Chapter Twenty-One
“He was lying,of course,” Mims said as the three girls sat in a row on the yard wall. Harry had not long walked back in the direction of the Hall, and Mama was engaged in chores with Betsey. Chores all three of them had elected to escape from, as their detective work, Mims had declared, was far more important than doing housework. The bit of wall they were sitting on was out of sight of the house, but they could hear Dick whistling in the barn as he cleaned out the stables.
Lissy gave a shrug. “If Megs actually heard what she thinks she heard.”
Megs bristled. “I did so hear it. You two treat me as if I’m a baby and I’m not. Of course I know what I heard. He definitely said he’d be dead tomorrow. So he must have been lying to us. And to Mama.”
Lissy nodded slowly. “But while you two were busy thinking about him dying, did either of you take the time to notice the way the two of them were looking at each other?”
Megs wrinkled her nose. “No-o.” She glanced at Mims. “What were they doing?”
Lissy drew herself up taller. “As the oldest and the only one who can lay claim to being properly grown up, I think I can safely say that they were looking at each other with true love in their eyes.”
“You think so?” Mims copied Megs and wrinkled her nose too. “I didn’t notice.”
“And how would you know what someone looking at someone else with true love in their eyes is like?” Megs added, with an unmistakeable hint of triumph.
Lissy sighed. “If you must know, it’s because someone has quite recently looked at me in just that way.”
Both her sisters made loud scoffing noises. “When?” Mims spluttered. “I don’t believe you.”
“Was it Archie Miller?” Megs asked, eyebrows rising. “He’s sweet on you, even though he’s a bit of a dunce.”
Lissy huffed. Really, her sisters were unsupportable. How was it she was cursed with such a pair of sillies? She stuck her nose in the air. “It was not Archie Miller, who, in case neither of you have noticed, is only a stable boy.” She huffed again, aiming to look as insulted as possible. “And it was only last night, in fact, that I was being gazed upon with terrible longing and true love in the eyes of a gentleman. Much as Mama was being gazed at by Harry this morning. So you see, I do know.”
This almost, but not quite, took the wind out of her sisters’ sails. “Last night?” Megs echoed. “You didn’t tell us that when we questioned you.” She paused. “Were you keeping it a secret?” She giggled. “Were you, perhaps, gazing back at this blind man, for he must be blind to like you, with similar longing and true love in your own eyes?”
Mims pounced. “She was! Look at her face. She’s gone bright red. You have to tell us about it, or we aren’t going to believe you about Mama and Cousin Harry.” She frowned. “Good heavens, though. Was it Sir Julian looking at you with longing in his eyes? Was it him?” She shuddered. “If he did that to me I fear I might cast up my accounts all over him.”
“I would shoot him for you,” Megs said.
Lissy, cheeks blazing, managed a creditable simper. She’d done a few of those last night while talking to Robert Skeffington, whohappened to be the gentleman in question. “It was most certainly not Sir Julian.” She smoothed her skirts as a delaying tactic. “If you must know, it was Robert Skeffington.”
“Who is he?” Megs asked, sounding disappointed she wasn’t going to have to shoot Sir Julian. “Do we know him?”
Mims shook her head. “Never mind who he is. It’s not important. We’re meant to be talking about Mama and Cousin Harry. If this Robert was looking longingly and lovingly at Lissy, then we have to admit she knows what she’s talking about, so she must be able to vouch for Mama and Cousin Harry looking at each other like that too.”
Megs nodded slowly. “All the same…I’d like to know more about this Robert Skeffington. Does he wear glasses?”
Lissy flounced. “Well, I’m not telling you. You’re too young for talk of love. And besides which, you’d only be ruder about him than you already have been.”
“I’m not too young for talk of Mama’s love,” Megs retorted.
“Ignore her,” Mims said, pulling a face at Lissy. “I am.”
Megs glared at them both but fell silent. In fact, they all fell silent for a while, a slight breeze ruffling their hair as they kicked their booted feet against the wall.
Eventually Mims broke that silence. “So what are we going to do?”
A good point. Lissy licked her lips as she thought. “Well…” she began, then stopped.
“Well what?” Mims asked.
“I like Cousin Harry too much for him to die tomorrow,” Megs said. “And anyway, what I want to know is how anyone could possibly know the exact time they’re going to die. It has to be impossible. Surely no one knows that. Not even people on their deathbeds.”
Another good point. Lissy nodded. “You have to think carefully here, Megs. You have to tell us word for word what you heard them saying under your bedroom window. Don’t put it into your ownwords. Tell us what you heard them say. It’s very important.”
Mims nodded too. “You might provide us with a clue. An important clue that could help us save Harry from death.”
