Page 45 of The Mysterious Miss Lydia
“Ouch,” he muttered, but she heard his smile.
“Aren’t you going to ask me about anything else?” he asked.
There was that amusement again. It made her smile. “Did you really think that I was an actress and some traitor’s...mistress?”
She heard him wince, but she...
She laughed.
Clapping a hand over her mouth, she tried to squelch it. She truly did. But it bubbled up and she was helpless against it. “I’m sorry, it’s just...”
“You are a redhead,” he pointed out.
She laughed harder.
“And you must admit, the timing of it all....” He trailed off, his tone pouting, but she heard the laughter there.
He was poking fun at himself for her benefit. To make her laugh harder.
And goodness, how she laughed. “I’m sorry,” she said when the laughter trailed off. “No one has ever mistaken me for anything before, let alone...” She silenced another giggle.
“You’re offended,” he said.
“Oh no,” she cried. “I’m...” She searched for a word to describe how she felt. “Delighted.”
She heard him move. “Now I know you’re lying. You’re trying to make me feel better.”
“I would never,” she said soundly, and then they both burst out laughing.
“Truly,” she continued. “I’ve always read about adventure and mystery, but I’ve never taken part in one. I know I wasn’t an active participant, really.” She added, “I wasn’t even aware it was happening, and yet...at least for a little while I was involved in the sort of adventure I typically only read about.”
She trailed off with a sigh. Her one and only brush with adventure.
And she’d not played the heroine, but the fool.
“Yes, see...” His voice grew earnest. “That was the other matter. The book you dropped during our first interaction.”
“Demetrius and Elsbeth?” Her brows drew together in confusion.
“That’s the one.” He went on to explain the connection there and she found herself gaping at his dark shadow.
“May I see it?” she asked, her heart rattling with something she didn’t understand. It wasn’t fear. That she was used to. Was this...excitement?
“You wish to see the note I found when I ran into you outside your father’s office?”
“Yes.” She stood, walking toward him in the dark as her mind worked, retracing steps and putting pieces together with a rather disconcerting deftness. “Because a redheaded woman bumped into me that day. She may have dropped it. And if so, I’d like to see what it says.”
She didn’t have to see his face to know he was staring at her with fierce intensity as she moved toward the sound of his voice.
“After all, why would anyone be carrying around just one passage of a novel? It makes no sense.”
He shifted in the dark. “Lydia, are you telling me...you may have met the actual conspirator?”
Was she saying that?
She paused. Her heart raced.
But not with fear.
