“On what?”
“On whether you know where all the furniture came from that’s now in this room.”
Owen blinked. “I figured you were responsible for it.”
She blinked right back at him. “While I’m certainly an efficient sort, I’m not that efficient.”
Owen stepped from behind the plant, his gaze traveling around the room again, lingering on Mr. Wetzel, who was now browsing through a stack of paintings. Owen gestured toward the man. “Can I assume that gentleman is responsible, which may explain why you were smiling at him earlier?”
Camilla frowned. “You say that as if I don’t smile often.”
“You don’t smile thatwarmlyoften,” he corrected.
“I’m sure you’re mistaken about that, but no, Charles Wetzel isn’t responsible for the furniture or all the paintings in the room, which means you should definitely brace yourself for a lecture regarding your sister.”
Owen rubbed his jaw. “Luella acquired all these items?”
“She, besides being an amateur horticulturist, has developed an interest in interior decorating.”
“Since when?”
“There hasn’t been time to get all the details from her, but I know for a fact that she’s amassed quite the collection of furnishings over the past few months, and she made a point to mentionthat if she’d had more notice about guests arriving, she’d have had everything already in place by now.”
“If I’d known about the furnishings, I’d have sent her a telegram so you wouldn’t have had to worry you were going to be living in a country house with nothing more than a few chairs and beds.”
“But you being unaware of Luella’s acquisitions suggests you really don’t know your sister well these days, but luckily for you, you’re going to be spared an immediate lecture because I have something of greater importance to discuss with you, which is why I’m delighted to discover you’ve returned from the factory.”
“You didn’t seem delighted when you were frowning at me just a few moments ago.”
“Because I couldn’t figure out what you were doing behind that plant, but now that we’ve settled that, I’m no longer frowning, which means...” Her eyes began to sparkle. “I can finally tell you about an unexpected circumstance that’s arisen that I’ve been dying to share with you.”
“Does it have anything to do with the two gentlemen who’ve come to call?”
“In a manner of speaking,” she said before she took hold of his arm and began, not drawing him over to be introduced to the two men who were evidently responsible for the unexpected circumstance, but hustling him straight across and then out of the room.
“Where are we going, or better yet, why did you just avoid introducing me to the gentlemen I was told had come to call on you?” he asked as she tugged him down the hallway.
“Leopold Pendleton and Charles Wetzel, two very dear friends of mine who’ve been sent by the Accounting Firm to provide me with extra protection, are intending on staying here as long as I’m here. That means they’ll be available for introductionsafterwe’ve had a chance to speak privately.”
The knot that had been in his stomach ever since he’d seen Camilla smiling at Charles Wetzel began to unravel.
“They’re only here to protect you?” he asked.
“That was their original intention, although...” She tugged him into an empty room painted in a robin’s-egg blue, not that he’d known what the color was called until Luella corrected him when he’d said it was merely blue a month before. “Protection may not be their only mission now since there’s been an intriguing development.”
“There’s a development?” was all he could think to ask as the knot began reforming in his stomach, undoubtedly due to the idea he was relatively certain this development centered around one Charles Wetzel—a far-too-smiley gentleman if there ever was one.
“I think Beulah may have just found herself a ... beau.”
Owen’s mouth dropped open. “What?”
“You heard me, a beau—and not just any beau, but Leopold Pendleton, an upstanding gentleman who is already more than smitten with your grandmother.”
“I was only gone three hours,” Owen pointed out as the knot in his stomach loosened yet again, although he couldn’t quite ignore the touch of queasiness that was beginning to take the knot’s place.
“The smitten-ness happened within seconds, a direct result of Beulah impressing Leopold with her shooting abilities.”
“One would think this Leopold would want to put as much distance between himself and Meemaw as possible, not set his sights on, ah, courting her.”