Mrs. Silver pounced. “Who?”
“Mr. Mortimer.”
Oddly, Mrs. Silver showed no surprise. She even nodded. “I told him off earlier in the evening. Is he really so vindictive?”
“He has a temper. And he doesn’t like to be made to look small. Or to feel small, probably.”
“Was he the only one who left the room after me?”
“No. Miss Fernie did, too, but I can’t imagineshewould push you or anyone else down the stairs!”
“Not without a good reason,” Mrs. Silver said thoughtfully.
Sophie blinked. “You are taking this remarkably in your stride, as if such things happen to you every day.”
“Not every day. But someone obviously doesn’t like my questions… Is Mr. Grey still in the drawing room?”
“When I left, yes. Shall I…?”
“No. No, I just need to be sure he is safe. Has my hair come loose?”
“Only a little,” Sophie said. “Let me see if I can repair it for you.”
Mrs. Silver nodded, and Sophie retrieved a couple of hanging pins, plus a few spares from her own reticule. “You think it was Mr. Mortimer who pushed me, don’t you?”
“Well, I don’t like him,” Sophie admitted.
“May I know why not?”
“Oh, every reason. He is smug and insulting and thinks he is so charming, when he is just entitled, like a child with too many toys.”
“And hands?” Mrs. Silver suggested.
Sophie wrinkled her nose. “That too. To be fair to him, though, I suspect my parents encourage him. They would like me to marry him and be the lady of them manor one day.”
“That is not your wish?”
“Heis not my wish.” Sophie drew in her breath. “My affections are engaged elsewhere.”
“By Mr. Ogden?”
“Is it so obvious?”
“Your partiality for his company has been noted by several people.”
“But not by him,” Sophie said ruefully. “Netta says I might as well be a book as a human being to him.”
“I don’t think that is quite fair.”
“It isn’t. People think that because they don’t see his emotions that he doesn’t have any. He does. He cares deeply for those children, and for his friends.”
“Who are his friends?”
Sophie shrugged. “Apart from me? The children. Mr. Raeburn, who thinks very highly of him. And some people at Cambridge who don’t mind that he’s odd and just like him for himself.”
“As you do.”
Sophie couldn’t help smiling. “Oh, I do. I know he can be awkward with people he doesn’t know, but he learns and improves, which is why I take him to tea at Miss Mortimer’s every Wednesday. Of course, he is better when Perry is not present.” She scowled briefly, then smiled again very softly. “He can be really funny, you know, and droll with a straight face. And he knows so many astonishing things, has such compassion and understanding of people, as well as literature and music and poetry, such that it would make you weep.”
