Drayton continued. “The scones and tea sandwiches will all be accompanied by our Lady London Ceylon tea. And our desserts will consist of English madeleines and shortbread squares topped with fresh strawberries. This will be accompanied by a vanilla chai.”
“The menu is great,” Theodosia said. “And the tea pairings are quite inspired.”
“Thank you.” Drayton smiled contentedly. “I thought so, too.”
“Now I have a question.”
“About the tea?”
“Not exactly. Have you ever heard of a Professor Warren Shepley?”
Drayton shook his head. “I don’t think so. Why? Who is he?”
“He’s a professor of Russian literature at Savannah State University. He also crashed Brooke’s event on Sunday night.”
Drayton looked puzzled. “Now, why would he do that?”
Theodosia narrowed her eyes. “That’s precisely what we need to find out.”
? ? ?
When the big hand and the little hand both hit twelve, the front door burst open and all their guests began to pile in. Hugs and air kisses were hastily exchanged, and then a mad scramble ensued to see who was sitting at what table.
Delaine showed up with a surprise guest, so an extra place setting had to be squeezed in at the last minute. Then Lionel Rinicker showed up with Grace Dawson on his arm.
Theodosia hadn’t even realized that Rinicker had reserved two seats, but she made up her mind to treat him like she would anyone else. That is, anyone else who could possibly be an international jewel thief on the run.
But as everyone settled in their chairs, and Theodosia and Drayton circled the tables with steaming hot teapots, Rinicker proved to be mellow and downright chatty.
“You’ll never guess who showed up to talk to me yesterday,” Rinicker said to Theodosia, a twinkle in his eye.
She knew darned well who’d shown up. A couple of special agents in charge. Steely-eyed guys in narrow ties. But she played it cool. Underplayed it, in fact.
“Tell me,” Theodosia said. “Was it one of your European friends?”
Rinicker chortled heartily, then poked Grace in the ribs. “You think we should tell her?”
Grace laughed merrily. “I think you should definitely tell her.”
Rinicker plucked at Theodosia’s sleeve and pulled her closer. “The FBI,” he said in a stage whisper. He chuckled again and said, “Can you believe it? Actual federal agents. Talking to me.”
Theodosia could believe it. “What on earth did they want?” she asked, acting surprised yet knowing this conversation was veering into awfully strange territory.
“They wanted to quiz me about that robbery the other night,” Rinicker said. He pointed at her. “The one at the jewelry store. The one you were right in the middle of, according to Drayton.”
“The one where Brooke’s niece was killed,” Theodosia said, practically biting off her words.
“That’s the one,” Rinicker said. “It seems those FBI agents had me confused with some crazy jewel thief who robbed a shop in Cannes, in the south of France. Said I looked just like him.”
“Isn’t that the craziest thing?” Grace giggled. “We were just pulling my boat in from a run around the harbor, and there they were, standing on the dock, looking very grim.”
“Amazing,” Theodosia said. She switched her gaze to Rinicker. “But it wasn’t you?”
“Of course not,” Rinicker said. He gave his chest a hearty thump. “Can you imagine me masterminding some kind of daring heist?”
Yes, maybe I can.
“It does seem preposterous,” Theodosia said.
? ? ?
With their guests enjoying the second course, consisting of tea sandwiches and citrus salad, Drayton clinked a knife against a water glass to gain everyone’s attention. As soon as the conversation dropped to a low hum, he stepped to the center of the room.
“Welcome to our first ever Duchess of Devonshire Tea,” he said. “As some of you history buffs are probably aware, there really was a duchess and she really did hail from Devonshire.”
That brought a spate of polite laughter.
“In fact,” Drayton continued, “this illustrious duchess that we celebrate today was the first wife of William Cavendish, fifth Duke of Devonshire. Her father was John Spencer, first Earl Spencer, which made her the great-great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales.”
There was a spatter of applause and someone called out, “Wonderful pedigree.”
“The Duchess of Devonshire attained a large amount of fame during her lifetime,” Drayton said. “She was notorious for her catastrophic love affairs and her love of gambling.” He stopped and smiled. “But she also had a softer side. Our dear duchess was also a socialite who gathered a large salon of literary and political figures around her, and she was one of the earliest campaigners for women’s rights.”
“Hear! Hear!” Delaine said.