"This isn't quite what I had in mind, Archie," she said quietly, "But I think we need to adapt to the circumstances."

She beadled straight over to the door, and shut and locked it with a meaningful glance at the both of us.

Now Archibald Cox isn't one to be slow on the uptake, and I already had a pretty good suspicion about what she had in mind. I looked at Reggie, and he looked at me.

"Honestly Reg, I was misled. I'm not lying to you."

He was looking at me now with a quite different expression. Not so much murderous as it was evaluating, I think.

Monica leaned back against the door and began to unbutton her blouse, with a little lopsided grin.

"Reggie and I go way back, you see," she said, and shrugged off her top. "Do you think this might balance the scales between you and Muffy, dear?"

I could see that his countenance was calm for the first time since I'd tripped over him.

"It might, if Archie here can keep his trap shut," he said.

"My trap is always under lock and key," I said. "I am the essence of discretion."

"So Muffy told me," Monica said as she fiddled with the buttons of her skirt. "And I trust her judgment in these things implicitly. Don't worry, Reggie."

She let her skirt slip to the floor, and stood before us in only her delicate underthings.

This wasn't the way I'd imagined this going at all, but a man has to be flexible. When she walked towards the bedroom she wiggled her hips and turned her head back to see us both watching her. Her form was even more angelic than I'd suspected - she had lovely curved hips, and long delicate legs, and her shoulders looked mysteriously inviting.

"Are you going to join me, gentlemen?" she said.

Myself and Reginald were finally of one mind on a topic, and we didn't exchange a single word as we simultaneously started following her.