Secrets and Sensibilities: A Regency Romance Mystery (The Lady Emily Capers Book 1) by Regina Scott Page B

enjoy the
mystery as much as he had. “In a series of secret passageways.”
    She did not disappoint him. Her dark eyes lighted. “The
house has secret passageways? Who put them in? Where are they?”
    “I don’t know who designed the passages,” David told her,
linking her arm in his again and leading her out of the room. “But based on
their location, I would say they were originally designed so that certain
gentlemen could visit certain ladies unseen.”
    “Really?” she murmured breathlessly.
    He nodded. “But most recently, they seem to have become a
storage place for every movable art treasure in the house. And I don’t think
I’ve found them all.” He escorted her to the sitting room next door, where a
large bronze bust stood on a pedestal along one wall. “Look at this piece, for
example. Tell me, do you notice anything odd about it?”
    She peered more closely at the bust. “The lines are a bit
smudged, but perhaps that was the artist’s style.” She frowned. “And I don’t
think this was the original base. It is actually rather small for this bust.
Look, you can see cracks here under the lintel where the pedestal is beginning
to strain under the weight.”
    She was as sharp-witted as he’d hoped. “Precisely! Something
else once rested on this base, something much smaller. Something that has been
removed elsewhere.”
    “Someone redecorated?” she suggested.
    “Lady Brentfield hardly seems the type to notice such things
as the placement of statuary. And from what I hear of the hunting-mad Lord
Brentfield, he was more likely to be found on horseback than playing with the
estates’ art treasures. Besides, I’ve noticed a number of pieces like this.
Wallpaper squares less faded than what’s around them where a painting has been
removed. Cabinets with a circle in the dust showing where a vase or statue once
stood.”
    “The russet painting in the Blue Salon,” she guessed.
    He nodded. “Yes. In general, inferior objects like my
ancestors’ bust replacing what I imagine were finer pieces.”
    She blanched. “You suspect theft, then?”
    “I did at first, until I found the secret passageways. While
it’s impossible to match things perfectly, by the coloring or the decoration
scheme, I can sometimes tell where those treasures you saw used to reside. I
bet the rest are still somewhere in the passages.”
    “Just how many passages are there?” she asked with a frown.
    “They honeycomb this place.” He grinned at her. “There’s
even one starting in your room.”
    “There is?” She looked puzzled. “I can’t imagine where it
could be. The room is huge.” She glanced at him suddenly, then lowered her
eyes, a blush creeping to her cheek. “Where does it lead?”
    She had every right to be suspicious. Here he was admitting
he knew an illicit route to her bedchamber. But being the proper earl wasn’t
going to solve the mystery of the misplaced art work. “It connects with other
passages at the corner of the west wing,” he explained. “I admit I haven’t been
through all of them. But in each one I tried, I found at least one art
treasure.”
    “I don’t see why anyone would hide such work away,” she
protested. “Were they caching the pieces to come back later and remove them
from the house?”
    “Or protecting them from someone else who wanted to steal
them?” David countered. “I don’t know. Sometimes things are tucked into corners
or slid behind beams. Sometimes they’re lying abandoned right in the center of
the passage. But I could use help in searching, from someone who understands
what to look for and the potential value of the pieces. Are you willing?”
    As she considered the matter, he led her back down the west
wing, stopping before the door of the room she had been given. He could tell by
the way she bit her lip that she was torn. Already she understood why the
pieces must be found and preserved, but he wasn’t sure she trusted him enough
to wander about in