As Veronica stood at the front of the room chatting with Duncan while Lloyd counted out the money, Dale laughed. “Well, I knew she’d pick a winning card, I was just hoping it would be mine. By the way, Regan, she spoke to me about buying some antiques for Llewellyn Hall. Is she serious, or do you think that’s just cocktail talk?”

“Well, she was talking about putting in some new plumbing and rewiring ten years ago and she’s just getting around to it now. You’d have to be Marco Polo to find the only loo in that house that works, and it groans for twenty minutes after you flush it. I think she means it when she says it, but I doubt she’ll ever get around to any extensive redecorating.”

“Oh, well,” Kenneth lamented, “there goes our excuse for getting back to London this fall.”

“It was a nice thought,” Dale agreed. “Butthat’show I had her pegged. Exactly where in Oxford is Llewellyn Hall?”

“In the estate section,” Regan replied.

“It’s beautiful there. How much property does she have?”

“Something over five hundred acres.”

“Are you joking?” Dale gasped.

“No, why?”

“About six years ago I worked with an interior designer who was doing a house in that area. The people had paid a fortune for only twenty acres. Veronica has that kind of money and she jumps up and down about winning a few hundred bucks?”

“Veronica and her nephew are two of the most unworldly people I’ve ever met,” Regan answered. “Except for her trips, Veronica doesn’t spend much money, and I don’t think she realizes the value of that place. All her nephew cares about is sticking flowers in it.”

“Who is going to inherit all that land?” Kenneth prodded.

Regan shrugged her shoulders. “I suppose the nephew.”

“She told me she was going to visit some niece,” Kenneth continued. “She asked me to fix her hair before she disembarks in New York.”

“Actually she’s a second cousin, who started to write to Veronica and sent her pictures of her family. Veronica has never met her but she sent pictures back of herself and her nephew and his fiancee and Llewellyn Hall.”

“What does this second cousin do?” Dale asked.

“I gather she just lost her job, so she’ll have time to take Veronica around.” Regan frowned. “Veronica told me she had worked in a real estate office.”

Kenneth raised his eyebrows for the second time in that hour.

“Well, somebody’s head isn’t in the clouds,” Dale observed. “If I were the nephew, impractical or not, I’d be getting very nervous.”

Chapter 31