Read Online The Janus Affair: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel by Pip Ballantine, Tee Morris - Free Book Online Page B

shop was miraculously short—so they had picked the right moment.
    “So much better than jellied eel.” Eliza smiled.
    “Oh, much!”
    Eliza could feel her mood lift a bit, so much so that she felt herself capable of prying—just a little. “You know it suddenly occurs to me: there is nothing at all you can eat as a Hindu at Albert’s. It’s all very . . . well . . . beefy.”
    “Oh, no,” her fellow agent responded quickly. “I’m here for Brandon’s sandwich.”
    Eliza’s eyebrow shot up. “Fetching lunch for Agent Hill , Ihita? Isn’t that a bit forward of you?”
    “It’s just lunch!” her friend protested, but she would not meet Eliza’s eyes.
    “Well, if you ever want it to be more than that, you will have to tell him directly. Brandon is a handsome man, but truth be told he’s as thick as a brick about women fancying him.” Eliza tapped her fingers on her purse. “It will never ever cross his mind that you like him at all. Lunch will merely make him think you are mates.”
    They moved a few more steps in the line while Ihita thought about that. “I couldn’t possibly tell him.” Her whisper was barely able to be heard above the hubbub of the street, so Eliza had to lean in to make it out. “What if he doesn’t feel the same?”
    “Then you move on.”
    Her friend vehemently shook her head. “I’m not like you, Eliza. I’ve been able to get past some of the traditions I was raised with—but I don’t know how to tell a man that I like him.” Her eyes gleamed with frustration.
    Eliza’s first instinct was to offer to tell Brandon herself, but the look on Ihita’s face said that would be a very bad idea. “I promise I won’t say a word,” she said reassuringly, “but I can’t promise I won’t interfere. I am always so much better with other people’s problems than my own.”
    Ihita blinked. “Agent Books, you mean?” She gave a small huff. “Perhaps if you stopped thinking about Agent Books as a problem . . .” she hazarded, but Eliza was already deep in contemplation.
    The two men in front of them were taken care of and then Albert smiled broadly as they stepped up to the counter. “Miss Braun, Miss Pujari, what can I do for you lovely ladies?”
    It was his usual greeting, but Eliza still smiled. “Nothing while your missus is looking on, Albert,” she responded tartly. Maybe a bit of harmless flirting was what she needed this morning to get the taste of Wellington’s betrayal out of her system. Ihita merely blushed.
    Maggie waved from the corner where she was making quick work of the bread slicing. “Sure you won’t take him off my hands? He snores loud enough to wake the dead.”
    “ ’fraid not,” she replied, casting an eye over the steaming pile of beef before Albert. “Though I do like the look of his meat.”
    Wellington would have suffered a conniption hearing her banter in such a common manner with these two—and somehow that knowledge took the edge off her anger. Eliza’s companion couldn’t help stifling a giggle.
    Albert’s laugh was deep and genuine. “Then what can I get you?”
    “One roast beef, and one ham . . .” She paused and smiled wickedly. “And make sure there is plenty of mustard on the last one if you please.” Albert’s knife moved with consummate skill, slathering butter on the bread, slapping on the meat, and giving it a good lathering of yellow mustard on the ham.
    “And you, lovely Miss, the jewel in the crown of the Empire, what can I get you?” Albert leaned on the counter and smiled sweetly at Eliza’s companion.
    “The usual for Mr. Hill, if you please.”
    “Oh, I see—buying lunch for that smart co-worker of yours again ?”
    Her smile was bright, seeming even brighter as her skin darkened a bit when she blushed. “I am surrounded by matchmakers!”
    While Albert took care of Brandon’s ham order, his daughter Ida took the sandwiches and wrapped them separately in brown paper. Eliza waited on her