Page 45 of Death at the Dower House
Tom nodded. “They appear quite taken with one another.”
“—and Christopher was dancing with Lady Laetitia.”
Tom turned the look on Christopher, who flushed.
“St George was dancing with Johanna, but he was facing me, so he noticed that something wasn’t right. He came over and asked me to dance. Marsden ended up inviting Johanna to accompany him around the floor instead.”
“And did she say yes?”
“She said she’d be delighted, although she didn’t look it.”
And after that, for the next few minutes, I had been preoccupied enough with Crispin that I hadn’t really noticed what anyone else was doing. Keeping up with him verbally takes such effort that it doesn’t leave much room for worrying about anything else. But I did think I had seen glimpses of Johanna and Marsden revolving slowly around us as the music played.
“Then what happened?” Tom asked.
“Crispin went outside for a cigarette and some peace and quiet.”
“Again?”
“This was almost two hours before the end of the party. And Laetitia and Johanna had taken turns monopolizing him all night. He had been dancing nonstop since supper.”
Tom didn’t say anything, and I added, “As soon as they noticed that he’d escaped, they ran after him, anyway, so he didn’t get much time to himself. I went over to talk to Christopher, and then Crispin showed up again just a few minutes later and was his usual sarcastic self.”
“And that’s when Kit walked you upstairs?”
I nodded. “I was a bit rattled, I suppose, and I also didn’t want to give Lord Geoffrey another chance to come at me.”
“I would have stayed with you—” Christopher began, but I shook my head.
“It would have been like before, and you know it. As soon as Laetitia and Johanna discovered that you could dance, you were almost as popular as Crispin.”
Tom hid a smile at that.
“They would have kept you busy,” I added, “and Francis would have stayed with Constance, and Peckham would have stayed by the gramophone, and I would have had to deal with Marsden by myself. So I went upstairs and to bed instead. Christopher locked me in and gave Constance the key, that way Marsden wouldn’t have been able to come inside my room even if he’d wanted to.”
“And did he want to?” Tom asked.
I shook my head. “Not as far as I know. I think he stayed downstairs—”
Christopher nodded.
“—and nobody else tried to enter my room until Constance came up an hour and a half later.”
“And you walked her up?” Tom asked, with a glance at Christopher, who nodded.
“Francis and I did. I wanted to go to bed anyway. Both the ladies were getting agitated, and I wanted to get away before the screaming started.”
“Then you weren’t there for the big disagreement?”
Christopher shook his head. “I didn’t even hear it begin. The first I knew of it was when I heard one of the doors downstairs close with a slam, and then someone screamed, ‘Come back here, you coward!’”
Oh, really? Was that the shriek I hadn’t been able to make out while in the loo?
Tom’s lips twitched. “No joke?”
“Not at all. I went to the window, and saw my cousin stalk away across the lawn. I don’t know which of the ladies screamed at him, though.”
“I thought they were arguing with each other,” I said, with an indelicate snort.
