The Scandalous Spinster: A Regency Historical Romance (The Spinster Society Book 1) by Alyxandra Harvey

Author:Alyxandra Harvey [Harvey, Alyxandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2024-09-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

They had a key that unlocked a door to a grotto of disrepute, and other keys with nothing to unlock.

It was maddening.

Nothing fit any lock in the dining room. Nor the library. Nor the dower house. It could literally be anywhere else. Was it for a door, a cabinet, a box? A garden shed? The marquis’s bedroom?

Perhaps Clara was not cut out to investigate misdeeds and bring bad men to justice, after all.

She hurried up the main stairs. The other guests had dispersed to play billiards and walk through the village, as the sun was warm today, coaxing more tulips and bluebells out of the ground. Clara wondered if anyone would think to buy Granny Mab naughty-looking pastries.

After last night, those pastries suddenly made a lot more sense.

Which meant the grotto was hardly a secret. So why, then, had Sybil left a key?

“I know you weren’t disobeying me and wandering off alone,” Bram said suddenly from behind her, lethally calm.

She yelped, loudly enough to put her goose army to shame. He was on the landing behind her, arms crossed and watching her with a single raised eyebrow. She would have raised one right back if she knew how to. “Must you lurk?” she asked.

“Must you?”

“I wasn’t lurking! I was walking,” she said. “Anyway, I already told you I’m invisible.”

“I see you very clearly, Lady Clara.”

What did that mean? Anything? Should she ask? Ignore it?

If she did ask, would they have to talk about last night? Would she have to listen to him tell her that it was just a fleeting moment, more to do with the atmosphere than with her? Or worse, that his honor required some sort of forced relationship between them? That he regretted it? She would rather it meant nothing at all.

Or even worse yet, would he say nothing? Because she was small and pale and they were in a place where everything and everyone glittered?

Back to the task at hand. Safer for her heart.

Pride. She’d meant pride, of course.

“Where are you going?”

Right round the maypole if she continued to chase her thoughts in this fruitless manner. Better to chase a missing chaperone and a key with no lock. “I was going to the nursery.”

“Alone?” His tone was so stern and disapproving, she considered saluting.

“With you, clearly.”

He grumbled under his breath as he stalked after her. “Why are we here?” he asked when they stepped onto the nursery floor. “There have been no children in this house for some time.”

“I know,” she said, noting the wooden rocking horse in the corner, the bed, and the rest of the furniture draped in white cloths. Dust motes danced lazily in the air, and light streamed through the narrow windows. There was a chalkboard hanging on one wall still bearing a drawing of a hedgehog with a sword. He was fighting a mighty dragon who appeared to be more interested in his cup of tea. He wore spectacles.

Beyond that was a sitting room much better suited for a debutante. It was simple, perhaps hastily done, but pretty.

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