“The same.”
“Let me change out of my costume, and I will join you in the small drawing room.” She reached out and gently cupped Lily’s chin.
“Are you quite all right, dear?”
Lily assured her that she was.
“I will be more aware of yer feint next time.”
“I am warned,” Aunt Antonia replied as she set off for her private chambers.
“Brodie is not with you?” she asked as I joined her in the small drawing room with Lily.
“Hmmm, no,” I replied. “He is making inquiries in another matter.”
She was quite fond of him
“Of course. Now, do tell me, what is this business with Kitty Ambersley?”
I explained what there was to know about the inquiries I was making, which was not a great amount of information.
“That damned necklace,” my aunt commented as she poured us a dram of whisky. “You must know that it is not the first time the thing has gone missing.”
“It has happened before?”
“Oh my, yes. Twice that I can think of. She eventually found it in the bodice of a gown she had been wearing, as I remember it. The second time, it was found by a servant in a bowl of gin punch at a holiday celebration. She is quite fond of gin,” she added with a sniff of disapproval.
“I have never been able to understand that preference when there is excellent whisky available. She insists that it is a man’s drink,” she added as she raised her glass in a toast.
“I suppose Sir Ambersley tolerates her ridiculous habits due to her family being very well off and he a lawyer, although quite successful, I hear.”
“Is she perhaps a bit…” I searched for the right word in an attempt to gain a better understanding of Lady Ambersley.
“Eccentricis the word,” Aunt Antonia replied. “She does seem a bit odd. And then there is the dog. Very much an overgrown rat, but the woman is completely taken with the creature. Vile, yapping animal. Not like dear Rupert.”
She was undoubtedly referring to Bitsy, which I would agree could hardly be considered to be a dog.
“The nasty little thing has been known to lift all sorts of things from those who call on Kitty. One has to beware not to set anything down.”
Most interesting, I thought. In the absence of anything substantial in the way of clues and this latest piece ofinformation, it did seem as if another visit with Kitty Ambersley was called for before I went any further on her behalf.
Not that I had anything against someone with a few eccentricities, Bitsy in this case, along with a few other things. After all, there were those who considered my great-aunt to be somewhat eccentric.
If they could only have seen her in the sword room earlier. I did adore her.
As for Lily, she was going to have to be more observant of those ‘feint’ tactics the next time she and Aunt Antonia took up the blades.
My great-aunt did have a great deal more experience in such things, and it was foolhardy to assume that someone of her mature age could not possibly be dangerous.
“You must stay for supper and tell us what Brodie is about with this other new case,” she said as she called for the footman to inform Cook that I would be staying.
That would also give me the opportunity to speak with Munro, as I was fairly certain he would know where Brodie was.
“Munro is not here,” Lily informed me when I indicated that I wanted to speak with him.
“He took himself off early this morning,” Aunt Antonia added. She gave me a knowing smile.
“It was some matter about a shipment from Old Lodge that needed attention.”
