Page 41 of Kiss Me Lady One More Time
“She was my mother,” Lady Tresham answered, pulling off her gloves and tossing them over the back of a covered chair. “And to answer your next question, the expression is due to her having four daughters and a husband without status or money.”
“Oh, yes.” Penelope nodded. “That would exasperate anyone.”
Sterne stepped forward to greet the lady and Penelope gratefully turned back to the painting. She needed a moment to recover. Hang it all, she needed a week, a pot of brandy-laced tea and a long talk with Hope to recover—but she would take what she could get.
Good heavens, it was all so deliciously tempting—the conversation, the smiles, the anticipation that shimmered between them. Worse, now she knew it scarcely held a candle to the . . . giving in. To the hot breath and soft touches and tiny kisses and thelicking. She shivered.
Sterne had finished with the pleasantries and Lady Tresham had clearly decided that she had no time for them. She flicked a sheet off a chair and indicated Penelope should take it. “You are a quick one, Miss Munroe.” She twitched the cover off of a settee and curled up on it. “I generally try very hardnotto use that expression of my mother’s, but you are making it difficult.”
“Apologies, Lady Tresham, but we have some delicate questions to ask and I don’t think you’d care for us to raise them in public.”
The lady sighed. “I suppose I must thank you for that, at least.”
Penelope leaned forward. “Lady Tensford wished to be here, but she is indisposed. She did say, though, that you are a direct and pragmatic person and that she expected you would answer our questions.”
The other woman frowned. “She is all right?”
“Yes.”
Lady Tresham frowned. “Think what you will of me, young lady, but Hope is the closest thing I have to a friend. Is she all right?”
Penelope’s estimation of the woman instantly rose. “I do understand that you two have a long acquaintance. I don’t think she’d mind if I tell you that she is expecting a happy event.”
Lady Tresham’s face cleared. “Oh. You must send her my congratulations.”
“I will. And our questions?”
Her eyes closed. “I suppose I owe her that much. And I suppose the answers can’t hurt so much.” She waved a hand. “As you can see, we are leaving, and I expect it to be a nice, long trip.”
Sterne moved to stand before her, but a little distance away. He looked very serious. “Did you steal Lord Tensford’s fossil?” he asked bluntly.
“What?” She straightened. “Tensford’s fossil?” Her eyes had gone wide. “That great, hulking thing? No. Of course, I did not.”
Penelope glanced at Sterne. She believed the lady was telling the truth. By the glum look on his face, she thought he did, as well.
“Do you know who did take it?” she asked.
“No. It was quite an organized effort, though, was it not? Have you looked to Stillwater?”
“Why?” Sterne asked sharply.
She shrugged. “It seemed a very personal type of theft to me. Such a big undertaking. And not that large of a payoff. Who would go to the trouble except someone who wanted to hurt the earl?” She paused. “I don’t know what it is that Stillwater holds against Tensford, but there is definitely something there.”
“We know you visited Stillwater’s home after the specimen was taken,” Penelope told her. “Did you see Tensford’s fossil while you were there?”
“No. He only showed me his collection. At length. But he apparently did have the space to hide something that large away.” She nodded toward Penelope. “It was your cousin who noticed it. I convinced him to take me to Stillwater’s and we basically bullied our way in. I was grilling the old gentleman about the value of his collection and Mr. Lycett was bored silly. He kept pacing between the two rooms that held all of the pieces and when we left, he said the dimensions of the rooms were off, or something. He suspected the old man had a hidden closet tucked away.”
“Lady Tresham,” Sterne said gently. “Did you steal fossils from Stillwater?”
She sighed. “Yes. Just a few, small pieces that I thought were in particularly good condition.”
“Did you sell them?”
“No. I meant to,” she said defiantly. “He boasted hard enough about buying many of his pieces for next to nothing, from yokels who didn’t understand what they possessed. He went on about it so long, I barely felt a twinge relieving him of a few. But they were stolen frommebefore I could manage it.” She lifted a shoulder. “I’d already discovered that they were not worth much, in any case.” Looking at Sterne, she nodded. “And that just makes me feel even stronger that I’m right—that the person who took that fossil didn’t do it for the money or for the acclaim. He did it to hurt Tensford.”
“If it was any other man, I might agree with you,” Sterne told her. “But Tensford hasn’t any enemies. He’s the most decent man I know.” He held out a folded bit of paper. “Will you take a look at this list of names? Do you think any of these men might have stolen the pieces from you—or might have been the one to steal from Tensford?”
She looked the list over. “These are all collectors. I discovered that much during the last few months, as I was learning the community. You think one of these men might have Tensford’s fish?”
