.â He flexed his bruised, grazed hands.
âDid you make them rue the day as well?â
Sheâd blurted out the question before sheâd even known she was wondering about it. She looked up at him in trepidation. Only to discover he was smiling. True, it wasnât what sheâd call a very nice sort of smile. In fact it looked more like the kind of expression she imagined a fox would have after devastating a henhouse.
âYes, I made a whole lot of people sorry yesterday,â he said.
She swallowed. Reached for the teapot.
Something about the way she poured her second cup of tea must have betrayed her misgivings, because his satisfied smile froze.
âI donât generally go about getting into brawls, if thatâs what youâre afraid of,â he said.
âIâm not afraid.â
He sighed. âI wouldnât blame you if you were. Look...â He folded his arms across his chest. âIâll tell you what happened, and why it happened, and then you can judge for yourself.â
She shrugged one shoulder, as if she didnât care, and took a sip of her tea. This time, thankfully, it had much more flavour.
âIt started with a letter from a man who worked in a...a manufactory. In it he described a lot of double-dealing, as well as some very unsavoury behaviour towards the female mill workers by the foreman, and he asked the owner of the mill whether he could bear having such things going on in his name. He couldnât,â he said, with a decisive lift to his chin. âAnd so I went to see if I could get evidence of the wrongdoing, and find a way to put a stop to it.â
So he was employed as a sort of investigator? Which explained why he had a secretary. Someone who would help him keep track of the paperwork while he went off doing the actual thief-taking. It also explained why he was reluctant to speak of his trade. He would have to keep a lot of what he did to himself. Or criminals would see him coming.
She took a sip of tea and suddenly saw that that couldnât be the right conclusion. Because it sounded like rather an exciting sort of way to make a living. And heâd said he had lived a dull, ordered existence. She sighed. Why did nothing make any sense today?
âI soon found out that it wouldnât be possible to bring the foreman to trial for what he was doing to the women under his power, because not a one of them would stand up in court and testify. Well, you couldnât expect it of them.â
âNo,â she murmured, horrified. âSo what did you do?â
âWell, Bodkinâthatâs the man who wrote the letterâsaid that maybe weâd be able to get the overseer dismissed for fraud if we could only find the false ledgers he kept. He sent one set of accounts to...to the mill owner, you see, and kept another to tally up what he was actually making for himself. We couldnât simply walk in and demand to see the books, because heâd have just shown us the counterfeit ones. So we had to break in at night, and search for them.â
âAunt Charity said you looked like a housebreaker,â she couldnât help saying. Though she clapped her hand over her mouth as soon as sheâd said it.
He frowned. âItâs funny, but I would never have thought Iâd be keen to tell anyone about Wragleyâs. But you blurting out things the way you just did... Perhaps itâs something to do with the drug we were given. We canât help saying whatever is on our minds.â
âI...suppose that might be it,â she said, relieved that he wasnât disposed to take her to task for being so rude. âAlthough...â She paused.
âWhat?â
âNever mind,â she said with a shake of her head. She didnât want to admit that for some reason she felt as though she could say anything to him. âYou were telling me about how you tried to find the second set of
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