Robert nodded. “And I could not refuse, even if I had wished to. Please go inside, gentlemen. You’ll be shown to your rooms and I look forward to…” Robert’s jaw set. “…to continuing our discussion after you settle in.”
Barber inclined his head at him. “Thank you, Your Grace. Though there is no hurry if you have other guests to welcome.”
Katherine smiled at him. “You’re too kind, but you are the last. Our final guests, the Earl and Countess of Winford, have sent word they are waylaid in joining us. They’ll not be with us for a few more days, it seems.”
That drew Selina from her musings on the handsome Derrick Huntington and his relationship with her brother. She looked at Katherine. “I did not realize.”
Katherine shrugged. “Something about a pressing business matter in London. It matters little, they will come later and we shall be a happy party, though smaller, until their arrival. Come, let’s go inside.”
They all did together and the two gentlemen were escorted away by Robert’s butler, Jenner. Robert kissed Katherine’s cheek, whispered something to her and then smiled at Selina before he headed up the hallway away from them. Selina couldn’t help but notice Katherine’s troubled expression as she marked his departure.
Yes, there was something going on.
“I didn’t know we would be welcoming some of Nicholas’s friends,” Selina said, working on a way to press without pushing too hard and overplaying her hand.
Katherine shook out of her distracted state. “Yes, they were…er…late additions, made at Nicholas’s request. They seem like very decent gentlemen, though. I’m sure they will only add to our party.”
“I wonder why Nicholas would make the request, though. To have them come to a party where he was not even in attendance?” Selina pushed.
“I could not say. Perhaps they were simply in the area and Nicholas thought to match our party to theirs.” Katherine’s cheeks turned slightly pink and her smile was forced. “You know, Meg and Helena and I were going to have a bit of tea and catch up apart from the other attendees. You could join us.”
Selina arched a brow. Katherine looked truly uncomfortable. Her sister-in-law was not good at lying, it seemed. Something that could be used against her if need be. But not now. Selina could easily find out what she wanted to know without forcing a confidence.
She caught Katherine’s hand and squeezed gently. “You go and catch up with your friends privately. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of chances to get to know them as our party progresses. I think I’ll just take a turn around the garden and get some air.”
Katherine appeared relieved that the subject had been changed. “Very good. I’ll see you later for drinks before supper, if not sooner.”
“Good afternoon,” Selina said as Katherine moved off to join her friends. But as soon as she was gone, Selina walked not toward the exit that would take her to the garden, but toward her brother’s study. Because she had some investigating to do. And she had to find a proper place to do it.
Derrick clutched the snifter of brandy the Duke of Roseford had insisted upon pouring for him and Barber, and watched as his host paced the room. Roseford had a grim expression and a focused air about him. Derrick still wasn’t certain what to make of the man, what with all the rumors that had once swirled around him. He’d been wild, but love had tamed him, they said.
He did not look tamed at present.
“So, now that we are in private,” Roseford said. “Tell me more about your situation, gentlemen.”
Barber glanced at Derrick again and then cleared his throat. “What did Gillingham tell you, Your Grace? Perhaps if we know that then we can fill you in on the rest.”
Roseford shook his head. “He told me very little, in truth. Just that you two are investigating the Faceless Fox and you think coming here might help you find him.”
Derrick nodded. “Those are essentially the facts of the matter, Your Grace.”
Roseford’s eyes narrowed. “I understand not wanting to give out too much information, but if you are using my hospitality to find a criminal, I think I must have more of it. Why do you think this Faceless Fox is somehow associated with my party?”
Derrick observed him for another moment, reading every tiny expression, every flicker of Roseford’s gaze and movement of his hands. Then he said, “Because of Lady Winford.”
“Lady Winford?” Roseford repeated before he grinned. The expression took five years from his face and made him look far more likely to be the rake. “You think that wretched woman is the Faceless Fox?”
Derrick recoiled. “No, indeed not. I think Lady Winford is the next victim of our intrepid thief.”
“Intrepid,” Roseford repeated, both eyebrows lifting. “You admire him even though you hunt him?”
Barber tossed Derrick a quick glare. The matter of the Fox’s admirability was one they debated regularly. Barber was on the side of criminals being criminals. For Derrick, it was more complicated.
How could one not respect a man who could put himself in the middle of the most important parlors and bedrooms and ballrooms in London, take what he wanted without violence and then disappear like smoke on the wind?
“The Fox has skills,” Barber admitted, almost begrudgingly. “And certain tastes. Lady Winford very famously just inherited the Breston Necklace from her late mother.”
Roseford’s expression changed. “Yes, I recall hearing about it. What is it, diamonds and a sapphire?”
