The Heiress Bride (Sherbrooke Brides 3)

“Why should he?‘ Alex demanded. ”You’re everything a man could wish for in a wife.”

“My heroine,” Sinjun said fondly, patting her sister-in-law’s hand.

“There are problems,” Alex said. “You might as well tell us everything, Sinjun. I have this dreadful presentiment that the husbands will arrive here yelling and demanding our heads by dawn tomorrow morning.”

“No,” Sinjun said firmly. “We’ll have more than two days of respite before the husbands descend. We must. You two did very well. It will take them time to get together and make their plans. Didn’t you say Ryder was with Tony at Ascot?”

“Yes, but that won’t matter,” Sophie said. “I agree with Alex. Somehow they’ll know and they’ll get together. Tomorrow at dawn. And you know how they’ll behave—Douglas will be enraged because Alex is pregnant and traveling without his godship’s permission, and Ryder will want to skin my hide for keeping secrets from him.”

Alex just laughed but didn’t disagree. “No, don’t worry about me, I feel grand. No more retching in indecorous places, thank God! At least I haven’t retched in a day and a half. Talk, Sinjun.”

“Sophie’s right. We must move quickly. Lying here whilst you were all downstairs gave me the perfect plan. I just need a bit of time to get it into motion.”

“Plan for what?” Sophie asked.

Sinjun began with the MacPhersons and moved on to Pearlin’ Jane, a ghost that both Sophie and Alex readily accepted.

“Do you think,” Alex said thoughtfully when Sinjun paused in her recital, “that ghosts can somehow communicate with each other? How did the Virgin Bride know you were ill and in trouble? Did this Pearlin’ Jane tell her?”

It was a question to which there was no answer. But Sinjun said, “Oh dear, I forgot to place Pearlin’ Jane’s portrait and the other two back in their places. She won’t like it and I did promise.”

“What is all that about, do you know?”

“Evidently Pearlin’ Jane wanted all the pearls she could get from the benighted earl, a long-ago Kinross who’d seduced her and left her and then killed her, and she wanted her portrait painted—from her lover’s memory, of course—and placed between his portrait and his wife’s. Every time it was moved, something unpleasant happened to either the master or the mistress of Vere Castle. Oh, not being struck down by a bolt of errant lightning, but just something unpleasant, like becoming ill eating something bad. I don’t want that to happen to me. I think Aunt Arleth moved all the portraits, hoping some affliction would strike me. I’m guessing, but it surely sounds like her.”

“A thoroughly dreadful woman,” Alex said. ‘We’re here now so she doesn’t dare try anything.”

“I find Serena the odd duck,” Sophie said as she dropped to her knees on the stone hearth and began to build up the fire. “So ethereal, in both her manner and her mode of dress. That gown she was wearing tonight was really quite lovely, not to mention very expensive. Now, that’s a good question. If Colin didn’t have any money, where did she get the gold for the gown? She was pleasant to us, don’t misunderstand me, but vague, cryptic, you could say.”

“I’d say she’s daft,” Alex said.

“Perhaps,” Sophie said thoughtfully. “But you know, Sinjun, it’s almost as if it’s all an act. I don’t think she’s so out of touch with things as she wants you to believe.”

“She did tell me that Colin doesn’t love me, that he loves Another. She also likes to kiss him on the mouth when he doesn’t expect it. But on the other hand, she seems to accept me. She is certainly strange.” Sinjun shrugged and yawned. “As to the cost of her gowns, that’s an excellent question. Why don’t I ask her tomorrow?”

“Only if your husband allows you out of bed,” Sophie said, and grinned at her.

“Oh dear, you do look tired, Sinjun.”

“All I need is another good night’s sleep,” Sinjun said firmly. “Tomorrow I must set my plan into motion. Day after tomorrow—no later—we must act. Don’t forget the husbands. They will come, no doubt about that.”

“All right,” Sophie said. “We’ll pray you’re right about them not being here until Friday. We’ll breakfast with you tomorrow and you can tell us this plan of yours. All right?”

“What plan?” Colin asked from the doorway.

“He walks as quietly as Douglas does,” Alex said. “It’s provoking.”

“Our plans for the day, naturally,” Sophie said smoothly, rising from her position in front of the hearth and dusting off her skirt. “Dividing up the housekeeping chores, all that sort of thing. Things that would never interest a gentleman; you know, Colin, discussing Alex’s pregnancy and how she feels, knitting blankets and tiny baby slippers—that sort of thing.”

Colin appreciated her tactics. He said, a wolfish gleam in his dark blue eyes, “You think I have no interest in women’s matters? Why, they’re my matters, too. Goodness, as soon as I can manage it, Joan’s belly will be swelling up with my child.”

“Colin!”

“Yes, perhaps I’ll even take up knitting and the two of us can sit in front of the fire, our needles clicking away, selecting names for our progeny.”

Sophie said, ignoring him, “There, the fire is set now for several hours. Thank you for letting us visit you, Colin. Come along, Alex. Good night, Sinjun.”

When the door was closed, Colin walked to the bed and sat down. He gave his wife a brooding stare. “They are as dangerous as their husbands. It is only their stratagems that differ. I don’t trust them an inch. Nor you, for that matter. Now, you will tell me what’s going on, Joan.”