What You Desire (Anything for Love, Book 1) by Adele Clee

inkwell and scratched out a few notes.
    “Do you want me to inquire into Lord Beaufort’s whereabouts?” Dudley asked as Sebastian finished his repast.
    “No, I shall see to Beaufort,” Sebastian replied taking a mouthful of wine. “I need you to find out anything you can about the Comte de Dampierre. He must have an address here in town. Miss Beaufort seemed confident she could find him if need be. She seems to think some sort of deal had been struck. Her brother had promised to sell or trade the necklace and then for some reason refused.”
    Dudley frowned. “Can you trust Lord Beaufort?”
    “With my life,” Sebastian replied without hesitation. “The gentleman I know would not renege unless something prompted him to do so.”
    Dudley put a definite cross through one of the notes he had scribbled. “Is the necklace valuable? Perhaps when Beaufort came to London, he discovered it was paste and didn’t want to look foolish.”
    Sebastian laughed. “You’re thinking of the time we traipsed halfway around France looking for Lord Pottersham’s mistress after she’d run off with his wife’s necklace.”
    Dudley’s eyes flashed with amusement. “It would have been helpful if his wife had mentioned she’d swapped the gems for paste.”
    “Here, you may see for yourself,” he said removing the pouch from the concealed pocket sewn inside his coat. He stepped forward and placed the pouch on the table before returning to his seat. “I couldn’t take the risk of leaving it behind.”
    Dudley opened one of the desk drawers and removed a rosewood magnifying glass. Rolling out the pouch, he took the necklace to the window to examine it in the light. “I must say it is a rather fetching piece.”
    The rubies twinkled like the stars and Sebastian caught his breath as his mind conjured an image of it draped around Miss Beaufort’s bare neck. Except in Sebastian’s mind, it was not just her neck that was bare.
    “Most definitely not paste. There are too many imperfections, too many signs of nature’s impurities,” Dudley murmured. He returned to his chair and placed the necklace on top of the velvet pouch. “I’m not qualified to place any sort of value on it, but even so, the thought of value does raise a very important question.”
    “I know what you are going to say,” Sebastian said, bringing his wayward thoughts to heel. “If no money has changed hands then why would Beaufort negating their deal be so important to Dampierre? Why would he travel all the way to Marchampton unless the deal had already been done?”
    “I would wager, Miss Beaufort knows more than she is letting on. Else why would she be so determined to relieve you of the necklace?”
    Sebastian knew she’d not been completely honest. It took an awful amount of courage to scheme one’s way into someone’s home and the act suggested an element of desperation. It was part of the reason why he’d insisted accompanying her.
    “I think it is fair to assume that Beaufort has something belonging to this Dampierre fellow,” Dudley continued, glancing down at the necklace. “It must be something of great value to send a peer into hiding and a French comte scouring the country.”
    An image of James Beaufort’s female companion flooded his mind: the disguise, the reluctance to call out her name, the need to take cover in the woods. “You’re not going to believe this,” Sebastian said as recognition dawned. “But I believe Beaufort and Dampierre are at odds over a woman.”

 
     
    Chapter 11
     
     
    It was late afternoon when Sebastian rode Argo into the mews. After dismounting, he gave the horse a reassuring pat before handing him over to Peter: an orphan boy of fourteen, whose passion for horses surpassed any young buck frequenting Tattersall’s.
    “Don’t worry. Cronus is safe,” Sebastian said ruffling the boy’s hair in a bid to ease his troubled expression. “He’s stabled out of town, but I’ll collect him when I return