The Peculiar Case of Lord Finsbury's Diamonds: A Casebook of Barnaby Adair Short Novel (The Casebook of Barnaby Adair) by Stephanie Laurens Read Free Book Online Page A

Mind you, I’m not saying Kitty had anything to do with Mitchell—it could equally well be Mr. Culver or Mr. Rattle she’s set her silly heart on, and no foul to either gentleman.” Mrs. Bateman paused, clearly thinking back. “I can’t say I ever saw Kitty anywhere near Mr. Mitchell. Indeed, I had hoped she wouldn’t be so susceptible, given as she’s a touch older than the norm.”
     Like the other members of the staff, Mrs. Bateman had been alone in her sitting room reading a novel through the critical time.
     When, accepting their polite refusal of her offer of a cup of tea, the housekeeper left them, Barnaby and Stokes shared a long glance, then both rose.
     “Let’s get back to London.” Stokes led the way. “The Chief Commissioner will want to hear what we’ve found.”
     
    * * *
    T hey walked back to Hampstead village, reclaimed Barnaby’s curricle, and he tooled them swiftly back to town.
     Stokes went straight to the Chief Commissioner’s office to report, taking Barnaby with him.
     They detailed what they’d found. The Chief Commissioner harrumphed. “Sounds complicated. Clear it up as fast as you can, but keep the whole thing quiet. I don’t need the likes of Finsbury griping in my ear.”
     Thus adjured, Stokes and Barnaby headed downstairs to Stokes’s office.
     “What’s next?” Barnaby followed Stokes into the small room. “Should we list all the players and try to define some direction from the myriad unconnected and mostly irrelevant facts, or…?” Pausing, Barnaby looked at Stokes.
     After rounding his desk, Stokes had halted, his long fingers holding down a sheet of paper that had been left, folded, on his blotter.
     He’d unfolded it and had been reading the contents.
     Stokes grunted. “Dinner.” A smile of gentle expectation softened his features. He held out the note to Barnaby. “We’ve been summoned.”
     “Ah.” Taking the note, Barnaby scanned the few—direct and to the point—lines within, inscribed in his wife’s dashing hand. He grinned. “I see.”
     Picking up the scarf he’d dropped on the desk, Stokes waved Barnaby back to the door. “No sense keeping our ladies waiting—let’s go.”
     Chuckling, Barnaby tucked the note in his pocket and together they made for Albemarle Street.

 
     
    CHAPTER 3
     
     
    P enelope was so huge she had to sit sideways at the table. Larger framed and two months less encumbered, Griselda didn’t have quite the same difficulty, but as there were only the four of them dining, Mostyn and the staff had removed all the extra leaves, reducing the table to a comfortable round.
     On arriving at the house, Barnaby and Stokes had discovered their ladies resting by the fire in the drawing room, eager and impatient to hear of the case, to glean all the details. The two men had smiled, sat alongside, at their ease, and obliged, recounting every last little detail of what they’d seen, heard, and, at least where the logic seemed sound, what they’d surmised.
     When they’d reached the end of their recitation, with Barnaby capping it with the Chief Commissioner’s edict, Penelope and Griselda had exchanged a glance, then Penelope had declared that they would dine before considering the matter further.
     Exchanging a look of their own, Barnaby and Stokes had readily fallen in with the direction; rising, they’d assisted their wobbly wives to their feet, then had followed at their heels as they’d made their waddling way to the dining room.
     By mutual consensus, they hadn’t so much as referred to the case during the meal, but instead had spent a pleasant hour and more talking of Stokes and Griselda’s new house, of the adjustments and changes both couples had made and were still making in preparation for the advent of their respective children. For all four of them, this was a personal, emotional, and surprisingly intense time, and it was comforting to be able to share the experience with each other.
     But as