Page 29 of Conundrums & Coincidences

Assuming he was rather clever, he spent a quarter of an hour in the games room searching through packs of playing cards, but there was no folded piece of paper amongst those hearts either.

One particular line of the enigma repeatedly leapt out at him. If it meets with its fellow, it’s happily caught. His heart had been caught in Hertfordshire. Now it races just thinking about her. With a strong awareness of the increased rhythm of his heart, Darcy placed a hand over that part of his chest. Hah!

He strode to the little music room just beyond the parlour, and there he found both an organ and his next puzzle.

Minutes later, Darcy was halfway up the staircase on his way to his room to dress for dinner when his breath caught. At the top of the stairs, his heart’s desire, looking happy and healthy in a salmon-coloured gown and with her hair arranged differently, greeted him with a smile. In his eyes, she was perfection, and he longed to tell her so. “Miss Bennet, you⁠—”

A frightful clatter, followed by an outcry, came from the vicinity of the late Miss Armstrong’s boudoir.

With Elizabeth following fast on his heels, Darcy trotted down the stairs and joined Mr Monroe, Mrs Vincent, Miss Rigby, and Alfred as they all rushed to investigate.

15

THEN THERE WERE FOUR

Without a sound, Mr Monroe lifted the latch of the door and pushed. Those crowded in the doorway, all half a dozen of them, caught sight of Miss Kensett inside. Bent almost double, she held in one hand a wooden trinket box, from which small alabaster balls were still falling and scattering across the wooden floor. With her other hand, she tried to capture the escaped ones, but her dainty palm was unable to hold them all. The more marbles she picked up, the more she dropped.

The attorney cleared his throat. The lady glanced up from her occupation and froze. Wide-eyed, she gaped at them, seemingly overpowered by the suddenness and unexpectedness of people standing there. Brushing past the others, Elizabeth helped Miss Kensett pick up errant marbles.

Meanwhile, closely followed by the chaperon, Mr Monroe stepped inside and folded his arms. “Miss Kensett, you are hereby disqualified from this tournament.”

“What do you mean?” Between the lady’s eyebrows, a pucker formed. “Whatever for?”

“For being in a forbidden room, madam. This boudoir served as Miss Armstrong’s bedchamber during her infirmity. Your set of instructions and rules clearly states that entry to bedchambers other than one’s own is prohibited.”

“But I was merely searching for…something. And I assumed the rules would not apply to me. I have been in Miss Armstrong’s boudoir before.”

Elizabeth thought the lady’s petulant pout was humorously apt. I may not be fluent in French, but I do know ‘boudoir’ literally means sulking-place.

Looking every bit the prim and proper chaperon, Miss Rigby asked, “For what were you looking just now, Miss Kensett?”

Another marble fell, and all eyes watched it slowly roll across the floor.

“I…I was…” Miss Kensett snapped shut the trinket box’s lid, revealing a porcelain top embellished with birds, butterflies, and red poppies. By then the colour of her face almost matched that of the fiery flowers.

“Rather like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, is it not?” said Mrs Vincent.

Aiming an exasperated sigh at both the housekeeper and the chaperon, Miss Kensett said, “I was hoping to find items to replace my imitation pearl parure. Despite what you think, Miss Rigby, I am certain Miss Armstrong would have wanted me to have a suitable keepsake.” She looked down at the trinket box with great disappointment. “Why would she have kept marbles in this? I expected rings or earrings.”

“As intimate as you supposedly were with her, Miss Kensett,” said the attorney, “you must realise that Miss Armstrong was a bit of an oddity.”

The chaperon swept past Mr Monroe, nearly losing her balance when she trod upon a marble. Righting herself, she attempted to take the box from Miss Kensett’s hands. Each of them held fast to an end, and Elizabeth feared the two women were going to end up in a tussle.

“Ladies!” roared the attorney.

At the same instant, they both released their hold on the box, which fell to the floor amidst alabaster balls.

Rather calmly under the circumstances, the housekeeper said to Miss Kensett, “I shall instruct Henrietta to pack your baggage, madam.”

“And I,” said Miss Rigby, “shall keep Miss Kensett company while that is underway.”

To Elizabeth’s ear, the chaperon’s tone implied that, otherwise, the banished beneficiary might abscond with more than she had in her possession when she arrived.

“Alfred,” said Mr Monroe, “have Miss Kensett’s coachman and footman fetched from the estate, and notify Mr Bolton that he and Jimmy are to prepare her equipage for immediate departure.”

“It will be my pleasure, sir.”

About an hour later, in disgrace and showing no little measure of bitterness about being in such a state, Miss Kensett departed Oakwood Manor.