“Marjory…”
“No, listen to me, please,” Marjory said, darting forward and seizing her sister by the shoulders. “I hate to see you slaving over your work at that wretched modiste’s. You are two-and-twentyyears old, and Mama always wanted to see you enjoying yourself. You ought to be happy. I don’twantyou to be a seamstress.”
“I am a dressmaker,” Amelia corrected.
Marjory sighed. “If I discover who this Orion is, I will earn enough money to keep us comfortable for a year. Think of that, Amelia. All of our bills, paid.”
Amelia sucked in a breath. “Surely this piece of gossip cannot be worth quite so much.”
“Oh, it certainly is,” Marjory responded, dropping her arms.
“So you planned to break into a clubhouse? At nine o’clock in the morning?”
“That’s the perfect time, don’t you think? None of these wild gentlemen will be dragging themselves out of bed to come here for breakfast. It’ll be empty. Besides, this isn’t the clubhouse itself, but the club owns the house. I heard a rumor that it has a ghost.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Don’t you think that ghost would be a little morecorporealthan expected?”
Amelia glanced up once more at the crumbling brickwork and heaved a mighty sigh. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Marjory, I understand that you want to help with our finances. That means a great deal to me, you know. Mama told me I could rely on you, and so I can. She’d be proud of you.”
Moisture glittered in Marjory’s eyes. She sniffed, wiping her eyes. “Thank you. I miss her, you know. I miss Mama.”
“Yes, but she left us well-equipped to carry on in her absence,” Amelia responded, with a firmness she did not feel. “And I am the eldest, Marjory. It is my job to take care of you and Nancy. That includes preventing you from breaking into clubhouses. Or any houses, for that matter.”
“But—”
“No buts,” Amelia interrupted firmly. “Sell gossip to the scandal sheets if you must, but I cannot let you break into a house. Heavens, that should go without saying.”
“This story?—”
“You shall have to find another way to discover the identity of this fellow. I won’t let you go in there, Marjory. Now come, let’s hurry and get out of this stinking alleyway. The stench won’t come out of our clothes; I shall have to soak them.”
Marjory hesitated, glancing up at the window she had planned to clamber through just moments before. Amelia tensed, poised to argue further or perhaps physically wrestle her sister away from committing a crime.
Mama had warned her about the troublesome teenage years. Marjory was clever, as everyone knew, and that didn’t always work in her favor. She had always obeyed Mama withoutquestion, of course, but now that Mama was dead and gone, could Amelia command the same authority?
It seemed doubtful.
“It’s just that I… I dropped my notebook inside the house,” Marjory confessed.
Amelia let out a ragged breath. “And how did you manage that?”
“Well, I was trying to pull myself out, and my notebook was hanging from a ribbon around my wrist, and it simply slipped off. I heard it fall on the floor just beyond the window. I shall have to climb in to retrieve it.”
“Must you? We’ll have to leave it, and you must save up to buy another notebook.” Amelia paused, her gaze hardening. “Unless you have written something inside it which could lead back to us?”
Marjory wrung her hands. “I have my name in the inside cover.”
“Oh,Marjory!”
“I am sorry! I did not mean to! Let me climb inside, and I’ll retrieve it. I’ll come back directly, I promise.”
“No, I shall go,” Amelia muttered. “I don’t want to hear any complaints. Stand at the end of the alley and keep a close watch, in case somebody comes by.”
“I’m sorry,” Marjory sighed.
“I’m not angry, I’m simply disappointed.”
“That isworse!”
Amelia threw a wry smile at her sister. “Sometimes I long to be an only child.”
