Page 49 of Impetuous

“Actually, very little happened. No doubt that is why it slipped my mind.” Lady Violet, quite lovely in a watered silk gown much the shade of her name, looked as if things frequently slipped her mind. “I didn’t hear it, of course. Shivers told me about it the next day. He said that someone broke into the house in the middle of the night. Fortunately one of the servants heard the noise and went to investigate. He found the man in the library. They tussled, and the intruder ran away. Nothing was taken.”

“The library?” Philip repeated flatly, and his eyes went involuntarily to Cassandra.

“Yes. Odd, isn’t it? He didn’t try to get the silverware or anything valuable. There is nothing in the library but all those books. I suppose he must have thought there was a safe hidden there.”

“Yes, most likely.” Sir Philip drummed his fingertips on the table a time or two. “Are you sure that nothing was removed from the library?”

His mother looked faintly surprised. “I did not check it myself, dear. I wouldn’t know if something was missing in there, anyway. That is what Shivers related to me. I believe the footman who caught him was Michael. You might ask him if the burglar was carrying anything when he found him.”

“Yes. Perhaps I shall.”

Cassandra would have liked to pursue this highly interesting development further, but from then on the two Lady Nevilles kept the dinner conversation on a firmly trivial ground. After dinner Cassandra spent an interminable time in the drawing room with the other women. Lady Violet politely suggested that Joanna might play something for them on the piano, and Joanna, not a good pianist at the best of times, had been so unnerved by Philip’s grandmother that she stumbled through a sonata that was as painful for her listeners as for herself.

Lady Neville decreed that there had been enough piano for the evening, and so they passed some time in stilted conversation. It was a relief when Sir Philip returned to the room, but Cassandra still could not talk to him alone. It wasn’t until Lady Neville retired to her room and Lady Violet kindheartedly let Joanna attempt another piece on the piano that Cassandra got any chance to speak to him.

Cassandra was sure that Joanna expected Philip to come stand behind her and turn the pages for her, but he sat down beside Cassandra and murmured under cover of the noise, “Well? What do you think?”

“That someone was searching the library for something other than what one would normally consider theftworthy property,” Cassandra replied promptly. “The Queens Book, for instance.”

“It seems highly suspicious. It also would seem unlikely that it was anyone other than the same man who broke into Chesilworth.”

Cassandra nodded, then added, “However, we are basing this on nothing but speculation. Nothing was taken either time—or, at least, nothing that we know of.”

“I am fairly certain that he did not get anything here. I took the opportunity to slip out to the entry hall, where Michael is on duty this evening, and I spoke to him about his little adventure. He said that he caught the man only moments after he entered the library. Michael had not yet gone to bed. He said he was making a last-minute check around the house before retiring, but I have my suspicions that he had been paying a visit to one of the maids’ rooms on the fourth floor. Whatever the reason, he heard glass breaking in the conservatory and went to investigate immediately. He doesn’t believe that the intruder had the time to seize anything, and he is certain that the man had nothing in his hands, for he swung at Michael, and they struggled for a few minutes. I asked him what the intruder looked like, but he said that it was too dark for him to see.”

Joanna made a great show of slowing down her playing and fumbling to turn the page, casting a beseeching look over her shoulder toward Philip, but he did not even look up. At the end of the next page, Joanna managed to send several sheets tumbling from the stand when she turned the page, and she stopped abruptly.

“I am so sorry.” Looking aghast, Joanna hopped off the stool to pick them up.

Philip’s mother, with a sigh, said, “Philip, do come help Miss Moulton by turning the pages of her composition.”

“What?” Philip looked up distractedly. “Oh.” He grimaced, but rose to his feet and did as his mother bade.

Cassandra excused herself as soon as Lady Violet retired, hard-heartedly leaving Sir Philip to squirm out of the Moulton women’s clutches by himself.

Upstairs in her room, she was not surprised to find her sister and brothers waiting for her. She was, however, a little taken aback to see Georgette Neville casually sitting cross-legged on the bed with Olivia, playing a game of checkers.

“Cassandra!”

“Miss Verrere!” Georgette scrambled off the bed, as did Olivia, coming around to meet Cassandra. “I hope you will not think me too bold, coming here like this.”

“I told her it was perfectly all right,” Olivia said.

“Of course it is,” Cassandra agreed. “I am delighted to have a chance to visit with you.”

Georgette smiled. “Good. I wanted to talk to you earlier—it was so strange and mysterious getting that note from Philip saying to expect you and telling Mama to lie about Grandmama knowing your grandmother. We could not imagine what was going on. Mama was sure that Philip must be in love. Grandmama kept saying that it was ‘decidedly peculiar,’ his inviting a Verrere that way. Except, of course, that it was four Verreres, as well as these Moulton people, whom Mama and Grandmama did not know at all. It was odder than any of Philip’s starts.”

Cassandra reserved her own judgment on that. It seemed to her that a young gentleman installing his bastard children in a nearby house was a bit more peculiar than bringing home a few strangers, but she certainly was not about to bring that up.

“But then I couldn’t talk to you because Miss Moulton stayed with me the whole afternoon, chattering about this and that. I don’t want to say anything against your cousin, ma’am, but is she always this friendly?”

Cassandra chuckled, and Olivia let out a snort of disgust.

“No. She’s just trying to get on your good side, hoping you’ll have some influence with your brother,” Olivia told her bluntly. “Or perhaps she thinks that Sir Philip will be so impressed by how sweet she is to you that he will immediately offer marriage.”

“I wondered if that was it,” Georgette admitted. “Philip’s first note sounded as if it was only you he was bringing.” She nodded toward Cassandra. “I couldn’t understand why he would do that if it was Miss Moulton he was interested in.”

“He’s not interested in her.” Olivia rolled her eyes. “Cousin Joanna is the only one who thinks he is.”