At the sight in the tilted cheval glass that was Lavender’s pride and joy, Brydie hastily covered herself with a jewel-toned shawl.
Minerva laughed and entered to tug the shawl down Brydie’s arms.“This is how you wear it.”
Brydie tugged it over her shoulders again and glared.“I shall freeze.”
Noting the gloves her friend often wore, Minerva dropped that argument and preceded to the next.Nothing stirred Brydie like a good argument.“You should have Meera prepare some of her hand cream for you.You will want to take off your gloves when Damien places his ring on your finger.”
Brydie hastily hid her hands behind her back.The shawl drooped down her arms again.Even solemn Kate laughed at that.
Eighteen and confident in her blond beauty, Lavender held up a seed pearl necklace.“You should wear emeralds with that gown, but these will suffice.”
“I am a thirty-year-old spinster,” Brydie grumbled, allowing Lavender to fasten the necklace.Minerva was almost too short to reach.“I should be wearing black and caps and sitting upstairs with the dowagers.”
Both Minerva and Lavender laughed.Kate shrugged.She worked in the sewing room and had probably never met the haughty dowagers.
“They’d eat you alive,” Minerva assured her.“You need another thirty years before you could survive that lion’s den.Besides, we need you at the table to make note of all the visitors.I will be eating with the staff downstairs to make a list of any valets with big noses and fat lips.”She almost giggled at the captain’s translation of Verity’s more circumspect description.
“Spies on every floor,” Lavender crowed in delight.“Everyone knows me, so I shall run up and downstairs, carrying messages, and no one will notice.”
“The men will,” Kate said, speaking up for a change.“You could wear a sack, and they’d notice.”
Lavender grinned wickedly.“But all they see is a silly chit to be seduced.My loving grandmother has made that very clear.”
“Lady Marlow is one of the lions,” Minerva explained to a wide-eyed Brydie.“I can’t say she’s wrong, though.”
Lavender shrugged.“I am not my mother.I don’t need men.If anyone is to do the seducing, it will be me.”She tugged a fold of Brydie’s gown, stepped back to admire her handiwork, and nodded approval.“You are a goddess.Go slay the dragon.”
“Will you be at the table?”Brydie asked Lavender anxiously.
“I suppose I shall, for a while, if only to watch Mr.Sutter’s eyes fall from his head when he sees you.You are not to allow all the flattery to go to yours.Gentlemen are trained to charm.You must see past the surface to find the evil that lurks within.”Lavender rummaged in a dresser and produced long, white silk gloves.“You should have bracelets, but these will suffice.”
Leaving Lavender and Kate to argue about finishing hems, Minerva steered her terrified friend from the sewing room.“Do not think of yourself.Think of Daphne and Daniel and poor Verity.If you see or hear anything unusual, summon one of the footmen and send word to me.Paul and I will be only a staircase away.”
Brydie took a deep breath, shivered, and tugged her shawl around her, only remembering the gloves she clutched when she nearly dropped them.“I do not even know what is unusual.”
Minerva considered that.“Neither do I.And if Verity’s intruder is actually a valet, you won’t see him.But his employer is bound to be part of the company.Perhaps listen for anyone talking about Beanblossom or the children or asking odd questions?”
Brydie nodded.“I can do that, although with so many people...”
“Clare will see you placed near the most likely visitors.Rely on her.And when the ladies leave the men at the table, follow her lead.She’ll introduce you to anyone she wants to know more about.You’re in good hands.”
“Clare Huntley barely knows me as more than one of Rafe’s staff,” Brydie whispered as they reached the gaslit marble stairs in the central corridor.
Minerva chuckled.“Watch her.I always thought proper ladies were a useless lot.Clare is the perfect portrait of all the smiling, empty-headed, beautiful debutantes you may have imagined gracing London’s ballrooms.Then remember she survived being almost blown up in Egypt, rescued her nephew from avaricious relations, and someday, take a look at the books on the shelves in her study.She may be quiet as a mouse, but she’s stealthy as a cat.She knows you, all right.”
Brydie looked puzzled at the mention of books but they weren’t Minerva’s story to tell.She had only discovered it because she was a snoop who liked putting puzzles together.Clare would let people know of her secret occupation when she was ready.
Sending Brydie off to her room to wait for the dinner bell, Minerva took the servants’ stairs up to visit Verity in the attic, and to check on the children’s safety.She had Mrs.Upton’s keys and hoped to find all the doors locked.
The lock on the one at the top of the staircase, going into the attic, had been loosened, and a piece of leather jammed into it to prevent it being locked again.
Someone intended to return tonight.
Twenty-six
Brydie
Brydie heardthe massive case clock on the landing chime twelve and shivered.She knew the clock didn’t work properly, but the midnight toll still seemed portentous.A draft blew around her ankles despite the brazier in the small guest room she’d been assigned.
