“Don’t be boorish.”
He scowled at me, but then his expression lightened. “Maybe it was me. Huh, Em? You think maybe I’ve been dallying with Lady Amelia? Maybe she and I were only pretending not to have met previously. A ruse to fool Aunt Alva. And you.”
Alarm rippled through me for several long seconds before the tension drained away and I shook my head at him. “You are incorrigible. I have no idea why I put up with you.”
“Because I’m your older brother and you adore me. Now, how about hurrying this old hack so we can get home and see what treats Nanny’s cooking up for us today.”
There was no time for treats when we arrived home. We found Nanny in the alcove beneath the stairs shouting into the mouthpiece of the telephone because she believed that to be the only way the person on the other end could hear her. The moment Brady and I stepped into the foyer, she broke off and gaped at us for an instant before speaking more quietly into the mouthpiece. “Never mind, she’s here.” She ended the call.
“I was just calling over to the Marble House to find you, Emma.” Still in her house slippers, she shuffled over to us. “Oh, you’ll never guess. Mable Hanson called me some twenty minutes ago. You remember Mrs. Hanson, don’t you, Emma? She lived over on Chestnut Street on the Point. That is, until her husband closed his butcher shop and they retired to a little cottage in Middletown, near Second Beach. They’re on Paradise Avenue and can see the beach from their front windows.”
“Yes, I remember the Hansons, Nanny.” I tried to hide my impatience. “What did she want?”
“She thinks she might have seen Consuelo this morning.”
“What?” Brady and I exclaimed together. My pulse spiked and I found myself gasping for breath. Once more in unison we asked, “Where?”
“On the beach. Strolling.”
I whirled about and reached to open the front door. “I’ve got to go.”
“Wait, Emma.” Nanny caught me by the shoulder. “It’s not likely she’s still there. Mable knew we were looking for Consuelo because I’d spread the word among my friends, the most trusted ones, of course. But she doesn’t have a telephone, you see, and her neighbor who does have one wasn’t home at the time. She couldn’t call me until she went into town over an hour later. She’d have gone sooner, but her husband was out with their carriage. And then I couldn’t reach you right away because you’d already left The Breakers, and I just missed you at Marble House. So it’s been a little while.”
“A little while?” My eagerness deflated and I wanted to stomp my foot and swear. I did neither, but instead gritted my teeth in frustration. “You’re right. She wouldn’t be on the beach for so long. Oh, what dreadful luck to practically have her in hand, only to have her slip away again.”
Brady patted my back. “It’s still a good lead, Em, your first real one. There aren’t all that many houses in the immediate area, and if she was walking on the beach it’s highly likely she’s staying nearby.”
“He’s right,” Nanny agreed. “It may be worth the ride down. You could ask around, maybe find someone else who’s seen her. And let Jesse Whyte know.”
“Do you know anyone who lives in the area? Other than the Hansons, I mean?”
Nanny was already shaking her head before I’d finished the question. Brady took a moment to consider before mirroring the gesture.
“Who on earth could Consuelo know who lives down there? Why, that’s not even Newport anymore. It makes no sense.” And then I remembered something Nanny had said. “Mrs. Hanson believes she might have seen Consuelo? What does that mean, exactly?”
“Well, she said one of the women walking along the shore wore a wide hat with a sheer but dark veil that hung down to her shoulders all around.”
“One of the women?” Brady shot me a surprised look. “Did Mrs. Hanson know the identity of her companion?”
Nanny shook her head. “She said it was no one she recognized.”
If I’d begun to be skeptical about this sighting, my doubts came on with storm force now. “One woman she didn’t recognize, the other obscured by a large hat and veil. That isn’t much to go on. In fact, it’s next to nothing. Nanny, is it possible Mrs. Hanson was simply in the mood for a little excitement and dreamed up the rest?”
“Mable would never. The very idea, really.” Nanny drew herself up with a shake of her jowls. “Mable was always a sensible, practical woman, never given to flights of fancy. What led her to conclude the woman on the beach was Consuelo was the way she held herself. Her figure, her posture, the dignity of her stride.”