A Lady by Midnight (Spindle Cove #3)(15)

“Marmoset. Yes.” Lark smiled. “It’s properly Millicent, but as a child, I could never pronounce it. It always came out Marmoset, and the name just stuck.”

“I resemble the name more every year,” Aunt Marmoset said good-naturedly.

“Yes, old dear,” said Harry dryly. “I was just complaining the other day, if I have to pluck you down from one more tree—”

“Oh, hush. I meant I’m small and spry and infectiously adorable.” The diminutive older woman stretched a bony hand toward Kate. Her grip was warmer and stronger than Kate would have expected. “It’s remarkable to see you, child.”

Before Kate could puzzle out the old woman’s meaning, Lark was making her final introduction.

“And this is our brother Evan. Lord Drewe.”

Kate turned to the gentleman standing near the window. The marquess, she presumed.

Lord Drewe made a deep, formal bow, which she tried to repay with her best curtsy. Here was a man, as they said, in his prime of life. Handsome, assured, worldly, and though he was doubtless responsible for hundreds, if not thousands, of tenants and dependents, he appeared to be in command of no one more than himself.

Kate found herself rather awed in his presence. She could understand Mrs. Nichols’s excitement now.

“The ancestral home is in Derbyshire. But we have a property over near Kenmarsh,” Lark explained. “It’s called Ambervale. Just a cottage, really. We’ve been summering there.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” Kate dropped into a chair so the marquess might be seated. “And you’ve come to Spindle Cove for . . . ?”

“For you, Miss Taylor,” Lark said, taking a seat nearby. “Naturally.”

“Oh. Were you wanting music lessons? I offer instruction in voice, pianoforte, harp . . .”

All the Gramercys laughed.

Behind her, Thorne cleared his throat. “Miss Taylor has had a long day. Surely your business can wait for the morning.”

Lord Drewe nodded. “Your concern is duly noted, Mister . . .”

“Thorne.”

“Corporal Thorne,” Kate put in. “He’s in charge of our local militia.”

She might have embellished the introduction, she supposed. He’s good friends with the Earl of Rycliff, or He served honorably on the Peninsula under Wellington. But she wasn’t feeling particularly charitable toward him at the moment.

She lifted Badger. “He gave me a puppy.”

“And it’s a lovely puppy,” Aunt Marmoset cooed.

Lark clapped her hands with impatience. “Corporal Thorne is right. It’s ungodly late. Harry, just show her the painting.”

Harry rose and came forward, bearing a rectangular, paper-wrapped parcel.

As her sister removed the paper covering, Lark chattered away. “I needed a summer project, you see. Ambervale is quiet, and I do go a bit mad without something to occupy my hands. So I decided to go through the attic. Just old crockery, mostly. A few moldering books. But tucked back under the rafters, I found this canvas wrapped in a tarpaulin.” Her voice pitched with excitement. “Oh, do hurry, Harry.”

Harry continued at the same pace. “Settle your feathers, pigeon.”

At last she had the thing unwrapped and held it up in the lamplight.

Kate gasped. “Oh my Lord.”

She clapped a hand over her mouth, horrified by her accidental blasphemy. Cursing, in front of a marquess?

The Gramercys didn’t seem perturbed, however. They all sat quite calmly and quietly as Harry revealed a painting of a reclining, flagrantly nude woman tangled in white bedsheets and a red velvet counterpane. Swollen, ruby-tipped br**sts rested like twin pillows atop a rotund, creamy belly. The woman in the portrait was obviously pregnant.

And she looked like Kate. She looked a great deal like Kate, save for some differences about the eyes and chin, and the absence of any birthmark. The resemblance was uncanny, disturbing, and readily apparent to everyone in the room.

“Oh my Lord,” Kate breathed.

Lark beamed. “Isn’t it gorgeous? When we found it, we just knew we had to search you out.”

“Put that away.” Thorne stepped forward. “It’s vile.”

“I beg your pardon,” Harry replied, proudly propping the nude painting on the mantelpiece and standing back to admire it. “The female form is beautiful in all its natural states. This is art.”

“Put it away,” Thorne repeated in a low, threatening tone. “Or I will make it kindling.”

“He’s just being protective,” Aunt Marmoset said. “I think it’s sweet. A little savage, but sweet.”

Harry yanked Lark’s jade-green shawl from her shoulders and draped it over half the painting, obscuring most of the nudity. “This backward little village. Philistines, all. When we showed it to the vicar, he developed a stammer and visible hives.”

“You . . .” Kate swallowed hard, staring at the painting now boldly displayed above the fire. “You showed this to the vicar?”

“But of course,” Lark replied. “That’s how we found you.”

Kate crossed her arms over her chest, feeling unaccountably exposed. She leaned forward and peered at the face of the woman in the painting. “But it can’t be me.”