“It isn’t? What is it, then?”
He made his way to the table. “It’s not ananimal-animal. You don’t shoot it.”
“No, you merely yank it from its peaceful, watery home and slowly suffocate it.”
Simon snickered.
“All right, you two, that’s enough.” Olive lowered the magazine she was reading, and Archie was amused to see that it wasLe Monde Joli, the one that sometimes published Effie’s poems. He wondered if that was a coincidence or if Effie had told Oliveallhis secrets.
To Clementine, Olive said, “I do believe his questions are in earnest, so perhaps a less barbed response is in order.” She turned to Archie. “Andyou.” She sniffed. “If you’re going to do things Clementine’s way for the day, may I suggest you use your eyes and ears more and your mouth less? You’re meant to observe and learn, are you not? Rather than opine?”
Simon snickered again, and Archie shot him a look, but he smiled to himself, thinking of their first full day here, when he and Clem had been coming to terms for the visit. She’d said everyone knew that Archie was like a brother to the Morgan girls. That felt decidedly true in the case of Olive. She was like a younger sister needling him.
Clementine, though . . .
His gaze found Clem’s lips.
Clem, of course, did not feel like a sister to him anymore. He wasn’t sure now that she ever had.
His face heated. Nay, his entire body heated as he thought of her flushed, writhing on his bed, his ministrations sending her over the edge, her—
“Ahem.” Olive was still looking at him with her eyebrows raised.
“Yes, quite,” he said. “I understand. More listening, less talking.” He made a show of shutting his mouth.
Simon snickered yet again.
It was going to be a very long day.
* * *
Clementine had taken Olive’s admonishment to heart, and she was afraid Archie had, too. “You know, youareallowed to speak despite what my sister says,” she said to him when they’d passed the first ten minutes of afternoon tea almost entirely in silence.
They were alone for the first time today, and there were important matters to discuss, so she needed him to snap out of his uncharacteristically pliable quietude.
“I notice you have eaten eleven sandwiches,” he said.
“I beg your pardon?” That was not what they needed to discuss.
“I have been following Olive’s directive to watch and listen, and I have noted that you eat rather a large volume of food.”
She was not sure if she ought to be offended by the observation. If it were anyone other than Archie making it she would have thought herself being accused of gluttony.
“It’s just that I always thought you had a small appetite,” he added, his brow knitting ever so slightly.
Dear Archie. Hewaswatching and listening. He was trying to understand. “No, I always pretended not to be hungry so I didn’t have to eat what was being served. It turns out that now that I’m in charge of what I eat, and don’t have to come face-to-face with a dead animal on my plate, I have rather alargeappetite.” She pinched a bit of flesh on her arm to show him. “I am not the skinny girl of yore.”
“Yes.” He looked as if he was trying to suppress a smile. “I have recently had occasion to notice that, too.” The smile escaped its confines, and they grinned at each other as if they had a shared secret. Theydidhave a shared secret. “But that can’t have happened in the short time you have been resident here.” His smile turned upside down. “So may I assume you are getting enough to eat under your father’s roof?”
“Yes. I became mistress of the house after Mother died, so I get to oversee the menus. I’ve given the cook a book calledA New System of Vegetable Cookerythat Theo recommended—so perhaps he was good for one thing. I simply order up plenty of dishes I can eat and no one pays any attention to what I do or don’t consume at the table.”
“Good.”
“Father never pays attention to me anyway, not really. He never has.”
“That is . . . less good.”
Enough discussion about her diet. “Archie, I have wanted to get you alone all day, and it has proven more difficult than I’d anticipated.” Olive had spent most of the day with Clementine, and had only just accepted an invitation from Lord Featherfinch to take a ramble.
