Verena dropped onto the settee in the sitting room, her white organdy skirts billowing about her. “I am too tired to visit anyone else. My feet hurt and my hair is falling down because of this horrid rain. If you want to see Lady Bessington, you’ll have to go there by yourself.”

It had been an agonizing day spent visiting every person who’d attended that fateful dinner party. And it had all been for naught. All they’d really learned was that word of Lord Humford’s death was spreading among the ton and everyone had a sudden memory of the man, most much kinder than the reality.

It was fortunate that current gossip hadn’t also included the manner of his death, just that he was found floating in the Thames, an apparent victim of a robbery. Verena repressed a shudder. What a horrible way to die.

James paced in front of the fireplace, his hands clasped behind his back. “I’ll visit Lady Bessington later this evening at the theatre. She’s the last person from that damned dinner party that we have to visit. Except, of course, Viscount Wycham.”

That was strange, Wycham out of town during the season. Verena had met Wycham at a gaming hell almost two years ago and he was notoriously personable.

She wondered if Brandon knew where the young peer was. They were rumored to have been friends. She tried to picture the rather immature Wycham with Brandon, but could not quite picture it.

James rubbed a hand over his face. “We’ve spent the whole day searching for clues and found nothing.”

“Perhaps Lady Bessington will be the answer. Someone has to have heard Humford say something irregular.”

“I hope you’re right,” James said. “I hate the theatre, but they say she never misses a performance.”

“I dislike it, myself. Father can outact any thespian to trod the boards.”

“So he can. If I can catch Lady B before the production begins, I shall make my escape forthwith.”

Verena kicked off her shoes. They’d visited no fewer than nine people today. That was nine houses, nine long inane conversations all leading back to the night of their dinner party and Lord Humford’s mysterious death, and numerous glasses of tepid tea and stale cakes.

She never wanted to see another teacup for the rest of her life.

James’s pacing slowed, his brow furrowed. “We must think this through. What exactly have we discovered so far?”

“That Lady Jessup is in dire need of a housekeeper and that Mr. Sinclair has the best scones. I really must get that recipe for Cook.”

He regarded her with a flat stare. “You’ve been in rare form today.”

She bit her lip. She had been a little flippant. It was just that she feared that if she stopped to think, then her fears for her brother would freeze her into a block of pulsing indecision.

Verena glanced at James from beneath her lashes. He was a little pale today and she suspected he was feeling a bit frantic.

So was she. Which was why she’d spent the entire day trying to stay focused on more pleasant thoughts. Like last night…the feel of Brandon’s possessive hands as they’d roamed over her…the scent of his cologne on her sheets…the way his eyes gleamed when she’d pressed him to the mattress.

A pleasurable shiver traced through her. He was an amazing man; a pity he was so overbearing. Of course in bed, being overbearing could add to a talent already strong, rather than detract from it. But at the dinner table and in daily life, such a propensity would cause nothing but discord.

Discord and disappointment. Brandon St. John was made for the silks and satins of the ton—a place Verena had never been made welcome.

She pushed her shoes further away. It didn’t really matter what the ton thought of her. Neither she nor Brandon had any intentions of allowing their relationship to progress past the “pleasant” stage.

And that was as it should be, she told herself severely. She adjusted the pretty garnet bracelet on her wrist in an attempt to hold a swelter of emotion at bay.

“Did you even hear me?” James asked.

She blinked at him, suddenly aware that he was speaking, and had been speaking, for some time now. “I…oh, were you talking?”

“To myself, apparently. What is wrong? You seem out of sorts. In fact,” James continued, looking at her with narrowed eyes, “you’ve been acting very differently today. What have you—”

A sharp rap sounded and Herberts stuck his head around the door. His gold tooth caught the light. “There ye be, missus! Ye’ve a visitor. Shall oiye show him in?”

“Herberts, please do not stick your head around the door like that. You look like a disembodied specter. Just come inside and say what you have to say.”

He brightened, but stayed where he was. “A specter, eh? Perhaps oiye should yell ‘Boo!’ the next time oiye comes to announce a guest.” He made a horrid face, rolling his eyes back in his head. “Ooooooh!”

Verena had to swallow a grin, relieved that she could at least still smile. “Who is our guest?”

The butler’s spectral mime disappeared before an arch look. “Oh, oiye thinks ye know who ’tis, missus. Ye knows him very well.”

Verena’s heart quickened. Blast it, why did she react this way just on thinking of his name? “Mr. St. John.”

