Chapter Twenty
Artemis was waiting for Eve and Nia just inside the drawing room when they arrived. She hooked her arm through Nia’s. “If that horrid doctor had said you could not participate in this house party,” Artemis said as she walked with Nia to the sofa, where space had been left for her to sit and rest, “I would have declared him my mortal enemy and vanquished him with all possible haste.”
“What a relief that you aren’t to be excluded, Nia,” Daria said.
“Especially for Dr. Wilstead,” was Toss’s dry remark.
“What shall we do while we wait for Lisette?” Artemis asked.
“A game,” Charlie said in an immediate and enthusiastic suggestion.
“One we can play sitting down,” Eve requested, earning a smile of gratitude from Nia.
“We’d need to move the chairs into more of a circle,” Ellie, one of the Huntresses, said, “but we could play short answer.”
The group quickly took up the suggestion and adjusted the furniture as needed. Artemis remained seated beside Nia. It was like seeing a glimpse of the Season Nia would have without Eve. She wouldn’t be alone. She wouldn’t be neglected. That did Eve’s heart a great deal of good.
As everyone took seats to begin the game, Eve was able to sit beside Duke. After days of sitting next to him in the carriage, it was an arrangement she found comfortingly familiar. And as it always did, her heart flipped about at being near him.
Nia was chosen to begin the game. She turned to Artemis, seated on her right, and asked, “Who is your favorite Huntress?”
Laughter and grins popped up. The answers given could not be more than one syllable; that was one of the rules of the game. And of the Huntresses, only Rose and Eve had one-syllable names. Which would Artemis choose?
She proved more clever than that and answered, “All.”
Her response was booed, but only on account of “all” being a very useful answer in this game, and according to another of the rules, it could now not be given by anyone else.
Artemis turned to Charlie, who had predictably sat beside his wife. “Who is your favorite member of the Pack?”
Four Pack members had single-syllable names, but Eve didn’t think Charlie would simply pick one of them.
Giving Artemis a triumphant look, he answered, “None.”
The Pack vocally approved.
Eve was on Charlie’s right side, meaning the next question would be posed to her. She grinned in anticipation.
“Which character of Greek mythology is the most troublesome?” he asked.
Greek mythology? Eve had given very little thought to the topic, beyond reading about Artemis’s namesake after becoming one of that lady’s dear friends. A few names flitted through her mind but none that was a single syllable. Ought she to think of a sidestepping answer, as Charlie and Artemis had done with their questions?
But then she remembered. “Zeus!”
Charlie sighed as if disappointed. “I was so looking forward to hearing you attempt to say, ‘Artemis,’ in a single syllable.” He earned a laughing shove from his wife for that comment.
Eve turned to Duke. Those beautiful eyes of his. She would never grow tired of looking at them. “Which of Charlie’s brothers is more clever than he is?”
Duke shook his head solemnly. “An unfair question, as the only accurate answer would be ‘all.’”
The group laughed. A flit of humor twinkled in Duke’s deep-blue eyes as he looked at his friends. It was so good to see him light and happy. But when he looked back at her, some of that lightness dissipated. Was he upset with her, as Nia had wondered? Eve could think of nothing that had happened.
To her game question, Duke answered, “Most.” And then he turned to Toss to continue the game. He hadn’t lingered on her even long enough to see if she appreciated his answer. Something clearly had happened . Three nights earlier, he’d kissed her. Now, he barely acknowledged she was there.
“Which instrument,” he asked Toss, “is played by the most intelligent people?”
That earned Duke approving laughter. Toss was an exceptional musician, but his instrument of choice was the pianoforte, which was four syllables too long. No matter his answer, Toss would be declaring himself lacking in intelligence, the prospect of which was making him laugh even harder than everyone else.
“Pianoforte,” Toss declared.
“That’s five syllables,” Newton said at the same time Artemis said, “You’ve managed to lose on your very first turn.”
Looking excessively proud of himself, Toss said, “Well worth it.” That set everyone to laughing yet again.
Hilarity was near constant when this group of friends was together. This gathering was no exception. Of course, it absolutely helped that the Seymours, other than Duke and Colm, were not in the room. That was unlikely to be true most of the next fortnight.
