Page 11 of Blackmail at Beckwith Place
“You two?” Francis snorted. “That’s ridiculous, Pippa. None of us here?—”
He stopped when Christopher shook his head. “Geoffrey Marsden certainly thinks so, and he has probably told his parents. He has some suspicion that there’s something going on with Pippa and Crispin too, for that matter…”
Uncle Herbert made a choking noise, and we all turned to look at him. He covered his mouth with his hand and made a coughing sound behind it. “Pardon me,” he said after clearing his throat. “But I thought you said… Geoffrey Marsden thinks there’s something betweenPippaandCrispin?!”
It was difficult to say which of our two names received the most outraged pronunciation.
“It’s her own fault,” Francis told him and turned to me. “If you would just refrain from flirting with him, Pipsqueak?—”
“I do notflirtwith St George!” I said, offended.
“You did that time. All that ‘sometime when we’re alone’ nonsense…”
Uncle Herbert made another sound. I flicked him a glance—his cheeks were red behind the hand—and then ignored him in favor of Francis.
“That wasn’t flirtation, Francis. I was trying to be funny. Everyone who knows us knows that all we ever do is bicker.Heknows that all we ever do is bicker!”
“Lord Geoffrey doesn’t know that all you ever do is bicker,” Francis pointed out, “and when you say things like ‘when we are alone…’”
I threw my hands up. “I made a mistake, all right? Christopher already explained this to me. I gave Marsden the wrong impression, and as a result we had that whole scene in which he put his hand on my knee and squished me into the corner of the sofa…”
Uncle Herbert made another noise, but this time it was outraged rather than appalled. “He did what?”
I waved it off. “It’s ancient history. Happened back in May when we went to the Dower House. St George took care of it.”
Uncle Herbert arched a brow before looking from one of his sons to the other. “Crispin had to rescue Philippa from Lord Geoffrey? What were the two of you doing?”
“I was dancing with Constance,” Francis said. “I had other things on my mind. Christopher was dancing with… who was it again, Kit? Lady Laetitia or the fair Johanna that time?”
Christopher muttered something, his cheeks hot, and Francis grinned. “That’s right. St George was dancing with Johanna, wasn’t he? Yethemanaged to notice that our Pippa needed rescuing, and you didn’t. Why was that, Kit?”
“Leave him alone, Francis,” I told him, although truthfully I had no idea what he was on about. There was absolutely no chance that Christopher had been so taken with Lady Laetitia’s charms that that was why he hadn’t noticed my distress. “It’s done. Although I’m sure that that unfortunate scene did nothing to persuade Marsden that he was wrong about St George and myself.”
“No,” Francis agreed, “I don’t imagine it did. When a bloke goes out of his way to rescue a girl who isn’t his sister from another bloke who’s attempting to pet her, it generally tells the other bloke something. At any rate, I won’t make you sleep with him. If you’re going to?—”
He caught his father’s eye and trailed off. After clearing his throat, he started again. “I’ll share with St George. You share with Kit. And if anyone says anything about it, one of us will be happy to set them straight.”
“Marvelous,” I said. “Shall we go in, then?”
“The others are gathered in the drawing room,” Uncle Herbert said. “It’s almost time for tea.”
“I’ll take the bags upstairs,” Francis said. “Do you want the room to the left or the right of the staircase?”
“I don’t care,” I said.
“Right,” Christopher said at the same time.
We glanced at one another. “I’m right,” I asked, “or you want the room on the right?”
“Do you care?”
I didn’t. “Just pick one. Your right, the house’s right, or I’m right. Doesn’t matter. We won’t be there much, since the rooms are small and uncomfortable and the weather is nice. We can play croquet tomorrow.”
Francis nodded and headed for the staircase, bags in both hands.
“This way,” Uncle Herbert told us, as if we hadn’t grown up here, and gestured towards the drawing room.
CHAPTERFOUR
