“How is Alexandra? I haven’t talked to her in ages.” Laura couldn’t resist twisting the knife. She loved to rag her big brother; after all, turnabout was fair play when it came to sibling annoyance.

Sean shot a dark look at his sister. I read it easily. Payback would be no fun for Laura.

“If you must know, Alexandra is fine. We are fine, but we are not talking about marriage.” Sean’s icy tone boded ill for dinner conversation.

Helen Louise looked contrite. “All in good time. I’m sorry, Sean, sometimes I let my mouth run away from me. Forgive me, please?”

Sean glared for a moment, but his essential good humor quickly reasserted itself. But I didn’t trust that glint in his eye as he bent to kiss Helen Louise’s cheek. “I’ll talk about weddings when I hear you and Dad talking about one, how’s that?”

Now it was my turn to blush furiously, and Helen Louise ducked her head, obviously trying not to laugh. “Enough of that,” I finally managed to say. “I think it’s time we ate dinner.”

The quicker we got away from the subject of weddings, the better. Helen Louise and I hadn’t looked that far ahead, and frankly, I wasn’t ready to just yet. Sean and I were alike in that respect.

At the mention of dinner Diesel meowed loudly and glanced from me to Laura and back again. His expression was so hopeful, and so funny, that we all started laughing, and the tension dissipated.

We busied ourselves with plates and bowls of salad, and the conversation shifted to other topics as we ate. Diesel sat first by Helen Louise, then by Laura, knowing full well they were easier touches than Sean. I would of course be his last resort.

“Where’s Stewart tonight?” Sean asked. “Isn’t this his lasagna?”

“It is,” Laura said. “He has a date tonight, and he was all atwitter.” She grinned. “Either it’s a first date or the guy must be pretty special. Stewart changed his clothes about seven times before he finally settled on something.”

While the others chatted about Stewart and the possible identity of his new flame, I found myself unable to shake Vera Cassity from my thoughts. Her attempts to cause trouble infuriated me, and I wondered what I could possibly do to put a stop to it.

The obvious answer to that was to let her have access to the Ducote archives. But there was no way I was going to compromise my professional ethics and allow that. I’d never be able to look Miss An’gel and Miss Dickce in the face again if I did.

Thoughts of the Ducote sisters reminded me of what Helen Louise had told us earlier—and of my own conversation that afternoon with the sisters. The warlike gleam in Miss An’gel’s eyes meant trouble for Vera, but I had no idea what the Ducotes planned to do to neutralize her. Things might come to a head at the gala, according to Helen Louise. I was nervous enough already about that, and the thought of histrionics on a grand, public scale made me push my lasagna away, half eaten.