“Ask Daria a question,” Artemis instructed Toss, “then sit there and ponder what a troublemaker you are.”
As jovial as ever, Toss turned to Daria. “Which Pack member is, without question, the greatest, most loving, handsomest, most talented, exceptionally amazing husband?”
Daria grinned. “Toss!”
Shouts of “No fair” and “Foul” and a fair number of boos answered that. But Toss put an arm around his wife and looked out at all of them smugly.
In the midst of the good-natured teasing, the group heard carriage wheels outside.
“Lisette!” Artemis jumped up and made for the door of the drawing room, the rest following suit.
But Mrs. Greenberry stood on the other side of the threshold. “I must ask you to wait a moment.”
“But this will be Lisette arriving,” Artemis said. “We’ve not seen her in a year.”
“Please,” Mrs. Greenberry repeated. “It is very important that this not be interrupted.”
“That what not be interrupted?” Eve pressed.
Mrs. Greenberry stood firm. “Something of paramount importance that must go perfectly, or it will be an absolute tragedy.” There was too much sincerity in her expression for her declaration to be an exaggeration.
“We can see through windows,” Daria declared excitedly.
The Huntresses exchanged looks before rushing to the drawing room windows facing the front drive. Nia moved quite a bit more slowly, allowing Eve a chance to ask their hostess one more question. “Watching won’t cause difficulties, will it?”
“Not if you aren’t obvious about it.” She glanced behind herself in the direction of the entryway.
Someone in the group opened two windows a crack. The sound of the coachman talking with the footman who’d met the carriage carried over to them.
The Pack had gathered at the windows as well.
Eve joined them all there, standing next to Duke. “Mrs. Greenberry said we have to be careful not to draw attention to ourselves,” she warned them all.
Quieter than she suspected the lot of them had ever been when together, they watched and listened. Eve found her attention divided between Duke beside her and the scene outside. Duke didn’t seem to be experiencing the same quandary.
M. and Mme Fortier stepped out of the house, stopping beside the carriage. They motioned for the footman to open the carriage door.
From within the dark interior, Lisette was handed out. She was decidedly the most gorgeous of all the Huntresses, which was no small feat when one considered how shockingly beautiful Artemis was, but there was a fragileness to Lisette’s beauty, added to by the slightness of her frame, that made her seem like something exquisitely precious that could be whisked away at any moment without warning.
“Is that your Lisette?” Colm asked in a whisper.
“Yes,” Artemis answered at the same volume.
Outside, Lisette’s gaze fell on the French couple, and she immediately burst into tears. Good heavens . Mme Fortier pulled Lisette into an embrace. M. Fortier brushed his hand tenderly and soothingly over her dark hair.
Lisette spoke to the couple in French. Eve hadn’t ever been overly embarrassed at her lack of education in that language, but now, she was downright frustrated.
“‘How did you know I would be here?’” Duke once again translated for Eve.
She took his hand, hoping he would feel in the gesture the expression of gratitude she wished it to be. He gave her hand a quick squeeze—a very quick squeeze—then pulled free. Eve told herself not to take that personally.
He kept translating. “Mme Fortier is saying, ‘We have been watching for two years now, hoping for an opportunity.’”
An opportunity for what?
“Lisette says, ‘Mme Dupuis is with me.’”
“Oh no,” Eve whispered. Lisette’s dragon of a chaperone had made the last Huntresses’ house party a sometimes frustrating affair.
“M. Fortier says, ‘She has—tormented you long enough.’”
Eve watched as the Frenchman, who’d given the impression of being very genial and sedate, turned toward the carriage with a suddenly hard expression. He spoke to whomever was inside, Mme Dupuis, no doubt.
“He says, ‘No need to get out. This can be accomplished in here.’” Then he stepped into the carriage.
Mme Fortier walked with her arm around Lisette back into the house and out of view. Mrs. Greenberry was still standing guard at the drawing room door, not allowing them to greet their beloved Lisette.
“What do you suppose that was about?” Eve asked no one in particular.
Artemis answered, “I have absolutely no idea.”