“Gladly.”
The door opened before they had a chance to knock, and Mrs. Tipps stood in the doorway, frowning. “This is a fine state of affairs,” she said, gesturing to the shop. “Where am I to buy my tea?”
Belle opened her mouth to retort that she had just been in to buy her Darjeeling and should have plenty, but Arundel reached over and put a hand on her arm. She supposed it was meant to look like a comforting gesture.
“Miss Howard and her father plan to open the shop again as soon as possible,” Arundel said. “Perhaps you could help with that.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You are taller than I imagined. Better looking too when you’re not at death’s door.”
“Thanks to your skill with nursing, I am recovering.”
Mrs. Tipps raised her brows. “Charming too.”
Belle was growing impatient standing on the street. She might have been impatient of Arundel charming everyone as well. “Might we speak to you inside for a moment?”
Mrs. Tipps shook her head. “Mr. Tipps is out. I don’t allow men into the house when he is away.”
Belle hardly thought Arundel had any intention of attacking her and beating her with her cane, but another press of Arundel’s hand kept her quiet. She didn’t like being shushed, though, and she gave his arm a pinch.
“I understand,” Arundel was saying. “I’m sure it’s been a trying few days for you with the fire and all the commotion of the other night. Thieves in London have become quite brazen.”
“Thieves.” Mrs. Tipps sounded doubtful. “I see.”
“While Miss Howard and I were being treated for injuries sustained during the fire, Mrs. Price was kind enough to look after Mr. Howard.”
“Trying to sink her claws in him, was she?”
Belle’s eyes widened. Ah-ha! Now Arundel would see what she had meant. Mrs. Tipps saw it too.
“I’m sure Mrs. Price was trying to be a good neighbor.”
Belle rolled her eyes, and Mrs. Tipps gave him a thin smile. “But she lost him, didn’t she?”
“Why do you say that?” Belle asked, ignoring the quelling look Arundel sent her.
“Because I saw him go into the shop, and I didn’t see him come out.”
“What else did you see?” she asked. “Did any—”
Arundel pressed her arm again. He cleared his throat. “Did you see anyone else go into the shop after him?”
Belle scowled at him. That had been the exact question she had planned to ask. He might be an agent for the Crown, but she wasn’t a dolt. To repay him for cutting her off, she pinched his arm again. Harder.
No response. She’d have to pinch elsewhere.
“Or perhaps some men were loitering about across the—ah!”
Belle bit her lip to keep from smiling. She’d given his bum a sharp pinch. That had gotten his attention.
“What was that?” Mrs. Tipps asked.
Arundel, professional that he was, never even glanced back at Belle, but before she could pinch him again, he caught her wrist and held it.
“Across the street,” he said. “In front of your window or just down the street a ways.”
“I didn’t notice anyone loitering, and I don’t tolerate anyone loitering in front of my stoop,” she said. Belle could attest to that. She’d seen Mrs. Tipps shoo away more than one group of young boys and girls playing in front of the door to the building. And some of those children lived in the flats above her. “But I did see two men go into the shop.”
Belle wrenched her wrist free from Arundel’s grip. “When? While my father was inside?”
