Elizabeth Thornton - [Special Branch 02] by Princess Charming Page B

he’d known Jason all his life. “Maybe we can drive out to Richmond. He said that, too.”
    She laughed. “Yes, and maybe we can hop over the English Channel and visit Paris.”
    “Richmond isn’t so far away.”
    She cupped his chin, bringing his gaze to hers. “Listen, young man! Cousin Jason may have other things to do. We’re going to Gunther’s for an ice, and that is one promise you can depend on. All right? And another thing, there’s a workman here, a plasterer. He’ll be wandering around. You do your work and let him do his. Don’t pester him with questions.”
    “I won’t.”
    Gwyn had to laugh. Mark could never contain his curiosity, so much so that there were times when his poor mother wished the word “why” had never been invented.
    Her pupil arrived at that moment and Maddie was right behind her with the morning paper. It tookGwyn only a minute or two to find what she wanted. The front page was devoted to the impending marriage of Princess Charlotte to Prince Leopold of Cobourg. At last she found it, on an inside page, and she quickly scanned it. There was no further information on the party at Sackville’s house, only that the authorities were continuing the investigation.
    She felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
    When the piano lesson was over, she hurried to the kitchen to check on Mark’s progress. Maddie was supposed to be doing the ironing, but Gwyn could smell the mouth-watering aroma of fresh baking before she opened the kitchen door. Mark, Maddie, and the young plasterer were sitting around the table enjoying buttered scones and a pot of tea.
    On seeing Gwyn, Maddie jumped up and color flooded her face. “I … I thought I’d make some scones,” she stammered out, “before I did the ironing.”
    Harry, the plasterer, got up without any awkwardness. “And very good they was, too,” he said.
    For the first time, Gwyn realized just how handsome he was.
    “I’ll show you out, Harry,” said Maddie, blushing.
    And, thought Gwyn, how pretty Maddie was. They were flirting, in her kitchen. It made her feel quite old.
    When they left the room, Gwyn sat down at the table and absently began to nibble on a scone, inwardly reflecting on how she could protect her innocent young maid from the snares of handsome young men. Sensing Mark’s eyes on her, she turned to look at him. “Well, young man,” she said, “what do you have to say for yourself?”
    He frowned up at her. “Are you cross with me, Mama?”
    “Are you a male?” When he looked perplexed, she laughed, reached over the table, and brushed back his fair hair from his brow. “It’s a joke,” she said. “A girl’s joke. You have to be a girl before you get it.”
    “Girls!” said Mark, and made a face.
    Laughter and giggles came from the other side of the door. Gwyn got up. “I’ll just make sure Maddie locks up after she sees the plasterer out,” she said.
    Mark watched his mother go. He had been on the point of telling her that he wasn’t the one who had asked a lot of questions today. It was the plasterer, Harry. So it wasn’t only boys who were curious.
    Cousin Jason had been curious, too, when they’d waited for Mama to come home from the library, and later, in that drive in the curricle. But he didn’t mind Cousin Jason’s questions because he was family.
    He thought about Cousin Jason for a long time. If he had his curricle with him, and he didn’t offer to take him up in it, then he’d know Cousin Jason couldn’t be trusted, not like he could trust Mama.
    He’d just have to wait and see.

    Mr. Armstrong’s office in Pall Mall was right above a cobbler’s shop, and was not at all what Gwyn expected. Though the address itself was superior, the rooms were dingy and cluttered. There was only one clerk, a young man, barely out of adolescence, who interrupted himself at every sentence to either sneeze or blow his nose into a large, white handkerchief.
    “Dust,” he said