“No, you do no’.”
Unfortunately, Meggie thought otherwise. “They want Ewan dead.”
CHAPTER 6
“WHY DOES EWAN’S FAMILY want him dead?” Lily asked Eloise, once more alone with her now that Ewan and Meggie had departed. Eloise, who usually adored gossip, chose precisely that moment to repent her ways and embrace discretion. Imagine! Lily’s trusted informant regarding all things scandalous declined to discuss the reason, advising that it wasn’t her place to say and Lily should ask Ewan. Had the world just been tipped on its end?
Honestly, discretion was highly overrated.
And she had asked Ewan, tried in every way to pry the information out of him. He was like the granite rock on a cliff face. Hard, sharp. Impenetrable. She wouldn’t get anything out of him. Not ever. She’d seen his dark expression and practically felt that wall of privacy build around him, stone by stone. Well, if he wouldn’t talk to her, that left only Meggie, assuming her brother hadn’t forced her to take a blood oath of silence.
Of course, she knew that he had.
Or if he hadn’t yet, he would before her next outing with Meggie.
Which was why Lily was still a little peeved when another box arrived for her the following morning. A very large box.
Lily had no intention of accepting it, but Dillie grabbed it out of their butler’s hands as he was about to set it on the entry hall table and raced off with it before Lily could refuse the delivery.
Pruitt, their stoic butler, arched a bored eyebrow. He’d been with the family too long to be surprised by Dillie’s antics. “Seems your sister has left you with no choice.”
Lily nodded. “Does anyone else know about the box?”
“Not yet. I suggest you find your sister before she lets the cat out of the bag.”
“Of course. You’re right. Please don’t tell anyone yet, Pruitt.”
His eyes twinkled. “Tell anyone about what?
She gave him a quick hug. “Thank you.”
She hurried upstairs, knowing she’d find her sister waiting in their shared quarters. As expected, Dillie was sitting on her bed, the box beside her. She was strumming her fingers impatiently across the top.
Lily shut their door and turned to scowl at her sister.
“Took you long enough,” Dillie muttered. “Go ahead, open it.”
“No. I know what’s inside.”
“Come on. You know you want to. Well, I’m going to have a look.”
“Don’t you dare! It’s my—”
But she was too late. Dillie had already lifted the cover. “Oh, my!” She shook out an exact replica of the riding habit Jasper had ruined. “Madame de Bressard must have charged him a king’s ransom. Oh, Lily,” she said with a bubble of laughter, “you’re going to bankrupt the poor man.”
“I’ll do nothing of the sort. He can afford it.” Still, she couldn’t take her gaze off the shimmering black velvet.
“You’re frowning. Why are you still angry with him?”
“I’m not... not really... not anymore. He’s definitely holding back about his family, but on the whole he’s been incredibly noble. It’s Meggie I worry about. I think of her as an unpainted canvas with all these lovely colors to be applied to create a masterpiece. But how can I paint a proper portrait if important colors are missing?”
“And Eloise won’t tell,” Dillie said, having already heard that complaint from Lily.
Lily rolled her eyes. “Can you believe it?”
“Then you’ll just have to work on Meggie.”
“I don’t think she knows the entire story.”
“So we’re back to Ewan. And that will only make you angry again.”
She slumped her shoulders and let out a sigh. “No, it won’t. I like him.”
Dillie grinned. “A little more than you’d care to admit.”
Lily nodded. “He melted my heart the other day, buying me flowers and offering encouragement, something I sorely needed after the humiliating set-down I received at the Royal Society.” She paused to glance at Dillie. “Not even Ashton stood up for me, though I wouldn’t have expected him to since he’s their newest member. I would never ask him to anger his colleagues, especially within a month of his admission. I’m sure he’ll say something in my defense at one of their private meetings. After all, I’m helping him with his latest monograph on the impact of earthquakes and other catastrophic events on the evolution of lemurs on the island of Madagascar.”
Dillie rolled her eyes. “I’m all agog. Can’t wait to read about his monkeys.”
“Lemurs aren’t monkeys, but I can’t either,” she said with enthusiasm, then realized her sister was merely being sarcastic. “Oh, but it is interesting. I’ve been helping him gather information on the various lemur populations in Madagascar. Never realized there were so many distinct offshoots, and—”