Although Katherine opened her mouth, she couldn’t quite find the words to express her mixed amusement and pride over Pru handling the matter on her own. Why, then, had she been so adamant to ask for Katherine’s advice on the matter? She seemed perfectly capable of turning away unwanted attention as it was.
Upon noticing Katherine’s expression, Pru wrinkled her nose. “I grew weary of having a passel of men hanging off my every word.” She glanced at Lord Annandale then down into her glass once more. In an almost inaudible mutter, she added, “Perhaps I ought to have found another way.”
At that moment, a herd of men and women, having been offered a tour of the manor by Lord Bath before Katherine arrived, re-entered the parlor in his cheery wake. How big was Lord Bath’s table? There must be thirty people here! If this was what he referred to as a “small, private dinner party,” Katherine would hate to discover how many he invited to a banquet.
Last in the line of guests, lingering two paces to the rear of the last couple to enter, was Mr. Salmon. Katherine’s spirits buoyed. She darted toward the door, only to be stalled as Sir Hugh stepped into her path with a wide smile.
To her surprise, she wasn’t the one he was eager to see. “Miss Burwick,” he greeted her warmly. “A pleasure to find you here! Perhaps if Lord Bath is of a mind, we can set up a card game in the parlor after dinner.”
Katherine turned, raising an eyebrow to Pru, who blushed. As she did, she noticed movement across the room. Wayland and Annandale were walking toward them as well. Annandale wore a peculiar expression, half wary and half… possessive. Perhaps he wasn’t as deterred from courting Pru as she seemed to fear.
The last person Katherine had time to indulge was Wayland. Excusing herself, she slipped away from the group as Annandale approached. In a room full of people, Pru was chaperoned well enough.
Mr. Salmon slinked along the perimeter of the room to one corner, where he accepted a tumbler of spirits from a livery-clad footman. Katherine wove between people as she attempted to cross the sitting room. Although it had seemed of modest size when she’d arrived, somehow the distance between her and her target grew ever larger.
Paying only half a mind to the people surrounding her, she nearly tripped over Mrs. Fairchild. Tarnation! Why had Lord Bath invited her? Katherine bit back a groan, glancing from her to Mr. Salmon, half-afraid that the slippery man would disappear into thin air the moment she turned away. She recalled, from multiple meetings at the Society, that he proudly sported a silver belt buckle. If that buckle had a sliver missing, then she would know for certain who the true Burglar of Bath was!
Unfortunately, Mrs. Fairchild seemed determined to prevent her from doing as she wished. The woman caught her sleeve as Katherine tried to slip past with no more than a polite greeting.
“I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I insist that you stop.”
The only thing Katherine cared to be doing at the moment was searching for the Burglar of Bath. Whatever nonsense Mrs. Fairchild had cooked up, she didn’t want to hear it. Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to have a choice.
“To what are you referring?” she asked reluctantly.
Mrs. Fairchild pointed toward the mantel, where Pru now entertained a number of men, including Prince Karl. Miss Newcomb, hanging behind him, couldn’t seem to get a word in edgewise as the group held an animated conversation. Given the way Pru’s face was alight with enthusiasm, the topic must be either cards or horses, at both of which she had proven herself proficient.
“That,” Mrs. Fairchild said, her voice dripping with condescension.
Katherine sighed. Either the sound or her dejected posture drew the attention of Captain Wayland. Frowning, he took a small step back from the group as he met her gaze. She shook her head. She did not need him to come to her rescue again. In fact, it might rekindle the rumor she’d recently put to rest.
She turned back to Mrs. Fairchild, hoping that her turned back spoke volumes. “A conversation?”
“They’re speaking of things best left to the study! Hunting, gambling, horses. Surely you haven’t snuck Miss Burwick into their after-dinner conversations as well.”
The woman’s scorn was evident in her tone of voice and her look of distaste. Women had every bit as much right to enjoy hunting, gambling, and horses as did men. Unfortunately, Mrs. Fairchild was of the same mind as Lord Bath when it came to which activities it was acceptable for men and women to engage in. They both posed a problem to women like Katherine, who wanted to pursue a predominantly male profession. She held her tongue on the matter, however.
