Dune House by Eunice Mays Boyd

Author:Eunice Mays Boyd [EUNICE MAYS BOYD with ELIZABETH REED ADEN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Level Best Books
Published: 2021-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

That afternoon in her boudoir, Julia told Aubrey about Marianne.

His head gave a startled jerk toward Lark, but by the time he spoke only the muscles around his mouth showed strain. “You’re actually going to let her stay here, Miss Paget—a stranger you know nothing of? Why, the Santa Barbara sale alone… it’ll come through any day, you know—a hundred thousand in cash. I don’t suppose you’d let us bank it?”

“Put Paget money in a bank?” Julia asked. “Not while Asa Paget’s daughter is alive! But don’t think for a minute, Aubrey, that I don’t know what my guests have brought with them. There are neither explosives nor safe-cracking tools among their lingerie and dresses.”

“But sometimes when you’re opening the safe or Kezzie’s getting out your jewels…” Aubrey said.

“My guests brought no weapons either, Aubrey—nothing with which to stage a hold-up,” Julia said. “Anyway, no one could climb those spiral stairs without my hearing them. Or, if they did, there’s always my ace of trumps, you know—Papa’s revolver.”

Aubrey shrugged. “Well, you can’t say I haven’t warned you. If you’ll let me have the photograph that woman brought I’ll take it right down to be tested.”

“Thank you, Aubrey.” Julia smiled while her fingers moved on the chair arms and her diamonds sprayed drops of rainbow. “I’ve already attended to that. I sent the photograph yesterday to the man who tested the others. He promised to telephone the stable as soon as he was sure of the results. But I’m willing to wager it’s genuine. And she has Ulysses’ ring.”

Aubrey’s face looked harder than Lark had ever seen it. “I’ve got a man checking Lark’s mother, but I’ll put on a couple more if necessary and get a check-up started on this—Marianne Seymour.” He sat staring at the fire in the grate beneath a mustard yellow lambrequin and a bee-swarm of framed photographs.

Lark got up and held her cold palms toward the flames. “Wait until you meet her—Mister Hildreth. You’ll see—” She stopped. She couldn’t say, You’ll see that veneer of charm and find out what’s beneath it. You’ll see that air of sweetness and deference and something entirely different when you talk with her alone. She couldn’t say, She’s hard as nails and her hair’s bleached, and the only way she keeps her figure—

“Now, now child.” Julia broke into Lark’s thoughts as if she read them. “Youth must be generous. Don’t forget she’s as old as your mother.”

“My mother wouldn’t have been like this if she lived to be a hundred,” Lark said.

Aubrey’s sudden smile was a flash of white in his outdoor-brown face. “That’s what I like about Lark. One look at her would tell the world she’d never try to put anything over.”

“You’ll find Missus Seymour quite attractive, Aubrey,” his hostess said. “You’ll see for yourself in a minute. I told Eileen to call her when she brings the tea.”

Aubrey leaned forward. “Does she have her birth certificate from the consul at Nice? Not that that’s any proof. Anyone could send for a copy.

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