“She wasn’tyourmother,” Christopher said.
“My yellow dress with the silver spangles, then, if you think it’d be all right. I only brought two evening dresses, and I wore the green yesterday.”
And had been called edible for my trouble. I leveled a displeased look at St George.
“Remember the yellow dress with the spangles, Crispin?” Christopher asked.
Crispin nodded.
“Between now and supper, you need to come up with something to say about it. Make it the sort of backhanded compliment you’re so good at.”
The corner of Crispin’s mouth turned up.
“Cause a lovely little scene, just like you did yesterday. Finish it off with a smirk at some point during supper, but don’t overdo it…”
“What do you mean, don’t overdo it?”
Christopher arched a brow at him and he flushed. “Fine. I’ll be careful.”
Christopher nodded. “And Pippa, if you want to look like you’re dreaming of murdering him, that’s all right. It’s usually quite effective.”
“Wonderful,” I said. “It comes naturally to me most of the time.”
Neither of them said anything, and I continued. “So for now, you’ll go find Tom, I’ll go find Constance, and St George will spend the next few hours trying to come up with something clever to say. If you can spare the effort, St George, you may want to spend some time with Peckham and Marsden this afternoon, too, in between your mental gymnastics. If it wasn’t Laetitia, it might have been her brother. He was certainly very persistent with me yesterday—”
Both their faces darkened at the reminder.
“—and if he managed to get Johanna to himself in Lady Peckham’s room, and she rejected him, I wouldn’t be surprised if the situation turned nasty. He’s the type who wouldn’t take kindly to being told no. Talk to him about women—Marsden leans toward gutter talk anyway, I’ve noticed—and see what, if anything, you can discover.”
Crispin nodded, even as his lip curled up in a sneer. I deduced he wasn’t any fonder of Marsden’s conversation than I was.
“Until dinner, then. I’ll go in first. Good luck, both of you.”
I headed for the front door. When I glanced back over my shoulder before turning the corner, Crispin had his cigarette case out and was offering it to Christopher, and they both looked completely comfortable and ready to settle in for a prolonged break.
I foundConstance in the reception room wringing her hands over a trunk and a toiletries bag I remembered from Wednesday afternoon, when they had arrived at Sutherland Hall.
“Your mother’s things?” I asked sympathetically.
She nodded. “I don’t know what to do with them. Her room is a crime scene, and even after the police are finished, there’s no point in unpacking, when she isn’t going to come back to wear or use any of it. But it doesn’t feel right to simply throw away the trunk, either, especially without looking at what’s inside.”
I nodded sympathetically.
“And then there’s everything else.” She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “What’s going to happen to us, Pippa? This was Mother’s house, which she got to live in because she was the widowed sister of one of the Marsdens. But Gilbert and I won’t be allowed to stay here. Nor will he want to, I’m sure. He’ll want to go out and find a wife and have a family of his own now, somewhere away from here. And then what will become of me? I’ll be all alone.”
I opened my mouth, and closed it again. I had no idea what to tell her. I’d come to live with the Astleys after my German father was drafted for the war effort and my English mother refused to leave him. I’d ended up with Aunt Roz and Uncle Herbert as substitute parents, and I also ended up gaining three—then—pseudo-brothers and a pseudo-cousin who didn’t like me much, but who was still a part of my life and probably always would be. The idea of being alone in the world and having to make my way without any support at all was foreign.
“You’re related to Lady Laetitia and her brother, aren’t you? Maybe you and she…?”
“I hate Laetitia!” Constance burst out. “She’s as bad as Johanna, or worse. Beautiful, and wealthy, and in with the popular set. The last thing I’d want is to become a companion to Laetitia!”
I hadn’t really meant to suggest that she should take a job as a companion, but I could see where she might have got that idea. I could also see, quite clearly, why it didn’t appeal. I felt my own nose wrinkle involuntarily. “It would be the last thing I would want to do, too.” I could barely stand Laetitia now. The thought of having to spend months, perhaps years, with her, was abhorrent.
“So you see why I can’t do that. And I’m not qualified to do anything else, Pippa. I was never clever, the way you are. I had a difficult time at Godolphin. All I ever wanted to do, was have a family of my own.”
“So find someone to marry,” I said.
“Do you suppose it’s that easy?” She pinned me with a stare, and her eyes were furious behind the glistening tears. “I walk in anywhere behind someone like Johanna, or Laetitia—or you!—and no one even notices I’m there.”
