Celeste Bradley - [The Liar's Club 0]

Author:The Spy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

The carriage was rounding the park when Collis sat up abruptly. “Look, there’s Phillip now.”

James leaned to peer beneath the half-open shade to see Phillip strolling down the walk with Robbie, who was fast demolishing a paper dish of ice. As he watched, Phillip looked down at Robbie and laughed, then stopped to pull out his handkerchief and give the boy’s face a much-needed swipe.

Collis leaned forward. “James, old man, I think we need to get Phillip off to Mrs. Blythe immediately.”

“What do you mean?” James continued to watch Phillip and Robbie. The boy certainly seemed happier and more comfortable with his tutor than with James.

“He’s acting more like a governess than a tutor. Or did your tutor wipe your chin for you?”

James didn’t have an opportunity to reply to this, for Collis leaned through the small window to call for the driver to stop. Then he opened the door before the footman could jump down and stepped halfway down. “Phillip! Rob!”

Collis’s bellow traveled halfway across the park with ease, scattering flocks of pigeons and causing irritated glances from one and all. James shaded his face with one hand and slunk down into the tufted seat. So much for the invisible carriage.

Robbie arrived first and scrambled aboard, sticky hands and all. He turned excited eyes to James. “Did you come looking for us? Where are we going?” He seemed to have no memory of his earlier anger. James found himself grateful for that at least, for when Phillip quietly stepped into the carriage, one could have chilled champagne with the glare James received.

Collis grinned. “No more work today, James. I want to take Rob here to visit Clara. She was asking about him at breakfast, complaining that she hasn’t seen him in days.” He smirked at James. “Then you can tell Phillip about our plans for him.”

James shot Collis a quelling glare but agreed. Robbie was nearly as mad for Clara as he was for James’s sister Agatha. Both women were putty in the hands of the Blue-eyed Bandit, as Collis had dubbed him. As James was fond of Clara as well, there seemed no reason not to give Robbie the chance for some maternal companionship, especially following Collis’s crack about starting up his own monastery.

Unfortunately, that left James and Phillip together in an uncomfortable silence once Collis and Robbie climbed from the carriage.

As they shut the carriage door, Phillipa heard Robbie’s voice. “Aren’t you supposed to call her Aunt Clara, if she’s married to your uncle Dalton now?”

She heard Collis laugh. “Not bloody likely, when she’s younger than me and twice as pretty! She’d clout me for sure if I tried it . . .”

As they drove away, the rattling of the wheels on the cobbles drowned out everything happening outside the carriage, making the space inside seem even more confining and intimate.

Phillipa shifted uncomfortably. She and James had left matters entirely unresolved earlier this afternoon. Would he act as though nothing had been said?

By all rights, he ought to sack her.

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