“In all his bloomin’ glory. Oiye must say, ’tis refreshin’ to see the man wif his shirt on.”

Verena’s cheeks heated. She cast a swift glance at her brother and found him staring at the butler as if he’d suffered a severe shock.

“Show Mr. St. John in,” she said, hoping James wouldn’t find his voice before Herberts could escape.

“Very well, missus. Oiye’ll show him in, though oiye daresay he knows the way.” The butler winked broadly and disappeared.

“What,” James said in a voice that sounded remarkably like Father’s, “was that all about?”

“It’s Herberts, James. Who knows what he’s thinking? Oh, dear! Where are my shoes?” She made a great show of finding her discarded slippers and putting them back on, tucking her toes in and bending way over to fit them over her heels. This kept James from seeing her face, which was every bit as red as the pillows on the settee.

Just as she finished, the door opened. Suddenly, Brandon was there, bowing over her hand, his blue eyes meeting hers with an intimate look that stole her breath.

He looked wonderful. Beyond wonderful. Tall and handsome, his black hair falling over his brow, his black coat fitted to perfection. “Lady Westforth,” he said, his breath brushing over her fingers as he kissed her hand.

Her entire body shivered in response. “Y-your voice is back.” Or part of it, at least. His normally deep voice was even deeper than usual, whiskey-rough and seductively rich. Just the sound made Verena sit a little closer to the edge of her seat.

He continued to hold her hand, his thumb trailing a path over her knuckles that made her thighs quiver as if they had been stroked and not her fingers. “I can speak a little,” he said softly, “though I’m not yet up to singing.”

“Then we won’t make you do so. Would you like some refreshments? I can ring for tea and cakes.”

“No, thank you. I’ve been drinking tea all day in an effort to keep my throat soothed. Any more and I fear my eyes will turn brown.”

She realized that his thumb was still tracing that mesmerizing path over the delicate skin on the back of her hand. His fingers still clung to hers, his skin warm.

The touch ignited a welter of feelings, none of which Verena wanted to parade before her sharp-eyed brother. James was already watching her with narrowed eyes, a frown on his face.

Blast. She really didn’t need her brother to become involved in her intimate affairs. In any of her affairs, for that matter, intimate or not.

Feigning an indifference she was far from feeling, she removed her hand from Brandon’s and gestured to the chair opposite the settee. “Won’t you have a seat, Mr. St. John? Mr. Lansdowne and I—”

“You mean James, don’t you?” Brandon took the seat offered, his broad shoulders obscuring the back of the chair from sight. “Or don’t you call your brother by his Christian name?”

Verena sucked in her breath. What was he doing?

James locked a glare on Verena. “You told him.”

Wonderful. Verena felt as if she were transparent, her emotions plain for the world to see. She’d wager that even now, James was looking into her soul, seeing all the sparkling glory of her late-night tryst. No doubt he was itching to get back to his lodgings so he could write Father a long, long detailed letter.

Blast, blast and double blast. That was the last thing she needed—Father riding up on a white horse, breathing fire and demanding justice—which is exactly what he’d do once he discovered Brandon’s worth. Only Father’s white horse would not be a knight’s steed, but the white horse of the Apocalypse, she thought glumly. “James, I told Mr. St. John that you are my brother because he assumed that we were—” She made a vague gesture.

James glowered, but said nothing.

Brandon stretched his legs before him. “She also told me about your missing love letters. I have a few questions about that.”

Verena almost moaned aloud. What was Brandon trying to do?

James had gone rigid, his glance daggerlike. “I don’t see how this is any of your concern, St. John.”

Perhaps he was trying to embarrass her. Trying to wear her down with humiliation. First, he’d embarrass her before her own brother, and then the whole town. Before long, she’d be the laughingstock of all of London.

The thought took hold and grew. Verena’s back stiffened and she wondered if James would think anything amiss if she hiked up her skirts, pounced on St. John the braggart, and pummeled him into a mass of unrecognizable arrogance with her bared fists.

The nerve of the man, coming into her house and then spreading all of her secrets.

“I need a drink,” James said abruptly, glaring at Brandon before marching across the room and sloshing a very generous portion of brandy into a glass.

Verena leaned toward Brandon and said in a low voice, “What are you doing?”

“I’ve decided we should have no more secrets.”

“Well that’s lovely for you. But I like my secrets, thank you very much.”

He grinned, his teeth flashing white.

Verena narrowed her gaze. “If you continue on this course, I will never again talk to you while in bed.”

