Late summer, Kent

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Anna sorted through the day’s mail. There were letters for herself, letters for their current houseguest and letters for her husband. Their guest’s letters gave off the most dreadful perfume, and she held them away from her nose. “Will you take these out to the terrace, please, Jane? Another of Lord Carmichael’s admirers has found out where he’s staying for the summer.”

“Very good,” Jane replied, although sounding rather annoyed by the chore.

Anna watched her companion leave, hiding her concern over how transparently in love the woman was with their guest. Not that Lord Carmichael saw Jane Lord’s devotion to him, nor would he act upon it if he did. Carmichael, for his part, seemed oblivious to most everything these days—everything beyond the absence of spirits at his elbow day and night.

There wasn’t anything she could do for Carmichael. His loss was deep and his trust in others might never be fully recovered.

What Anna could do was help her husband, however. She read the return addresses on the letters and knew what she must do.

Gilbert had been out of sorts for days and she believed she knew why.

She went to his study and entered without knocking. As she hoped, she managed to startle Gilbert from the papers and maps he rushed to hide from her. She took a deep breath and sat, watching his embarrassment grow. “I have today’s mail with me.”

He stretched for them. “Good.”

He read the inscriptions on all the letters, and then stared at one longer than any other. If she wasn’t mistaken, that was another letter from Mr. Davis, the Bow Street Runner.

He set the letters aside.

Anna wasn’t about to let him dismiss the problem without a fight. “Are you going to open that?”

He wet his lips.

“Gilbert, you promised we wouldn’t have secrets from each other,” she complained.

“There are no secrets when my wife sees the mail before I do,” he grumbled, finally looking up at her. “I asked for it to be brought to me first. You know what he wants from me.”

Help. “I do, and you know you want to go and see what you can do to assist his investigation,” she replied.

“No, I don’t,” he countered, shoving the letters in the drawer roughly. “My responsibilities are here with my wife and the estate now.”

Anna got up again and hurried around the desk. She forced her way onto his lap and hugged him tightly. “Of course you want to go and help the man. I’ve known for days you would go. I can manage here without you for a few weeks or months while you investigate.”

He hugged her back. “It can be done without me.”

She believed the task would be completed quicker with him than without, though. “Who better knows the criminal mind than the Almighty’s bloodhound?”

“Don’t call me that,” he chided, trying to escape the title he had earned long ago. Her husband was a skilled investigator, and she couldn’t be prouder. Because she loved him, she could never hold him back.

Anna hugged him. “You’ll write every day you’re gone?”

He sighed against her throat. His fingers rose to cup her face and he pulled her closer against him. “Every morning and every night, I swear.”

“Good. Now, I have your valet already packing for your trip. The carriage will be before the house in an hour. Do you need anything from me?”

He shook his head, smiling. “I vowed to give up this grisly business when we married.”

“I never asked you to.” She smiled and ran her fingers through his hair, soaking up the sight of him.

“You could,” he suggested. He moved his hand down her leg and back up. “I would do anything you wanted of me.”

She smiled. “My love is without conditions, but if you wanted to do something for me, you could take Carmichael with you.”

“Is he annoying you again?”

“Not yet, but he cuts such a tragic figure that he’s in danger of breaking a heart very close to me without knowing it.”

“Your companion?”

Anna nodded, toying with the buttons on his waistcoat. “I’m worried about her interest in him. About him, too. He’s drinking far too much.”

“Then he comes with me, and perhaps I’ll drop him off at your father’s before I come home.” He smiled suddenly. “I have the very best idea, too. Let’s delay the carriage one more hour.”

“Why?”

He caught her tight against his chest and stood, making her gasp from the sudden movement. He grinned down at her. “I’m afraid that I’m going to need to make love to my beautiful wife just one more time before she makes me leave her behind to consort with the criminal class.”

“With Bow Street. It is an honest calling,” Anna corrected him. She loved him so much, and she would remind him what he would come home to when the investigation was over. “I was hoping you would want me.”

“From the very moment our eyes met, my lady,” he vowed.