“Wonderful. I will send clients your way if I find anyone in need. Are you specializing in any particular field?” Finn asked with interest.
“Not to start with,” Somerset Sinclair said. Daniel guessed she was about seventeen or eighteen years old, and clearly of noble birth. So why then were her brothers contemplating allowing her to go into business? Surely that would bring about social ruin, even considering they had a duke and several other peers in their back pockets. He knew her family dabbled in business, but for a woman to do so… but hadn’t Finn just told him Phoebe did?
“What do you think of the building, Dillinger?” Lord Sinclair said, impaling him with the most vivid pair of green eyes Daniel had ever seen. “I understand from your brother you are one of the most intelligent people he knows. Added to that, he said you are astoundingly perceptive at understanding the weaknesses in a building’s structure.”
His brother thought he was one of the most intelligent people he knew.
“We rely rather heavily on perception and our senses, Dillinger,” Mr. Sinclair said. “Please feel free to voice your thoughts openly.”
Daniel looked at the men surrounding him and wondered if the world had shifted slightly while he was sleeping. Everything seemed off-balance today. First there was his hasty departure from his own office when Oliver had started questioning him, then he’d kissed Abby. He’d fenced with a marquess, and now he was surrounded by nobility patiently awaiting his verdict on a building. Not just any building, one that was for a detective agency.
Decidedly odd.
He looked at the façade, noting the windows and cracks, taking in every inch. He walked closer, then moved around the building to the rear. After completing a full circle, he returned to where the men still waited.
“If I may speak plainly, my lord?”
The man, his brother, Huntington, and Miss Somerset Sinclair nodded, which suggested this was to be a collective decision. Yet another shock.
“I would not house my chickens in there, my lord. Should I own some, that is.”
“Why?” The green eyes seemed to change, the pupils growing larger as they focused on him. Daniel couldn’t look away.
“It’s not structurally sound and would be damp and drafty in the winter. I should imagine some of the supporting beams are rotting and will need replacing. I doubt there has been any work done on it since it was built many years ago. Of course, without a thorough inspection I cannot give you a complete review, but I am fairly sure my words are accurate.”
“But I like it.” Miss Somerset Sinclair looked unhappy at his words.
“You’ll not like it when the temperatures lower, I assure you, Miss Somerset,” Daniel said. “It will be most unpleasant, and I doubt the odor will dissipate even if the windows are open. Neglect has decayed this building to a point that repair will be vast and costly.”
“Do you know of any other— Bothering hell. Excuse me!” Lord Sinclair said, stomping into the building. He reappeared with a small girl attached to his hand. Said child was covered in soot. “I told you not to play in the fireplace, Hannah, and yet you did exactly that.”
“I wish you didn’t see everything, Papa.”
“And yet I do,” Lord Sinclair said testily. “One wonders when you will fully realize that fact. Your mother will have conniptions if I do not return you to her in the pristine form in which she gave you to me.”
Daniel watched Mr. Sinclair pull something from his pocket and hand it to the girl.
“Cambridge, she is being punished.”
“Yes, Dev, but she may as well have a full belly while doing so.”
“I understand you have siblings, Dillinger?”
“Yes, many of them, my lord.”
“You have my sympathies.”
“Harsh but true,” Mr. Sinclair said, handing the girl another sweet.
“Do you have a business card, Mr. Dillinger?” Lord Sinclair asked.
Daniel took a card out of his pocket and handed it over.
“I shall call upon you when we find another building, and perhaps you could inspect it for us? If you have any ideas before that, please notify me.”
“Of course, Lord Sinclair.”
The Sinclairs wandered off, arguing about sweets and soot after shaking hands again.
“Will they really start an investigative service?” Daniel asked anyone who would answer. “I mean, it’s not really done, is it?”
“The Sinclair and Raven clan, like ours, is slightly different,” Will said. “If Dev has no problem with what his siblings want to do, then I don’t.”
Shaking his head, Daniel followed the men down the street. This day was getting stranger and there was still much of it to get through. Glancing over his shoulder, he had a final look at the retreating figures of the Sinclair family. Exceedingly strange.
They walked and talked and passed people strolling and window shopping. The twins chatted, as did Finn and Will. Daniel put one foot in front of the other and listened and wondered why he had not left their company by now.
“Now for tea,” Alex said.
“Can we not go for a pie and drink instead?” Will asked.
“Normally we would consider it, Will, but this particular tea shop has the finest cakes in all of London,” Ben said. “I am about to ruin you for all other pastries, Daniel.”
“I doubt it, as I have yet to find the equal of my mother.”
“Really? Do you think she would invite us to tea, just to check that theory?” Alex said.
“Just the once, and we will be on our best behavior,” Ben added.
“Stop inviting yourself to places,” Finn threw over his shoulder, “unless the invitation includes me.”
A tingling sensation had him looking up. Abby was stepping out the door of a shop. Looking at the sign, he saw it was the tea shop they were headed to. Two of her bothers were with her.
She’s not yours and never will be.
He looked for an escape route but could do nothing to stop
