Read Online Gather Ye Rosebuds by Joan Smith - Free Book Online Page B

be delighted if you would be my guests.”
    “I daresay there is no harm in it,” Mama said, with an uncertain glance at me. Lord Weylin seemed quite surprised at this lukewarm acceptance.
    I said, “We would be very happy to join you, milord.”
    “I shall be waiting for you here in the lobby at seven.”
    We thanked him and hastened along to our rooms. When we were behind closed doors, Mama said, “I do not look forward to dining with Weylin. It is a pity we agreed. I don’t suppose I could claim a sick headache, and we could eat in our room?”
    “We shan’t do much good locked in our rooms, Mama. Weylin is right. The necklace will be easier to trace than the money, and it might lead us to some clue.”
    Mama cast a knowing look at me. “You are setting your cap at him, in other words. I take leave to tell you, Zoie, he has no interest in a lady your age.”
    “I am not setting my cap at him! And furthermore, he is a good decade older than I.”
    “He is only thirty-one.” (Only thirty-one, you see. A gentleman close to a third of a century is a mere bantam cock, while a lady was an old hen at twenty-five.) “Your papa remembered very well the day he was born. Old Lord Weylin set off fireworks at Parham. His mama had been trying for half a dozen years to produce a pledge of her love, and was afraid it would be a girl when she finally managed to become enceinte. Everyone came from miles around to see the baby. It was the talk of the parish.”
    “Was there a large star in the sky to guide them to Parham that night?” I asked.
    Mama sniffed her displeasure at such a sacrilegious joke. Still, if I had had any notion of setting my cap at Lord Weylin, that story would have stopped me. A man whose birth was announced with a public display of fireworks was obviously above my touch. Not that I had planned to chase after him, but when an eligible man crosses the path of a lady my age, it is only natural to consider it.
    We had an hour’s rest before changing for dinner. I spent the time planning how we might set about discovering any clues to the vanished necklace and money. Really it was a good thing Weylin had joined forces with us, because he might at least know where his aunt stayed in Tunbridge Wells. As he was staying at Bishop’s Down, it seemed that his aunt might have stayed here, too. We could question the staff as to whom she met. A tour of the jewelry shops and pawnshops was another possible lead, in case she had hawked the necklace. No doubt Weylin had brought the copy with him, which might serve to jog the jewelers’ memory. That was why he had taken it!
    What I could not think of was any manner of finding out what had become of Barry’s money. It would be just like life if Lord Weylin, who had no need of more wealth, should recover his prize while Mama and I went home empty-handed.
    Mama fell into a light nap. At six-thirty I shook her awake and we both made our toilettes for dinner. Not knowing how long we would remain, I had brought two evening gowns with me. I wore the better of them for dinner with Lord Weylin. Borsini had talked me into wearing gowns of a classical design, to go with my “classical” face. Mama calls my draped togalike white crape with gold ribbons around the hem a shroud, and tells me I look a quiz. In fact, I have received several compliments on it, and thought a sophisticated gentleman like Lord Weylin might not despise it.
    “Oh, Zoie, you are not wearing the shroud!” Mama exclaimed, when she looked up from her own toilette to see what I had on.
    “We are only going down to Weylin’s private parlor, Mama. No one will notice what I wear.”
    “He will notice.”
    “But then, we have agreed I am not chasing after him.”
    “And a good thing it is, for you look a quiz, Zoie. Ever since you began those painting lessons, you have let your wardrobe fall into a shambles. And your hair looks very odd, too, in that funny old knot.  I have not seen one like it since we