A sudden idea came to Verity. She might not know anything from books, but she had paid attention to the vicar’s stories from the bible of a Sunday morning. Since praying was mentioned…yes, she thought she might have an idea. She said, “Could it be the bronze snake that Moses made?”
“The Serpent,” Lord Wembly said.
“The Serpentine?” Verity said.
“That’s got to be it,” Lord Wembly said.
They turned and hurried in that direction. Verity was rather stunned. She’d figured out a clue. At least, she thought she had. She’d imagined she’d spend the entire day covering her stupidity but instead, she might have figured out a clue.
*
Henry was annoyedthat Lady Lilith had joined their party. Especially since his aunt had put the idea in his head that she might have purposefully turned up at the park. Had she done the same now?
He would not have expected to see her here, as the tickets were expensive and her family were in tight circumstances. But on the other hand, Sir Jonathan never made any particular effort to collect the tickets. He likely assumed everybody would be honorable about it. Perhaps she had not bought a ticket and presumed nothing would be said about it?
If that were the case, then he would really wonder if her father even waited in the carriage. Henry would also be entirely irritated with her pushiness. Where on earth did she think it was going? He had indicated, pretty clearly he thought, that he was not interested. He was not inclined to tolerate this pushing in when he was meant to be spending time with Lady Verity. Having her sisters along was quite enough to juggle.
Though on a more positive note, he thought his alleged shock over not seeing Sir Galahad had gone over pretty well with Lady Valor.
They’d made their way to The Serpentine. It was a brisk and sunny day, and the water rippled with the wind as swans made their majestic way round. He could not help but to notice that the breeze was wrestling with the pins in Lady Verity’s hair—a curl had just been delightfully set free.
“I don’t see anything,” Lady Valor said. “Is it supposed to be in the water? Do we need a boat?”
“Right there,” Lady Winsome said, pointing to a tree a few yards ahead. “It’s on the water side so you can’t see it when you approach.”
Henry followed her gaze. There were blue tickets all tacked on the backside trunk of a tree. They hurried to collect one of them. Henry pulled one from its pin and put it in his coat pocket.
“Now let’s step away from here so we do not give it away to anybody else,” Henry said. “Look dejected, as if we’ve found nothing.”
“Hah!” Lady Valor said. “We’re tricking them!”
Henry thought Lady Valor looked a little too triumphant to trick anyone, but there was nothing to be done about it. “Lady Lilith? If you will read the next clue.”
“Certainly, Lord Wembly,” Lady Lilith said, peering down at the paper in her hand. “It is not changing leaves, nor snowfall, nor hives heavy with honey that grants us the vision of miraculous nature.”
“What?” Lady Valor said in a particularly annoyed tone.
Henry did not blame her. This clue did seem a bit more obscure. “What would grant a vision of miraculous nature?”
“Why does the vision have to be granted?” Lady Winsome asked. “Why cannot you just look at it?”
“Oh,” Lady Verity said, “but it hints that it is not winter or autumn or summer. It must be spring. And since it mentions vision—”
“The bathing spring,” Henry said. “Well done, Lady Verity.”
The lady blushed, which complemented her errant curl.
“Are we bathing now?” Valor asked. “I do not think Mrs. Right will like it if we come back wet.”
“No, it is the spring people use to bathe their eyes, should they have some sort of malady,” Henry said. “Let us be off!”
They hurried toward the bathing spring, dodging various other people going off in other directions. The spring was located under a line of trees with a deal of underbrush. They had to search around before finding the brown tickets laying on a large stone and very much blending in with the surroundings.
The party moved away from the area so as not to give anything away, though other people were beginning to hunt around the spring. Lady Lilith read the third clue.
“For this reason, a Corinthian often picks up the sword.”
Henry ran the possibilities through his mind. A Corinthian picks up the sword to do what?
