Devil in Duchess's clothing

Chapter 6

"What are you doing?" Emma whisper-yelled at her supposed beau who had scared the living-daylights out of her. He'd slipped into their host's study suddenly.

"I'm going to help you search," Garrett replied.

"You could've helped me by standing guard outside," she responded, her temper rising. "Like I'd asked of you."

"Do you not think that it would be less suspicious if we were caught together rather than me being found lurking outside while you rummage through Lord Derham's study?"

"Wouldn't be suspicious?! They'd think we're doing something untoward," she growled.

"Of course they would. With my reputation, I'd be extremely hurt should they not suspect such a thing," he grinned and leaned his hip against Lord Derham's gigantic study table.

Emma was very close to strangling him. Very, very close.

"But that would be so much better than being found out for what we're actually up to, don't you think?" Garrett asked, not waiting for her to respond. Never mind that he was right.

How had she thought he wasn't all that terrible? He was beyond terrible, he was like an itch she couldn't scratch. Or maybe a rash.

Yes, a rash. That seemed most appropriate to describe him.

"Stop talking before I do something that while I wouldn't regret one bit, would put me on the bad side of our Queen," she said and pointed at one of the drawers she'd yet to look through.

He grinned again and bowed before moving to do as she'd instructed. For once.

**********************

Garrett and Emma had been looking for quite some time but they hadn't found anything yet. He checked his pocket watch. He'd give them a few more minutes before they joined the rest of the guests outside.

He pulled at another drawer but it didn't budge.

"It's locked," he murmured.

Emma quickly dug out a pin from her hair and bumped him out of the way. He raised a brow but said nothing as she got to work.

"Did the Duke teach you that?" he asked as soon as the thing opened, impressed. He knew to pick locks, of course but he'd dressed for a soirée and didn't carry anything on his person that could be used for this purpose.

"I had some useful skills even before I married," she huffed and turned to the stack of letters she'd been examining.

"Wasn't your father a vicar?" He laughed. "I doubt he considered lock-picking a skill."

"Oh he didn't know. My sister and I did a lot of things without his knowledge," she looked at him and grinned.

He'd never seen her grinning. Even when she smiled, it was always a close-lipped smile. Garrett discovered another detail about her. Her canine overlapped one of her incisors. And it was adorable. It gave her a girlish quality and Garrett was surprised and a little disturbed that he'd even noticed such a tiny thing.

He was one of the Crown's agents, it was his job to notice all things, he told himself.

He shook his head slightly and began looking through the drawer.

"Aha," he said and extended the letter he'd found towards her.

Emma took it and went to the window so she could read better. She quickly scanned the contents, her eyes widening.

"She knows it's gone. Meet me tomorrow and we'll see what needs to be done next.

—G"