On a Wicked Dawn (Cynster 9)

Amelia looked at the glass. "I don't know — and that's what truly worries me."

The luncheon gong summoned them from the study fifteen minutes later. They left the room together, leaving the quizzing glass in a locked chest.

Amelia checked her reflection in the mirror in the front hall, cast a quick glance around, then tugged her bodice properly into place.

Luc fought to keep his lips straight; the look she shot him as she turned and caught him doing so suggested he hadn't succeeded.

The dining room quickly filled. After seeing Amelia to her chair, Luc strolled the length of the table to his place at its head. The meal passed swiftly; the usual chatter prevailed. He watched Anne; for the most part, she kept her eyes cast down, answering any questions but with a frankly distant air. Her expression was serious, she volunteered nothing, but Lucifer and Phyllida were present; Anne's behavior could simply be due to her shyness.

He wondered if he should speak with her… unfortunately, both she and Emily regarded him with a certain awe, quite different to how Portia and Penelope reacted. Any questions from him might totally undermine Anne's confidence.

On his left, Lucifer sat back. "If it's convenient, I wouldn't mind going over those investments with you this afternoon."

Luc hesitated, then nodded. Amelia and Phyllida were making arrangements to visit the village; they'd doubtless take Emily and Anne with them. Portia, Penelope, and Miss Pink were heading off for a ramble to the folly; his mother would, as she usually did, rest through the afternoon.

Setting down his napkin, he pushed back his chair and looked at Lucifer. "No time like the present."

Lucifer grinned. Together they rose, strolled up the room, both, entirely independently, putting out a hand to their respective ladies' shoulders as they passed. Both Amelia and Phyllida looked up with identical, confident, wifely smiles, then went back to their arranging.

Luc and Lucifer quietly left the room.

"Where's Anne?" Amelia asked when she and Phyllida met Emily in the stables.

"She's gone to Lyddington Manor to visit Fiona — she'd forgotten she'd said she would."

Amelia digested that while they mounted. The Manor wasn't far; Anne would be safe there. Remembering Fiona's bubbling presence in London, and how it had helped Anne cope with the ton, Amelia was happy to see the friendship remain strong.

She, Phyllida, and Emily indulged in a quick gallop to shake the fidgets from their mounts, then settled to a more comfortable amble along the lane to Lyddington. The day was fine, the sun warm on their faces. Birds trilled and swooped. All seemed right within their world.

In the village, they left their horses at the inn and wandered the green, then repaired to the bakery to purchase some pastries. They consumed the delicious morsels on the seat in the sun, then simply sat and mused about life. About children. At Amelia's behest, Phyllida brought her up to date on her sons' development; Aidan and Evan were growing apace.

"They're scamps. I know they're quite safe at the Manor, but…" Phyllida gazed down the green, into the distance. "I do miss them." Smiling, she glanced at Amelia. "Mind you, I'm quite sure Papa, Jonas, and Sweetie will have spoiled them dreadfully by the time we get back."

Her gaze moving past Amelia, Phyllida murmured, "We've company. Who's this?"

It was Mrs. Tilby; the vicar's wife joined them in a voluble froth of greetings and declarations. She seemed quite keyed up; the pleasantries aside, she told them why.

"Things are going missing. A host of small items — well, you know how it is when you're not quite sure when you last saw something. We only realized when we gathered for the Ladies' Guild meeting yesterday — it's not the sort of thing one worries about until one realizes it's an epidemic. Well, one hardly likes to think what might disappear next."

Her heart sinking, Amelia asked, "What things have gone missing?"

"Lady Merrington's small enamel box — it used to sit on the windowsill in her drawing room. An engraved crystal paperweight from the Gingolds', a gold letter opener from the Dallingers', a gold bowl from the Castle."

Those were all houses she, together with Minerva, Emily, and Anne, had visited in the last week.

Phyllida's dark eyes touched her face, then Phyllida turned to Mrs. Tilby. "And these things have only recently gone missing?"

"Well, dear, that's what no one can truthfully say. What we do know is that they've vanished now, and no one knows where they've gone."

Amelia and Ph

yllida had to hold their tongues and disguise their impatience, until, late that evening, they finally got their husbands to themselves. Then they poured out their story.

Lucifer frowned. "It doesn't make sense. In order to sell such things, they'd have to go to London." He glanced at Luc.

Who shook his head. "I can't see rhyme or reason to it either." He took a sip of brandy, his gaze going to Amelia, curled in one corner of the chaise. "That is, of course, assuming they're stealing for the monetary value of the things."

Lucifer inclined his head. "Assuming that."