Page 94 of The Trick of the Treasure
She fluttered her eyelashes in a decent attempt at self-mockery. “Why, Mr. Grey, you will make me blush.”
“I hope to. One day.” He handed her inside and sat beside her.
The tired horses moved forward at a walk. Constance, gazing out of the window, felt Solomon’s nearness like a gift she had almost lost. The hugeness of that overwhelmed her. She could not keep the tears quite at bay until she was alone, yet still when he took her hand in the silence, she clung to it.
He didn’t ask, but she knew she had to answer.
“We have been here before, endangered, frightened for each other… This life we lead, this life we have chosen, will only get harder. The more I know you, the more I love you, the more dreadful every moment likethatbecomes.”
He knew what she meant. After all, he had found her unconscious person by Clarke’s corpse only two mornings ago. His fingers tightened around hers.
“Can we bear it, Solomon?” she whispered.
“Can you?”
“I don’t know.” Right now, she felt she could not. Her throat ached, and still she trembled. “What alternative do we have?”
“We can do something else. Or nothing else. Silver and Grey is not our living. We have the luxury of closing it down if we wish.”
“It was meant to be our fun. Today was not fun.”
“The fun was never about the tragedies behind the crimes, or about the dangers we risk to ourselves.”
“Whatwasit about, Sol? Remind me.”
She felt rather than saw his shrug. “Puzzling out the truth. The excitement of finding the patterns, of bringing justice. And if I am strictly honest, I believe Idoenjoy the risks.”
“I enjoy them too,” she admitted, glancing around to him at last. “I just don’t enjoy yours.”
“Nor I yours,” he said, brushing his thumb across her cheek to wipe the fallen tear. “Shall we end Silver and Grey Inquiries? And concentrate instead on love?”
His dark eyes were serious and intent on hers. The idea of his focus being entirely on her, on love, was breathtaking. Slowly, she lowered her head until it rested on his shoulder, and thought about it.
“Can we do both?” she asked.
“If we do it together, I believe we can do anything.”
“Then let’s do both,” she said, and he smiled and kissed her lips. And that was right too.
Chapter Twenty
The end ofa case was always difficult. Often, it had left them physically as well as mentally and emotionally bruised. This one was no different. And yet Solomon was glad Constance did not want to end their inquiry business. It had become part of who they were. But she was right that risking each other would only become harder. Talking about it had made it easier to face, but it would never be easy to experience.
By the time he left her in the care of her maids, with instructions that she was to go to bed and rest until at least the end of the afternoon, the white look had gone from her face and she no longer trembled. Her smile still dazzled him, and her kiss was sweet.
I would do anything for you. To keep you. To protect you. To make you happy…
The thought stayed with him as he got the carriage to drop him at the Silver and Grey office. He would make his own way home.
Janey was waiting for him, charging up the hall to meet him. “There you are! I got the necklace!”
His head was so full of Constance that it took him a moment to grasp her meaning. “Bibby’s necklace? Constance said you’d tracked it down but the character who found it wouldn’t give it back.”
Janey grinned. “I went to his house to see him, just as Mrs. S. advised. He coughed it up double quick to be rid of me. Nowyou’re back,pleasecan I run round to the house to give it to Bibby? Oh, and how’s herself?”
“Sleeping, I hope. So don’t wake her. Go on. I’ll stay here for the afternoon, since I have a few things to do.”
“Oh. Yes, you do, there’s a client in the waiting room. Shall I send him in?”
