Caroline must have read the confusion on her face. Suddenly she laughed with no provocation.
“Gilbert, my dear, I suspect you’ve ensnared an innocent once more. And it has led to more than one misunderstanding, so I think you ought to sit down with the three of us and do your best to clear everything up.”
“Shall you ring for fresh tea while I do so? This pot seems to have grown cold.”
Lucy wanted to shriek at every occupant of the room, including herself. Perhaps she truly had run mad.
“Tea?” she blurted out. “You think to discuss tea? I need to know what happened. Roderick thought I might be in danger, but then he assured me I’m likely not. But I need to hear it straight from you whether this is a matter I can ignore or not.”
Caroline shut the door to the salon with a slight snap.
“You could have askedmeabout this,” she said with exasperation. “We didn’t have to bother Gilbert. He has very important matters to keep him occupied.”
Lucy shifted her gaze between the other occupants of the room, trying not to overreact in her shock.
“More important than the assassination of the Prime Minister?” Lucy finally asked in a small voice that still managed to convey her outrage at her hostess’ statement.
“I meant more important than your little fears on the subject.”
Lucy lifted her chin and rose to her feet in one fluid motion.
“I didn’t come here for insults, ma’am,” she said with quiet dignity. “I could find those elsewhere. I hoped to find some answers to questions caused by your husband’s involving me in something I don’t fully understand. But I will wish you all a good day.”
“Enough,” Gilbert said firmly. “While I am fascinated to see two respectable women fall into a spat, this isn’t worth it.” He pulled his wife under his arm and dropped a kiss onto her nose. “I appreciate your defence of my precious time, my dear, but Miss Scranton’s fears aren’t to be so disparaged or minimized. One might even argue that she isn’t actually fearful at all. She was quite brave. From my knowledge of her, she’s probably consumed with curiosity more than anything. Isn’t that right, Lucy?”
Both Caroline and Gilbert were now staring at her, awaiting her response, and it was all Lucy could do not to rail at them. She wasn’t even sure what she was feeling at the moment as she had been tossed back and forth between outrage, deep emotions, curiosity as Gilbert had said, and, if she were being honest, there were various things for her to fear in that moment.
“Is it possible you also hoped to see Roderick?” Caroline asked, clearly hopeful.
Her inappropriate question just after her rather infuriating words to Lucy somehow managed to tickle Lucy’s funny bone, and she burst into laughter that she couldn’t seem to stem.
“Now you’ve gone and made the poor thing hysterical.” Roderick finally stood in defence of her. “I thought you were the most intelligent of my sisters, Caro, but now I’m starting to wonder.”
Caroline actually laughed at Rod’s words and that broke through Lucy’s hysteria. She sobered almost immediately.
“Courting and conspiracies aren’t really two items that go well together from what I can tell,” Lucy finally said as calmly as she could.
“That’s not what we found, my dear,” Caroline replied immediately with a private smile at her husband. “But Gilbert was right. I was unforgivably rude toward you. I do hope you’ll try to forgive me. I apologize, Miss Scranton. How can we help you?”
Lucy wasn’t even sure, at this point, what had made her come to Northcott House. Perhaps it had been a little bit of a secret hope to see Roderick as the other woman had suggested. But she would never admit that. “I wanted to know if the conspirators had yet been apprehended. Roderick had told me I ought to stay at home to be safe, but I was bored,” she admitted with an apologetic smile toward Roderick.
“You could have sent a footman for me. I had told you I would call upon you.”
Lucy offered a helpless shrug. “You took too long. I thought you might have changed your mind. Patience is not my forte,” she reminded him. “I didn’t think calling here would cause an uproar. I hoped to get a little more information and carry on with my day. I do apologize for inconveniencing all of you.”
Lucy was very much on her dignity now even though she somewhat understood the reception she had received.
“No, Lucy, I was the one in the wrong. In fact, all of us except you were. Gilbert and I ought to have called upon you so that we could explain everything to you and not left you to worry. As Roderick said, you were the innocent in all of this.” Caroline exchanged an endearing expression with her husband and then turned back to Lucy with a smile. “You will understand one day.”
Lucy couldn’t even fathom what the woman was talking about unless she was trying to say if Lucy was in love she would be foolish about her husband too. She couldn’t see the connection between the two thoughts but gave a mental shrug. Isabelle and Robert said equally silly things to her from time to time.
Chapter Sixteen
Roderick couldn’t bear to witness Lucy’s struggle any longer. He stood to indicate his intention to leave.
“I don’t think Lucy needs any more tea, Caroline. I will see her home.”
Everyone in the room expressed their surprise in various ways. Caroline actually gasped a little, which made Roderick smile in amusement, but Gilbert’s deepening frown gave him pause for a moment. Lucy was the only one who seemed the least affected by his words. Her usual serene smile remained firmly in place. He never trusted that smile though. All it told him was that she had herself firmly in check. She stood in response to his statement and nodded slightly.
