Page 41 of Schemes & Scandals

While we’ve been reading, there’s really a limit to how long either of us can do that without getting antsy. So when the doorbell rings, we practically bowl each other over in our haste to answer. Jack is running last-minute errands while Alice is with Isla and Mrs. Wallace, meaning we are left to answer the door... or fight over who gets the privilege. I manage to throw it open first, with Gray right at my heels.

It’s a young man with a thick envelope. “Package for Miss Mallory Mitchell.”

“That is me. Thank you.” I take it and turn to Gray. “Pay the lad, sir.”

“Foryourpackage?”

He doesn’t hesitate, though, and gives the young man enough to set the boy grinning. After the door is shut, Gray whisks the envelope from my hand.

“Fine,” I say. “I will repay you.”

“That is not my concern. My concern is that this almost certainly contains work, and we are not to work today.”

I reach for the envelope. “Let me open it and find out.”

He holds it aloft. “I cannot allow you to take that chance. In merely opening it, you might lay eyes on correspondence of a work nature and thus break your vow to Isla. I will save you from that. You may have this the day after tomorrow.”

I glare and grab for it, but he easily holds it above my head.

“Pity you are not taller,” he says. “If only you could reach— Ow!”

He dances back, lifting his knee. “Did you just kick your employer in the shin?”

“Certainly not.” I pluck the envelope from his hand. “I am forbidden to work today, so you cannot be my employer.”

“That isn’t how it works.”

I peer up at him. “Is it not? So you are always my employer? Always in a position of authority, ready to wield it over me even on a rare full day off? How very Victorian of you.”

“That...” He fixes me with a look. “That is unfair.”

“Nope.” I walk off, holding the envelope. “See, now if you’d accused me of kicking afriendin the shins, I’d have felt bad. But an employer who insists on being treated as an employer even when I am not working?Hedeserves a kick in the shins.”

“Who is the package from?” he says as I head for the stairs.

“Such an employer also does not deserve to share in the temporary distraction ofmyunexpected mail.”

I’m halfway up the stairs when Gray snatches the envelope from my hands. I wheel and nearly stumble straight into his arms. He manages to catch me.

“Trying to trip me on the stairs now?” I say.

“I just saved your life. You could have fallen and broken your neck.”

“Only because you—” I shake my head. “The envelope, please.”

“Am I allowed to witness the opening?”

“If you can be quiet and patient. Which means no.”

He shakes his head and hands it over. We continue up and back into the library, where I sit. Then I open the envelope to find a sheaf of papers. I flip through the sheets and frown.

“It seems to be a manuscript,” I say. “How odd. Who would...?”

I trail off as I see the letter on top.

Dear Miss Mitchell,

I very much enjoyed meeting you and Dr. Gray, and I would love to learn more about your joint efforts in the science of detection. Might I take you both to dinner next year, when I visit Edinburgh in the summer?

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