Vi paused and then nodded. “Her father was determined that she not marry Jason Meyers, but any loving father would have felt the same if he knew even a smidge of what Jason was after.”
“Did she, however?” Kate asked. “It’s intoxicating to have someone want you, especially if she really hadn’t been wanted before. Didn’t Jane Austen write something to the effect that love given brought about love from the recipient?”
“It didn’t for me,” Rita muttered.
“That’s because they didn’t love you,” Vi said. “Those money-grubbers didn’t count. You succumbed pretty hard to Ham, who loved you from afar.”
“Oh,” Lila laughed, “it was so painful to see. The older man, not in the same class, desperately in love with the pretty, mischievous heiress. He was so sure you’d never love him in return.”
Rita paused and then a slow, soft smile crossed her face. “He did sort of hover protectively. It was completely intoxicating until he turned me away.” Remembered pain crossed her face and then she smiled. It seemed that being loved by Ham had healed those old wounds. “I did love how his eyes followed me.”
“So maybe the heiress, like Rita and Vi, was pursued, but recognized her pursuers for money-grubbers,” Kate suggested.
Lila shook her head. “The father was worried.”
Vi hadn’t considered that. “He must have had reason to be worried. Maybe no one had ever paid Miss Sinclair attention before, and he feared the attention would make her, I don’t know, less obedient. Or…”
“Or, she really did like him,” Lila finished. “Regardless of what her father thought.”
Vi’s eyes narrowed. “She didn’t act like a woman in love.”
“That doesn’t mean she wasn’t offended,” Rita said and then surprised them all by rising to make herself a scone. “I was offended every time a man thought that he could shoot me a smarmy grin and take me and my money for his own.”
Vi laughed. “Hear, hear.”
“Amen,” Kate muttered. She shivered and her gaze landed on Vi. They had, the both of them, been tracked and wanted by those who had simply decided to be obsessed. It had been terrifying at times. All of the sudden, Vi thought, it had been offensive as well. As though protestations and notes and someone following you were reason enough to hand yourself over to them.
“Men,” Vi muttered disgustedly.
“They’re not all bad,” Lila said. “Though I do find they all smell far more often than they should.”
Rita laughed and then sat down, putting up her feet and diving into her scone. “It’s true.”
They ate quietly for a few minutes and Vi dared to try her chocolate cocoa despite the burn in her mouth. She slowly sipped and finished her own scone as she stared at the two names. They didn’t have nearly enough information to find anything out, but this wasn’t a true investigation so much as it was an attempt to keep Rita from descending into the grey days that Vi so often fought.
“We should lay a wager,” Vi said suddenly. “Between us, we can list out all the suspects we have, who we think did it, and we’ll put them in an envelope and when a confession is made or a conviction is achieved, we’ll open them and see who won.”
“What is the prize?” Lila demanded.
Vi shrugged, looking at the others for inspiration.
“A first edition book?” Kate suggested.
“Jewelry,” Lila said, shaking her head immediately.
“No,” Rita said, “the choosing of the location of the next trip we take.”
“Can we play?” Smith asked and Vi gasped, jumping and spilling her cocoa all over her dress.
“No,” Vi snapped. She grinned at Beatrice and then looked down, helplessly, at her dress. There was no dabbing that spill off.
“But I’ve brought you suspects to distract you.” Smith’s angel smile, for the first time, actually seemed angelic. Those dark, unfeeling eyes of his were full of emotion. He was almost gentle as he pressed his hand to Rita’s shoulder and added, “And Beatrice. I find she makes my days brighter.”
“Ahhh,” Kate cooed. “I love it. He loves you, Beatrice.”
The rest of them ignored Kate’s melting.
“Suspects?” Rita asked, looking excited even. Vi knew she liked Smith. She hadn’t realized quite how much she liked him herself until that moment.
“Some of the tepid cousins,” Smith said. He looked proud of himself, as he should have been. Vi didn’t even object when he stole her refill of the G&T and made himself a plate of nibbles.
Chapter 15
“How did you do it?” Vi hissed to Beatrice.
“He dragged me out of the house and got me to go with him to a few places before we visited the cousins. I don’t know. Smith has a way of manipulating people,” Beatrice replied. “Seeing their secrets and worries and knowing just how to tug on their threads to get them to do what he wants.”
Vi nodded, looking at Rita who seemed eager to meet the tepid grandchildren. They followed Hargreaves to the library and Rita opened the door first. The trio of grandchildren were not quite as handsome as the picture of Jason Meyers.
Tobias, the son, really did look tepid. Vi fought back her reaction at the insidious description. It colored how she was viewing him, and Vi was all too aware how utterly unfair that was to the young man. He was in his early twenties with a soft chin and a bit of extra flesh. With light blonde hair, light brown eyes, and skin nearly as pale as Vi’s and Rita’s, he looked nearly colorless in his tan suit.
His sisters were smaller, feminine versions of him. Unlike him, however, they were both fine-boned and tiny, like little pale birds.
Smith introduced them and then leaned back and waited. There was a long, awkward silence where the five women faced the three strangers, who had to know they were suspects in their cousin’s murder.
“Ah, tea,” Vi said.
“Or cocktails,” Lila added wickedly. “We’re being quite indulgent today.”
“Tea, at the least,” Kate inserted, “is on the way.”
“I