‘Frequently. Garrick speaks of little else.’ His breath was coming shorter now so I used my free hand to caress the interesting evidence that I was not the only one finding this exciting. ‘Stop that.’ He grabbed the wandering hand, lifted it and unclasped the bracelet, then took the fingertips of my glove between his teeth and began to pull.
‘Luc – ’
‘Yes?’ he said through clenched teeth.
‘We’re getting tangled.’
‘Yes.’ The glove came off, he hauled my other hand free of his waistband and simply precipitated the pair of us onto the hearthrug in a ravel of stockings, diamonds and feathers. ‘Better?’
I pushed his coat from his shoulders. ‘Much.’ His waistcoat followed it and Luc fought his way out of his shirt.
We knelt there panting a bit, then he removed my other bracelet and stripped off the remaining glove. ‘You are wearing far too much.’
I really didn’t want to know how Luc had become so adept at undressing a woman, I thought as I found myself tipped backwards onto the rug dressed in nothing but stockings and garters. ‘Ow!’
‘What?’ Luc loomed over me, his hands on the fastenings of his breeches.
‘I think I sat on an earring.’
He rolled me over. ‘You had. You now have a very charming impression of it on your equally charming left buttock.’ He kissed it, I wriggled and got a face full of ostrich feathers which made me sneeze.
While I was ineffectually batting away moulting plumes he stood up, stripped off his breeches, flipped me back over again and knelt between my legs. ‘Now then…’
I came up on my elbows, gazed down at the top of his ruffled dark head, gave a small shriek as his tongue started to do wonderful things and flopped back, the room spinning round me, upside down.
Upside down… ‘Lucian!’ I sat up, shook his shoulder until he lifted his head.
‘What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?’
‘No, nothing’s wrong. Give me a pencil and paper.’
‘What?’
‘I’ve realised what was bothering me and, frankly, if you keep doing that I’ll forget my own name, so I must write it down. Now.’
‘Your name?’ Really, it seemed to be true that men couldn’t multi-task…
‘The idea. Hurry up, I was enjoying that.’
‘So I would hope,’ he grumbled. But he reached up to the side table and handed me a notebook and pencil.
I scribbled, batting him off when he tried to read what I had written. ‘Later.’ I flopped back down. ‘Much later.’
Next morning two odd stockings were draped across the little table next to a collection of diamond jewellery, some very battered feathers, one kid glove with tooth marks in it and a notebook with crumpled pages.
‘Do you think Garrick is hinting that you don’t pay him enough?’ I asked, eyeing the evidence of our debauchery. ‘I thought I’d picked up all my things and I’d imagined he’d put the odds and ends back in our rooms. That looks suspiciously like a reproof.’
Luc grimaced. ‘His sense of humour getting the better of him, more like.’ He handed me the notebook. ‘What did you think of last night? I have to say your timing is about as appropriate as Garrick’s humour.’
I flattened the pages and read out loud, ‘Upside down – the code. And recheck the list of patients. How accurate is Garrick? He finished listing the patients in the open ledgers – would he skip or miss things?’
‘No.’ Luc was definite. ‘He is meticulous. I always get him to check my estate managers’ accounts – he can pick up the tiniest things they overlook. So, what does this mean?’
‘After breakfast,’ I said. ‘I think I can see a crack in the murder case. But I need coffee. And please, put those diamonds away, it makes me nervous seeing them lying about like that.’
Garrick joined us after breakfast and I explained my revelation. ‘The problem is, we were scanning the ledgers looking for ladies who might have developed an infatuation with Talbot and I simply didn’t think to see who wasn’t there. Luc, could you and Garrick check the list of names from the other ledgers, the list of patients. I want to find Miss Reece.’
I left them poring over the transcripts and opened the first of the coded ledgers, reached for paper and pencil and made a list of numbers and letters. Then I looked at the first entry. It took me all of twenty minutes, then I sat back. ‘Cracked it!’