He paused for a moment, but Felicia judged that to be more because he was paying a great deal of attention to the perspective between the house and the stable. Sure enough, a moment later, he straightened on his stool, and his pencil moved on to the shrubbery, and he murmured, “What was that? Ah yes. My parents. They now spend their days at home in Sussex. My brother and sisters are scattered about London. They spend more time in tonnish circles than I do.” Smiling, he glanced her way. “Us bachelors tend to lurk on the fringes, but I’ve been known to be hauled to a ball or two by my sisters or sister-in-law.”
Felicia smiled and continued her questioning, apparently lighthearted and inconsequential, yet his answers were painting a picture of him that she recognized from her year in London. The Clive Mayhews of the ton, the idle, drifting younger sons, were personable, charming, with unexceptionable manners—the sort of gentlemen chaperons approved of as escorts to the theatre and the opera and to the occasional ball, but unless love struck, they were never going to be regarded as eligible parti. They were innocuous stand-ins, safe arms on which a young lady could lean.
Other idle younger sons might be a great deal more dangerous, but those like Mayhew constituted no threat.
Felicia realized that was what lay behind her continuing vacillation over casting Mayhew as their current villain. While, logically, she accepted she had to suspect him and continue to be on her guard, when she was with him, his character and personality were such strong reminders of the sort of man he was, she found it difficult to view him as any sort of threat.
Indeed, at no time had she sensed that he posed any danger to her. Her antennae had been well honed during her year in London; she knew beyond question that no matter how attentive and charming Mayhew might be, he had absolutely no designs on her.
As his sketch took shape and the answers to her questions took longer to come, and sometimes didn’t come at all, it became crystal clear that the one thing Clive Mayhew was extremely serious about was his art.
Wryly smiling to herself, Felicia couldn’t help thinking that, when it came to interacting with them, an artist was no different from an inventor.
* * *
By the time the first sketch was done—or, as Mayhew explained, done to the point of being ready for the application of ink—it was time for afternoon tea.
Apparently having decided that the cool shade beneath the oak was too tempting, Flora came drifting over the lawn, with Joe and Martin lugging the wrought-iron table behind her.
Johnson followed with a chair. In short order, the footmen returned with two more chairs, and Johnson carried out the tea tray.
Once they were settled about the table and Flora had poured cups of tea, Mayhew showed Flora his sketch. “It’s the first—I’ll essay another after tea. The second attempt is usually better.”
“Dear me!” Flora studied the sketch, then swiveled on her chair to stare at the house. “You’ve quite captured it. It’s a remarkable likeness.”
“Thank you.” Mayhew sipped his tea and watched while Felicia took the sketch from Flora and studied it.
As with the other sketches of his she’d seen, he’d not just depicted the house and, with simple lines, somehow conveyed the gardens and grounds, he’d also managed to capture a feeling of the place—its inherent atmosphere. She raised her gaze, met Mayhew’s eyes, and handed the sketch back to him. “I feel quite honored to have been able to watch as you created it. Thank you for permitting that.”
Mayhew took the sketch and inclined his head gracefully. “Thank you for permitting me to sketch here. It truly is my pleasure.”
“Is there any chance of us getting a copy of your best sketch once it’s published?” she asked.
Mayhew arched his brows. “I should be able to get you one of the first-run prints. The final sketch itself is the property of the paper, but they allow me a few prints for my own collection.”
“If we could have a copy to hang here, dear Mr. Mayhew, that would be lovely.” Flora looked thoroughly pleased; Felicia could imagine Flora sharing that news with her far-flung correspondents.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Mayhew returned with a smile.
While he drew out his spool-like contraption and carefully added the sketch to the sheets already on the roll, Felicia reflected that there really wasn’t any reason—any fact, any tiny incident, or even a word said—to suggest that Mayhew was in any way linked to the attack on the engine.
That morning, Rand’s man, Shields, and Struthers had gone into the village and discreetly inquired about any strangers seen in the area. Struthers knew who to ask. But other than Mayhew, there’d been no one sighted even riding through.
Of course, as Rand had pointed out, there were many small villages and hamlets within a few miles—lots of places a stranger might be lurking. Impossible to search
them all.
Yet no matter how she tried, she couldn’t imagine Mayhew as the man she’d seen fleeing into the woods last night.
Telling herself that continuing to suspect him was futile, she relaxed, smiled, and chatted.
They finished their tea. Mayhew rose and prettily thanked both Felicia and Flora for their hospitality—a subtle hint that he wished to return to his sketching.
When, laughing, Flora tasked him with that, Mayhew looked sheepish. “The light will only last for so long, and”—he turned to view the house—“you must admit the lines are particularly sharp at the moment.”
Now that he’d pointed it out, Felicia could see what he meant. The westering sun lit the front façade and left every line of the house sharp and stark. She could appreciate why Mayhew had chosen this position from which to sketch...which itself suggested that the sketch was his reason for visiting the Hall. If he’d wanted to sketch the house from the rear, from where he could see the workshop doors... Instead, he’d shown absolutely no interest in them.
The table had been placed to the side of where Mayhew had elected to site his easel; they could leave the table and chairs as they were without interfering with his view. Smiling, increasingly at ease with Mayhew—the artist who patently was just an artist—Felicia rose as Flora pushed to her feet.