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“So. The ball. How was it to be surrounded by your county men once more?” Peter asked. He arched his brow, as though he suspected something had occurred.
“I suppose you’re fishing for something interesting,” Jeffrey said. “And I must assure you. I’m far more boring than I once was.”
“I assume that to be a false statement,” Peter said.
Jeffrey arched his brow. “Perhaps.” He then swallowed and said, “I did meet someone quite interesting to me. Not in a romantic sense, I assure you. A girl. A girl named Charlotte. I’d seen her previously, banging on the door of the place where the mystic had taken up shop. The mystic had already gone—and when I asked Charlotte about it at the ball, she played the fool.”
“What sort of fool?”
“The sort of fool who only wanted to enquire with the mystic about something she’d said. She wanted to confirm something. That sort of thing,” Jeffrey said. “I don’t know how much I believe any of it.”
“Always so contrarian, aren’t you,” Peter affirmed.
“I suppose,” Jeffrey said. “But when she banged on the mystic’s door without answer, she looked far more furious than, I suppose, I wanted to allow her. It was as though it mattered far more to her than the traditional reasons. It wasn’t as though she lay in wait for the mystic’s final assessment of her love life. It was something much more.”
Peter worried his lower lip, then turned his eyes back towards Jeffrey. “Charlotte, you said?”
“Yes. A gorgeous woman. Dark blonde hair. These eyes that yearn to tear you apart.”
“I see. Yes, I know her. I know her family,” Peter said. “She’s a good deal younger than us and probably wasn’t in full view of you before your departure.”
“I see.”
“She’s twenty-two, twenty-three—something around there,” Peter explained. “Over the previous years, I’ve heard tell of several men after her. She’s been coveted by countless across the county. I hear her name whispered quite a lot, especially in association with the broken hearts of men.”
“Poor bastards,” Jeffrey said, offering a wry smile. “I suppose I might have been similar back in the older days.”
“Not you. You were never a sap,” Peter returned.
“I should like to think this way about myself, although it’s difficult to say,” Jeffrey said. “I do wonder what on earth she wanted with the mystic. She seemed altogether too … shall we say … intellectual for such a belief? Perhaps that’s cruel.”
Peter furrowed his brow and gripped the whisky bottle. “Perhaps it has something to do with her cousin’s recent murder.”
Jeffrey arched his brow in sudden alarm. “Her cousin was murdered?”
Peter nodded. “Her cousin, Brooks. He was found dead in an alleyway in town. At first, his death was suspected to be murder—but just today, I spoke with one of the constables, who suspects differently. Apparently, Brooks sustained a considerable head injury that suggests he simply fell.”
“But of course, the county is abuzz with the idea of murder,” Jeffrey said with a slight laugh.
“Yes. Naturally. You know these people far too well,” Peter affirmed.
“When did the murder occur?” Jeffrey asked.
“I believe it happened the very day you returned to town,” Peter said, his eyes twinkling.
Jeffrey chuckled. “Are you insinuating something?”
“Absolutely not,” Peter said. “Only that you seem to have a flair for the dramatic. You run out of the county for three years, and then, upon your return … a man is found dead in the streets. If I were a different sort of man, with a different sort of assessment of your personality … perhaps I would suspect something.”
“Perhaps you should,” Jeffrey offered with a snort.
Peter rolled his eyes and turned his attention towards the parlour window. “It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? Sitting in your parlour once more. I’m awash with memories.”
Jeffrey wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to step down this kind of memory lane. He washed the strange taste from his mouth and said, “Yes. Well.” Then, after another pause, he added, “I suppose there’s something about this Charlotte creature.”
“Whatever do you mean?” Peter asked.
“It’s just funny, isn’t it? I find her banging on the door of the mystic’s, then encounter her at the ball, only to discover that her cousin died of mysterious circumstances today,” he said.
