The Secret Service of Tea and Treason (Dangerous Damsels #3)

by India Holton

She stepped through to the headquarters of the Agency of Undercover Note Takers.

A.U.N.T. was England’s most secret intelligence agency, fortunately better at espionage than at naming itself.

She felt all-peopled-out after the morning and wanted to go home, close the curtains, and hug a book until her nerves settled.

“Not even reading?” he asked, easily matching her stride. “Reading is not a hobby,” she said. “It is a way of life.”

How do you find England these days?” “Oh, I have an excellent map.”

But wanton cheerfulness was like reading a book without first checking how it ended. The risk of surprise was simply too great.

She was approaching hooliganism with such speed she might as well just give up and become a politician.

He gave her a smile so thoroughly wicked, he might as well have gone through her book collection and dog-eared all its pages.

He smiled at her then, that beautiful, melting smile which always made her want to sigh a little, hug him a little, marry him a little, and take him away to live in the peaceful countryside.

“You know when you open a new book and realize it’s going to be perfect?” he whispered. “Yes,” Alice said. “That’s how I feel when I look at you.”