Eloisa's Adventure by Rebecca King Page B

closer to the
desk, but she didn’t expect him to answer. “Has anything been
taken?”
    “It
looks like our intruder is, or was, looking for something in
particular,” Simeon growled.
    “Like
what? If it is your financial papers, surely he would have taken
them with him, wouldn’t he?”
    “If he
wanted to steal something or investigate the family’s wealth? Yes,
most probably. These have been rifled through in such a way that it
looks like our intruder was after something in
particular.”
    With
that, Simeon pulled out several drawers on the other side of the
desk and began to rifle through the papers inside. He tried to
remember if he had left any financial papers behind but was certain
he had taken everything of interest three weeks ago.
    He was
about to close the drawer when a seal on a parchment located at the
back of the top drawer captured his attention. He picked it up and
studied the writing but didn’t recognise it as being
George’s.
    Eloisa
tried to peer over the top of it. It was incredibly rude of her to
pry, but she was intrigued and, as far as she was concerned,
Simeon’s problems involved her now that she was alone in the house
with her host.
    “What is
it?” she asked when the lack of lighting within the room prevented
her from reading the spidery scrawl. Thankfully, Simeon was willing
to indulge her curiosity and handed her the parchment before he
turned his attention toward looking through the rest of the
papers.
    “Oh
dear, I am sorry,” she whispered as she read the carefully penned
letter. It was from a captain in the army, notifying George
Calversham of the death of his son, Renwick Calversham, who died in
a field hospital several days after receiving a gunshot wound to
his head.
    “Renwick
was my cousin. He was about the same age as me, but was a pompous
arse, if you ask me,” Simeon growled. He threw her an apologetic
look. “I know I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but he was a
wastrel as a young man. My uncle threatened to cut him off entirely
if Renwick didn’t sort himself out and find something useful to do
with his time. When Renwick ignored him, George purchased a
commission for him, and waited until Renwick was in his cups, as he
was regularly inclined to be. George had his staff deliver Renwick
to the army base while drunk. Apparently, Renwick woke up to find
the drill sergeant screaming at him, but it was too late to leave.
Several months after that, we heard that Renwick had been sent
abroad and had died in battle. It seemed that he was as useless in
the army as he was in anything else he turned his attention to,” he
snorted.
    Eloisa
stared at him and quietly put the parchment back onto the desk.
“Were you in the army?”
    Simeon
looked up at her. “Yes, but I wasn’t a wastrel. I just wanted to
see a bit of the world. I served abroad, but got sent home when I
was injured and unable to fight again.”
    “I am
sorry,” she replied gently. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask
where he had been shot, and when, but didn’t want to unearth
painful memories for him, and so remained quiet.
    “It’s in
the past now. Thankfully, I had my family estate to return to.
After a good period of rehabilitation, I was able to help my father
run the estates. I recently purchased one of my own in Cumbria.
Unfortunately, Uncle George then passed away and, being the sole
heir to his estate, I found myself lumbered with this place.” He
looked up at her again, this time a little ruefully. “The rest, as
they say, is history.”
    Eloisa
sighed and shook her head. She couldn’t imagine owning a house at
all; even a modest one like the rectory. He seemed to come from an
entirely different world to the one she was used to, and that alone
was more than enough of a warning that she must not get too
attracted to him.
    Not too attracted, meaning you are already attracted to him.
You would be a nincompoop to fall in love with him, a small voice warned her.
    She gave herself a stern