Chapter 20

Unless someone had died. For that, ?mer might feel the need to make an exception.

Matthias let himself out of the coach before it had rolled to a halt, ignoring the footman who had leapt off the back of the vehicle in an effort to do his duty. His butler, Thrush, opened the door for him. “What the devil is all this?” he demanded as he practically threw his tall, beaver hat at the man.

“I’m afraid there was an intruder, sir,” Thrush replied.

Matthias paused in the act of stripping off his gloves. “A what?”

His voice was so cold that Thrush, a man who had been hired for his impenetrable stoicism, actually flinched. “An intruder, sir,” Thrush repeated. “In the library.”

After shoving his gloves at the butler as well, Matthias strode toward the library. ?mer met him halfway across the parlor. “Nothing has been taken.”