What a Lady Needs

“I’m not certain I like you addressing him as Simon.”

Kate rolled her eyes. “I’m not overjoyed with his blatant flirting. You might consider advising him to not lay it on so thick and rare.”

“You don’t use cant expressions like thick and rare,” Valentine said, almost as if the correction was by habit, without having to think about it. “And I did not invite him here to flirt with you. You’re to be practicing on him, remember?”

Poor Valentine, trying so hard to elude the ensnaring net of his lies. “Yes, certainly. Such deep intrigue confuses me. Poor Simon has simply taken one look at me and succumbed. Much like Jeremy, except he can still speak. Being older, he probably knows Step Three, as well, don’t you think? Or should I say, shouldn’t you have thought of that before starting this? I mean, as it would appear your hoyden of a sister is irresistible when playing the lady.” Then she grinned at him.

Val sighed theatrically. “I never should have mentioned Jeremy. I think we need Trixie here, but she refuses to leave London, saying you’ve more than enough guardians here without dragging her away from her fun.”

“Fun? Jessica told me she was off to the countryside to attend a funeral.”

“Two funerals, actually. As I said, our grandmother didn’t want to be dragged away from her fun. And, no, I’m not going to explain that. It’s enough you were there to see—”

Kate held up one hand. “Ah-ah, I thought we weren’t going to talk about that. Although it was all rather jolly, except, of course, for that poor old fellow. You should have seen Gideon’s face, he was that appalled. I laughed so hard I ended up with a bout of the hiccups.”

“Dead men in our grandmother’s bed amuse you. Wonderful. May I now critique your first attempt at behaving like a lady?”

“No, I don’t think so. Was Simon in the army?”

“Now why the devil would you ask that?”

Kate shrugged, and sank a little lower on her spine. “I don’t know. Trixie trained us all to be observant. He eats like a man used to consuming his meals in a rush, and he walks with some command to his step. It seemed a logical conclusion.”

“Logical, but not completely correct. He served in the Royal Navy. Had his own command as a matter of fact. But his brother...died last year, so now he’s the marquis.”

Kate sat up a bit straighter. Aha, now she’d stumbled onto something. “You hesitated before you said died. Why?”

“Once in a while, I wish you wouldn’t be so awake on all suits. The man hanged himself. Nobody speaks of it, just as nobody speaks of that right cross of yours or the Redgrave family scandals, but everyone knows of it. Holbrook Ravenbill wasn’t in debt, a victim of some new heartbreak—any of the usual reasons for putting a period to one’s own existence, not as far as anyone knows. If he left behind any sort of explanation, Simon’s the only one who knows it, and no, I didn’t ask him. And neither will you.”

“Your confidence in me is sadly lacking, brother mine. I would never be so rude as to ask a grieving brother such a thing.” But he’ll tell me, eventually. “Now I suppose you’ll want me to change my clothes yet again before dinner, which is a sad waste of time.”

“Nobody said being a lady is easy,” Valentine quipped as she got to her feet.

“Nobody said it was logical, either. Just be grateful I have all those gowns upstairs that never got to see the light of day in London. But for now, I’m off to the west wing. Liam told me his grandfather told him old houses were sometimes built with hidden staircases that could lead all the way from the attics to secret rooms in the cellars, but with no other openings along the way. Odd, isn’t it? Since our grandfather ordered the construction of the west wing, I’ve been thinking perhaps Liam’s grandfather might know something about that construction, that it isn’t just a tale he told to entertain Liam.”

“You think our grandfather and father had everyone climb up to the attics just to descend four floors into the cellars? In a parade of masks and cloaks, I’d suppose, dragging a braying goat behind them?”

Kate pulled a face. “I didn’t say I was positive. And I would think only the journals could be hidden in such a place. I doubt they performed their silly rites in a cellar. But now that I don’t have to ask you and your friend Simon to move every heavy bed and couch pressed up against a wall, I thought I’d give it try.”

“There’s dedicated, Kate, and then there’s— Bloody hell, I don’t know what to call it.”

She put a finger to her chin. “You know, just because couches and beds and chests are where they are now doesn’t mean they were there all those years ago. A secret panel could still be hidden behind one of them, somewhere. Seventy rooms. Quite a task. But perhaps we should—”

Valentine held up both his hands. “No. No, no, no. I think you and Liam’s grandfather might have stumbled onto something here. Go. Crawl around the attics of the west wing, tapping your little hammer. Really. Enjoy yourself.”

“And what are you going to do, that you can’t join me?”

“I, um, I haven’t yet looked at today’s post. I may have letters to answer.”

“What a hum. You couldn’t come up with a better excuse?” Kate rolled her eyes. “You know, Val, it’s just as Trixie says, a real conundrum that women don’t rule the world. And, also according to Trixie, that’s only because we don’t have—”

But Val was already stalking out of the room, his ears looking faintly red.

“Power!” she called after him. “Only because women don’t have power.” And then she ended quietly, “Or some other word beginning with P...”

