“Very good thinking, my dear,” Miss Mayton said, helping herself to a biscuit from the glass jar by the side of the bed.
“By the by,” Rosalind said to her aunt, “your name is Archibald.”
“Specific,” Miss Mayton said, nodding. “That adds a ring of truth to the whole thing.”
“When will we go, though?” Juliet said. “I’m all jumpy about it and wish to set off at once.”
Rosalind tapped her finger to her lips. “I was thinking we might go on Sunday, after church. We must make sure Conbatten is at home, and that is the most likely day.”
“We might say to father that we wish to take some air,” Cordelia said. “After all, it would be true. We always do like to take air.”
“And there would not be room for Papa or Darden to come,” Viola said, nodding.
“But what if Darden wishes to take his horse out and follow along with us?” Cordelia asked.
“We can say it would not be the right time,” Rosalind said, “because we wish to discuss personal ladies’ matters in the strictest confidence.”
Juliet laughed and said, “Oh yes, there is no quicker way to make Papa or dear Darden run from a room than to mention personal ladies’ matters. Remember when Papa was on the verge of scolding Cordelia about the second house fire, and she said she got distracted by personal ladies’ matters?”
“I wonder what they think these matters are?” Miss Mayton asked.
“I think they are not certain and do not wish to find out,” Viola said.
“Sunday is the day after tomorrow,” Rosalind said. “That gives us a day to alter the clothes, snip off some of Bess’ fur for sideburns, and find some glue we can use to put them on.”
“I’ll get the glue,” Juliet said. “I’ll tell Tattleton that I am making a collage of my poems.”
“Good thinking, Jules,” Viola said. “And we all have scissors in our sewing boxes so it will be no trouble to snip off Bess’ hair.”
“I really think we have thought of everything,” Rosalind said.
“Of course we have,” Cordelia said, “we’ve looked at the thing backwards and forwards.”
The sisters sighed contentedly, as they always did when they had designed a foolproof scheme.
“Aunt, how did you make out at dinner?” Viola asked. “Who took you in and what were they like?”
Miss Mayton sighed and said, “An elderly gentleman named Lord Bentley took me in. I really do think the fellow suffers terribly from the gout or some other painful malady. He was very grim throughout and did not even seem struck when I told him of Gregorio and his unfortunate deadly blow to himself in the library just minutes before I arrived to tell him his love was requited.”
“How could he not be struck by it, though?” Cordelia asked.
“Indeed, I found it very strange,” Miss Mayton said. “I told him all the details, right down to Gregorio’s parting words. All he said was, ‘I’ve heard worse.’”
“What an odd fellow,” Viola said.
“I think he must be terribly odd,” Rosalind said. “I heard Conbatten ask him how his estate got on and he said as far as he knew the house was still standing, but there was every chance that a letter detailing its collapse had been delayed in the post.”
Miss Mayton finished her biscuit and said, “Poor Lord Bentley. Now, I must chase you all into your own beds. It is late and we have much to accomplish on the morrow—we will wish to be rested.”
*
Balthazar had senta note to the Lord Chamberlain to arrange a meeting with the queen. Contacting Salisbury always proved the fastest route to an audience, rather than going through the usual channels and getting waylaid and delayed by petty functionaries who demanded their pound of respect for their authority.
Salisbury had come through and arranged an early meeting. The Queen liked to be up with the sun and though her ladies-in-waiting could not prefer it, she was generally dressed and at a tea tray by eight.
As so few other people in London wished for the queen’s attention so early in the morning, she had been free and was agreeable to the meeting.
The ride through the streets was refreshing, as there were so few people about. Hades appeared delighted to be out in the air long before the usual time. Balthazar almost began to think Hamill was on to something with his early morning jaunts.
