Shirley Kerr by Confessions of a Viscount Read Free Book Online Page B

but she said no more. When the silence began to draw out, he returned to a question she had ignored earlier in the evening. Dealing with his father and grandfather, he’d learned that bluntness was usually far more effective than polite subtlety. “What is your interest in the French widow?”
    She stared at her hands in her lap so long, Alistair began to think she wouldn’t answer. At last she took a deep breath. He raised his gaze from the freckle on her bosom to concentrate on her reply.
    “There is an object that’s gone missing. It belongs to someone important, and it needs to be returned to its owner. I believe Madame Melisande took that object, or knows of its whereabouts.”
    “And your brother does not share in your belief.”
    “Steven dismissed my theory.” Her lips momentarily thinned at the remembered insult.
    While his friends Nick and Tony were as close to him as brothers, he had been an only child since the accident twenty years ago. Did brothers and sisters fight differently than male siblings? Trade insults, and then brush them off as easily as boys did? He doubted they’d resort to fisticuffs as often. Though the idea of Miss Parnell participating in a physical fight definitely seemed a possibility.
    He tapped his chin. “I wonder if perhaps Sir Nigel somehow found out about Madame Melisande’s activities.”
    Miss Parnell glanced at him, eyebrows raised, then turned back to watching the couple in question.
    “Is the missing object valuable?” Alistair continued. “If money is to be made from taking the object, he’s the sort who would want to be part of the scheme.” He studied Sir Nigel, who was still near the potted palm, in animated conversation with Melisande. Miss Parnell’s sudden gasp brought his attention back to her.
    “He’s got it!” she whispered. She nodded, smiling. “He found out what Melisande was doing, wanted to be part of the scheme, but she wouldn’t cooperate, so he took it from her. She’s just recently realized she no longer has it.”
    “No wonder you couldn’t find it. By the way, what is it?”
    She bit her bottom lip. “Only a very few number of people know about the…object, and even fewer people know that it’s missing. If word got out, it could have disastrous consequences.”
    “Disastrous?” Alistair raised one eyebrow. “For whom?”
    “En—Enormous numbers of people.”
    Knowing about the work her brother had done for the Home Office, Alistair was fairly certain she had almost said England. He sat up straighter, suddenly realizing that what he’d gotten himself into could have far greater consequences than damaging a young woman’s reputation, as when his father had misinterpreted Miss Parnell being aloft in his arms on the balcony of a notorious hotel.
    A woman as daring as she, who had accosted a strange man on the street, would not be easily dissuaded from her chosen path. Not to mention how calmly she had gone along with his bald-faced lie, unruffled even under his father’s scrutiny. Informing on her to her brotherwould only compel her to commit still more daring and dangerous acts in defiance.
    Even the extreme option, of them actually getting married, was unlikely to give pause to a woman who would climb up onto a roof in the dark and try to swing down onto a balcony while wearing a gown.
    If he could not dissuade Miss Parnell from her quest, he now felt it his obligation, for God and country, to help her succeed.
    He did not, however, feel obliged to share this realization with her.
    “What are you two discussing so intently, hmm?” Aunt Hermione leaned toward her niece. “Setting a date for your wedding, perhaps?”
    Charlotte felt heat bloom in her cheeks. “Aunt!” she hissed. Moncreiffe cleared his throat. Charlotte continued, forcing a calm tone. “As I explained to you, it is too soon for that. The viscount and I need to become better acquainted.”
    Aunt Hermione harrumphed. “Should have done that before you