Page 26 of The Marquis, the Minx, and the Mistletoe
"More importantly, it is Alex's puppy," Sheldon corrected, making Callie giggle. "Thus, I believe, the distrust."
Tia turned to him, tilting her head with a curious little smile playing on her glossy lips. "Did you sleep well, Lord Moorvale?" she asked, her voice the flutter of ladylike innocence. "I rather did."
He squinted at her, an ironic sort of glare, and shook his head slowly. "I did not, alas."
"That is a shame," she tutted. "Perhaps some warm milk after dinner tonight?"
He held her eye with a flat expression until she giggled, covering her mouth with her fingers.
She cleared her throat, lowering her lashes with a little blush. "I confess, I find myself at a disadvantage in this game you've set," she said. "I believe that of all here, I am the least familiar with the estate, and the least likely to understand any of the clues set forth by those who have long dwelled here."
"Ah, that is a fair concern," Sheldon replied, raising his eyebrows. "Perhaps after the clues are drawn tonight, you may find a partner in crime with whom to go on your hunt."
"Is that allowed?"
"I believe, as the game master, I could decree it so," he answered stoutly. "I was planning to do something of the sort for the children anyhow, lest they draw a trickier clue."
She gazed at him for a moment, her expression soft and perhaps just a little amused. "You continue to surprise me, Lord Moorvale," she said after a moment. "I should very much like a partner in the hunt for the stars."
"Consider my services on offer," he said. "I do not live at Somerton either, so perhaps we might aid one another, as outsiders here."
"Perhaps we might," she agreed thoughtfully, her voice drowned out by Gideon as he tapped the edge of his glass, drawing everyone's attention to the beginning of the festivities.
Sheldon found himself lost in thought rather than listening to the commencement of the games. If Miss Everstead agreed to his assistance in this Yuletide game, he might have the opportunity to truly get to know her as a person, the way Gideon had suggested. He had no notion of what questions he should ask or how to remain focused on the noble venture of acquaintance rather than his desire to touch her at every possible moment, but perhaps ... just perhaps ...
He was already plotting a strategy to engineer this partnership in his mind. After all, why leave anything to chance?
Chapter 13
Tia was not entirely certain that she understood this game, but she was determined to participate all the same. In addition to the fluttery anticipation of spending more time bathed in sparkling chemistry, she was truly relieved that Lord Moorvale had proposed the idea of teaming up. Short of one of the Somers siblings themselves, she was certain there was no one better to assist her.
To reduce the chaos of everyone rushing immediately to the same place to read all of the clues, they were instead passed around one by one to each gathered person to be read, reread, and then deposited on a large, wooden table, where they would live until the game concluded. Tia was certain her hiding place was the worst of them all, and her star would be immediately discovered, but she didn't much mind. She had made good progress on her needlework of the children on the red sledge, and thought it would make a fine gift for whomever found her star.
"Quickly up or slowly down, the sound of me will make you frown," read Alex Somers from his slip of paper. "Hel, is there a star in your singing voice?"
Heloise made a face and her husband stifled a burst of laughter into an unconvincing cough.
Tia had chosen a clue written in a spiky, childish scrawl and smudged with fingerprints.Papa's favorite storywas all it said, with Reggie's name signed beneath in the neater handwriting of his nanny. She read it again and raised her eyes to study Gideon Somers, who was frowning over his own clue. She wondered what in the world a man like that read to his children at bedtime. Perhaps she should check Somerton's most recent copy ofThe Evening Standard.
Sheldon appeared next to her, tilting the clue in his hand to her to read. It was Heloise's handwriting, and readMy most frequent haunt.
She showed him the one she'd drawn, somewhat mollified to see that it clearly puzzled him as well.
"Perhaps we ought to start in the library?" she suggested, a delicate emphasis on the wordwe. "Or we could follow Heloise around."
"If the game were not confined to the halls of Somerton," he said, his voice hushed to keep this conjecture between them, "I'd be certain Heloise hid her star in her clinic, but that is all the way down the road and into the township."
"Perhaps she has a similar work space here?" Tia suggested. "Or maybe she is referring to the place she spent the most time when she lived at Somerton as a child?"
"Definitely not the library, then," Sheldon said flatly, making Tia giggle.
"Somewhere outside, I'd wager?" she guessed. "At Mrs. Arlington's, Heloise always excelled at sport."
"Perhaps the stables," Sheldon considered, tapping at his stubble-covered chin. "She did, after all, marry the stable boy."
Tia blinked, unable to resist craning her neck around to get another look at Lieutenant Laughlin, the decorated war hero Heloise had married. "He was thestable boy?"she marveled, aghast at such scandal and yet, somehow, entirely unsurprised.
"He was," Sheldon confirmed. "That must be it, no? Unless the word ‘haunt’ is a clue ..." He trailed off, losing himself in thought again.
