Page 105 of Seducing the Knave

Max wanted to punch them both.

She’s mine. He forced the possessive thought aside to reply, “What’s there to miss? Her haughty airs? Her stubbornness? Or her prideful ways?”

“What about her kindness and loyalty and unflagging determination?” Caillie suggested.

Max slid her a sideways glance. “Ye’ve gotten to know her well.”

His sister nodded. “Better than you, mayhap. I ken she’s not happy with the idea of entering society. I ken she’s only doing it because she feels grateful to Colin and Worthy for taking her in. And I ken she sometimes sits for hours staring out her window at night.”

Max knew that as well. He’d seen her haunting figure, shrouded in shadows, from his nightly vantage point in the darkened garden.

Caillie gave him a pointed look, adding, “I ken she misses you.”

“Ye couldn’t know that,” he retorted though his chest had gotten painfully tight. Who knew hope could be such a harsh feeling?

“What have I always told you?”

Max chuckled. “Ye know things. It’s what ye do.”

The girl crossed her arms over her chest at his teasing tone. Her gaze was sharp and direct. “And how do you reckon I ken so much?”

“I’ve no bloody idea.”

“I ask questions. Instead of making assumptions, I talk to people. You should try it sometime.”

Without giving him a chance to reply, Caillie turned and strode silently away, slipping into the shadows with nearly as much skill as himself.

Despite what she’d said, he suspected asking people questions wasn’t her only tactic in gaining information. The minx was a natural sleuth.

Chapter Thirty

Elle rested her forehead against the window pane as she gazed down at the Earl of Wright’s fairy-tale garden below. Though the moon was just a sliver and clouds obscured much of the starlight, she didn’t need much to make out the shapes of the now familiar flowerbeds and shrubs and narrow stone footpaths. She’d looked down upon the scene enough over the last several days to have the entire symmetrical layout memorized.

Even if she could clearly see what she was looking at, she didn’t exactly gaze from her window to admire the garden foliage anyway.

She was far more interested in studying the shadows. The dark places where mysteries were concealed from casual glances and previously undiscovered secrets might be found.

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