His lips quirked. “That’s fine with me. Talking is the last thing I’d want to do in bed with you, anyway.”

“Oh!” How…intriguing. Insulting, too, in a way. But if she was honest, she could think of a lot of things she’d rather do in bed with him than talk.

In fact, now that she thought about it, talking did seem to get in the way of things. “Are you trying to embarrass me?”

“Embarr—” He frowned. “Of course not! Why would you think that? I’m merely trying to get all of our information out in the open. My father always said that a shared burden was half a burden.”

James returned with a glass of amber liquid. He glanced from Verena, to Brandon, and back. “I beg your pardon? What were you saying?”

“Nothing,” Verena said, her cheeks heating. “We were just discussing the need for discretion.”

“That’s rich,” James said in a sarcastic tone. “The next time I give you a secret, I have no doubt you’ll just paint it onto a sign and hang it on the front door.”

“I only told him because he—”

“Because he’s fooled you into thinking he has your best interests at heart. He doesn’t, you know. He has something else of yours in mind.”

“Oh, he’s not that bad,” Verena said grudgingly. Not any worse than she was. If she was honest, she’d been just as much the aggressor last night. And she’d practically thrown herself on him this morning, too, though that had had quite a different outcome.

She eyed Brandon speculatively and wondered what the outcome would be if she asserted herself yet again tonight. The idea was tantalizing, but better left alone. Whatever she did now would only complicate matters, make her think even more about a relationship that was already impossible.

James eyed Brandon narrowly. “St. John, if you use my sister badly, I will have your blood.”

To Verena’s dismay, Brandon looked almost pleased at the thought.

“James,” Verena said hastily, “you have it all wrong. Except for our first meeting when Mr. St. John kissed me, he has behaved fairly gentlemanly.”

James’s head jerked toward her. “Kissed? When the hell did that happen?”

“Several weeks ago,” Brandon said. “Your sister kisses divinely.”

She sniffed. “I said fairly gentlemanly. James, he didn’t come here to tease me; he came because he wants to join forces.”

“We don’t need him,” James snapped.

Verena opened her mouth to agree, but stopped. Didn’t they need him? They themselves were point non plus—there were no more clues to be had. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. He already knows everything.”

“Not quite,” Brandon said mildly. He looked at James with a curious air. “How do you hear from your blackmailers? Do they send you notes? Or does one of them visit you face-to-face?”

James’s face darkened. “I’m not telling you a thing.”

Verena swallowed a sharp sigh. Lansdownes never allowed outside parties to become involved in their contretemps. But this…. She thought once again of Humford, floating facedown in the Thames. “James, let him help us. We’ve looked everywhere for that ridiculous list and we cannot find it.”

“We don’t need any help,” James said stubbornly.

“I do,” Brandon said. “I need that bloody list, too. I’ve a friend who could hang for treason if I do not find it.”

“And I could wake up dead if I don’t find it and turn it over to those blasted blackmailers.”

“How do you know they won’t kill you? Or just hold onto your letters for another payment of some sort?”

James slammed his glass on the small table by the settee before he planted himself before Brandon. “That’s it! I don’t know what you mean to accomplish here, St. John, but you are not welcome.”

Brand didn’t seem the least concerned. “That’s a pity as I believe I have some information that might make your search more fruitful.”

Verena leaned around James so that she could see Brandon. “What have you discovered?”

He leaned over so that he could see her better as well, a glint in his smile. “I met with a man by the name of Colburn. He’s with the Home Office. This list you’re looking for, it’s about this size.” He made a square with his hands.

“That small? I’ve been looking for something more the size of—James, will you please move to one side? It’s very difficult to hold a decent conversation with you standing in the middle.”

After a frustrating moment, James did as he was told, though he looked none too pleased. “I cannot believe you trust this braggart.”

Verena paused. Did she trust Brandon? Strangely, she supposed she did. “Father always said to follow your instincts. Well, this is one of my instincts.”

“Yes, well my instincts tell me your instincts are wrong.” His frown deepened. “Wait a minute. What did you mean about St. John’s voice returning? When did he lose it? And how would you even know about it? And what did Herberts mean when he—”

“James, please,” Verena said hastily. “That discussion is for another time. Right now, Mr. St. John has come to tell us what he has found out about the missing list.”

“Don’t believe a word of it. He just wants to get his friend, Wycham, out from under suspicion from the Home Office.”

Verena looked at Brandon. “Wycham?”

