“Stay away from the Dutton-Cox family, and stay away from my wife and me.” With his parting order, the viscount hurried over to open the door for his wife and they walked out, oblivious to the four pairs of eyes watching them avidly.
The man in the clerical collar spoke first. “Oh, my. Not readers, are they?”
*
AFTER THE DINNER of roasted chicken and vegetables Phyllida had prepared, Emma and I cleaned up the kitchen and then hurried to get ready for the Archivist Society meeting at Sir Broderick’s.
“You’re going to be very disappointed if we learn Nicholas Drake has returned home and is surprised by all the excitement his going to Brighton caused,” Emma called out from her room.
I’d be mortified by the hurt I’d needlessly caused Lady Dutton-Cox if Drake was found safe and sound. I wasn’t going to admit that transgression to anyone. “That would be the best possible outcome, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
“Help me with my evening corset. I want to wear my blue dress tonight.”
I went in to help her dress. “In case we have two peers drop in on our meeting again?”
“I noticed you put on your evening corset and a nice dress before you went to Somerset House.” Emma caught my eye in the looking glass and raised an elegant eyebrow. If she ever played an aristocrat, she’d have to play a foreigner. She could never act the part of someone’s poor relation.
“What’s this?” Phyllida might be twenty-five years my senior, but there was nothing wrong with the spinster’s hearing. “You have two peers involved in your newest investigation?”
I shrugged. “Actually, half a dozen.”
“Anyone I know?” Phyllida stood in the doorway, staring at me.
It seemed kinder to rattle off the names and pretend these weren’t the people Phyllida had daily rubbed shoulders with in her younger years than not to respond. I gave her the list.
“I was friends with Waxpool’s daughter. She died, oh, it’s been thirty years ago now. I remember Dutton-Cox as a stuffy little boy. The current Lord Hancock took off for Africa to study nature and make his fortune a quarter century ago. He didn’t, of course. Nothing that would help you now, I’m sure.” She smiled weakly.
Silence hung in the air. No one mentioned the years she’d suffered at her brother’s hand before the Archivist investigation had sent her brother to the gallows and brought her into my home.
“This case revolves around young ladies just introduced to the queen and a man who’s accused of using society balls to steal secrets. Everyone’s more Emma’s age than mine.” I needed to change the topic as heat crept up my face. “Lady Westover introduced me to Lady Dutton-Cox during visiting hours. I didn’t get a chance to tell you, Emma, with all the bustle in the shop when I returned.” I slid the dress over her head so I didn’t have to hear her rejoinder.
Once her dress was in place, Emma began reworking her hairdo. “Too bad there isn’t some money to be made from this investigation so you could buy some nice clothes for your role.”
“I’m playing a poor relation from some backwater, so nice clothes wouldn’t be appropriate.” I tried without success to tame my auburn curls.
“Good thing, because your hairdo belongs on a washerwoman. Here, let me do something with it.”
In a minute, Emma did more with my coiffure than I could do in an hour. I now had a curly upswept hairdo that made me look like a Gibson girl and made me fear my heavy locks would tumble down at any moment. Then she finished her own with a high coil and waves from the newest Paris fashion plates, gave us both a critical look-over, and we left for Sir Broderick’s.
It was a short walk, but we hadn’t gone far when the crawling sensation on the back of my neck told me someone was watching us. “When we reach New Oxford Street, I’m going to stop. I want you to look behind me while you adjust my hat.”
“Why?”
“I think we’re being followed.”
“This is a strange case if someone finds it necessary to follow two harmless women,” Emma said, “especially if the person feeling so unsettled by our interest is someone with the power and money of an aristocrat.”
When I stopped, she was ready to swing in front of me and look over my shoulder while she straightened my hat. “It’s a good thing I did, too. Your hat wasn’t at the right angle.”
“Well?” I demanded.
“There are plenty of people around, but no one is looking or acting suspiciously. Are you sure we were being followed?”
My cheeks heated. “No.”