The name sounded familiar.“Torquay?”He sat back and laced his fingers over his stomach.Slouching let him see a hint more of her face.“Are you acquainted with Miss Ashley Hamlin?”
Miss Walden paused in the act of straightening papers and met his gaze directly.“How do you know Miss Hamlin?”
“She recently married a friend of mine.Now she is—”
“Lady Ravencroft.”
“Did we perhaps see each other at their wedding breakfast?”Miss Walden was petite enough she might be easily overlooked in a crowd.
Miss Walden’s cheeks took on a subtle pink blush.“No, I received an invitation but … was unable to make the journey to London.”
Vincent mentally smacked himself.If she had been out of work between the time the school closed and Aunt Gertrude hired her a fortnight ago, there was a good chance Miss Walden lacked the funds for such an excursion.
“Are they truly happy together?”Miss Walden folded her hands on the desktop and leaned toward him.“I know what Ashley wrote in her letter, but … Lord Ravencroft … is it truly a love match for them both?”
Vincent called to mind the song Ravencroft had composed and performed with his quintet that won the medal for best original composition from the Gentlemen and Noblemen’s Catch Club, beating out Vincent and his group.“If you could see and hear him sing the song he wrote for her, you would have no doubt he is utterly besotted with her.”
“Besotted?”Miss Walden looked hopeful but unconvinced.
“As long as I’ve known him, Ravencroft has had no time for women other than looking out for his sisters and their children.Not even an opera dancer.Shortly after he met Miss Hamlin, he disappeared for a fortnight.When he appeared again, his voice was better than ever—and I’ve been singing with him since we were in short coats—and he had composed that little number.Wasn’t a dry eye in the room by the time he was done.”
Miss Walden finally seemed convinced, as she had the same far-off, misty-eyed look that all the women—and a few men—in the room had when Ravencroft finished.
“I should ask him to give me a copy of the sheet music, in case I ever want to impress asignorina.”
Her lips tightened, as though holding back a smile.He had the sudden urge to make her smile.To hear her laugh.
Hmm.
He usually had to put little effort into getting women, of any age or social status, to do either.It might take longer to make reparations for the fright he’d given her last night.
“The pianoforte sounds perfectly in tune, by the way,” he said to distract himself.“Aunt Gert said you took care of it your second night here.”
“I did.Seemed a waste to let such a magnificent instrument sit there, unplayable.”
She was very matter of fact about it, though he knew no other woman who could, or wanted to, tune a pianoforte.He looked to make sure no one was entering the room from either door and lowered his voice.“So you’re adept at wielding a tuning hammer as well as a brass candlestick,cara?”
She leaned over the desk toward him and tilted her head slightly, her voice also at a conspiratorial pitch.“And don’t forget it.”
At his burst of laughter, he finally had a smile from her.
“Vincent, dear boy,” Aunt Gertrude said, sailing into the room from the hall door, interrupting Vincent’s unexpected joy in the smile from Miss Walden.“Go amuse yourself elsewhere for a bit.We have work to do.”
Vincent returned his chair to its usual place and kissed his aunt on the cheek, and winked at Miss Walden over his shoulder as he exited the room.
* * *
Questioning maids was not going to be nearly as entertaining as chatting with Miss Walden, but Vincent asked around until he found where Enid was working.
She was in the middle of changing bed linens in Aunt Agnes’s room.Vincent lounged against the frame in the open doorway until she noticed him.She jumped, then clutched the pillow to her torso even as she dipped a deep curtsy.“My lord?”she squeaked.
“Tell me about the ghost you saw on the beach last week.”
“Oh!”Her face drained of all color to the point he feared she would faint.“Oh, it was the most horrible thing!I ain’t never seen the Grey Lady before!All tattered dress and shawl, her long hair billowing.Her feet didn’t even touch the sand!”The pillow looked close to bursting, she clutched it so tightly.
“Where were you when you saw her?”
She gulped.“In my room, of course.It was late.”
