“If I don’t locate Eugenia Howland, I’ll have no reason to stay in Montana and will only be there to pick up Wyatt and make sure there’s no pressing business matters to attend to with Mason Mines.”
“Then I say it’s of the utmost importance for us to locate Eugenia with all due haste.” Lloyd turned another charming smile on Elsy. “That’s actually why we’re here, my dear. Arthur apparently made a muck of matters when he met with Eunice Holbrooke and Daphne Henderson two days ago. I’m here to rectify any misunderstandings that may have occurred, so would you please tell Mrs. Holbrooke that Mr. Brevoorts is here to speak with her?”
“Eunice is not here.”
“When is she expected to return?” Arthur asked.
Elsy narrowed her eyes on him. “Suffice it to say, she’s unavailable for the foreseeable future.”
Given the less-than-pleasant tone Elsy was now using with him, there was little doubt that Chase had been right and Arthur was, indeed, persona non grata.
“And isn’t that simply a shame Mrs. Holbrooke is unavailable,” Lloyd said, another charming smile on his face. “But what about Mrs. Herman Henderson? I would adore meeting her in person because she’s one of my favorite authors.”
“And while I’ll be certain to pass along your praise to Daphne, I’m afraid she isn’t here either.” Elsy smiled a sweet smile, which Arthur wasn’t buying for a minute. “I’ll be sure to leave a note for Eunice and Daphne, telling them of your visit today. If they want to continue discussing the Eugenia Howland case with you, I assure you they’ll send a note in return.”
“That would be lovely,” Lloyd said. “But if it wouldn’t be toomuch of a bother, we wouldn’t mind waiting in this lovely receiving room until one of them returns. As luck would have it, we don’t have anything of a pressing nature on our schedule today.”
When Elsy didn’t immediately dismiss his grandfather’s suggestion, instead sending Lloyd a somewhat exasperated look, but one that also held a touch of resignation in it, Arthur thought he detected a sliver of victory in the air, which disappeared in a flash when Judith came striding into the room, her sketchbook under her arm. She sent Elsy a rather telling arch of a brow, an arch that was met by a look of disbelief from Elsy in return.
“I thought we agreed it would be for the best for you to return to the boardinghouse, and through the back door,” Arthur heard Elsy mutter under her breath.
“You were floundering.”
Instead of responding to that, Elsy took hold of Judith’s arm and began heading out of the receiving room. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen,” she said over her shoulder, “I need to have a word with my associate.”
“You better do something—and quickly,” Lloyd whispered. “They’re getting away.”
“Miss Donovan, I have a few minutes to spare if you’d like to finish sketching my face” was all Arthur could think to call out, which, to his surprise, had Judith shrugging out of Elsy’s hold and spinning around.
“What a lovely offer, Mr. Livingston, and—”
“Absolutely not,” Elsy said, taking hold of Judith’s arm again and giving her a tug.
“There’s no need to worry. I’ll be fast,” Judith said. “Two minutes is all I need, and I’ve been dying to have another go at sketching his eyes. I’m afraid my first attempt didn’t give me the results I wanted.”
“Two minutes may very well be two minutes too many.”
Judith ignored that as she bustled toward him, gesturing to a chair that was placed by the window. “If you would be so kind as to sit there, I’ll get right to work.”
Delighted with this unforeseen turn of events, Arthur took a seat right as Judith plopped down on the rug, plucked a pencil from the back of the bun she’d fashioned at the nape of her neck, then turned her attention to his face. “If you’ll recall, Mr. Livingston, the last time I sketched you, I was hoping for a dreamy look. I hope you’ll be more cooperative about that today.”
A sense of impending doom began descending over him because he knew if he couldn’t summon up a dreamy look, there was every chance Judith would show him the door before he could ask her about Eugenia.
He closed his eyes, summoned up an image of his favorite dish, which was lobster in a bisque sauce, and opened his eyes, finding Judith considering him closely.
“Dreamy enough?” he finally asked.
“It’s not, well, a romantic type of dreamy. More along the lines of how people look when they’re savoring a favorite dish.”
Arthur shot a look to his grandfather, who sent him a barely perceptible nod before he cleared his throat and stepped toward Judith.
“We haven’t been introduced, but I’m Mr. Lloyd Brevoorts, and that strapping young man over there is Mr. Chase Livingston, Arthur’s brother. Not that Chase will mention this because it embarrasses him, but there have been many artists scrambling to sketchhisface over the years, something to do with how symmetrical his features are.”
As a strategy to keep Judith in the room, it was brilliant, even though Elsy obviously didn’t think so, given the look of horror on her face as Judith immediately set her sights on Chase. She pulled another chair next to Arthur and waved Chase forward. “If you don’t mind, Mr. Livingston?”
“It would be my pleasure,” Chase said, sitting down as Judith plopped down on the floor again and began sketching.
After everyone got settled, Lloyd settled a smile on Judith. “If we could return to the topic of Mrs. Holbrooke and Mrs. Henderson,” he began. “While I understand that your agency may notbe comfortable telling us where they are, I don’t believe it would hurt to let us know when they’ll be back.”
