Page 5

Was this the excuse he had been looking for?

His way to rid himself of the delightfully irritating Miss Roth?

Why wasn’t he thrilled at the notion then?

Because who would transcribe for him? Take precise, excellent dictation in a neat script? Organize his sloppily written notes? Straighten and organize the debacle that was his office and laboratory?

“I see,” she said again, a trifle louder. Inhaling a deep breath—likely to keep from telling Constantine precisely what she thought of him—she angled toward her tidy desk. “What time should I be here?”

“No need.” Straightening, Constantine waved his hand. “I’ll collect you at six. Leave your direction with my coachman.” He studied her from beneath half-closed eyelids. The air fairly crackled with her disapproval.

He didn’t know what devil on his shoulder prompted him, but he drove the point home. “It’s a three-day journey. Each way.”

Miss Roth sank gracefully onto her chair and began arranging her instruments. She picked up the notes he’d left for her and, forehead puckered, perused them.

“Three days in a coach. Bloody marvelous,” she muttered beneath her breath, her lips scarcely moving. “Six if you count both ways.”

Her one imperfection.

Miss Roth talked to herself.

More often than naught, she murmured something unflattering about his character.

“Did you say something, Miss Roth?”

Constantine couldn’t quite check his satisfied grin.

She glanced up and fashioned an insincere smile. No hint of warmth shone in the frosty stare she leveled him.

Weren’t brown eyes the color of treacle supposed to be warm?

Constantine was positive she wished him to the lowest level of Hades.

“Nothing of import, my lord.”

Unable to restrain his humor any longer, he chuckled, and she skewered him with those big pansy eyes.

Picking up the quill, she held it suspended. “She who laughs last laughs longest.”

Quoting Shakespeare, is she?

She was full of surprises today.

Miss Faith Roth was a perplexing enigma.

“Is that a challenge, Miss Roth?”

“Heavens, no, my lord.” She bent her bright head to her task. “Consider it more of a prophecy.”