drift over her—“you can guess what I shall require should I win.”

Her cheeks flushed, but she met his gaze gamely enough. “What is that?”

“You. In my bed.”

Beth’s mouth fell open. But she quickly recovered and said with a reluctant twinkle, “I suppose it would be softer than a billiard table.”

He laughed, and it dawned on him that this was what he was going to miss the most—all the possibility that was Beth and he. The future moments like this, of laughing and loving. Of sharing and touching.

All of it was naught but a dream. God, but he hated this whole thing. If Christian found her grandfather guilty, what would he do then? He was honor-bound to seek vengeance, to make the man who killed his mother pay with his own life. “No. No wager. Forget it,” he heard himself say, turning his attention back to the desk.

“No,” she said, her voice breathless. “I agree to your terms.”

“You don’t need to.”

Her gaze met his. “I want to.” Silence met this. He clearly read the desire in her eyes, and it sent a shocking trill through him. Within seconds his body was hard and ready. “Beth. You don’t have to do anything—”

“I am not a child. I know what I want. I want to make this wager.” A smile touched her mouth. “Besides, what makes you so certain you will win?”

She had to know what she was doing to him. She had to. He took a deep breath. “Very well. What are your terms, then, since you know mine?”

“If I am proven right and you are indeed interpreting things toward your own theory, then you will buy me a lovely ruby necklace. We will call it a wedding gift.”

“We aren’t getting married.”

She smiled, her full lips parting to reveal her white teeth. “That does not mean you cannot purchase a nice present for me. If you’d like, we can even call it an un-wedding present.”

“That would definitely make it more palatable.” Though he was beginning to wonder about that, too…

“It would make it more palatable for me, as well,” Beth said with such insouciance that he winced. “In fact, as soon as you buy it for me, I will break off our engagement.”

He almost laughed. There was something so taking about her when she flashed that mischievous look his way.

Beth walked to the desk, reached under the lamp, and picked up a letter opener. She handed it across the desk to Christian. “Open the drawers, please.”

His smile burst forth. “Done,” he said softly.

“Done,” she answered.

They stayed where they were, staring at each other. A heavy prickle of heat traced across her body, tightening across her breasts and settling in her stomach and lower.

In that instant, Beth was awash in the memory of Christian over her, around her; of the feel of the green felt table beneath her. A heated shiver wracked through her and she forced herself to breathe slowly so he wouldn’t notice how flustered she’d become.

Christian slowly turned his attention back to the desk. He inserted the tip of the letter opener into the lock, and twisted it. With a loud click, the lock popped open. His heart pounded in his throat. He carefully pulled open the drawer. Inside was an assortment of papers and leather pouches.

He rifled through them, examining each piece as quickly as he could.

Beth stood with her head tilted toward the door. There was still no sound from outside, though she had to assume the footmen had returned.