Read Online Maggie MacKeever by Our Tabby - Free Book Online

signifies. The thing is, there were times before I met her—oh, the devil!” He held out a piece of notepaper. “Perhaps you should read this.”
    How unhappy Sir Geoffrey looked. Tabby remembered his haunted expression the night before, when she had returned unexpectedly to the box and surprised him staring at the newcomer to St. Erth’s box. Tabby had slipped quietly into her seat then, in an attempt to avoid questions about Ermyntrude, and the episode had slipped her mind. Now she gingerly took the highly scented missive from his hand. As she read the scrawled handwriting, her own expression came to resemble his own. “What a pickle!” she said when she had finished. “Who is this Mrs. Quarles?”
    Sir Geoffrey pressed his fingers to his temples. “Mrs. Quarles is a devilish ungrateful female, with whom I was, er, friendly before I fell fathoms deep in love with my Gus. And now, apparently, she’s gone off her hinges and means to make a cursed nuisance of herself!’’
    Apparently no Elphinstone was a marvel of discretion. Under other circumstances Tabby might have laughed to see someone thrown into such a pucker, but she liked Sir Geoffrey too well to be amused at his expense. “I’m sorry,” she said gently. “Perhaps if you made a clean breast of the business to Lady Grey—”
    Sir Geoffrey looked horrified at the suggestion. “You don’t know Gus. If she got into such a flap about my hiring you, can you imagine what she’d say about my association with a—well. Mrs. Quarles has strong passions and indulges them with great latitude, if you take my meaning. Yes, and Gus would have my head on a platter if she could hear me talking to you like this! I know I shouldn’t, but I must talk about it or go mad.” He dropped his head into his hands. “Damned if I know what I’ve done to deserve that someone should place an insuperable obstacle in the way of my happiness and endanger my peace of mind.”
    Tabby sought some way to console her distrait employer. “Were the letters so very bad? She merely writes that she wishes to speak with you.”
    “But I don’t wish to speak with her!” Sir Geoffrey looked even unhappier as he recalled the throes of his infatuation and how very reckless he had been. “Not only do I not wish to speak with her, you may be sure that if I did speak with her, Lady Grey would find out!”
    Silence descended upon the study. In the hallway, Drusilla stirred. So fascinated had she been by these disclosures that she had stayed too long in one position and her muscles had grown quite cramped. The name Quarles was not unfamiliar to Drusilla, who, alas, was not above listening to servants’ gossip; she associated it with a certain yellow-haired female Sir Geoffrey had doted on a few months past.
    In the study, Sir Geoffrey looked at Tabby. “And then I thought of you!”
    Why he should have done so Tabby had not the most distant guess. There was no receipt for this kind of trouble in her little book. But she couldn’t withstand the hopeful expression on Sir Geoffrey’s face. “If there’s anything I can do—”
    Sir Geoffrey brightened at this offer. He was not wishful of putting a period to his existence, after all. “That’s our good Tabby! Clever puss! I knew you would wish to go and meet her in my place! See what she wants and persuade her to go away!”
    Drusilla didn’t hear Tabby’s answer; Lambchop joined her in the hallway then, almost knocking her over in his attempts to display the trophy he’d brought from the kitchen, a cold boiled knuckle of veal. Again, Drusilla pushed him away. Not to be denied his due praise, Lambchop nudged open the study door and collapsed with his booty on the rug.
    Drusilla followed her pet into the study. She tugged at his collar, tried to persuade him to dine elsewhere. Lambchop’s table manners were appalling and would not benefit the rug. The dog bared his teeth at her in what was doubtless meant to be a friendly gesture and