Page 33 of The Duke and Lady Scandal
Drake’s brows knitted. “The difficulty is that we don’t yet know the truth. This Holcroft may or may not be the man you saw previously.”
Allie gritted her teeth. He still doubted her.
Then he shocked her by laying his hand over hers. “But even if he is, what he said at Hawlston’s does not constitute a genuine plot.”
Drake stepped back and fixed his gaze over her shoulder. She turned to see Mr. Gibson emerge from the back room.
“I’ve returned from lunch, Miss Prince. Just letting you know.” Mr. Gibson offered Inspector Drake a brief glance. “Pardon me for interrupting.”
Before he could return to his workshop, Allie called to him. “Mr. Gibson, this is Detective Inspector Drake of Scotland Yard.”
“I see.” The goldsmith observed Drake with new interest and what seemed a degree of respect.
“He’s come to... observe Lord Holcroft. We’ll remain in the back room during his visit.” Allie suspected Drake might decide to follow the man after his departure too.
“Do you plan to apprehend the man inside Princes?” Mr. Gibson’s jaw tightened, and Allie imagined that he feared for the shop’s reputation. She did too, of course.
“Not at all.” Drake glanced at each of them. “I merely wish to get a look at the nobleman for now.”
“Very well. Shall I take over up here, then? And I am still to accept the man’s gem and cut it to his specifications?”
“Yes, we should treat him as we would any customer. At least for now.” Allie counted herself lucky that Mr. Gibson was willing to aid them without delving much deeper into the details.
Twenty minutes later, he’d settled into his spot behind the counter, and Allie found herself sequestered with Inspector Drake in the back room. The area was spacious, but the detective’s size made the room seem shockingly diminutive.
Allie watched as he subjected each item in it to the same intense perusal he’d given the antiquities on display in the front of the shop. He even stopped to read the clippings, mostly about Dominic’s finds and Eveline’s talks, that she’d pinned to the wall above her desk.
“I take it this is your work area.”
“Seems an obvious deduction, Inspector. Shopkeeper. Desk in the shop’s back room,” she said pertly, daring to tease him as he’d teased her.
“A shopkeeper who likes flowers, is running out of ink, and enjoys reading.” He side-eyed her and then bent his head to read the spines of several books she kept at the edge of her blotter. She waited for his reaction. The pile mostly contained pirate histories.
“Your taste in books runs to the criminal, Miss Prince. Should I be concerned?” When he looked up again, his mouth was curved in a mischievous grin that revealed dimples. Allie had the mad impulse to trace them with her fingertips.
“I’ve been researching lady pirates,” she told him, then bit her lip when his dark brows shot up with interest. She licked her lips and blurted the rest. “Perhaps one day I’ll write a book about them.”
His grin softened to an expression that was less mischievous and full of sincerity. “I’d like to read your book.”
The comment felt like a warm breeze rippling across her skin, and then all that warmth rushed into her cheeks. It shocked Allie how much his comment pleased her. It shocked her how much the detective’s nearness made her body hum with awareness.
“Then your taste in books runs to the criminal too, Inspector?”
That flash of a smile again. So quick she might have missed it if she’d blinked.
“Even before I joined the force, I tended to favor stories of adventure or detective tales.”
“Are they what inspired you to join the Metropolitan Police?”
“No.” He said the word so sharply, she snapped her gaze to his eyes. They had darkened to astormy green. “I wanted to stop feeling powerless. Thought perhaps I should devote my energy to seeing justice done.”
Allie took a step closer. “I admire that impulse,” she told him earnestly, “and I understand it. The desire to do what’s right.”
He matched her approach by taking a single stride himself.
“Is that what you wish, Miss Prince? To do what’s right?”
At the moment, all she truly wished was for him to grin at her again, to see those dimples carved above his sharp jaw. This close, she could smell his cologne, feel the heat of his body just a few inches away.
