by Kate Parker
“Thank you.” I was going to have to talk to Lady Kaldaire sooner or later. I planned to make it later.
Once they left, I sent Jane home and closed up the shop. I was sweeping the floor when I heard a knock on the door. I peeked out around the shade on the glass pane and saw Detective Inspector James Russell.
My heart did an odd little flutter as I unlocked the door.
James slipped in and glanced around before he took me in his arms and gave me a kiss.
Once I remembered how to breathe, I said, “Mrs. McCauley left us chicken stew today. There’s plenty. Are you here for dinner after your long absence?”
He grimaced. “That couldn’t be avoided. The Manchester police had half a dozen cases they wanted help on, and my governor agreed. I hope they send someone else next time. I don’t like Manchester.” He had let me go, but he still stood, in the eyes of society, improperly close.
“Were any of the investigations interesting?” I found James’s work fascinating.
“One was. I’ll tell you about it after dinner. In the meantime, I need to interview you about what happened this morning.”
I hoped I was right when I said Mrs. McCauley was generous with the stew. James was here and staying for dinner. I would have cheered if I’d been alone. I didn’t want him to see how excited I was by his spending time with me. “Please, sit down,” I said as demurely as I could manage, but I still gave a little hop.
He lowered himself into one of the hat fitting chairs. “Tell me everything that happened, in order, from the time you reached the park until I arrived.”
I did.
“Whose idea was it to request my help with the investigation?”
“Lady Kaldaire. And she’s been telling the Duchess of Wallingford how discreet you were when you handled her husband’s murder.”
“So the duchess told me. She’s certain it was a thief who surprised her son’s wife and then felt the need to dispose of the body.” He shook his head. “This is going to be difficult, and the chief constable is demanding a quick resolution.”
“Because Lady Theodore had married into a duke’s family?”
“And lived in their house.”
“She still lived there even after her husband had died?” Even though she was hated by the duchess.
He nodded. “Strange, since I received the impression the two women didn’t get along.”
I decided to pass on the information the Duchess of Blackford had given me.
When I finished, James winced. “The last places I expected to go with this investigation were clubs where cocaine sellers do their business and houses of ill repute.”
“I imagine those places are dangerous. No wonder both the husband and wife were murdered, if they were frequenting such places and were not paying their bills.” I shuddered.
“There are a lot of places they could have been taking their pleasures that we don’t have reason to enter. Those places are the ones I don’t want you to visit. I can’t come in to rescue you.” He looked at me, worry lines etched on his forehead.
“What places?” I was curious.
He glared at me, and when I stared back, he relented. “A lot of gambling goes on in private clubs around the edges of Mayfair. And in a few of these places, more than just gambling.”
“James, spell it out.” Really, I wished he trusted me with information that he’d share with my grandfather.
He looked at the ceiling and exhaled heavily. Then he looked at me. “Twenty years ago, cocaine was considered good for giving people energy. Even Doctor Freud said how good it was. It wasn’t until people became addicted, or died from it, that the medical community realized how dangerous cocaine is. It’s still legal, but I wish it wasn’t.”
“In a few private clubs they gamble and do drugs. Anything else?” So far, I hadn’t heard anything too shocking.
He made a face as if he’d tasted something rotten. “It’s rumored in at least one place they give brandy and drugs to young ladies and then take them upstairs and do scandalous things to them.”
With a herd of cousins, I’d learned things long before the adults found out I knew. “You mean sex.”
“Yes.” He reached out and took my hands. “I see the victims of these places. There is nothing we can do. We can’t find the people who did these things to them, and we can’t obtain justice.”
“I’m sorry your position with the Yard forces you to visit such horrors.” James was such a dear, honest, kind person. Going into these places had to have hurt him deeply.
“At least I don’t have to go in alone,” he said and smiled. “I always try to take the biggest sergeants with me on a raid. I’m glad Lady Kaldaire isn’t involved because I don’t want to rescue you, and her, from these places.”
I let out a deep breath. “Lady Kaldaire is an old friend of the Duchess of Wallingford. She’s already trying to get me involved. That’s why the Duchess of Blackford was here this afternoon telling me what she knew of this couple.”
His smile slid off his face. “Emily, if you and Lady Kaldaire want to spend time in drawing rooms sipping tea and asking questions, I’ll not say no. You have a way of finding out bits of information that are important. But stay away from places where you have no business going.”
“I hope Lady Kaldaire agrees with you.” Somehow, I knew she wouldn’t.
He made a noise between a growl and a groan. “Promise me you won’t go anywhere you shouldn’t. Remember, Lady Theodore was murdered when someone sliced through her neck with a knife. The scarf was added to try to hide the murder wound. Not terribly effectively, since the blood managed to seep from under the scarf.”
I shuddered.
He took my hand. “We’re dealing with someone strong, violent, and crafty. Promise me you won’t get involved. And you won’t go to any of these so-called private clubs.”
When I didn’t speak, he said, “Promise.”
“If you can convince Lady Kaldaire, I gladly promise.”
