“Then put us out of our misery, Miss Dunn, so we can return to reading our newspapers and drinking our coffee.”
“Certainly. I want to explain my story to you, Mr Ashwood.”
“Me?” A rush of masculine pride filled Noah’s chest. He resisted the urge to punch the air and taunt his friends. “Then allow me to show you to the study.”
Noah ignored the men’s smirks and escorted the lady from the room. Later would come the barrage of questions and the playful banter bordering on ridicule.
“Please sit, Miss Dunn.” He followed her into the study and gestured to the chair opposite his desk. “Shall I have Mrs Gunning arrange tea?”
“Do not put your housekeeper to any trouble.” Miss Dunn scanned the walnut bookcases before her gaze came to rest on the trio of crystal decanters on the side table. “May I take something stronger? I’ve hardly slept a wink, and a little restorative would not go amiss.”
He couldn’t help but smile as he closed the door.
“Sherry?” he said, though expected her to ask for brandy.
“Sherry is perfect.” She sat, removed her gloves, took the book from her reticule and squinted at a page while he poured her a drink. “Will you not join me, sir?” she said, closing her book and accepting the dainty glass.
Their fingers brushed briefly. With any other client, the action might have gone unnoticed. But he was as captivated by the ink stains on her elegant fingers as he was by the sudden spark of awareness.
“I never partake during the day.” Noah flicked his coat-tails and dropped into the chair behind the mahogany desk. “Absorbing various elements of a tale requires my complete concentration.”
“What must you think of me?” Her light laugh suggested she didn’t give a damn what he thought. “Drinking sherry at this hour?”
“It’s my job to listen, not judge.”
Her inquisitive blue eyes drifted to the sapphire pin in his neckcloth and the monogram buttons on his coat. “Gentlemen of your ilk rarely work for a living.”
“I do not work for a living, Miss Dunn.” He had inherited his father’s wealth and holdings despite his uncle’s efforts to prove him illegitimate. “I work for the pleasure that comes from righting injustices.”
“A noble pursuit.”
“A necessary pursuit.”
“I would not disagree.” Her shoulders relaxed as she sipped the sherry.
“Miss Dunn, before we begin, may I ask why you chose me?” Devil take it. He sounded like a timid wallflower eager to know why the most eligible man in the room had asked her to dance. “You made your decision rather quickly. If I’m to take your case, I would prefer you were happy with your choice.”
The lady studied him with a level of scrutiny he found unnerving. “I chose you for several reasons, sir.”
“May I hear them?” Or would she persist in being vague?
“All of them? Even those that might cause mild embarrassment?”
“Madam, there is no shame in having an opinion.”
“Oh, I am not speaking of myself, Mr Ashwood. I fear you might experience some discomfort.”
“Me?” He drew back and laughed. “Nothing you could say or do could make me blush, Miss Dunn.” Did she think him a prude? Hell, he had stripped naked to the waist in Green Park and wrestled with Lord Packham. Had pleasured a woman in a theatre box during the second act of Don Quixote. “Do not make allowances on my account.”
“Very well.” She cocked her head and stared at him. “The best way to judge a person’s character is to observe how others react around them, is it not?”
“Logic suggests your argument has merit.”
“Your housekeeper entered a room occupied by four capable men, yet she addressed you, Mr Ashwood. That tells me you command respect, that she considers you the most responsible.”
Oh, this woman was as sharp as a steel trap. “When four men work closely together, someone must act as overseer.”
“And the men defer to you. That shows strength of character.”
A lesser man might find her comments flattering, but they were delivered as observations, not compliments. “If you mean I have the confidence to speak my mind, am self-assured without being arrogant, that I strive to do what is right, then your assessment is correct.”
“I need an agent with unshakable resolve, sir. Not one who is easily distracted.”
Noah relaxed back in the chair and steepled his fingers. “And you concluded I was that man before the introductions were made?”
Miss Dunn swallowed what remained of her sherry, shivering visibly as the fortified wine slipped down her throat. “When I entered the drawing room, I gave the impression I was preoccupied. It afforded an opportunity to examine your reactions. Mr D’Angelo’s first point of reference was to note my womanly attributes.”
“I can assure you, Miss Dunn, we all noted your womanly attributes.” He was a man, not a damn saint. “Me included.” He decided to test her steely composure. “Pray, is that a faint blush I see?”
She huffed and touched her cheek. “Not at all, merely a mild flush from the sherry.” She placed her empty glass on the desk. “I can assure you, Mr Ashwood, men usually find my unconventional character unattractive.”
“Most men don’t think about a woman’s character while observing her womanly attributes.” And yet he found the entire package rather fascinating. The need to strip back the layers and discover more thrummed in his veins.
“Mr Sloane took one look at my spectacles and lost interest.”
“That’s because they rouse painful childhood memories of his governess. The woman peered at him through tiny spectacles while whipping him with a birch.”
Miss Dunn arched a brow by way of a challenge. “Now you’re teasing me. Had that been the case, his expression would have revealed something of his torment.” Her playful smile added a certain intimacy to the conversation. “I chose you, Mr Ashwood, because your intelligent eyes flashed with intrigue the moment you saw my notebook.”
Noah couldn’t help but smile, too. Yet he wanted to see how easy it would be to unnerve her. “Madam, you’re rather free