James hooked his thumbs in his waistcoat. “Who do you think the Home Office believes responsible for Humford’s death?”

“He didn’t do it—he couldn’t have.” Brandon crossed one ankle over the other, his legs stretched beneath the small table. He was completely at ease, as if he belonged in her sitting room. “Would you like to hear what else I’ve discovered about our situation?”

Verena nodded mutely. She noticed that James didn’t bother to protest.

“The Home Office was using Lord Humford to deliver something. This list.”

“What’s on this list?” James asked.

Brandon frowned. “I believe it contained the names of operatives on the continent. Humford wasn’t aware of the importance of his assigned duty.”

“I can’t believe they’d trust him with something of such import,” Verena said. “He was not the brightest of men.”

“Perhaps they thought that made him less suspect. And had he not opened his mouth…. Apparently Humford liked the attention his little favors for the Home Office got him. He bragged about his new mission to someone.”

“And that ‘someone’ killed him,” James said.

“As he was leaving Westforth House. Apparently the list wasn’t on him when he died, though the killer expected it to be.”

“Which explains why they think the list is here.”

Brand nodded. “I’ve been thinking. It also explains why you, James, were brought to London.”

James stiffened. “You think the letters—”

“They had to find a way to get your sister’s attention. They found those love letters and used them to get you to come to England. They knew you’d come to Verena and then they’d be able to get her cooperation.”

James didn’t say anything for a long while. Finally, he sighed. “That makes sense.”

Brandon nodded. “According to Wycham, the night before Verena’s dinner party, Humford asked him to take the list and deliver it for him. Wycham was to get the list here, at Westforth House.”

James let out his breath. “Bloody hell! If the person who is after this list killed Humford and also stole my letters, then I—”

“—must be on the lookout for a very brutal individual,” Brand finished.

Verena swallowed hard. James was in danger—they all were. Her heart thumped fearfully.

James resumed his pacing, his head bowed, his hands clasped behind him. “I don’t like this.”

“You shouldn’t. There are two factions after the list—the government and this…other person.”

“Or persons,” Verena said.

“That’s a possibility,” James said.

“I’d call it more a probability,” Brandon interjected.

James let out a sigh. “This is impossible! We must—” He stopped and cut a dark glance at Brandon. “St. John, why are you sharing this information? What do you have at stake?”

Brandon met James’s look levelly. He could leave now if he wanted to. He could rise from his chair and walk out the door and never look back. He could use other means to help Wycham. Perhaps Marcus had some influence.

But somehow the stakes were different now. It had become more important to discover the person or persons who were playing havoc with so many people’s lives.

His gaze flickered to Verena, who sat watching him with a concerned expression on her face. He wasn’t going to leave, not until they’d solved this mystery.

He had far too much at stake to just walk away. He had a very tender, succulent five-foot-two stake, with long, thick blond hair, engaging violet eyes, and the lushest curves ever to grace a woman.

It was becoming clearer day-by-day that Wycham’s danger was peripheral compared to Verena’s. She was the one closest to the missing list.

Whether she knew it or not, she was not safe and hadn’t been since Humford, in all his glorious ignorance, had waltzed in her door and seated himself at her dinner table.

“I’m staying,” Brandon said. He eyed James evenly. “For as long as it takes.”

James’s jaw jutted pugnaciously. “And if I make you leave?”

“If you could make me leave, then I’d just come back. Over and over. St. Johns never quit.”

“And Lansdownes never allow outsiders to interfere in their efforts.”

“Good Lord!” Verena threw herself back in her chair, her arms limp at her sides. “What is this? A spitting contest? You two are like a couple of roosters posturing for a gaggle of geese.”

Brand had to grin; even James appeared confused. “Verena, I believe you’ve mixed your metaphors.”

“And you’ve lost all your common sense.” She looked at her brother. “Both of you. James, we’ve looked everywhere for that blasted list. We need help. And I’d rather it be Brandon St. John than anyone else.”

Brand lifted his brows. It wasn’t a declaration, but it was fairly close considering how protective Verena was.

She caught his gaze and colored. “I’ve already made the error of telling you everything. We might as well take advantage of that.”

Wonderful. She didn’t want his assistance because she believed he could help. No, she wanted his assistance because she was too bloody stubborn to share her secrets with anyone else.

Verena looked at James. “Well? Do we work together? Or shall I call Herberts to escort Mr. St. John to the door?”

Brand waited. He didn’t really care what James thought. He was here to stay.