Page 59 of Winterset

“Someone is imitating them, that’s all. Finding out what happened back then, even if you could do it, wouldn’t tell you who’s doing it now.” He stood up. “By the way, seeing that you’re going back to Holcomb Manor, would you take this liniment to the head groom? I promised to make him up a new bottle.”

“Of course.” Anna accepted the change of conversation, even though she could not understand why Perkins seemed so reluctant to talk about the matter. Perhaps, since he’d known the farmer who had died, the incidents held too many bad memories for him.

She left a few minutes later and drove home, mulling over her conversation with Perkins. When she stopped the horse in front of her house, she wished that she had left Nick’s cottage several minutes later. The squire’s carriage was in front of their house.

There was no way she could sneak in without being seen, so Anna put on the best smile she could and walked into the drawing room. Kit, looking rather beleaguered, glanced up at Anna’s entrance and smiled with relief.

“Anna, dear.” He stood up, giving her his seat in a straight-back chair positioned between Mrs. Bennett and her daughter, Felicity.

Mrs. Bennett beamed at Anna, and Felicity giggled for no apparent reason. Anna saw that they had brought Miles with them this time. He was slouching on the sofa beside his sister, looking bored, but he rose at Anna’s entrance and bowed deeply over her hand.

“Oh, pray don’t leave us, Sir Christopher, just because your sister has returned,” Mrs. Bennett said with a little laugh. “We should love to chat with both of you. Isn’t that right, Felicity?”

“Oh, my, yes,” Felicity replied inanely, letting out another giggle.

“I am sorry. I offer you my deepest apologies, but I have a great deal of work waiting for me at my desk,” Kit told her. “I am afraid I must leave Anna to entertain you.” He left the room as quickly as politeness would allow.

“Such a responsible gentleman,” Mrs. Bennett said warmly, with an approving smile at Kit’s back. “You see, Miles, how he attends to his estate. One day your father will no longer be with us, and you will have to assume his duties. You could have no better model than Sir Christopher.”

Miles cast a dark look at his mother. Anna suspected that this was an argument he had heard more than once from her.

Mrs. Bennett turned to Anna, leaning forward confidingly to say, “I cannot get Miles even to accompany his father round the estate. That boy.” She cast an affectionately exasperated glance at him. “He would rather work on his poetry. Isn’t that right, dear?”

“Mother, I am sure that Miss Holcomb doesn’t want to hear about our family matters,” he said, with an agonized look at Anna.

“He’s right,” Felicity agreed unexpectedly. “It’s horribly boring, poetry.”

A flush stained Miles’ cheeks, and he shot his sister a furious glance. Anna hastily put in, “I am rather fond of poetry myself.”

“Of course you are,” Mrs. Bennett said, smiling at her. “Such a smart girl you are. La, Felicity and I are such featherheads.” She said this happily, as if such a character trait would endear them to Anna.

Anna murmured some response, not sure exactly what was appropriate to this remark. Mrs. Bennett, however, did not notice her hesitation. She was already plowing ahead with her typically one-sided conversation.

“I am sure you are sorry to see Lady Kyria go,” she said. “Such a lovely woman—and not at all high in the instep, as one would think she would be. Wouldn’t you say so?”

Anna had barely parted her lips to answer before Mrs. Bennett went on, “And her husband—such a charming gentleman, even if he is an American. I was so surprised. He seemed quite genteel.”

“I hear that civilization has reached their shores,” Anna replied dryly.

Mrs. Bennett gave her a puzzled look, then chuckled. “Oh, yes, I see. You are joking. You are such a clever girl, I always say. But you know, dear…” She leaned forward, lowering her voice confidentially, “Gentlemen don’t always wish a woman to be quite so clever.”

“Mama…” Miles’ word was a groan.

“Now, hush, Miles. Miss Holcomb understands what I’m saying, don’t you, dear?”

“Of course, ma’am,” Anna replied politely.

Mrs. Bennett proceeded to rattle on in her usual way for some minutes, discussing everything from Lady Kyria’s party to the horror of the deaths—and the deplorable way they were cutting into the area’s social life—to the continued presence of Reed Moreland at Winterset, which she attributed, with an arch smile in Anna’s direction, to Anna’s own charms.

It was a vast relief to Anna when the Bennetts finally left almost an hour later. She strolled down the hall to the door of her brother’s study and knocked, then stuck her head inside.

“You are safe now. The Bennetts have gone.”

Kit grinned somewhat sheepishly. “Are you very mad at me for abandoning you with them? They had been here almost half an hour already, with Mrs. Bennett urging that silly Felicity to talk, though she is able to do nothing but giggle, as far as I can tell.”

“Yes, I think you are right.” Anna smiled back at him. “I know your limits were tested. That’s why I didn’t send for you to bid them farewell, even though Mrs. Bennett kept hinting broadly at it.”

“You’re a dear.”