“They’re having an innocent conversation. There isn’t any reason for Miss Burwick or me to be ashamed.”
With a grimace, Mrs. Fairchild stepped forward to more squarely block Katherine’s path. Unless she cared to stumble back into Wayland’s arms or topple into Grandma Bath’s lap, she was cornered.
“There is every reason. You’re deliberately monopolizing the attention of every eligible man in Bath. Was your victory with Lord Northbrook not enough for you?”
A throb started in Katherine’s forehead. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I am not seeking to bar your client from marrying the prince. She can have him if she wants. Though I’ve heard he isn’t the type to come up to snuff.”
The rival matchmaker sniffed and drew herself up. “I insist you stop these mad methods at once and play fairly. Make your client’s match with Captain Wayland, if you will, but leave the rest of the men out of it!”
Katherine flinched at the sound of Wayland’s name. At the very least, Mrs. Fairchild seemed to believe that that would be the only reason Katherine would seek out his company. Even so, if word of how she had rectified the rumor returned to him, she doubted he would be pleased with the lie. After all, he appeared to have worked hard to recommend Pru to his friend, Lord Annandale.
“If she’s acting so deplorably, none of them will be enticed.”
Mrs. Fairchild’s expression darkened like a thundercloud. “And how well do you think they’ll be enticed if they learn that the woman they so esteem might very well be the notorious thief? I saw her lingering outside the King’s Bath on Sunday.”
Katherine spoke through gritted teeth. “Lord Annandale confirmed that she was with him the entire time and wouldn’t have had the opportunity.”
“So he claims, but it’s obvious he’s as besotted as the rest of them!”
Leaning her head down closer to her rival so as to contain the conversation, Katherine hissed, “Miss Burwick was at Lord Northbrook’s house party during the time of one of the thefts, and you well know it.”
The woman harrumphed. “If you’d like for the whole of the gathering to continue to believe that, you’d best start playing fair. Make your match with Miss Burwick and take her off the marriage mart so someone else might have a go at one of the men.”
Was she out of her sarding mind? As the adage went, love was lawless. Playing fair simply didn’t apply. However, Katherine bit her tongue. If she prolonged the conversation much longer, the host would call that dinner was served and she would squander her chance to examine Mr. Salmon’s clothing. That belt buckle loomed in her mind.
“Very well,” Katherine muttered, as much acknowledgement to Mrs. Fairchild’s lunacy as she was likely to get. Thankfully, it seemed to satisfy her rival, who removed her death grip from Katherine’s sleeve.
Katherine wasted no time in navigating the room to install herself at Mr. Salmon’s side. The moment she did, he rubbed his nose. “Lady Katherine.” His voice held a note of superiority, despite the fact that she was many times the investigator he was.
As she opened her mouth to reply cordially, a footman by the door cleared his throat. “My lords and ladies, dinner is served.”
With a wide smile, the Marquess of Bath lifted his arms and swung his wide cuffs. “Come! Escort your dinner partner down the corridor after me.”
Mr. Salmon and Katherine exchanged a look of mixed horror and distaste. Any
one would be a better dinner companion than he. Unfortunately, with every other gentleman offering his arm to the nearest lady — Lyle escorting Grandma Bath, Lord Annandale with Pru on his arm, and Wayland taking charge of the mousy Miss Newcomb — she had no choice but to accept Mr. Salmon’s escort. She gingerly placed her hand on his arm as they took up the rear. They maintained stony silence as he escorted her down to the formal dining room, where all the places at the long table were now occupied save for two on the near end. Katherine was forced to sit on the corner, with no one to converse with save for Mr. Salmon.
All is not lost, she reminded herself. After all, she had ample opportunity to match the piece of silver to his clothing! As she fished out the small vial from her reticule, she let her eyes fall to his belt buckle, searching for scratches.
