Page 29 of Stolen By the Heartless Duke

Her gaze dropped to the ground briefly as she tried to piece it together aloud, as if speaking might make the pattern clearer.

The duke turned his head slightly toward her.

Jane continued, more certain now as she spoke. “The madam said he had never visited. So he did not come here as…” she hesitated, her cheeks warming faintly despite herself, “as a client.”

The duke’s expression did not change, but a faint flicker of amusement appeared at the edge of it. Jane ignored it.

“He was using it as a meeting place,” she finished.

A brief silence followed.

Then Jane added, thinking aloud, “If this one exists, there may be others. Other establishments like this. We could check them. Ask if anyone else saw him. If he used the same word elsewhere…”

The duke cut her off. “No.”

Jane blinked. “No?”

“I will not send you into every brothel in London,” he said.

Jane bristled immediately. “I did not suggest I would go alone.”

“You implied you would go at all,” the duke said.

“I implied efficiency,” she corrected sharply.

The duke’s gaze held hers. “It will not be efficient. It will be conspicuous.”

Jane opened her mouth.

He continued before she could interrupt. “I will send one of my men. He will ask the necessary questions.”

Jane frowned. “One of your men?”

“Yes.”

“And you trust him to know what to look for?” Jane asked.

“I trust him not to draw attention,” the duke replied.

Jane exhaled sharply through her nose. “And what do we do while we wait for him to report back?”

The duke studied her for a moment. Then he said, “You go home.”

“I am not leaving until I am certain we are doing this together,” she said.

His gaze sharpened slightly, as if he had not expected that phrasing or had expected it and disliked it all the same.

Jane pressed on before he could shut her down. “If we continue separately, we will miss things. We already have. The ledger proved that.”

The duke’s jaw tightened slightly at that. Jane took a small step closer. “You would not have recognized Foxglove,” she said.

“I would have found its meaning,” he replied immediately.

“How, precisely? I told you it was a game that only Colin and I knew about.”

His jaw tensed.

Jane continued, more quietly now, but with conviction. “And I would not have known where to begin in a place like that without you.”