“It’s so ridiculous.” Vi refilled her champagne glass and then laughed again. Gerald had won this round, but he’d opened himself up for revenge, and Vi would bring in both Denny and Victor. Gerald wasn’t ready for this, that was certain.
“Smith looked into it a bit,” Beatrice admitted. “He wanted to know why the fellow was so insistent. Smith said anyone who was that demanding was half-mad, and he didn’t want the man around me while he was gone. Smith made a visit right after I swore I’d tell Rita that the man was looking for her. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when Smith realizes Hollands didn’t comply.”
“Smith.” Rita shook her head. She was grinning evilly.
They had moved to drinks and Rita had chosen a simple seltzer water, given her stomach was restless. Vi had gone with more chilled champagne and strawberries and Beatrice selected a G&T.
They relaxed, enjoying the drinks and the music and general atmosphere.
“Our purchases will arrive by noon,” Rita said. “We’ll have another long hot drive, but we’ll be able to go bathing in that pool of yours and see the gents as well.”
“We might as well be opium addicts given our need for those boys,” Vi muttered. “And the whole reason we left without them was that we were irritated that they were being protective, and here we are rushing home.”
“They’ve missed you too,” Beatrice said with the ease of someone whose love only ever pushed her deeper into trouble. The only thing she had to worry about with Smith was whether he would be upset that she didn’t do anything devious.
“Oh, stop it.” Rita finished her drink as their food arrived. “We’ll load the auto in the morning so we can leave as soon as the last of our things arrive,” she added innocently as she pulled the plate of oysters in front of her.
Chapter 7
The sun was high overhead and the temperature had reached an even more stifling level. It was painfully hot inside the house and everyone had gathered at Vi’s by the bathing pool.
Vi swam until she crossed the line from hot to chilled and then begged a cocktail from her twin. He made her one with the same good nature he did most things, and she watched him as he worked.
“What’s all this about flitting off to London without Jack?” he asked. “Tired of being married, pretty devil?”
Vi snorted. “Are you jealous, brother of mine?”
“Me?” His eyes shifted. Oh he was jealous, and he didn’t know what do with that feeling.
They stared at each other in that way where they silently shared all the things they were feeling. His big dark eyes met hers, and she saw herself in his gaze. In a lot of ways, they were reflections of each other, but their true ‘twinhood’ was reflected in their innate understanding of the other.
“Are you all right?” she asked carefully, knowing he wasn’t.
“I am,” he lied.
They both knew he had lied, but she didn’t call him on it. They also both knew that he wasn’t going to talk about what was bothering him, so instead of pressing she asked low, “What do you need?”
He shook his head and presented her with an icy berry something or other kind of cocktail. She took it with a wide grin and fake laughed, so no one would realize the tension between them. His eyes glinted with gratitude. Her eyes flashed with the promise that once he told her what was wrong, she’d help him solve it.
“Why London?”
“Things for the party and because Jack and Ham had turned on the ‘conspiring to protect our girls’ switch.”
Victor’s eyes showed a humor that said he knew better than stifling her under the idea of ‘protecting’ her. “They’re well-meaning.”
Vi didn’t need to speak to share what she thought of such a statement, which only lent to Victor’s humor at her expense.
“I heard Rita telling Ham about some fellow who wasn’t leaving Beatrice alone and wanted that prize from the wedding scavenger hunt,” he said.
Vi nodded, rubbing her brow. “It’s the start of a treasure hunt.”
“A treasure hunt.” He snorted.
She grinned and leaned in to whisper, “The start is the Goblet of Nemo.”
“Like the captain?”
“Like the ‘nobody’ meaning.”
Victor frowned and then laughed. It was like sun breaking through the clouds, and Vi noticed Kate’s head jerk up beyond Victor’s shoulder. Vi couldn’t see her sister-in-law’s gaze, but Vi could guess what that movement meant because they were both worried about Victor.
“I suppose the ‘nobody’ meaning is slightly better.”
“It would never fly in a book. Not even the one I’m currently working on, which is terrible.”
“When do I get to see it?”
“When I’m ready.”
“Since when do we hold back on our books?”
Vi shrugged innocently and noticed the peak of interest in her brother’s gaze. It ended too quickly, but it was why she was embarking on this idiotic novel.
“The Goblet of Nemo,” Victor mused. “Do you think Rita will let me have it?”
“I think if she does, Hollands might murder you in sheer objection.”
Victor frowned and then laughed again. “The great hunter in Africa will come for me in the nighttime?”
“He may well come for you in the daytime.” Vi lifted her empty glass to her brother and said, “A treasure hunt should be interesting.”
“You don't believe in it.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to see what happens next.”
Victor refilled Vi’s cocktail and then poured two more. He pressed a kiss against her temple and started away but Vi paused him long enough to say, “Smith broke into Hollands’s house and found all sorts of weird things. He told Beatrice he’d be looking further into it later.”
Victor’s gaze turned slowly to Smith, who was sitting near the pool while Beatrice, in the water, spoke up to him. There was the slightest softening of Smith’s devilish gaze and Vi thought the half-man, half-devil may well actually be in love.
Victor’s brows lifted and the same withdrawn look came back over
