“Oh, a hot cocoa would be lovely.”
“Done,” he said, and summoned Timmons to give him the instructions. He took Florence’s hand, entwining her fingers with his as they walked to his library.
Only afterward did he realize the gesture was too familiar, since they were not yet husband and wife. Nor would they ever be, but no one had to know this yet.
To his surprise, Florence voiced no objection. Good, because he was not particularly keen to let go of her.
Her eyes brightened the moment they walked in and she saw the rows of polished rosewood bookshelves. “I suppose this was your granduncle’s doing, too. Look at all these beautiful books!”
He nodded, stifling a smile as she referred to them as beautiful. But he was not surprised, because she truly had the soul of a bluestocking. “I’ve added a few, but have hardly had time to take full inventory since inheriting the title. In truth, it is all so new to me. I haven’t had much time to do anything meaningful yet.”
He settled her on a cushioned settee of burgundy-red and emerald-green damask, and sank into the chair of a matching green leather opposite her.
Where was he to start? Her excitement at discovering the marvel that was his library soon wore off, and she now looked defensive and worried.
He took a deep breath, deciding to simply tell her what was on his mind. “Florence, I need to protect you. I won’t be able to properly do so unless you tell me the truth about what is going on. I shall keep whatever you reveal to me in confidence.” For good measure, he added, “I give you my word of honor.”
“This is so unfair to you,” she said, now sounding pained. “I never meant to involve you.”
“But it is too late now. I was caught up in your plans the moment you fell out of that tree and crash landed on me.”
She sighed. “I know.”
“There is no undoing what happened. So, now you must tell me everything. What is going on? Who are you working for? It must be someone of importance if you still refuse to give up this assignment.”
“I am helping out a friend of the Princess of Wales,” she said, releasing a heavy breath. “One of her dearest and closest friends.”
This revelation caught him by surprise. “Gad, Florence. A friend of the princess?”
She nodded. “It gets worse. The assignment was at the request of the princess herself. Lady Wilmot must have bragged about my abilities to her, and a few days later I was summoned. So, you see, I cannot simply renege on my promise to retrieve those letters.”
His heart sank, for this was far more serious than he had imagined. “Who is the friend in question? Is it Lady Simmons?”
She looked at him sharply. “How did you know?”
“Not too hard to figure out now that you have narrowed the choices down to the princess’s inner circle. Lord Simmons is a brilliant man and has a bright future in government, not only on his merits but because his wife has curried favor with members of the royal family. That gives him a leg up, and Frampton is not happy about it because he considers Lord Simmons his competition.”
“One among several ambitious men, I expect,” Florence said. “But if Lady Simmons was helping her husband climb the social ranks, thenwhy would she involve herself with another man?”
“Because one has nothing to do with the other, although it is not unheard of for a wife to give her body to some old, high-ranking goat in order to further her husband’s ambitions.”
“Ugh.”
“Anyway, Lord Simmons is a very intelligent man, but I am certain he has not a clue how to pleasure his wife in the sack.”
“Trajan!”
“Gad, must you be so clueless as to sexual wiles? My point is, she is frustrated in the bedchamber, and for this reason has a roving eye. Her eye roved on me for a while.”
“You?” Florence blushed. “You…you…”
“No, I did not bed her. I suppose this is what you wish to know. It took some doing to avoid her, however. My father’s illness was the excuse I often used, although he was not all that ill at the time.”
“So, she found herself another lover? Who foolishly wrote her those letters?”
He shrugged. “I have no idea when those letters were written. It could have been years ago. Lady Simmons has been frustrated for quite a while, probably since the first week of her marriage. It is an open secret among the Upper Crust.”
Florence stared down at her hands, apparently confused.
