“We should re-enact what the intruder did,” she insisted.
“This is going to get us nowhere. The man was not my uncle, and it is not nighttime.”
“If I know anything about investigations, one never knows when something might shake loose.”
The ache behind his eyes was growing into a full-blown headache. Did she have an answer to everything? Even if it was utter nonsense? “What can you possibly know about investigating?”
“I know…people,” she said softly, looping her fingers together in front of her.
“Ah. Yes, people. Well then, I am certain that means you know everything about being an investigator.”
She pursed her lips. “No need to be salty with me. Now are you going to climb out of this window or not?”
Not. Never. No chance at all.
She stared at him, hands moving to her hips.
Roman released a lengthy sigh. “Fine.”
Chapter Eleven
“Now climb in.”
“Again?”
Clem didn’t miss the irritated sigh. She pressed up from the bed, pretending to awaken, and gave a stretch. His expression soured when he looked at her.
“I hope you never become an actress.”
“A Musgrave on the stage? We’d be banished from England let alone London if that happened.”
He lifted his other foot over the windowsill and placed it firmly on the floorboards. One creaked. “I doubt Mrs. Siddons is worried for her job after that performance.”
She ignored the slight to her acting abilities. Apart from putting on plays with her sisters when she was younger, she could not claim to have any experience on the stage, though she was tempted to put him on the bed and havehimact out the whole thing and see how well he did.
Of course, she did not think her legs would even get over the windowsill so at the very least, they knew for certain it was a man and not a woman in disguise or trying to hide her features.
“You are facing the wrong way,” she told him. “Don’t look at me. Pretend you are sneaking.”
He moved with exaggerated movements toward the dressing table, lifting his knees high and bending at the waist like some old, wizened man. A laugh escaped her, and he froze then straightened.
“What now?”
“I’mthe one with poor acting skills?”
A frown so deep she didn’t know if it could be unfurled tarnished his forehead. “Can we be done with this now? I do have other duties of which to attend.”
“You mean you did not schedule climbing in and out of a window today? How frightfully disorganized of you, Lord Rochdale.”
The slightest flicker of amusement on his lips made her feel warm inside. She looked away swiftly. Roman was not the sort of man a woman should feel warm over, most especially when said man was an avowed enemy of her family.
“Stay where you are.” Clem pushed up from the bed and slid off then marched over to stand at his side. Hands to his shoulders, she twisted him away from the bed. “If you were sneaking in somewhere, you would do your best to stay hidden. Did your aunt say what the man wore?”
“We already know about the shirt.”
“But did he have a cloak or something?”
“I’m not certain how this helps.”