His Wife, The Spy: Regency Historical Romance (Enterprising Women Book 4) by Peri Maxwell

His Wife, The Spy: Regency Historical Romance (Enterprising Women Book 4) by Peri Maxwell

Author:Peri Maxwell [Maxwell, Peri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2024-07-19T00:00:00+00:00


Chapter Thirteen

His wife was at his desk reading his ledgers while his butler looked over her shoulder. The chair loomed behind her like a throne, and she had an ink smudge across the bridge of her nose.

Her day dress was stitched with daisies, and the green ribbon beneath her breasts matched the flowers’ stems. It was a lovely distraction from the task at hand.

“You need a new man of business.”

Of all the things she could have said, he hadn’t expected that. “What?”

“Your man of business is skimming from the budget before he delivers the funds to your staff.”

Jasper strode behind the desk to stand over her shoulder, opposite Stapleton. This couldn’t be possible. Gerald Jones had been the family’s man of business for years. He was older than King Arthur. “Show me.”

As Annabel and Stapleton laid out their discoveries, Jasper drew up a chair and pushed his hand through his hair. “How long?”

“I’ve only reached the point when you inherited,” Annabel said.

Manners dictated that Jasper tell her about the ink on her nose, but he liked it there. Just as he liked imagining the scent of her perfume soaking into the fabric of his chair. “Did you find anything else?”

Kit would have his head if he didn’t ask that question. Though he wasn’t certain why Kit thought he’d be daft enough to keep a running tally of the money they’d spent in Cardiff mixed in with the household accounts.

Annabel smiled up at the butler. “Thank you, Stapleton. His lordship will let you know how to move forward.”

Once they were alone, she faced Jasper, elbows on the chair and fingers steepled in front of her. “I haven’t noticed anything here, but…” Her cheeks colored as she chewed on her bottom lip. “While we were in Ramsbury, I accidentally saw one of your grandfather’s old ledgers.”

After scaling twice his height to haul it from the topmost shelf.

The color in her cheeks deepened. “Forgive me, Jasper, but your grandfather didn’t invest a great deal in the tenants’ holdings or in improvements.”

Irritation burbled under his skin. He hadn’t always agreed with his grandfather, but the old man had managed his estates well. “He believed tenants took more pride in their homes if they worked for things rather than being given them.”

“That works well for children, but your tenants aren’t children. They are trying to manage their farms and raise their families. If Mr. Jones was skimming from your grandfather, they were doing it on a pittance while still trying to pay rent.”

“We should audit those accounts as well.” Jasper raked his hand back through his hair and winced at the bruises he had anticipated. “And I’ll terminate Jones’s firm right away.”

If Jones couldn’t be trusted, and Kit wasn’t here, there were damned few choices for a replacement. Parliament, Society, and spying left him precious little time to find one, and next to no time to do it himself.

He stared at his wife. Ink on her nose, practically buried in bookkeeping and figures, she’d never looked more at home.



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