“Oh, I’ll convince Lady Kaldaire if I have to threaten her with jail.”
James didn’t sound as if he were joking.
We went upstairs to a wonderful dinner with my little apprentice, Annie, and Noah, my mother’s cousin and my business partner, and James entertained us with tales from his stay in Manchester. I didn’t give Lady Kaldaire another thought.
* * *
Lady Kaldaire came into my shop the next morning, sat down on one of my fitting chairs as if she owned the place, and took off her hat.
“How may I help your ladyship?” I asked loud enough that the customer Jane was helping on the other side of the partition, a barrister’s wife, could hear me.
“I need a new hat. Black, obviously, but something a little more spring-like.”
“Spring-like?” She was in the first phase of mourning for her husband. Society didn’t allow her much variation in her dress, and none at all in her wearing black from head to toe.
“Yes. Something not so weighty.”
“Get rid of the veils? Add some ribbon trim?”
“Exactly.”
I lowered my voice. “Has Inspector Russell spoken to you?”
“Yes. Silly man. He thinks he can frighten me.”
Oh, dear. “He doesn’t want either of us visiting…certain locations,” I said, nodding in the direction of the woman in the next chair, “but we are free to ask any questions we want in any drawing room in London.”
Lady Kaldaire glanced in the woman’s direction and said, “I’d like you to accompany me to Wallingford House this afternoon to speak to the ladies there. And then we may need to visit some out of the way places.”
I knew exactly what she meant by “out of the way places.” They were the locations James didn’t want us to visit. “Can’t you take the duchess or somebody else with you?” I figured it was worth a try.
“Not if you don’t want the story of your relatives to shock your customers.” She kept her voice lowered.
&n
bsp; “You wouldn’t.” I glared at her while whispering.
“I can, and if you cross me on this, I will.” I could read her determination in her eyes.
“It’s not fair.”
She gave my pouting face a bored stare. “Things seldom are. Directly after you close the shop.”
Matthew was doing so well at his school. He was making deaf friends. I had to keep paying his school fees. Blast. “No. Not until you give me a good reason why I should endanger my reputation and my life in the hunt for a killer.”
She thought for a moment. “There’s a tea shop down the street. Let’s go there.”
“Why can’t you tell me here?”
“And have all your customers listen to my business? No.”
“Jane?” I said in a normal voice as I popped my head around the divider.
She saw the expression on my face. “I’ll take care of the shop.”
“Thank you.” I stared at Lady Kaldaire, ignoring the look of surprise on the face of the barrister’s wife. “Let’s go.”
The morning was bright, so we carried our umbrellas furled and enjoyed the sunshine as we walked down the pavement. The hour was still early and delivery wagons crowded the street, moving slowly or blocking the pavement while being unloaded. Lady Kaldaire could squeeze past boxes and still look aristocratic. I just looked clumsy.
The teashop hadn’t been open long and wasn’t busy. We chose a table in a corner and ordered tea and muffins.
“Lady Kaldaire, let’s discuss this quickly. I have a business to run.”
“And I have an old and dear friend to protect.” We exchanged a hard stare before she added, “I don’t want to harm your business, but I would throw you into the Thames to protect Lulu.”
I jerked back in my chair. I had never had a friend I felt that strongly about, and at that moment I would have gladly thrown Lady Kaldaire into the river. Still, I had to ask. “Why? As long as I make your hats and do your bidding, I’m allowed to carry on. But if I disagree with you, you’re willing to destroy my business? You’re willing to drown me?”
She shook her head. “You tried to save Horace’s life, and for that I thank you. But Lulu actually did save my life. When we were young, traveling around Europe on our grand tour, she saved me before I died from strangulation.”
Chapter Six
My curiosity overcame my desire to get back to the shop as I waited for her to begin her tale.
“We were in Italy.” She shook her head. “Always a breeding ground for anarchists. We’d been to see Michelangelo’s David, magnificent creature, and some other statues under the watchful gaze of our governesses. Lulu’s wasn’t too bad, but mine was useless in a crisis. She couldn’t make a pot of tea or find a lost trunk, much less deal with what we were about to face.”
I tried to remember my history. Italy hadn’t been a country when Lady Kaldaire would have been a young miss. At that time, Germany and Italy were just collections of little states governed by local princes.
“We were warned by the police that due to political unrest we were to go back to our hotel and stay there. It was a large, sprawling building and our rooms were on the first floor. Each room opened onto a balcony that overlooked a garden.”
The tea was brought to our table and Lady Kaldaire poured. I picked up one of the muffins, gooey with butter, waiting to hear the tale. I was hungry, and I’m afraid I gobbled down two of the muffins before the tea was ready.
Finally, she took a sip of her tea and said, “We could hear a mob coming closer and shouting in Italian. It’s a language made for rioting. None of us could make out their grievance. Then the shouting seemed to come from all around the hotel and up and down every street. My governess was huddled in a corner sobbing loudly and regretting that she’d ever left England.”
