A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Murder. Dianne Freeman

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      “Good morning, Mrs. Durant.” Treadwell touched the brim of his hat and gave her a crooked smile. “So pleased you could join us.”

      With a sniff, Eliza took a seat next to me. “Forgive us for being so tardy,” she said. “I had such a difficult time convincing Durant to accompany me. He was most determined to stay at home and see to business.”

      “Right. Seems as though someone ought to.” Durant had removed his hat and overcoat and balanced a document case on his knees. The lines between his dark brows led me to believe the scowl he wore was of a permanent nature. It made him look older than I suspected him to be, but with a beard covering his jawline and chin, and spectacles blurring his eyes, I found it difficult to venture a guess at his age, though his disposition was easy to read. I might pity Eliza if she did not look equally irritable.

      As Leo hadn’t known how many of his siblings would be traveling with us, he’d taken a first-class compartment in a Pullman car. This was fortunate since we were eight now that the Durants had arrived. There was plenty of room inside for all of us, but I was still pleased I’d decided to have Rose travel with Nanny, Bridget, and the other maids. Rose’s manners were good, but I didn’t know if they’d stretch to accommodate the two-hour trip.

      I needn’t have concerned myself. The train was barely underway when the bickering began between Leo’s younger sisters.

      I’d met Clara and Anne at my first dinner with Leo’s parents. Anne had impressed me as an intelligent young woman, not yet married at the age of twenty-three. I felt certain she’d love nothing more than to join her father in the world of business. As that was not an option, she occupied herself with lectures, committees, and reading. Leo’s youngest sister, Clara, not yet eighteen, wanted nothing more than parties, balls, and fetes. Hardly uncommon pursuits at her age. Though they had their differences, they had seemed well-mannered and got on as well as any two sisters might. I now suspected that amity was due to the presence of their parents.

      Within fifteen minutes of our departure, I was to find out what they were like without the watchful eye of their mother. The compartment we occupied was spacious and fitted out with comfortably upholstered chairs situated against both the forward and rear walls, carpet, curtains, and a table along the side, all of which made it feel like a smallish sitting room. Leo and Durant took two seats along one side of the compartment and made a makeshift desk between them, leaving not quite two seats beside them. Regardless, Anne and Clara chose to squeeze into the space. The result was explosive.

      “You are sitting on my dress!”

      Anne looked up from her book and rearranged the skirts between them. Peace reigned for less than thirty seconds.

      “Stop reading over my shoulder,” Anne said, never lifting her eyes from the book.

      “I am not reading over your shoulder. Who but you would want to read such boring, dusty old tomes? Why didn’t you bring a novel to read?”

      “If I did, you would read over my shoulder.”

      “Aha! So you admit I am not now reading over your shoulder.”

      “If you weren’t, you would not know what I was reading. And why didn’t you bring a novel of your own if you wish to read so badly?”

      The bickering continued for a quarter of an hour at least. I cast a glance at Lily sitting next to Mr. Treadwell a seat away from me. Though they were directly across from the girls, they seemed not to notice and maintained a conversation that had Lily smiling. I began to wonder if I was the only one bothered by the argument.

      “The two of you are behaving like children.” The outburst came from Eliza. Her fine brows were drawn together, her dark eyes narrowed. As she leaned in toward her sisters, her profile to me, she looked for all the world like a hawk poised to attack her younger siblings. “I’d expect you to behave better in company than you do at home.”

      Her rebuke seemed rather harsh. The two sisters jerked back in surprise, but in the space of time it took to draw a breath, they joined forces against Eliza, and the worst kind of caterwauling ensued.

      Through it all, Leo and his brother-in-law remained oblivious. The two men busied themselves with some documents, though how they were able to concentrate at all amazed me. I could take it no longer.

      “Anne.”

      All three young ladies turned their gazes on me, surprised to hear someone else speak.

      “Why don’t you trade seats with me? I believe the light is better here for your reading.” I stood before she could answer, giving her no choice but to comply. With the exchange made, I sat on the bench next to Clara, with Lily and Treadwell now across from me. Eliza pulled out some needlework and Anne returned to her book.

      Perhaps this new configuration would allow us some peace. I gave Clara a smile. Dressed in a tailored traveling suit of plum wool, her warm brown curls upswept and supporting a tiny hat with a matching plum feather, she looked very grown up. I had to remind myself she was still only seventeen and not yet “out.” “Have you spent much time in the country, Miss Kendrick?” I asked.

      She shook her head. “I really haven’t traveled much outside of London. Once to Oxford when Leo was at school there. My parents travel for business of course, but they leave us at home.”

      “Then this should be rather exciting for you.”

      But I’d already lost her attention. I followed her gaze to Lily and Treadwell, who were still in conversation and—heavens! His hand rested atop her hand, which rested atop her knee.

      It lasted less than an instant. Lily laughed and moved her hand. Treadwell pulled his back. In the next moment, he leaned forward to say something to Anne.

      Lily’s expression was perfectly calm—no blush, no glance about to see if anyone had noticed. Surely, my imagination had exaggerated his touch, blown it up into something more intimate than it really was. Lily loved Leo. Of that there could be no doubt.

      Treadwell was Leo’s closest friend and a gentleman. Not that a gentleman couldn’t be a bounder, but Lily had no interest in men who had nothing with which to occupy themselves but their own entertainment. She wanted a man like our father, who worked and made something of himself. I undoubtedly imagined the incident and should put it out of my mind. I glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed and caught Eliza just as she turned away, her lips tightly compressed. Perhaps I hadn’t imagined it. Would she say something to Lily? Or worse, to Leo?

      “Clara, can’t you see you’re crowding Lady Harleigh?” Eliza’s tone was sharp.

      This brought me from my reverie to see the girl leaning almost into my lap and nearly clipping my jaw as she shot back into her seat.

      “I am not,” she said.

      “You were.”

      The balance of the trip continued in this manner. A short silence, followed by bickering, followed by admonishments, and a full-scale argument. When Eliza snapped at her sisters, I wondered if she was truly annoyed with them, or upset by Treadwell’s forward behavior to Lily, and taking her anger out on the girls. By the time we arrived at the Harroway station, I had reached the end of my tether and could not have suffered their company for another mile.

      As СКАЧАТЬ