up at him. “It’s certainly extravagant.”
I didn’t have anything against the rich, particularly. I had learned early on that life isn’t fair. Why be angry that someone else was dealt a better hand of cards? Of course, my family had never been above cheating a bit.
“And more crowded than I expected,” I said, noting the handsomely dressed swells moving in and out of rooms, drinks in hand. “Are all these people really interested in Chinese porcelain?”
“Most of them are more interested in seeing and being seen,” he replied. “Sir Nigel is known for his parties, even in wartime.”
“Will you point out our quarries to me?”
“Here comes one of them now,” he said in a low voice. “That’s Sir Nigel.”
I turned to see a gentleman in evening clothes approaching with a purposeful stride.
Sir Nigel was just how I had expected him to look. He was a gentleman of advancing years, gone a bit heavy with good living. He had a face that was not unhandsome beneath a head of thick gray hair, though the worries he was hiding seemed to have taken their toll, for his face had a tired cast to it, despite his best efforts to hide it. He was dark beneath his sharp, pale blue eyes, and his skin had that unhealthy hue of someone who drank too much and slept too little. Of course, drink and sleeplessness were common enough afflictions in London these days.
There was no hint of tiredness in his manner, however. He was too good a fraud for that.
“Ramsey!” he said in the booming voice of a man accustomed to having his opinion matter more than other people’s.
He came forward and clasped the major’s hand. “Glad to see you back in the country. North Africa didn’t agree with you, I take it?”
“It agreed with me fine,” the major replied. “But I must go where I’m sent.”
North Africa, was it? That explained that bronzed cast to his skin. Had they sent him back for this mission in particular, or was there some other reason?
“Of course, my boy. Of course,” Sir Nigel said, his gaze coming to me. “And who is this lovely young lady?”
“This is Miss Elizabeth Donaldson. Elizabeth, Sir Nigel Randolf.”
“How do you do?” I said. He took my hand in his. His grip was tight, and his eyes fastened on my face. There was something assessing in the way he looked at me, but I wasn’t worried; I knew I looked the part tonight. As if to back up this opinion his eyes dropped, for just a moment, to my low neckline before he pulled them back to my face again.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Donaldson,” he said. “I thought I knew all the most beautiful women in London, but it seems I was mistaken.”
I smiled. “You’re too kind, Sir Nigel.”
“I’m not kind at all.” His smile was suddenly wolfish, and I believed him. “In fact, I’m known to be something of a lecher. Ramsey had better keep an eye on you.”
“I intend to,” Major Ramsey said with a smile that was not quite friendly. One hand moved to rest, ever so lightly, on my lower back. Perhaps he would be better at playing his part than I had originally thought.
Sir Nigel laughed. “Then I think you’re safe, Miss Donaldson. I wouldn’t dare challenge the major here. But come to the drawing room, will you? There are a few people I’d like you to meet.”
“Certainly,” Major Ramsey said.
I was a bit surprised that Sir Nigel was making so much of the major. I thought we would blend unobtrusively into the gathering, but Sir Nigel was treating him almost as an honored guest. I had the feeling there was something I was missing, likely something that Major Ramsey hadn’t felt it necessary to tell me.
Sir Nigel led us across the foyer and through an open pair of wide wooden doors.
I stepped into the room, the major’s hand under my arm, and looked around me. It was my habit to take in as much about a room as possible upon entering it.
He had called it a drawing room, but this was a grand room, all high ceilings, carved molding and crimson wallpaper, and careful arrangements of antique furniture. There was a gigantic marble fireplace on the opposite side to where we had entered, a fire roaring. I could hear the crackling from where I stood, though it was probably a cricket pitch away.
We moved farther into the room, Major Ramsey nodding at the