An Unexpected Pleasure (The Mad Morelands #4)(44)

He had obviously been watching her. She wondered what he had hoped to see. Surely he could not know who she was. It made her wonder what he had thought she was up to when he caught her with the key. Did he think her a thief? That she wanted to steal what lay in the collection room?

Indignation spurted up in her at the idea. She had to admit that that would the logical thing to assume, but, still, the thought stung.

Megan turned to the duke, who was watching her and Anna like a proud father showing off his offspring.

“This is so amazing, sir,” she told him honestly. “I have never seen a private collection like this.”

Broughton beamed. “Thank you, my dear. I have spent a number of years building it.”

“It’s wonderful,” Anna agreed. She looked over at Megan, and the faintest of shadows touched Anna’s eyes.

Megan felt the same shivery sensation along her nerves as she had the first time she had met Anna. There was something about the way the woman looked at her—not always, but every once in a while, like now, or the moment they met—that made Megan feel nervous and unsettled. Anna was a perfectly nice woman; indeed, she had been quite friendly with Megan, and Megan liked her. But she could not help but feel that Anna knew more about her than she should.

“Do you ever collect anything else?” Megan asked, as much to distract Anna as anything else. “Other than things from Greco-Roman culture, I mean?”

The duke looked faintly surprised. “More modern things?” He shook his head. “I am afraid not. No interest, you see. The Middle Ages, the Renaissance—there were lovely things, of course, but they just haven’t the same appeal.”

“Nothing from other parts of the world?” Megan asked lightly. “China, say, or India?”

“Oh, no. Theo here is more likely to have that kind of thing. He has been all over the world.” The duke said the words with the faint astonishment of a man who had rarely seen any reason to stir from his home.

“You have a collection, too?” Anna asked Theo, and Megan was grateful for the words, which saved her from having to ask.

Theo shrugged. “No. Only a few things in my room. I don’t usually bring a great deal home. My primary interest is in seeing the places.”

His room. Megan knew that was where she would have to look next. She didn’t want to. Even the thought of being in his room did strange things to her insides. It wasn’t fear, she knew…or, at least, not exactly. It was a combination of emotions that roiled in her in a way she did not even want to contemplate.

She would have to go there eventually, she knew. She would wait until some evening when she knew he was gone for several hours, and then she would sneak in and search the place. But if she didn’t find anything there, she was not sure what she would do.

There was the Morelands’ house in the country, of course. The evidence she needed was just as likely to be there. But she knew that the family would not be retiring there until after the season was over. She could not wait that long—and she was certain she would be unable to carry off her pretense of being a teacher for that long, anyway.

The twins were bound to realize that she hadn’t the slightest idea what they were doing in their Greek lessons, and she wasn’t a whole lot better when it came to Latin and higher mathematics. There had even been a few times when she had looked at Con or Alex and wondered if they already knew that she was floundering, completely over her head, in those subjects. The boys seemed to like her and her teaching style; it was quite possible, she thought, that they had guessed she was not competent as a tutor and were simply keeping quiet about it.

But some other family member would be bound to notice, sooner or later. And, indeed, she felt a trifle guilty, knowing that because of her, the boys might very well lag behind their peers in certain subjects.

She needed to discover something, and soon. Megan wished that her father and Deirdre could go to Broughton Park and search the place. She didn’t know how it might be accomplished, but next Sunday, when she had the day off, she would visit them and discuss the matter of the second house.

In the meantime, she would have to do something else to further her case.

The group, having finished their tour, was beginning to drift out the door, and Megan moved along with the others, her mind worrying at her problem.

When she reached the door, she turned to the duke, saying, “Good evening, your grace, and thank you again for showing me your collection.”

“No trouble at all, my dear,” Broughton assured her, smiling. “But aren’t you coming back to the sitting room? Con and Alex have a dandy puzzle going.”

Megan smiled. Her pupils had informed her that the duke was almost as fond as Con was of jigsaw puzzles, and he spent many an evening working on them with his sons.

“Thank you,” she replied honestly. “But I fear I am rather tired. I should retire early, I think.”

The fact was, she was rather fond of puzzles herself and would have enjoyed working on one, but she was coming to realize that the less time she spent with this family, the better. She was already liking them far more than was good for her. There was no point in making it any more painful when she had to reveal to them what Theo had done.

“Come, Miss Henderson, surely a little time spent relaxing would be good for you,” Theo said persuasively. “A card game, perhaps. Or Anna might be persuaded to play a few tunes on the piano. Or, if you prefer, Mother has been reading up on the educational ideas of Bronson Alcott, and I am sure she would love to discuss them with you.”