A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem - Manda Collins Page 0,70
remembered something I’d forgotten to take care of.”
Clearing his throat, he began again. “Miss Green, the sister of the stationer, is here to see you. She says it’s important. I had Austen put her in the parlor.”
The mention of Miss Green made Kate toss her napkin down and rise from the table. “I wonder what she could want.”
“She didn’t say.” Val avoided making eye contact with her, then abruptly left the room.
“That was strange,” Kate said, looking after him. “Did you see that?” Not waiting for Caro to answer, she rose. “I’ll go see what Miss Green wants. I won’t be long.”
Before she could leave, however, Caro stopped her with a hand on her arm. Wordlessly, she removed the shawl she’d been wearing and wrapped it around Kate’s shoulders, arranging it just so.
“What are you doing? I’m not going to take a chill walking from the breakfast room to the parlor.”
“You have a love bite just below your ear,” said Caro in a low voice. “I suspect that was why Valentine looked as if he’d seen a duck walking backward.”
Kate gasped and touched her neck. She closed her eyes in mortification.
Caro gave her a quick hug. “Don’t let Val make you feel bad. I daresay he’s given his share of them in his day. And what’s good for the gander is good for the goose.”
“Besides,” she added, “we can rely upon his discretion, I’m sure.”
What a coil. If Kate had hoped to keep her affair with Eversham a secret, she’d been wrong twice over already in the first two hours of the day.
“Now, go see what Miss Green wants.” Caro gave her a little push toward the door.
Kate had nearly forgotten her visitor. “I’ll find you in the other parlor once we’re finished.”
Caro nodded and sent her on her way.
Really, Kate thought grimly. If this was the sort of thing she’d have to expect from her reasoning skills after an encounter with Eversham, she would do well to avoid him in the future.
Though that, she knew, given the way her breasts ached at the thought of him, was easier said than done.
When she found Miss Green, the lady was pacing before the fire in the little room that had likely been set aside for calls from less elevated visitors. It was a pretty enough room, with a comfortable-looking settee covered in a dark blue moiré fabric and a wooden bench that, while beautifully crafted, Kate suspected was dreadfully uncomfortable.
“Lady Katherine,” the older woman said as she entered. “Thank goodness. I was beginning to lose my courage and was just about to leave.”
The woman was quite agitated, more than she had been last evening when she’d just learned of her brother’s murder. Though it understandably took some time for the shock to wear off after hearing such news.
“Please, Miss Green, do sit down.” Kate gestured for her to take the settee. “I’ll just ring for some refreshments.”
Once she’d tugged the bellpull, she perched on the bench, which was just as hard as she’d imagined, and asked, “What has happened to alarm you?”
Miss Green twisted a handkerchief, as if she needed something to occupy her hands. “I was not altogether honest with you and Mr. Eversham yesterday.” Her brow furrowed.
“I’m sure whatever it is you failed to tell us will still be helpful today,” Kate said kindly. She knew that, at times like this, it was often a family member’s first instinct to hold back any information that might reflect poorly on the deceased. No one liked to speak ill of the dead—especially after they’d been so brutally removed from the land of the living.
“I hope so,” she said, her mouth tight. “It’s just that I thought she must be Josiah’s…that is to say…when she walked out of his study as bold as you please, I thought she must have been given permission. And he’d only do that with someone he—”
One of the maids arrived with the tea tray then, and Kate was grateful for the interruption. Hopefully, tea, which was for the English a cure for all manner of ills, would have a calming effect on her visitor. Because Kate very much wanted to hear more about this mystery woman, but she was doubtful that would happen while Miss Green was unable to complete a sentence.
“Here.” She handed the other woman a cup and saucer and one of Cook’s excellent seed cakes. “Drink some of that and gather your thoughts for a moment. We’re in no rush.”