Page 40 of Earl's Well That Ends Well (The Way to a Lord's Heart 5)

Arthur moved, shaking off his surprise at finding five ladies where he expected only one. They sat in the corner of the courtyard almost as if they’d set up headquarters here. Señora Alvarez looked unsettled. Did she think he’d invited them? Her reactions were so often a mystery to him. Until he met her, he’d thought he was rather good at understanding people. He went over to join the group.

Tom extended a laden plate. “Sandwich?” he asked.

Not for the first time, Arthur envied the lad’s easygoing temperament. The young ladies looked brightly inquisitive. Very brightly. It was one of their skills as investigators, he thought. They could make one feel unprepared for an important examination. Did they think he had some news?

“We were talking of our progress,” said Miss Ada Grandison. “And the fact that we’ve made very little.”

“I spoke to the head of the Four-Horse Club. At great and boring length,” Arthur replied. He liked driving and riding, but he wasn’t obsessed with the minutiae of these activities. Or with the clothing he wore while engaged in them. “He was no help.”

“I’m going to hang about the dancers and keep watch,” said Tom. “The señora will talk with each of them again. She thinks they may know things they don’t realize they noticed.”

Señora Alvarez looked startled, then impressed.

The other ladies continued to eye Arthur with a marked degree of attention. As if they were waiting for him to reveal secrets. Except Señora Alvarez, who wasnotlooking at him. He was suddenly certain they’d been discussing more than the opera dancers.

There was a stir from the workshop behind him. A voice boomed out an inquiry. Everyone turned, and in the next moment Miss Julia Grandison appeared in the doorway. Her formidable figure filled it completely, the feathers in her bonnet brushing the upper jamb.

She scanned the courtyard and then descended on them like a striking bird of prey. “Ada, your maid said you were coming here.” She looked around as if mystified by the locale. “I must speak to you at once.” She loomed over the group. Miss Moran visibly winced. “Do youknowwhat has been going on?” the newcomer added.

“In what sense, Aunt?”

“What sense! There seems to be very littlesenseinvolved.” She scanned the circle of faces. “You’ve been snooping around the opera dancers. Very much against my advice and inclination.” They sat with the silence and stillness of rabbits under the eye of a hawk. Miss Grandison’s glare settled on her niece, and bored in. “Are you aware that yourfather—” She hesitated.

Miss Ada Grandison sat straighter. She managed to look innocently inquisitive. “Yes? Papa?”

“Has been showing far too much interest in these very same opera dancers,” Miss Julia Grandison replied.

“Is that not an improper topic for me to discuss, Aunt?”

“Don’t speak to me of improper! As if you cared anything about that. I have gone to great lengths for you, Ada. I said nothing to your parents about your ridiculous ‘investigations.’ I think I am owed a debt of gratitude. You should be only too glad to help me.”

“Help how?”

“By telling me the truth!”

“I don’t understand what you mean. I don’t know—”

“You know a great many things you shouldn’t!” exclaimed Miss Julia Grandison. “Things your mother would faint to hear of. I know that…a certain opera dancer was mentioned during that theater visit I countenanced the other day. Mentioned in…association with your father.”

Arthur wondered who had told her this. He couldn’t believe it was anyone present. Unless someone had let it slip? Or confided in the wrong friend?

“Merely give me the name of this dancer. That is all I require. I will know what to do then.”

“And what is that?” asked Miss Ada, with commendable fortitude. Arthur knew the answer—revenge. Miss Julia Grandison thought she had found the lever she’d been searching for to pay back her brother.

“I don’t remember,” said Miss Ada. This time she was less convincing.

“Will you thwart me?”

“I don’t want to cause trouble for Papa.”

“Even though he is lower than a worm?”

Miss Ada looked conflicted. “I don’t think he is that.”

“He is careful to show you his good side.”

The girl shook her head. “I won’t tell tales on my father, Aunt Julia. I don’t think you should ask me to.” She frowned as if caught out. “Even if I knew any.”

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