Nine Shillings

Important Research

London - 1842

I was sitting in the library reading and listening to Veronica give the children their lessons a few rooms away. The children were very quiet, except for answering questions, which meant they were plotting against her. I wasn't going to tell her, ignorance was bliss when the alternative was being outsmarted by a five year old. Besides, I had important research to do.

The front door opened and a few moments later Bran came into the library. He'd been to his club to see if he could sniff out anything about our dead aristos. He hardly ever went anymore.

'I'd forgot how boring they were,' he said.

I sighed and shifted forward on the couch. 'Being a detective is slow.'

Bran sat behind me with his legs on either side of me and his arms around my waist. I settled back against his chest. He'd been drinking too much whiskey and smoking too much sweet tobacco, two of the exciting activities rich men went to clubs for. The bill also featured avoiding their wives and betting on anything, including death. It was a bill too costly for Bran's taste.

'What're you reading?' he asked, nuzzling my hair.

'Ye Olde Impotence Cures,' I said. 'Subtitled Ye Olde Ways to Kill Your Husband. Is there anything you haven't got a book on?'

'I'm not...' He blushed. 'It works sometimes... For a bit...'

I chuckled. 'It?'

'I didn't mean that how it sounded.'

I kissed his jaw. 'Find out anything interesting?'

'Only I look like I should be digging a railway.'

'We could add it to the list of games and call it: Naughty Navvy.' I grinned. 'Oh, Bran, dig deeper.'

He laughed against my neck.

'Oh, Bran, what a big shovel you have.'

He raised his head to smile at me, curled his hand around the back of my head and kissed me deeply.

'Feeling like a naughty navvy?' I touched my nose to his, caressing my hand along his jaw.

Bran drew two of my fingers into his mouth, sucked them and gave me look that made my womb giddy. He hadn't done that before.

'I think I'm done,' I said.

He took my fingers from his mouth and kissed them. 'Shouldn't you be reading about magic?'

'You're a wicked man trying to bend me to your will with your sexual wiles, sir.' I kissed him softly.

'You're the first woman to tell me I have sexual wiles,' he said.

'You have this aroused look that could cause spontaneous orgasm at fifty paces.'

He turned bright red.

'I was only reading this silliness because I know you're unhappy and I don't want you to be unhappy.' I traced his lips with my thumb. 'I could spend the rest of my life just kissing you and be perfectly happy.'

He gave me a look.

I shoved his shoulder lightly. 'I'm serious and trying to be romantic.'

He caressed my face. 'What did I do to deserve you?'

'I don't know. It must've been terrible.' I nipped his lip. 'Is this where I spoil the moment and point out Josef meant well?'

He sighed and looked towards the ceiling.

I shut my book of supposedly modern medicine, shifted to kneel facing him and put the book on the table behind his head. 'I'm not saying you shouldn't be angry at him, if anything you should get angry more often, I'm just saying he meant well.'