“Someone has ransacked my room, and I—”
“They’vewhat?”
“—thought it best to wait here until you returned, and we—”
“Did you sayransacked your room?”
“—might examine the scene of the crime, as it were, together.”
“Are you daft, woman?” He glared down at her from his impressive height and crossed his arms over his chest, a gesture which had a truly supernatural effect on both said arms and said chest. “Why did you not send for me? Or come down, damn it? You’ve been up here all alone, while I’ve been listening to Thibodeaux burble about ‘The Lusty Smith of Tipperary’?”
“The what?”
“Never mind.” He yanked off his cravat, which caused brandy fumes to waft into the air. “Why did you not find me?”
“I—” She almost did not know. It had not even occurred to her to do anything but wait. “I suppose I did not want to trouble you.”
“Christ!” he exclaimed, and caught her chin for one rough, heart-stopping moment before he let go. “Next time, damn it, trouble me! You can always trouble me. God knows you already do.”
Somehow, it sounded almost like a compliment.
“Stay here,” he grated and made for the door.
She followed him.
“For God’s sake,” he said, glowering at her, “can you not stay put? Will you not let me look for a moment before throwing yourself headlong into danger?”
“I’m certain whoever perpetrated the deed has long since gone. Had they wanted to harm me, they could have done so the moment I opened the door.”
“Then why did you wait for me to join you, if you were so bloody certain?”
She lifted her chin. “I am a prudent woman.”
“Aye,” he said, “and I’m the prince regent. Come on then.”
Inside her bedroom, things were as disordered as she recalled. Her belongings were tossed from the trunk Huw had brought down from Strathrannoch Castle and strewn about the room. Her letters—Davis’s letters—were spread across the floor. An inkstand on the escritoire had been overturned and was dripping steadily onto the green-and-white floral rug and—blast it!—one of her favorite hats.
Arthur was already in motion, searching beneath the bed, behind the draperies, and even inside the small wardrobe and her now-empty trunk.
“Are you quite satisfied there are no children or medium-sized dogs hidden about the room?” she asked when he finally halted.
He scowled at her. “I don’t like this at all. Let’s put your things back together, and we’ll try to work out if they’ve stolen anything.”
Together, they set the room to rights. A dozen pounds sterling had vanished from the bottom of her trunk, and a pair of lacy stockings, but she was not certain about the correspondence. Even with the letters stacked and reordered chronologically, she could not recall if any were missing.
She gave Arthur an apologetic glance. “I did not memorizethem, you know. Perhaps if I had my notes, I could work it out more precisely. I can cross-reference them when we return to Strathrannoch Castle.”
To her surprise, he greeted this admission with a look of some buoyancy.
The look vanished, however, when she attempted to bid him good night.
“You cannot mean to sleep in here,” he protested. “The bastards could return any time.”
She pursed her lips. “Surely not. Whoever searched the room in the first place deliberately chose a time they knew I would be out—”
“Are you so certain of that? Certain enough to risk your life upon it?”
“I haven’t anywhere else to sleep,” she said in exasperation.