CHAPTER THREE

SIMON BELIEVED THE Earl of Saltwood could comfortably fit any three rooms at Singleton Place inside his dining room and still seat a dozen diners. Not that Ravenbill was small; it was a fine estate. But everything about Redgrave Manor was immense. Most families suffered setbacks over the years, the centuries. The Redgraves seemed to have never taken a backward step.

That meant either unbelievable good luck, or a long line of crafty, intelligent men and women who always chose the right side, the correct moment; when to act, and when to retreat. So how, if what he believed was true, did at least the last two earls reconcile all this bounty with plotting to overthrow the monarchy? It made no sense.

Unless...

“I hope you don’t mind,” he said conversationally as the servants passed around yet another course, “but I spent a bit of time earlier with your obliging butler, familiarizing myself with your beautiful home. Quite an interesting and certainly extensive lineup of portraits in your gallery. From the change in dress, I’d have to think the Redgrave line goes back a considerable distance.”

“Ages, yes,” Kate said from her seat across the wide table. The four of them were gathered at one end of the immense table, with Valentine at the foot and young Adam Collier sitting beside Kate, alternately stuffing his face and attempting discreet peeks at her bosom, fetchingly outlined by her lightly golden silk gown. The puppy. And did he actually believe that pale paste he’d rubbed onto his face really succeeded in covering his spots? Simon sent up silent thanks he was no longer eighteen.

Valentine took up his fork. “True, Kate. Ages. All the way back to the Stuarts, the first time they held the throne, even before the first earl wrangled himself the title. We carry a few drops of Stuart blood, actually, although you’d have to apply to Gideon for the particulars, as the study of our family tree became lost on me by the time our tutor had got to the fifth branch.”

“Descended from kings. And you’re not interested?”

“Good Lord, Simon, who’s even to say what side of the blanket our supposed Stuart was born on in the first place?” Valentine looked to Kate. “And you did not hear me say that.”

“Oh, no, definitely not. But there is that small portrait of the first King Charles in the long gallery, remember? The one who had his head lopped off?”

Valentine widened his eyes in what seemed to be real shock. “I really should have paid more attention, shouldn’t I?”

“I would have. No choice, really,” Adam said, speaking for the first time in long minutes, an interlude he’d clearly felt had been better spent in seeing how many peas he could line up on his knife and then slide into his mouth without dropping any. “My father had me study the monarchies of every last country in creation. Boring stuff mostly, but I haven’t been able to boost it out of my head now it’s there. Charles the first was followed by that Cromwell fellow, and then his son, before the Stuarts came roaring back for a second go at things with Charles the second, but when Queen Anne died, everything went to our first George of the House of Hanover, thanks to a few drops of Stuart blood in him somewhere. You know, Valentine, like you Redgraves.”

“Yes, of course. My brother should be sitting on the throne right now. Idiot.”

“I think the Redgraves are smarter than that, Adam,” Lady Katherine said, patting the boy’s arm. “As I said, kings can be beheaded. Kingship was a messy business back then.”

“They do sillier things than that! Did you know when the Stuarts got back on the throne they dug up Cromwell the first and chopped off his head because the first Charles had his chopped off? I mean, Cromwell had already been dead for dog’s years, but it was a show of power, m’father said. Very important in kingships, showing off your power. Chopping off heads, poisonings, perhaps even drowning royal dukes in barrels of Malmsey wine, whatever that is. Then there were those poor boys in the Tower. Nobody knows who did that, not for certain. You have to be careful most times in not letting what you did get followed back to you, you see, or at least not be the only one who might be blamed. Now, consider Julius Caesar, for one. He was Roman, you know, and—”

“Eat your peas, Adam,” Valentine instructed wearily, and turned back to Simon. “You’d never think our new relative has been tossed out of every school his late father managed to get him into, would you?”

“Only five, my lord, not all of them. One burned down—but it wasn’t me who did it, I swear. Mine was only a small fire, nothing quite so spectacular. I still got the boot, though. Picky things, deans,” Adam grumbled, plucking an errant pea out of his lacy neck cloth. “The only reason I’m not in school now, your lordship, is I’m in mourning. Both my dear parents died in a coach accident, you know. The oil from the outside lanterns caught fire when the coach overturned, and they were both burned up. I’m devastated.”

“Yes,” Simon said blandly as Kate hid her smile behind her serviette. “Yes, I can see that. Allow me to offer my condolences, Mr. Collier.”

“Well, it was nearly two months ago, and Gideon tells me I’m rich as Croesus now, save for the fact he’s my guardian for another three years, and now that he’s married my sister, I’m family, as well. I’d rather be in London, but it’s as his lordship says, one can’t always have everything one wants, at least not while he’s in charge of me, and he lives only for the day I reach my majority. But he likes me. I’m certain of it. Everybody likes me.”

This was all said with such artlessness, such nonchalance—and probably a dearth of brainpower backing his words—Simon felt himself unable to reply.

Kate, however, wasn’t so reticent.

“That’s because you’re such a lovable looby,” she said, nudging Adam with her elbow.