“Lillie,” he said, smiling. He gave a curt nod to Grace, his affect flattening. “Miss Covington.”
“I didn’t realize you were meeting,” Grace said, taking a step back. “Please go ahead, I don’t want to intrude.”
“Nonsense!” Lillie said. “We’re going to discuss the lawyer Daddy hired for Oliver. Earnest is talking with the aeronautics engineers atlunch, and Mother insists we’re seen out enjoying our lives, rather than holing up as though we have something to hide.”
“Please join us,” Earnest said, but it was without conviction.
Grace hesitated. Lillie took her by the arm and Grace followed Earnest, shame-faced, to a concert on the pavilion, shrouded beneath trees on a hill. They sat on blankets and listened to the Mexican artillery band with Ricardo Pacheco. The men were dressed in formal military regalia but bore instruments in place of weapons. There were clarinets and trumpets and cornets that played lively polkas.
The breeze ruffled Earnest’s hair beneath the brim of his hat. He didn’t look at her.
Grace sat in awkward silence until she couldn’t stand it anymore.
“I’m so sorry, Earnest,” she said, lightly touching his sleeve to draw his attention. “I should never have accused you of something so heinous. I was deeply wrong, and I hope you will forgive me.”
He shrugged. “Thank you for the apology,” he said. Which she understood was not quite the same thing as forgiveness. Especially when he glanced away, so as not to have to look at her. Whatever fledgling magic had once been between them was now entirely gone.
She sighed. She was sad that her tongue had ruined their friendship. Especially when he was one of the first of the group who had been kind to her.
But at least it made it a little easier to bear the way he looked at Lillie. He had engaged Grace before with interest. With flirtation. But the way he was looking at her cousin was something different.
It made Grace’s heart fall like a whisper, even though she couldn’t blame anyone for adoring Lillie. After all,shedid.
Earnest leaned to whisper in the curve of Lillie’s ear. A pleased flush spread across Lillie’s cheeks and lit her eyes. She edged her hand slightly closer to his, where it was splayed in the grass.
The truth was, Earnest had proven himself to be worthy of her beloved cousin. Sticking close to Lillie when everyone else turned away.
Although, Grace thought pettily, she wasn’t sure any man would be worth a lifetime tied to that shrew Frannie Allred as a sister-in-law.
She closed her eyes and felt the sunlight spackle her face. She listened to the music, wondering what Walt was doing right then, and why he had failed to show up this time. Why Harriet had followed a path into the Tunnels that led to her death.
Grace opened her eyes with a thought. She extended it to Earnest, as an olive branch.
“I was thinking I’d head over to the wireless telegram tower today, if you wanted to come,” she said. “Follow up on that lead we were chasing before.”
“Oh,” he said. “Glad I could spare you the wasted trip, then. I received a note from the message boy just yesterday. He said that George Parsons decided he wasn’t coming back.”
Grace paused, confused.
“He’s not?” she said slowly. Her thoughts shuddered together.
“Sorry,” he said. “I guess that lead turned into a dead end.”
Mind whirring, she felt the corners of her own note from the messenger in her pocket. The one that said the exact opposite information.
Why was Earnest lying to her?
She watched him carefully. “So I guess there’s no way to find out what he would have said, then…”
He shrugged. “I’m just passing along the message. I wasn’t there when it came,” he said, turning his face back to the music. “Frannie was.”
Grace was troubled as she parted ways with Lillie and Earnest.
She strongly disliked Frannie and knew her own biases. Grace thought Frannie was a terrible snob with no character and even less integrity. But that didn’t mean that Frannie was a murderer.
Right?
The spring breeze was heavy and hot as she felt the corners of her article in her pocket. What would murdering Harriet do for Frannie, anyway? What would she possibly gain from Harriet’s death?
