“I’m sure it’s not a crisis, but I wanted to tell Race that the duchess came to see me today.”
Race went rigid, and his two cousins leaned intently toward Gibby. The old man’s eyes darted from one to the other.
“Susannah came to see you?” Race asked.
“What did she want?” Blake added.
“What did she say?” Morgan asked.
Race sighed heavily. “Would you two please let me ask the questions, since this conversation concerns me and not you?”
Blake and Morgan leaned back in their chairs and nodded to Race with conciliatory expressions on their faces.
“Susannah?” Gibby said. “Is that her name?”
“Yes, but never mind that, Gib,” Race asked impatiently. “What did she want?”
“She asked me if I would introduce her to Winston and Smith, the men who tried to buy the pearls from you.”
“What the devil for?” Morgan asked.
“I have no idea. That’s why I came to find him,” Gibby said, pointing his thumb toward Race. “I told her where Smith’s shop was located and agreed to introduce her to Winston.”
Race remained quiet, but his mind started working. Susannah had already been to Smith’s shop to talk to him. Did she think she would go to Spyglass’s and Winston’s homes and question them? Or worse, search their houses for the pearls? Fear for Susannah’s safety tightened inside him. She was treading in dangerous waters, and it was his fault for suspecting her in the first place.
Gibby continued, “She told me she had seen you this morning but wouldn’t tell me why. She said you would tell me. By the way she was talking, I knew something must have happened between you two but she wouldn’t say what.”
Race’s cousins looked at each other and then at Race.
Gibby rested his hands on his knees. “What are you three trying to keep from me?”
“Should I tell him?” Morgan asked.
“No,” Race said. “Our grandmother’s pearls were stolen from me last night.”
Gib looked from one cousin to the other and then back to Race.
“You told me the pearls were safe,” Gibby said with no accusation in his voice.
“They were,” Morgan said. “They aren’t now.”
“Do you have any idea who took them?” Gibby asked.
“Three men and one lady readily come to mind,” Blake said ruefully.
Gibby’s eyes widened, and he spread his swollen hands on the table. “Are you telling me you think Her Grace had something to do with stealing the pearls?”
“No,” Race said firmly.
“All we really know is that she’s one of the four who wanted them,” Blake added.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Gib argued. “Who wouldn’t want them? Probably everyone wants them.”
Morgan added, “She wanted them badly enough to interrupt Race’s card party a couple of weeks ago, not to mention his slumber last night.”
“Morgan, you are about to hit the floor,” Race muttered.
Morgan held up his hands in surrender and tilted his chair away from Race.
