Pike merely nodded. “I can’t think of anyone more suited for that job.”
She smiled at him radiantly.
Whereupon he looked almost stricken, as if he’d taken a blast of sunlight in the face.
She yelped exultantly when someone knocked on the door.
Then spun and tore across the foyer toward it.
“Damn.” Pike leaped the last two stairs and gained on her.
She got there first and opened the peep hatch.
“Good morning!” she said to a pair of brown eyes and woolly eyebrows that appeared to belong to a man. “Welcome to the Grand Palace on the Thames, the most exclusive boardinghouse in London!”
“Well, good morning, miss!” The man on the other side of the peep hatch sounded relieved to hear her cheery tone. “I have a delivery for the Earl of Highgrove. It’s a prize he’s won.”
She glanced at Pike, standing over her shoulder now. He shrugged.
To Dot, it sounded a bit like a prank.
“I’m afraid we haven’t an Earl of Highgrove currently in residence, sir.”
“I went first to Lucifer’s Fall, where I was told that Mr. Marchand would be willing to accept the prize on behalf of the earl. But Mr. Marchand was not in. I don’t knowwhereto find the earl, but I was told Mr. Marchand was currently staying at this boardinghouse. And so that’s where we came.” The man sounded a bit desperate.
Mr. Marchand was a name she at least recognized.
“I’m sincerely hoping you’ll take her off my hands,” the man added. “We’re both getting a bit tired, and she’s a bit cranky.”
Dot was very taken aback. She was very certain a “she” should not ever be delivered as a prize.
She exchanged a concerned look with Mr. Pike.
“One moment, sir,” she said a little too brightly to the man, and hastily closed the hatch.
“Hold on—isn’t the Earl of Highgrove Miss Woodville’s brother?” Pike whispered.
As if summoned, Miss Woodville crossed the foyer then. She was wearing a marigold-colored pelisse. To Dot, she looked like sunshine on two legs.
“Miss Woodville,” Dot said quietly. “I have some unusual news. A man standing outside the door has brought a delivery for the Earl of Highgrove, care of Mr. Marchand.” She paused. “He says the delivery is a ‘she.’?”
Miss Woodville froze.
“Oh, God,” she croaked.
Dot and Mr. Pike gazed at her in silent commiseration.
“What would you like us to do?” Mr. Pike asked quietly.
“What’s the trouble?” Mr. Marchand entered the foyer, looking as though not a thing had ever troubled him in his life, clean shaven and dashing in a dark gray coat and dark trousers. “Because your expressions and the presence of Miss Woodville suggest there is one.”
Miss Woodville shot him a dark look.
“Someone has brought you a ‘she,’ Mr. Marchand,” Miss Woodville said tautly. “Or, rather, someone has brought my brother a ‘she.’ Apparently,sheis one of the things he won at Lucifer’s Fall.”
Miss Woodville and Mr. Marchand locked eyes in an exchange more complicated than any conversation Dot had ever heard.
“Is something the matter?” Delilah called from the first-floor landing, where she stood with Angelique and Mrs. Pariseau, who was on her way to the museum.
