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He stalked behind them down the corridor to their box.
Sabrina hesitated before going in. “I don’t know what I’m going to say to my father.”
“Don’t say anything. Maybe he won’t notice,” Graeme said.
She shot him an incredulous look.
“I’ll explain,” Chloe said. “We don’t want to worry poor Lord Musgrave any more than we have to.”
Dominic suddenly opened the door from the inside. His gaze flickered over their little group, snagging momentarily on Sabrina’s bare throat. He let out an exasperated sigh.
“Really?” he said to Graeme.
“It’s rather complicated, dear,” Chloe said.
“It always is when a Kendrick is involved.”
Dominic waved them into the box, reserving a stern look for Graeme.
Graeme didn’t blame him. Dominic, the former chief of the spy service, and Aden had specifically entrusted this case to Graeme, and he’d made a cock-up of it from the beginning.
Lord Musgrave starched up when he saw Graeme. “Sabrina, I do hope you haven’t been dallying in the saloon with strangers.”
“Indeed, no,” Chloe said. “Sabrina was with me.”
“I simply happened to, um, run into Mr. Kendrick on the way back to the box,” Sabrina explained.
“That’s right,” Graeme said. “I thought I’d stop in to pay my regards to you and Sir Dominic. I hope you’re well, my lord. It’s a pleasure to see you again.”
Lord Musgrave sniffed and made a point of ignoring him. Staring at his daughter, he blinked, and his pursed lips sagged open. “Sabrina, where is your necklace?”
She flushed. “Oh, ah, the clasp was catching in my hair, so I took it off.”
Her father’s gaze trailed down to her gloved wrists, now stripped of their matching bracelets. His eyes widened in horror. “Your bracelets are gone!”
She sat next to him and took his hand. “There was a little incident, Father, but I’m fine. There’s no need to be concerned.”
“Sabrina, where are your mother’s pearls?” Lord Musgrave asked rather loudly.
His daughter winced. “Well, you see . . .”
“Lady Sabrina had a regrettable encounter with a thief,” Sir Dominic calmly interjected. “Distressing, of course, but she is entirely unharmed, which is obviously the most important thing.”
Musgrave looked ready to topple into a dramatic swoon. “Those were your dear mother’s pearls, Sabrina. How could you lose them like that?”
When the poor lass bit her lip, looking ashamed, Graeme’s barely restrained patience evaporated. “She didn’t do anything wrong, my lord. She was robbed.”
Lord Musgrave rounded on him. “And did you witness this robbery, sir?”
Sabrina gave Graeme a frantic little shake of the head.
Och, she was trying to protect him, but the hell with that. Her father was a querulous old ninny, and he had no business biting her nose off.
“I did, sir. There was nothing your daughter could have done to prevent it.”
Musgrave practically vibrated with aristocratic outrage. “And there was nothingyoucould do?”
“He tried, Father. It was an impossible situation,” Sabrina quickly said.
