She lifted a brow. “I never said I was a model of goodness and light.”
“No,” Gareth said, feeling his lips twitch. “No, you certainly did not.”
Hyacinth clapped her hands together, then set them both palms down on her lap. She looked at him expectantly. “Well, then,” she said, once it was apparent that he had no further comment, “when shall we go?”
“Go?” he echoed.
“To look for the diamonds,” she said impatiently. “Haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve said?”
Gareth suddenly had a terrifying vision of what it must be like inside her mind. She was dressed in black, clearly, and—good God—almost certainly in men’s clothing as
well. She’d probably insist upon lowering herself out her bedroom window on knotted sheets, too.
“We are not going anywhere,” he said firmly.
“Of course we are,” she said. “You must get those jewels. You can’t let your father have them.”
“I will go.”
“You’re not leaving me behind.” It was a statement, not a question. Not that Gareth would have expected otherwise from her.
“If I attempt to break into Clair House,” Gareth said, “and that is a rather large if, I will have to do so in the dead of night.”
“Well, of course.”
Good God, did the woman never cease talking? He paused, waiting to make sure that she was done. Finally, with a great show of exaggerated patience, he finished with, “I am not dragging you around town at midnight. Forget, for one moment, about the danger, of which I assure you there is plenty. If we were caught, I would be required to marry you, and I can only assume your desire for that outcome evenly matches mine.”
It was an overblown speech, and his tone had been rather pompous and stuffy, but it had the desired effect, forcing her to close her mouth for long enough to sort through the convoluted structure of his sentences.
But then she opened it again, and said, “Well, you won’t have to drag me.”
Gareth thought his head might explode. “Good God, woman, have you been listening to anything I’ve said?”
“Of course I have. I have four older brothers. I can recognize a supercilious, pontificating male when I see one.”
“Oh, for the love of—”
“You, Mr. St. Clair, aren’t thinking clearly.” She leaned forward, lifting one of her brows in an almost disconcertingly confident manner. “You need me.”
“Like I need a festering abscess,” he muttered.
“I am going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Hyacinth said. Between her teeth. “Because if I did otherwise, I would not be inclined to aid you in your endeavors. And if I did not aid you—”
“Do you have a point?”
She eyed him coolly. “You are not nearly as sensible a person as I thought you.”
“Strangely enough, you are exactly as sensible as I thought you.”
“I will pretend I didn’t hear that as well,” she said, jabbing her index finger in his direction in a most unladylike manner. “You seem to forget that of the two of us, I am the only one who reads Italian. And I don’t see how you are going find the jewels without my aid.”
His lips parted, and when he spoke, it was in a low, almost terrifyingly even voice. “You would withhold the information from me?”
“Of course not,” Hyacinth said, since she couldn’t bring herself to lie to him, even if he did deserve it. “I do have some honor. I was merely trying to explain that you will need me there, in the house. My knowledge of the language isn’t perfect. There are some words that could be open to interpretation, and I might need to see the actual room before I can tell exactly what she was talking about.”
His eyes narrowed.
“It’s the truth, I swear!” She quickly grabbed the book, flipping a page, then another, then going back to the original. “It’s right here, see? Armadio. It could mean cabinet. Or it could mean wardrobe. Or—” She stopped, swallowing. She hated to admit that she wasn’t quite sure what she was talking about, even if that deficiency was the only thing that was going to secure her a place by his side when he went to look for the jewels. “If you must know,” she said, unable to keep her irritation out of her voice, “I’m not precisely certain what it means. Precisely, that is,” she added, because the truth was, she did have a fairly good idea. And it just wasn’t in her character to admit to faults she didn’t have.