“Lightweight trousers and shirts we steal from Harrison.”
“What does Harrison wear?” Gertrude asked.
Edwina grinned. “He’s quite scandalous. He cuts a good portion of the legs off his old trousers, leaving them all tattered and torn. He pairs those short trousers with shirts he cuts the sleeves from, which is why his arms are so dark, something that drives poor Asher mad.”
“I’m sure the sight of your brother in short trousers and exposing his arms would drive society ladies mad as well,” Temperance said with a grin of her own. “But since Gertrude is now turning bright pink, allow me to change the subject to another dashing young gentleman—Agent McParland.”
“Since I’m sure I’m going to marry that man someday, Temperance, you’re going to have to start referring to him as Samuel.”
Temperance and Gertrude exchanged looks before Gertrude stepped forward. “I don’t mean to be so forward, Edwina, but don’t you think your family might caution you against rushing into a marriage with a man you just met?”
“Oh, I won’t marry for at least a year, if not longer,” Edwina said, shaking out the bathing costume before she kicked off her shoes. “I’m in no rush to get married so the idea of a long courtship, if Samuel actually holds me in affection, is very appealing to me.”
“That will allow Harrison to sleep better at night,” Gertrude said.
Edwina nodded. “Indeed it will. As you’ve seen, he can be annoyingly overprotective at times, but I really wouldn’t want it any other way, although...” Her eyes widened. “Don’t tell him I said that. He’ll be impossible to live with if he knows my sisters and I appreciate him.”
“Mum’s the word.”
After that, the conversation turned to bathing costumes, Miss Snook’s school, how large bustles really were expected to get, and all the other nonsensical subjects friends enjoyed chatting about. Before too long, they were dressed in their bathing costumes—long pants that were slim at the ankle and wide everywhere else, stockings, shoes, and shirts they agreed might be called smocks, which were not as uncomfortable as expected due to the scooped neckline and generous cut of the fabric.
Grinning as they twirled around for each other, proclaiming themselves looking very sharp indeed, they threw on the cloaks the hotel had provided for them, then headed out. Walking down the hallway, they soon reached the door that led outside and moved through it, the warm breeze still drifting the heat of a summer day over them.
“There’s the veranda that leads into the ballroom where Permilia and Asher’s celebration was held,” Edwina said with a nod, right before she stopped in her tracks and tilted her head.
“Is it my imagination, or does it seem as if someone’s lurking at the very edge of that veranda, and...” She turned to Gertrude with eyes that were now incredibly wide. “One of you needs to go and find Harrison and Samuel.”
“Why?” Gertrude asked slowly.
“Because whoever I just saw climbed over the railing of that veranda. I’m going to hazard a guess and say it’s our thief because that’s suspicious behavior, no doubt about it.”
Without saying another word, or listening to the protest Temperance immediately began voicing, Edwina bolted forward, leaving Gertrude and Temperance behind.
“I’ll go help Edwina, you go find help,” Gertrude said before she dashed after Edwina. Sprinting toward the ocean, she felt her pulse hammering through her veins, and even though a sliver of fear was creeping up her spine, she’d never felt more gloriously alive in her entire life.
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
Shrugging out of the cape she’d thrown over her bathing costume, Gertrude dropped it to the sandy ground and raced on, using the distant sound of yelling to guide her way.
Reaching the beach, she tumbled to the ground when she tripped over two ladies who were now engaged in what seemed to be a bout of wrestling—one of those ladies none other than Edwina.
“Have you gone mad? Let go of me this instant!” the woman Edwina was wrestling yelled, but before Edwina could respond, the woman rolled on top of Edwina, slapped her soundly across the face, then sprang to her feet. Letting out a bit of a growl when Gertrude rose from the sand, she then charged directly at Gertrude, knocked her to the ground again, then turned on her heel and raced off down the beach.
Indignation had Gertrude up and chasing after the woman, although what she’d actually do if she caught up with an obvious member of the criminal sort, she couldn’t hazard a guess.
Trying to keep an eye on the woman, who was putting more and more distance between them, Gertrude drew in a much-needed gasp of air right as someone ran up beside her and then passed her.
“Stay there!” Harrison yelled over his shoulder as he continued to run, followed a few paces later by Agent McParland.
Knowing there was little point in continuing on with the chase since Harrison and Agent McParland were far faster than she was, and because she was now experiencing a most painful stitch in her side, Gertrude slowed to a walk, but didn’t stay put. Moving after the gentlemen, she was soon joined by Edwina, who was bristling with temper and shrugging out of the cape she was still wearing.
“She hit me,” Edwina said.
“I saw that.”
“She knocked you down.”