I could picture the earth shaking with stomping feet and echoing with a million voices. Having never heard Italian, my imagination served up a rumbling sound.
“Lulu and her governess came into my room. Lulu and I talked her governess into dealing with mine while we leaned over the balcony railing and listened to the danger that seemed to surround us. It was exciting, hearing the mob but not being able to see them. We thought we were safe.”
She shook her head. “Suddenly, there were about twenty or thirty men in the garden. Each one carried a torch, and their faces in the torchlight looked menacing. Evil.
“One of them looked up and saw us. He called out and several of them began to climb the ivy that grew on the stone walls. We had no weapons to repel them. No cricket bats. No tennis rackets. No swords.
“And our dresses. All flounces and bustles and useless material. We ran inside and shut the French doors to the balcony, but a half-dozen men broke through. Lulu and I screamed. My governess fainted dead away, landing on Lulu’s governess and pinning her down. At least that’s what she claimed later.
“One of the men saw the jewelry I was wearing and grabbed for my necklace. My father had a particularly strong cord run through it so it couldn’t be easily snatched from my neck. He said the jewels were too expensive to chance a theft. What he didn’t realize was it now was being used to strangle me.
“I was on my knees, choking, thinking I was about to die as the world went black. Lulu told me she picked up a chamber pot and bashed the man over the head. I was so grateful when I could again draw breath through my painful throat. She then grabbed a small replica of David and hit another man in the face with it. Blood went everywhere. For a moment I thought she’d killed him.”
Lady Kaldaire took a sip of tea and fell silent.
I’d met the Duchess of Wallingford. She seemed so frail I couldn’t imagine her acting so forcefully. “It’s hard to picture.”
“Do you doubt my words?” Lady Kaldaire demanded.
“No.” I’d found Lady Kaldaire to be truthful.
“Lulu saved my life. No one else was in a position to act. She was incredible, and I lived to tell everyone about her courage. I am in her debt,” Lady Kaldaire said.
“What happened then?”
“One of them grabbed my jewelry box. I picked up a paperweight and hurled it at him. Hit him in the head and dropped him like a pheasant. Then the police showed up and arrested some of them while the rest escaped empty-handed.”
She smiled. “My parents were not happy.”
I imagined them being hundreds of miles away from their daughter, trying to travel to reach her. “What did they do?”
“What could they do? The trip was already half over. I suggested they come out and join me, since I was continuing on. In the end, they agreed that I should continue with my useless governess since they had no desire to travel to these barbaric places where they didn’t speak English.” Lady Kaldaire smiled at something only she could see. “Lulu and I had a frightfully good time after that.”
I looked at her over my teacup. “I understand better now why you feel the need to repay her by protecting her life.”
“And I need your help to make sure no one harms her. I will do anything, anything at all, to ensure she stays safe. That includes destroying your business if anyone attempts to hurt her and you don’t help me.” She held my gaze.
That raised a bigger question in my mind. “If despite our best efforts, someone hurts her, will you destroy my business?”
She shook her head. “All you can do is your best. Your best is quite formidable.” She gave me a weak smile. “I won’t punish you for failing. Only for not trying.”
I finished my tea and rose. “I have to get back to work. I’ll see you later.”
“And I have a hat to order.”
We returned to the millinery to find Jane was the only person there. Lady Kaldaire sat down again and looked at me expectantly.
“I can give you an hour this afternoon to visit Wallingford House if it would suit your ladyship,” I told her, “but that will be the only place I can visit away from my shop today. What time would you like me there?”
; “Meet me at my home at three. We’ll go together. No sense in your arriving ahead of me.”
I nodded. “Do you want me to work up some sketches or do you trust my imagination for your new hat?”
“Do a quick sketch so I know we’re imagining the same hat.”
As it turned out, I was correct about the shape, her favorite mushroom style. I was off on everything else. In place of a veil, she wanted a small bunch of ribbon roses on one side attached to a wide ribbon band around the base of the crown. I finally convinced her that I should add a bit of netting across the front of the brim to appear as if she had pushed the veil up.
“Since it will be in black, it will hardly be spring-like, but it is certainly better than having all those heavy veils Lady Montague is wearing,” Lady Kaldaire said. “And Lord Montague was such a philanderer. Not worth the effort.” She made a tsking noise.
Lady Montague was a customer of mine. I had created the hat Lady Kaldaire mentioned according to Lady Montague’s wishes. Quickly changing the subject, I said, “So this is what you have in mind, despite the color?”
“Yes,” she grumbled.
I suspected she was counting down the days until she could get into second mourning and add lilac and gray to her outfits. “I’ll get to work on this for you. And we’re working on the replacement for your first mourning hat. You must have really liked it to wear it out so quickly.”
“I blame it on the heavy rains we’ve had lately. Positively destroys hats.”
Inwardly, I cheered for heavy rains. Then I mentioned the price of her new hat.
“Fine. Fine,” she told me as she waved off the price with one hand. “I will see you at three.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, my lady.” I hoped I sounded more willing than I felt. I suspected I sounded annoyed.