The Turmoil · Chapter 12 (2/2)

“Bibbs, you were coming out of the Vertreeses’ house when we met you. How did you happen to be there?”

“I had only been to the door,” he said. “Good night, Sibyl.”

“Wait,” she insisted. “We saw you coming out.”

“I wasn’t,” he explained, moving to depart. “I’d just brought Miss Vertrees home.”

“What?” she cried.

“Yes,” he said, and stepped out upon the porch, “that was it. Good night, Sibyl.”

“Wait!” she said, following him across the threshold. “How did that happen? I thought you were going to wait while those men filled the⁠—the⁠—” She paused, but moved nearer him insistently.

“I did wait. Miss Vertrees was there,” he said, reluctantly. “She had walked away for a while and didn’t notice that the carriages were leaving. When she came back the coupé waiting for me was the only one left.”

Sibyl regarded him with dilating eyes. She spoke with a slow breathlessness. “And she drove home from Jim’s funeral⁠—with you!”

Without warning she burst into laughter, clapped her hand ineffectually over her mouth, and ran back uproariously into the house, hurling the door shut behind her.