Page 45 of Good Duke Gone Far

“Maybe you should do it then.”

“Iamdoing a better job than he did.” Kat’s thoughts whirred around, picking up speed, as if in a tornado. “Maybe I should just do his job.” A thousand ideas populated her mind, so much so that she couldn’t find only one to focus on. “I could you know.” She withdrew her fingers from Quinn’s hold and rubbed them up and down her forearm. “Not that I would always do it. But you are good at finding people. You know how to get people to talk.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The job he had was–is–a worthwhile request. People have needs like this all the time. I could–we could–do a better job of fulfilling them than he ever could.”

“Kat?”

“We should just do it.”

“Do what?”

“Start our own sleuthing agency.” The silence didn’t prevent Kat from spilling some of the whirlwind of thoughts in her mind. “It’s not what I thought I would do, but maybe it’s the perfect thing. We work well as a team. We could hire the right people. Train them. Well, you would do that. Whenever people have a request of this nature, I would talk to the clients, naturally–”

“Naturally,” Quinn’s echo was lost on Kat.

“I’d find out exactly what they want to know and why, and then we would hire the best man–or woman–for the job.”

Silence. This time the quietude did not go unacknowledged. “Quinn? What do you think? It’s perfect, isn’t it?”

She watched him tug on his ear. “Well, it’s not your worst idea ever.”

“Wonderful.”

The carriage’s crunching sounds ceased, and Kat hopped up. “It’s settled. We’ll start a sleuthing agency when we return home.”

Whose home and the exact settlingness of it all was up for debate, but Kat ignored that tornado of thoughts. She was far too excited to have found even a slippery grasp on a new purpose for her life. This could be the dream she needed to pursue in order to find her duke.

But…she had Quinn.

She ignored all thoughts in that direction. For now, the idea was a budding plan. One he had not rejected out of hand. That was enough for her to continue bouncing around ideas in her head on how to open her business.

As the carriage door opened, she stepped down. Her body was surging with energy from the encounter with the drunkard, the passionate embrace in the carriage, and now their plans to start a business. Her very own business! A grin merged onto her face, and she couldn’t quelch the rippling waves flooding her chest in anticipation. Before anything else would happen though, she knew they were going to confront the duke about everything. Even still, there was an unprecedented surety and calmness about her.

“On to our next interrogation.” Arm in the air, she marched toward the front door. Thankfully it appeared as though the house was prepared for their return and was going to make good on their promise for a meal.

The door opened before they could knock, and a butler was quickly ushering them to a parlor. At first it seemed a great kindness and preparedness, but loud voices quickly dispelled that notion.

“I can’t believe you proposed,” a voice shouted.

Kat immediately recognized the voice as George’s. She stopped in the foyer and waited to hear more of the conversation.

“A man’s allowed to marry.” The reply was from a voice she had never heard before, but she deduced it must be Egan’s.

“I’m not an eejit. I know a man’s allowed to marry. I knew one day you would marry. But I didn’t think it would be a secret.”

“It’s not a secret.”

“What do you call it when someone doesn’t tell you something?”

“Private,” came the curt reply from Egan.

“It’s a secret, you fatwit.”

“Don’t get your cravat in a tangle. Of course you were going to find out–”

“I didn’t want to find out. I wanted you to tell me.”

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