Instead of the gaudy silver buckle, he wore a plain one tonight. It was dull bronze in color. Why the change? Katherine dropped her reticule on the floor, necessitating that she duck beneath the table to retrieve it. There, she discovered that he didn’t wear any silver on his boots, either.
For some reason, he had divested himself of all silver. Had she waited too long or alerted him that she had found the silver?
As Katherine emerged from beneath the tablecloth, Mr. Salmon’s eyes and his voice were dull. He offered only the barest of pleasantries before he chose from the dishes presented to him by a footman. Katherine stifled a sigh as chatter erupted around them.
This was going to be a very long dinner.
Chapter Fourteen
Harriet dove for the handheld mirror the moment Katherine reached for it. “No, my lady, don’t!” She yanked it from the writing desk and stuffed it beneath the pillow on the bed. Emma, curious as to what needed to be so hidden, sank onto her front haunches and dug her nose into the bedclothes, her curly tail wagging.
Katherine bit back a sigh. “I want to check my reflection.”
“You look beautiful, my lady. Stunning. Effervescent.”
“Harriet.” Her voice held a note of warning.
Pressing her lips together, the maid shook her head. “Forgive me, but it’s for your own good. What if you break the mirror? Today is Friday the thirteenth.”
“It’s a silly superstition, and I’m not nearly as clumsy as my reputation suggests. I can look into a mirror without dropping it.”
Harriet sat on the bed. With her luck, she likely broke the mirror herself.
Exasperated, Katherine turned toward the door. “Very well, I won’t use my mirror.” She opened the door and stepped into the corridor before she added, “I’ll use Pru’s.” She shut the door before Harriet crossed the distance to stop her.
In the corridor, she found no more common sense. One of the doors down the line was open to reveal a woman’s sharp voice. “My rabbit’s foot! The one I bought yesterday, where is it?”
A muffled response filled the air, followed by the woman’s shrill reply.
“The thief must have stolen it! He’s stealing animal limbs now, too? This day will be a disaster!”
Katherine gritted her teeth and marched into Pru’s room. A moment before she shut the door behind her, leaning her full weight against it, she heard the woman exclaim, “Oh, thank heavens! I can go out now.”
The lucky rabbit’s foot must have been found, after all. What drivel.
Katherine sighed and turned her attention to the room, looking forward to interacting with someone who possessed some semblance of sanity despite the day of the week. Thank Zeus it didn’t happen to be a full moon tonight as well, or the biddies in the hotel would never leave their rooms. Katherine refused to remain indoors. She had a thief to find, and today, with its unlucky omen, seemed like precisely the chaos a thief might capitalize upon in order to strike again.
Instead of a calm, reasonable atmosphere, she found Pru in nearly as irrational a state. The entire contents of her trunk were strewn about the room. Dressed in no more than her underclothes, Pru glanced toward Katherine.
“Please, I need help. I cannot decide what to wear.”
“Why not the green?” Katherine suggested. After all, Pru had once suggested that a similar color on Katherine had washed out her complexion. If Pru wanted to dress unappealing, it seemed her best choice.
Wrinkling her nose, the brunette woman shook her head. “No, not the green.” She dragged a jaunty yellow walking dress over her skin. “Does this make me look radiant or perhaps a bit too pink?” With her free hand, she pulled a puce dress closer, the dark pink a stark contrast against the yellow. “What of this one?”
Katherine considered them both then answered, “The pink compliments you better.”
The tension drained from Pru’s shoulders as she nodded. She tossed the yellow onto the bed and started to pull the puce dress over her head. Katherine narrowed her eyes. First, Pru insisted that she look unappealing, but now she wanted to look attractive. She must have grown fond of Lord Annandale, after all!
As Katherine stepped away from the door, Harriet burst into the room, Emma tucked beneath one arm. She pointed a finger at the writing desk. “I am confiscating your mirror, too!”
Pru’s mouth dropped open. “Whatever for? I need it if I’m to apply my cosmetics.”
