The Great Christmas Ball by Joan Smith

insincere compliments. It wearies me.”
    “Then why do you bother?” she snipped.
    “Because Mrs. Leonard expected them.”
    “Oh, Mrs. Leonard!”
    “Good Lord! You didn’t think I was merely flattering you. Really, Miss Lyman, I thought we had a better understanding than that.”
    As their understanding was that they went out together in the way of business, and he had no romantical interest in her, she hardly knew how to reply.
    After a moment she said, “He does have a book on astrology. Uncle Rodney, I mean. I remember noticing it on the shelves. It is a horrid cheap book with a red cover, all painted with little symbols. Rams and goats and things. I shall check it this very instant. Only think, if she is shamming it, Lord Costain, then—”
    She came to a frowning pause. “Then what? How could she possibly have access to any state secrets? Mr. Leonard would not be allowed to take documents from the office, surely? He would have to copy them at work, and that means he is working with her.”
    “Or someone at the office is. You have not forgotten Mr. Burack, who tried to pump you for news, and so carefully avoided the lady all evening? There are other gentlemen as well. I only mention Mr. Burack, as you know him.”
    “It will be best for Gordon to continue watching Mrs. Leonard. If you are not a Leo, I mean,” she added, and laughed that so important a matter should hang by such a slender thread.
    “You must let me know my sign tomorrow. I shall drop by in the afternoon, if I may? Say about four, just in time for tea.”
    “Mama will like that,” she said unthinkingly.
    Costain was a little surprised that Miss Lyman did not show greater pleasure. But then, he had gone out of his way to let her know there was nothing serious between them, so he had to pretend to approve her lack of enthusiasm.
    He opened the door and she went in with a casual wave, “I don’t have to bother with the formality of assuring you I had a delightful evening, do I?”
    “Certainly not, ma’am. That is one of the few perquisites of our position. We need not pretend to nonexistent pleasure. In the interest of dispassionate truth, however, I should like to say that I enjoyed myself.”
    “Tell Mrs. Leonard,” she said, and closed the door with a quizzing smile, while Costain frowned in dissatisfaction.
    That was not what he meant! That was not his meaning at all. He enjoyed Miss Lyman’s company. It was unusual to be with a young lady who was not constantly throwing her bonnet at him. She was peeved that he had deserted her for dinner in front of the crowd, and who could blame her? It was a farouche thing for him to have done. Any other lady would have been in the boughs for hours.
    Miss Lyman merely told him he had made her feel awkward, and that was an end of it. When he tried to flirt a little to make up for the lapse, she paid not the slightest heed. She was thinking of the case all the while, as he ought to have been doing himself.
    Mrs. Leonard ... Was that a lead worth following? If she was wangling state secrets from someone, he doubted very much it was her husband. Mr. Burack was more like it. And if she was using an affair with him to discover secrets, might she not be interested in another channel into the Horse Guards as well?
    His mind skimmed lightly over various possibilities until Gordon’s carriage was heard approaching, at which time he got out of his rig and went to meet him.
    “Oh, you’re still here, Costain. Waiting for me, are you?”
    “I want to ask you something. Did Mrs. Leonard stand up with Burack after I left?”
    “No, she left shortly after you. Now that you mention it, though, he left soon after her.”
    “I see!”
    “You think there is something between them?”
    “It’s possible.”
    “So, who am I to follow tomorrow?”
    “Mrs. Leonard, and do it discreetly. She has seen you with Cathy now, and she knows I am Cathy’s friend. We don’t want her getting any ideas of