The three young women exchanged worried glances.
“Unless you have a prior engagement?”Some of Gert’s joy faded.
“No, no, it’s just…” Miss Burrell bit her bottom lip.“After not being able to work on the dig for a day, I was really hoping to make some progress this afternoon before the weather turns.”She gestured at her simple day gown.“I’m probably going to get dirty.”
Gert brightened.“Then it’s settled!You excavate, and then come up for supper and music in the drawing room after, and Bickford will drive you home afterwards.”She waved her hand airily.“You can freshen up in a guest room.As for your dress, you know we don’t stand on ceremony here at the Grange.”
Miss Ebrington sent a pleading glance to the other two.
“Yes, thank you.We’d be delighted,” Miss Burrell said after a tiny sigh.
“Yes, delighted,” Miss Ebrington echoed, smiling at Matthew, who gazed back at her adoringly.
“I’ll write the note, so my mother does not become concerned about us,” Miss Burrell quickly added, gesturing between herself and Mildred.
“Of course,” Gert said.She turned to Miss Walden.“I’ll see you in the library soon.”She asked the cook to send up a tea tray and left.
“I’m going to join Agnes in her studio,” Wallace said.He said his farewells to the ladies without looking at Xavier or Vincent, and departed.
“I’ll show you where there’s paper and ink,” Miss Walden said.The other two women trailed her out of the kitchen.
Vincent watched them go, confident now that whatever Miss Walden was hiding, the other two women were in on it.Or at least knew about it.
“If we’re going to have company after supper, I’d like to play from your new Rossini score,” Xavier said, interrupting Vincent’s conspiracy ruminations.
“We’ll need to make copies,” Matthew said.“If both of you work on it, it will take us no time at all and we can get back to rehearsing.”
Soon they had set up to work at the large dining table, the pages of the score carefully numbered before separating them, and they worked out their system to copy the overture.
Within an hour, they had used up all the blank music sheets.“I’ll have to order more,” Vincent said, tossing one pencil onto the table and tucking the other behind one ear.“Should be plenty of plain paper in the library we can make do with.I’ll just go get it.”
“Are you sure one of us shouldn’t fetch it?”Matthew said, elbowing Xavier in the side.
“No, I—” Vincent cut himself off at the knowing grin between Xavier and Matthew.“Shut up,” he growled on his way out the door, the sound of their laughter following him down the hall.
He slowed his steps as he approached the library, listening to Aunt Gert describe winter life at camp, breaking the ice in the water bucket each morning before she could make tea.
“Beg pardon, ladies,” he said with a bow as he entered, and Gert interrupted herself.“We are in need of paper.I’ve used all the lined sheets I could find in the drawing room.Unless you have another supply elsewhere?”
Gert pursed her lips in thought.“If you’ve used up what was in the folder on the top shelf, there is no more here at the Grange.You’ll have to draw your own lines.”She turned to Miss Walden, who watched from her seat at the desk.“My dear, do we have blank paper to spare?”
Miss Walden opened a drawer and checked the contents.“Lord Fairfax brought at least a thousand pages.I think we can share.”Her expression was innocent, but the twinkle in her eye when she looked at him was decidedly mischievous.
Little minx.Vincent fought to keep from grinning as he approached the desk.
The page he’d interrupted her working on was covered half-way down in neat rows of those odd squiggles and loops.He tore his gaze away from it when she handed him an inch-thick stack of blank paper.“Will this suffice, or do you require more?”
More.Oh, he definitely required more from her.Standing over her, he spared a glance for her neckline, made modest by a white silk scarf whose edges were beginning to fray and turn grey, then met her smiling gaze.“This will do.For now.”
Their bare fingers brushed as he took the paper from her hand.
Gert cleared her throat.
Right.“Thank you.”Vincent gave another bow and hustled back to the dining room.
Vincent, Matthew, and Xavier drew lines for the music until they had sufficient pages to copy the rest of the overture, then resumed the process they’d been using.
After Vincent and Xavier swapped pages to proofread each other’s work before starting on a new page, Matthew let out a low whistle.
