Page 71 of Her Beast

“Oooh, yes! I adore whist,” Julia said before the poor man could answer. “Kemp and I were just discussing it and she said Mr. Norris will play sometime, too. Please say you play because wedesperatelyneed a fourth.”

Butkins blinked under her assault and nodded. “Er, yes, Miss, I do play.” He looked exceedingly guilty about the admission.

Well, some people thought cards were a frivolous pastime.

“Oh, how wonderful! Do join us! Playing pairs will be so much more fun than widow whist. We can play tonight after dinner, since Mr. Barton will not be here.”

Mr. Butkins cut Kemp an uneasy glance. “Er…”

“I’ll check with Mr. Norris,” Kemp said, once again coming to his rescue. “But I shouldn’t think that will be a problem.”

Julia clapped her hands, genuinely enthused at the thought of getting Malcolm’s three upper servants in the same room and picking their brains about their exceedingly private master.

Butkins’s cheeks pinkened with pleasure. “If Kemp thinks it is unexceptionable then I would be delighted.

∞∞∞

Although Julia enjoyed her dinner with Mr. Butkins and the two rubbers of whist with him, Norris, and Kemp, her hopes of prying information out of them had rapidly deflated.

All three servants were excessively polite but had been implacable when it came to answering questions about their employer.

After the first quarter of an hour—and meeting brick wall after brick wall—Julia had given up on her offensive and, instead, had greatly enjoyed the evening of cards with three excellent players.

They’d just begun another game when a footman entered the library. “Mr. Barton is looking for you, Mr. Butkins.”

The secretary leapt up from his chair. “My apologies, Miss Harlow, but duty calls.”

She smiled up at him. “Thank you so much for your company this evening.”

“The pleasure was mine.”

“I’d better be off as well,” Mr. Norris said, giving her a graceful bow. “It was indeed a pleasure to partner with you Miss Harlow.”

Julia chuckled at his kind lie; she was a middling player at best while the valet was one of the best she’d ever played with. “Perhaps Kemp and Mr. Butkins will give us the opportunity to regain some of our honor.”

“I look forward to it.” Norris—who was a handsome older man with salt-and-pepper hair—gave her a pleased smile and departed, leaving Julia and Kemp.

“Are you ready for bed, miss? Or might I see to a few matters before coming to undress you?” the maid asked after they’d put away the cards.

“I finished my book so I’m going to look for another. I shan’t take longer than half an hour.”

“Very good, miss.”

“And Kemp,” she said, stopping the other woman before she could leave. “Thank yousomuch for organizing our whist game.”

Kemp’s cheeks flushed and she dropped a quick curtsey and then sped from the room, clearly uncomfortable with gratitude.

Julia took a moment to enjoy the silence in the vast room. She would never have imagined finding a library this ancient looking in such a modern building. It was a huge room with high, arching windows covered in heavy blood red drapes. Other than the greenhouse, it was the only part of the building she’d been in that had windows to the outside world.

Although she’d teased poor John earlier—that was Mr. Butkins’s name, although he’d refused to call her Julia—about taking her on a tour of Malcolm’s strange house, she really was curious about the layout.

John would never consent to give her a tour, but Malcolm might. If she worked on him…

Smiling to herself at the thought, she toed off her evening shoes and stretched her liberated toes with a sigh.

There, now she was comfortable and ready to browse.

Unlike her father’s libraries—which held mostly self-improving or educational tomes—here there were hundreds and hundreds of novels, many of which looked as though they’d never been opened.

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