Yes, she had definitely developed some sort of tendre for Lord Annandale if she was going through that much trouble to look appealing. She and Katherine usually didn’t bother with cosmetics unless they intended to go out for the evening.
“I’ll apply them for you,” Harriet answered. “If I can make Lady Katherine look unappealing, I can make you shine, trust me.”
Katherine snatched the dog from Harriet’s arms. “I’m going to take Emma out into the garden.”
“You can’t go out alone! The day is unlucky!”
“I’ll take my chances,” she said between gritted teeth as she shut the door.
The day had dawned hours ago with frost on the ground, but in case the sun had yet to warm the air to a bearable level, Katherine donned her pelisse before she exited with Emma in tow on her leash. She took the back stairs, by Lady Dalhousie’s room, hoping not to encounter anyone.
At the first landing, the Long Hall came into view, where a merry little quartet played a jaunty midday tune. The light, supplementing the thin daylight streaming in from the tall, wide windows, sparkled off of the ladies’ jewels. Had they decided to wear every single piece of jewelry they owned?
Snatches of conversation met her ears.
“…a cat, I tell you. I know what I saw.”
“Was it black?”
“It doesn’t matter the color,” answered a third woman. “It still might have been a witch in disguise. You know they abound today!”
I know you are all dolts. Katherine bit her tongue.
“…don’t want the thief to help himself to anything I own today! I’ve instructed my maid to be vigilant. In the meantime, I’m wearing all I can…”
Yes, bacon-brained dolts, the lot of them.
Irritated, Katherine stomped down the remaining steps to the door leading into the garden. She stepped out into the bracing air, the chill permeating her even with the pelisse. Thankful that she’d taken the forethought, she pulled it closer around her shoulders and crunched over the path. Emma happily led the way. She seemed impervious to the cold. With so much rain throughout the summer, it hadn’t proven to be much of a summer at all. If Katherine had to hazard a guess, she would suspect that they would have snow again this winter, despite usually receiving no more than a dusting or two throughout the winter months.
Following her eager pug, Katherine lost herself in thought as she mulled over the investigation thus far. She’d hoped to have found the Burglar of Bath by now and been ready to return to her regular life. Unfortunately, it seemed that she’d set her hopes a little too high. She had some investigating to do yet, but how? Barring searching people’s rooms in the hopes of finding something silver that they’d worn, she didn’t have any ideas.
Her one hope was
that the thief would take the opportunity presented today by so many superstitious nincompoops and that they would make a mistake when they did so. Katherine intended to be vigilant. Given that the ladies of Bath seemed to be wearing all their jewelry in a gaudy, mismatched display, she should be able to keep them all under her eye.
If so, the thief would have to come to her.
“Haven’t you heard you shouldn’t walk alone on such an unlucky day?”
Katherine groaned as she pulled Emma to a stop and turned to face the speaker. “Don’t tell me you believe in that drivel, too. We’re detectives. We believe in evidence.”
Captain Wayland, his hands stuffed into his greatcoat pockets for warmth, laughed. “I don’t, but I thought you looked lonely nevertheless.”
The statement hovered between them, begging an invitation on her part to walk with him. However, they hadn’t been alone together since he’d nearly kissed her — no, since her imagination had run wild with her. Nothing between them had changed at all.
Stifling a sigh, she indicated the walkway in front of her. “Would you care to join me?”
“It would be my pleasure.”
They walked on a ways, Emma pausing to sniff various plants with what seemed like a disproportionate amount of vigor given the subject matter. Certainly, she couldn’t be doing so in order to give Katherine and Wayland some privacy. Emma was a conniving little thief, but she was still no more than a dog. She didn’t understand complicated human emotions.
“How fares the investigation?” Wayland asked.
Katherine mulled over the question. She had confessed most of it to him already, as she saw fit to divulge details. Still he continued to ask… “Why do you care to know?” If he was, indeed, conducting his own investigation, he seemed to be using her as a vital font of information.
The Baffling Burglaries of Bath Page 18