Before Rosanna could protest, she walked to the library door and opened it. Mrs. Leeds and Max Laponi were sitting at the desk, examining some document which was spread out before them. As Penny came in, Laponi whisked it into his pocket.
“Oh, I beg your pardon,” Penny said casually. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You aren’t at all, my dear,” Mrs. Leeds said more graciously than was her custom. “Mr. Laponi was just showing me a letter from his sister.”
“Yes, from my sister,” Laponi echoed with a slight smirk. “She lives in Naples and writes such interesting letters.”
Penny found it difficult to refrain from smiling. She pretended to search in the bookcase for a volume.
“I thought possibly you had discovered the will,” she remarked mischievously.
“The will! Oh, no!” Mrs. Leeds assured her.
“That is a good joke,” Laponi echoed. “Ha! Ha! Even a ferret couldn’t find old Jacob Winters’ will in this house!”
Penny was aware that both Mrs. Leeds and Max Laponi were watching her shrewdly, trying to make up their minds if she had overheard anything. She dared say no more lest she betray herself. Picking up a book she quietly withdrew.
“It’s just as I thought,” she told Rosanna when they were together in their bedroom. “Laponi is trying to get Mrs. Leeds involved in some scheme to steal the property. Unless we watch out, Rosanna, they’ll get everything away from you.”