The Lady Tamed Boyd, Heather (reading list .txt) 📖

an embarrassment for you. Other actors have wealthy patronesses support them all the time and no one seems to care very much.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “But with you it’s different.”

That made him smile but he shook aside the sense of pride. “Now about your father…”

“Tomorrow. I’ll need you to stay with me again tonight,” she asked, looking up at him slowly. “If the door will not lock, I simply won’t be able to close my eyes wondering if whoever it was will come back.”

“Stapleton will want to know about this,” he persisted.

“I’d rather deal with this matter without his help.”

Jeremy could see her heels digging in. She was worried, but not enough in his opinion. “Why won’t you tell him what has transpired?”

“Because he’ll only worry and then he’ll wake every one of the guests to question them. We would run the risk of starting a scandal that I’d very much like to avoid. The state the room was left in makes me wonder if a scandal was what was hoped for. Father’s enough on his mind now with the wedding, Gillian and the death of Mr. Hawthorne. I will not risk ruin of my sister’s wedding. This must be a happy occasion. Trust me, my problem can wait a few days.”

“Why have you not used your safe for storing your papers? Isn’t that customary for someone like you?”

Fanny winced. “I lost the only key years ago.”

Jeremy sighed. He could help her open it tonight. To an untrained eye, the location of the safe wasn’t obvious. But he’d gleaned its location immediately. Behind the painting that was being blocked from view by the dressing screen. He pretended ignorance. “I might be able to help. Where is it? The safe? Is it in this room?”

“Behind that painting over there.” She gestured to the screened corner. “I don’t suppose you know how to pick locks?”

He pulled a face, unhappy about the question. There were many aspects of his former life he’d prefer to keep from Fanny, but her immediate need exceeded his objection. “Yes, as a matter of fact I do, but don’t tell anyone.”

“How marvelous!” She hurried to the screen and pulled down the painting, revealing a style of safe he knew well. “I would be very grateful to have my safe open again. Did you learn for a role onstage?”

He stepped up to pretend to study the mechanism. It was a simple lock for a man of his special talents. He hadn’t picked a lock in years, but he was sure not to have forgotten one bit of his training. “I’ll need a hair pin and one of your longer hat pins.”

Lady Rivers provided both and stepped back to observe.

Jeremy had the safe open in under half a minute. He moved back, keeping his face lowered to hide a flush of shame that had warmed his cheeks.

“You really are a clever fellow,” Fanny enthused.

“There aren’t many who’d think so if they’d seen me do that.”

She darted to the open safe and thrust her hand inside. “At last, my pretty,” she crooned. She held up a tiny necklace for Jeremy to see. “I thought I would never hold these again.”

“They’re pretty,” Jeremy murmured. But also very ordinary.

Fanny smiled though. “They’re only coral but they were my mothers, and I always intended to give them to my daughter. Perhaps I’ll give them to one of my sisters’ children instead.”

Jeremy watched her coil them around her fingers, then he covered her hand holding the necklace. “You should keep them for your own daughter, or a granddaughter.”

“If I had been blessed with children in my marriage, perhaps I might have reason. Now they are just a reminder that I’m alone.”

“You don’t have to be alone if you don’t want to be,” he said and then scoffed at himself. What right did he have to give her advice about making a second marriage?

She shook her head. “It wasn’t meant to be. Are you sure you can open the lock again later?”

“Most assuredly. Why?”

“I’d like to be able to open it again.”

“I won’t have any trouble.”

Fanny collected her jewels and placed them all inside.

“There’s enough room to put your ledgers inside, too, if you want,” Jeremy noted.

“I’ve never kept those anywhere but with me or under my mattress when I travel.”

He rolled his eyes. “Not exactly the safest place.”

“It was when I only invited gentlemen I trusted into my bedchamber.”

He met her gaze and felt both pleasure and a touch of exasperation. Fanny was definitely too trusting. “Humor me on this, my lady. Keep all your important papers in a safe from now on.”

“Oh, all right, if you insist.” She fetched the ledgers herself and plopped them in with her horde of jewels and stood back. “Are you sure you can close and open the safe again?”

“Not in any doubt, but only when you ask me to,” he promised.

Since there was no key, Jeremy manipulated the lock with the pins to lock it again. Fanny peered over his shoulder as he made sure the door was secure.

She put her hand on his arm. “What was the part you had to play that made you learn to pick locks?”

“I don’t remember,” he lied, and then hated himself for needing to do so. Picking locks should have no part in his current life. It was dangerous work with dangerous consequences. “I would appreciate it if you did not tell your father of my skills with locks.”

“I wasn’t going to,” she promised. “Besides, I like knowing little secret things about you that no one else does.”

He didn’t. He felt exposed and ashamed every single time she managed to squeeze out some unsavory detail of his poor past. He finally faced her. “Now about your door.” Jeremy stared at her. “How about a compromise?”

“What sort of compromise?”

“The kind where I don’t spend the night here again. Barricade the door with furniture instead.”

Fanny glanced about the chamber unhappily. “But every piece of furniture is too heavy for me to move without making