“You know my grandfather, Mrs. Peek?”

The ruddy color on her cheeks deepened. She looked a little flustered. “Us was…acquainted.”

Gabe bet they were. And very well acquainted at that. Mrs. Peek had to be seventy-five if she was a day, and it was a little hard to imagine her and Earl getting it on. But then it was a little hard imagining Earl once looking like him!

“I’ll give him your regards when I talk to him,” he said. “I just came down from Stanton House where we celebrated his birthday.”

That, of course, required a detailed description of the birthday party. Mrs. Peek was all ears. Freddie, to Gabe’s dismay, excused herself after she’d poured the tea.

“I’ll be right back,” she said. “I just need to get more…presentable.” Her hands were fluttering still.

“Don’t bother on my account,” Gabe grinned.

Freddie clutched the raincoat across her midsection and said firmly, “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“’Er’s a dear soul, our Freddie,” Mrs. Peek said the moment Freddie was out of earshot. “Always workin’, ’er is. Too much for one woman, keepin’ up wi’ the abbey, but can’t tell her so. Good job you’ve come. Right proper Stantons gettin’ the Gazette an’ old Cedric sendin’ his very own grandson to set things right. As well he should,” she said firmly. “This bein’ his old home, an’ all. Th’ neighborhood needs ’er gentlemen.”

Gabe looked over his shoulder, then realized the gentleman in question was him! He began to feel a bit of the responsibility Randall seemed to shoulder so easily.

“I’ll do my best.”

Mrs. Peek nodded eagerly “You’ve got plans?”

“Have to see it first. Check things out. Assess the situation. Develop a plan of attack.” He was pretty sure that was the sort of claptrap Randall would have come up with when pressed. “I’ll know more in the next few days.”