One Thing Leads to a Lover (Love and Let Spy #2) - Susanna Craig Page 0,4

the matter to Matthews,” George continued, and for the briefest of moments, Amanda wondered whether he would truly be so bold as to reprimand her servants. Doubtless if he did not, her mother would.

“My lord.” With one hand, Amanda waved the boys into the library as she stepped closer, not quite into the circle of their conversation. George, Lewis, and the stranger all turned to look at her, and she sent a glance over her shoulder to see that Jamie and Philip had obeyed her silent command. The pair of them were just disappearing through the library door, though Philip moved jerkily, as if Jamie might be dragging him by the other arm.

Although she had addressed George, the stranger spoke first. “Lady Kingston?” He hadn’t quite the deferential manners of a tradesman, either. When she nodded, he bowed, then held out the item he carried. “I believe this is the volume you purchased at Porter’s bookshop this morning? As you may already have discovered, you were given an item intended for someone else.”

“I had discovered it, yes.” Readily, she took the book from him, though both George and Lewis had reached for it too. “Thank you.”

The answering dip of his head was not the gesture of a shop clerk. Or an errand boy.

No, for a man of thirty-five or so, with broad shoulders and features that bore the stamp of experience with the world, the term boy was entirely inappropriate.

Nevertheless, Lord Dulsworthy seemed eager to dismiss him as such. “Well, well. You’ve got what you came for, what? On your way, then.” With his still-raised hand, he motioned for Lewis to open the door.

The stranger made no move to leave. In fact, he gave no indication of having heard George at all. “If it’s quite convenient,” he said to her, “I’ll take the other book now.”

“Lewis can retrieve it,” Lord Dulsworthy said, a command the footman thankfully did not immediately heed.

When she darted a glance up the staircase, she noted that the stranger’s dark eyes followed the movement. She thought of the package tucked away in her escritoire, nowhere she wished a servant to pry. “I suppose I could go myse—”

Lord Dulsworthy broke in again. “Lady Kingston is too well-mannered to tell you that your request is quite inconvenient at present. She has a prior engagement to go driving. With me. As you can see, she’s just on the point of going out.”

Now the stranger shifted his gaze, and his study of her, though brisk, was more than a little unsettling. She was still wearing a coarse holland apron over her morning gown. At her side, she dangled a straw hat by its ribbons—a concession to her mother’s insistence that the sun would brown her dreadfully. Its broad brim was not always compatible with her close observation of the boys’ lessons, however, and she had taken it off and on so many times over the course of the afternoon, her hair must be a tumbled mess. Indeed, she could feel a few straggling curls clinging to her damp neck.

No one, not even a tradesman, would mistake her for a lady ready to spend an hour or two on display among the fashionable set in Hyde Park. He must suspect that George was rudely hurrying him away.

Her cheeks, still flushed with warmth from the time spent in the garden, grew warmer still. But the stranger only gave a slight smile and a nod of acknowledgment. “Forgive me. Will you be so kind as to tell me when I may call for it?”

“She’ll have her maid fetch it ’round to the shop,” declared Lord Dulsworthy, now raising his hand as if to clap the stranger on the shoulder and direct him toward the door.

The man moved only slightly, not out of George’s reach, but enough that George too could see his face, which had turned…Amanda could not decide how to describe his expression but settled at last on stern. George’s hand fell.

“The book in Lady Kingston’s possession is a rarity, sir,” the man explained in a cool voice. “And much anticipated by another customer. I must insist on retrieving it myself.” He returned his attention to her as he reached into his breast pocket, withdrew a card, and held it out to her. “A message here will always reach me, Lady Kingston.”

The line of his jaw was firm and his dark eyes narrowed slightly. Intense was perhaps a better word than stern to capture his demeanor, but in any case, the look