“Nothing at all.”
Mary gripped her cane in both hands and leaned upon it. “I wonder if you should give up your search. Perhaps it will never be discovered.”
“Give up?” She shook her head. “Not a chance.”
She had to find this letter. There had been no more sightings of intruders, most likely thanks to the men standing guard around the house each night, though perhaps because they too had given up on finding the letter—if that was even what they wanted. Nothing else had been taken so one could only assume. But Clem could not give up. Not just because Roman had put his faith in her but because she’d given up on many things in her life. She needed to see this through until the end and prove to herself she could finish something.
Mary smiled. “Well, at least take Snowy for a walk for me.”
Clem glanced down at the dog and eased out a breath. “A walk will clear my head, I suppose.”
“Precisely.”
“I’m not fussing you,” she told the dog after hooking its collar onto a leash. “We are merely walking and that is it.”
She strolled all the way to Sydney Gardens, finding them more crowded than she would have liked thanks to skies barely dotted with clouds. The little dog tugged on its lead and yapped at every dog even slightly bigger than itself. Clem wasn’t certain what Mary hoped could be achieved walking Snowy but controlling the bold little dog was no easy task, and her mind was anything but clear by the time she reached the outer gates of Mary’s house.
Snowy paused by the front gate and sat placidly as the dog waited for Clem to catch up. “Oh,nowyou’re excellently behaved.”
“What a fine dog.”
Clem stilled as she saw the man striding toward her. “A-Archie?”
He grinned and tugged off his hat. “Clem.”
She could not help smiling in return. Archie had one of those warm smiles and faces that made one feel as though one could never be unhappy in his company. It had been one of the reasons she’d been convinced they might make a fair match. Of course, she had been much younger then and much more easily persuaded matrimony was for her. She’d been lucky indeed Archie had been such a gentleman and allowed her to withdraw from the match. Truth be told, he’d been just as keen to end it after the Musgraves’ most disastrous Season in London.
He riffled a hand through sandy hair and set his hat back on his head. “I thought you avoided dogs since the, you know,incident?”
She gestured to the house. “Mary has many, many dogs. They are slightly hard to avoid at this point.”
“You are staying here?”
Clem nodded. “As her companion.”
“Oh, well, mighty kind of you.”
She shrugged. She had no intention of spilling the details of the investigation. Roman would loathe her gossiping about his private business. “It keeps me busy.”
“Still always looking for ways to stay busy, eh?” His eyes crinkled. “You never were one to sit still. I always rather admired that about you.”
“What are you doing in Bath? You prefer London for the Season.”
Archie glanced at the pavement. “Ah, well, I had rather thought to reestablish some, um, connections.”
Clem frowned. “Connections?”
“It’s been several years, Clem, and I have matured since then. I cannot help but regret how we left things.” His cheeks pinkened. “I knew you were acting as a companion to Mary,” he confessed. “I rather hoped I might run into you.”
Clem blinked a few times. Of all the things she expected to happen, it was not a confession of, well, something from Archie.
“We left things as they should be,” she said softly. “You did not want your good name entangled with ours and I…well, I wasn’t certain marriage was for me. We did the right thing.”
He eyed her for a few moments, looked her up and down, and nodded slowly. “I imagine you are right. One cannot help but feel a certain warmth for the past, do you not think?”
She laughed. “For most of the past anyway.” She gave his arm a little nudge with hers when his expression turned morose. “I have some very fond memories of our time together.”
“We were most excellent friends, were we not?”