His expression softened. “As a woman, there are places you cannot go. Society you cannot join. People who will not hear your questions. There are those who will notice if a woman follows them.”
She threw her hand to her forehead and feigned shock. “Truly? Oh, my. What a fool I have been not to think of those things. Whatever will I do?” She walked on, amazed at the small opinion he had of her. “I learned where you live, didn’t I? You had no idea you were being followed.”
His damned boots matched her stride. The mood pouring off him changed to one of thought. “You are not doing this alone,” he said after twenty paces. “You have others helping, including men. You had others at the house as servants and now they will aid you in your future inquiries.”
She just let him chew on that.
“How long has there been an Office of Discreet Inquiries?”
“Not long.” She would never admit just how not long. Let him wonder.
“I trust you will not be doing anything dangerous. There have been times when I barely got out of a bad situation alive. I would not like to think of you—people can become vicious if they believe themselves cornered, Minerva. Domestic inquiries can be the most volatile. If you persist in this, you must take care.”
His voice, honestly troubled, touched her. That drained her belligerent indignation. He sounded truly concerned.
“I will be careful,” she said. “I doubt I will ever face what you have. Those who need a soldier will seek out a soldier, not Hepplewhite’s.”
He stopped walking. His slow smile offered a truce.
“Let us enjoy a ride in the park. Nicholas will give us a carriage to use, so we can do it right now.”
She gazed up at the blue sky and bright sun. A ride would be delicious. Only, she wondered if he intended to try and kiss her again. He looked as if he might. Would that she could keep it at just that, a few kisses and some sensual warmth that ended soon after it started. They were neither of them innocents, however, and she doubted he would treat her like one. Nor could she afford herself the luxury of an hour in the park.
Yet he looked so appealing in the bright light. Handsome and dashing, his stern face softened by that smile that quirked up on one side, forming an adorable and unexpected dimple in that one cheek. She would not mind gazing at him for an hour or so during the ride he proposed.
“It sounds lovely, but I must be on my way,” she said. “I have much to do and the day is passing.”
He accepted that, but the look he gave her made an ember glow at the bottom of her stomach. “Another time, then.”
She walked down the lane. She felt him long after she had parted. Felt his gaze on her, and his spirit stretching toward her.
* * *
“The first thing you must do is sell those urns.” Kevin voiced the opinion while he drank port in Chase’s sitting room.
He spoke to Nicholas, who had stopped by to collect Chase and brought Kevin along, to distract Kevin from his brooding. Brigsby had fed them, and they now lubricated their senses in preparation for a few hours of gambling.
“They are very valuable,” Nicholas said. “And very numerous. It will take some time to sell them if I decide to.”
“Then at least move them. The way he set them up on that landing, in close rows—I almost knocked one over today, when coming up to your chambers. Who would present precious items in such a precarious manner? One can’t even appreciate their beauty, they are so tightly packed.”
Chase chuckled. Those urns formed a forest on the first landing, interfering with easy access to the drawing room. “I have to walk among them sideways, to make sure one of my shoulders does not send one crashing to the floor.”
“If I move them, then I lose the joke of watching you slide along like that, Chase. Or of men of more girth inching along.” He grinned. “Or of Aunt Agnes being flustered by their fragility.”
“It is a strange sort of joke,” Kevin said. “I hope you are not going to assume his habits as well as his title.”
“That danger more likely lies with you, young man.”
“Uncle Frederick never had to slide, of course,” Chase said. “He set them out perfectly measured so his own shoulders could pass with an inch to spare. He could stride through them, then wait and watch others try to navigate their ways. He never smiled or laughed, but he enjoyed the show.”
“They have been there a long time,” Nicholas said. “Do you remember how we would tempt fate as boys and play tag among them? I did break one once. He made me repay him by cleaning out the stables the next time I was down at Melton Park.”
“They came over with the Chinese village,” Chase reminded him. “Kevin was probably too young then to now remember that.”
“Not entirely. I have vague memories of many people visiting Uncle at one point, none of whom spoke English. They wore colorful robes.”
“He decided to learn Chinese,” Nicholas said. “And he concluded the fastest way was to either visit China, or have China visit him, so he would hear the language all the time. He arranged to have an entire village stay in Whiteford House for almost a year.” He shook his head, smiling at the memory. “He sent a man who negotiated with the emperor’s people for six months to get permission. Women, babies, children—the whole damned village picked up and moved. The chambers above were full. My father stopped visiting, so I did not see much of it. Our one meal here at that time was long noodles in broth. I think that is why father chose to avoid more calls.”
“He ate like them. He dressed like them,” Chase said. “He made the servants learn enough Chinese so his visitors could make their needs known. One youth who came over in turn learned English, as part of the agreement with the emperor. Anyway, those urns came with the village, purchased on his behalf by the factor he sent there to arrange all of it.”
“Did he learn the language in the end?” Kevin asked.
“I assume so,” Chase said. “He spoke it frequently over the next few years. Or at least it sounded like he did.”
“Who would know?” Nicholas said. “He could have been speaking nonsense.”
“Unlikely,” Kevin said.
Yes, unlikely. “I am sorry to say that this is the first time since he passed that I have reminisced with anyone about him,” Chase said. “The conversations have all been on other things.”
They both nodded. No one had to itemize those other things. The manner of death. The will.
“At the risk of alluding to that again, I just remembered that I have a request from my father,” Kevin said to Nicholas. “He wants to know if you have found the mechanical man. He wants it, if you are willing to let it go.”
The mechanical man was an automaton. Uncle Frederick had purchased it, and actually used it, because it could move on wheels. It carried a salver in one hand, like a butler. Uncle liked to place glasses of drink on it, and have it carry the glasses to guests.
“I haven’t seen it in years,” Nicholas said. “Chase?”
Chase shook his head.
“You are welcome to come to the house and look for it. When it ceased amusing Uncle he probably put it in an attic.”
“I may do that, since it started my own father’s fascination with the damned things,” Kevin said. “Father has asked me to attach a little steam engine to it, so it moves faster. I have advised against it, but . . .” He shrugged the shrug of a son never heard by a father.