‘No,’ said Ruddock, barely managing to keep his balance. ‘He was let straight in. A servant came out to stable his horse for him. It was almost as if he was expected.’ He stood on both feet again. ‘I thought you’d like to know.’
‘We’re delighted with the news,’ said Hale.
‘Well done, Ruddock!’ said Yeomans.
‘This deserves a reward. You look as if you’re starving. Take my seat and help yourself to what’s left of my pie.’ Hale got up from the table. ‘I’ll fetch you a tankard of beer to help it down.’
In the face of such kind treatment, Ruddock glowed. He’d done something to gain their appreciation at last. He was still grinning when he fell asleep again.
Lemuel Fleet had come so close to falling into a crater of despair that he felt it was only a matter of time before he finally toppled. His profession acquainted him with possible danger every day. When trying to set up a performance of a new play, so many things could go wrong. All of them had happened to The Piccadilly Opera. There was no affliction from which the play had not suffered. As it stood, it was wholly unfit for public consumption. Were he to put it in front of an audience, it might ruin his reputation irreparably. He knew to his cost how wild theatregoers could be. They insisted on value for money. Fleet was aware just how many riots had been started by discontented patrons over the years. On one occasion, when higher prices were introduced, there had been continuous rioting for all of sixty-six days until the management relented.
Loving the fabric of his theatre as much as its traditions, he was terrified of wanton destruction. A bad play with a half-hearted actress as its central attraction would provoke anger and violence. He was staring into the crater yet again.
‘I wonder if I might have a word, Mr Fleet.’
‘What’s that?’ He came out of his reverie to see his visitor. ‘Why are you here, Mr Mundy? No rehearsal is called for today.’
‘I wish to speak to you.’
‘Yes, yes, come on in, please do.’
‘You said that your door was always open.’
Fleet was staggered less by the playwright’s arrival than by the unusual tone of his voice. It was soft, low and almost apologetic. He got up to bring Mundy fully into the office and eased him into a chair, taking the one opposite for himself.
‘I’ve been talking things over with my wife,’ said Mundy.
‘I do the same thing myself.’ Fleet gave a nervous laugh. ‘I don’t mean that I talk to your dear spouse, of course. I converse with my own. It often helps me to see things in a new light somehow. Does it have the same effect on you?’
‘As a rule, it doesn’t.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘My wife, Marion, is my mainstay. Whatever course of action I take, she will always endorse without ever questioning it.’
‘There aren’t enough women like that about,’ said Fleet.
‘That, I should add, was until today. She did think for herself this time.’
‘Oh?’
‘Indeed,’ said Mundy, ‘she resorted to prayer beforehand so that she had divine authority for it. She pointed out that we have both been too ready to abuse Miss Granville when all that she wants is for my play to be seen at its very best. The attack on her has made us take a more understanding view of her.’
‘Am I actually hearing this?’ asked Fleet, close to delirium. ‘Are you telling me that you approve of Miss Granville’s suggested improvements?’
‘Oh, no, they are far too comprehensive. I stand by my right as the playwright to protect my work. I’ll make changes after – and only after – reasonable discussion. In essence, I’m committing to finding a middle way between my own suggestions and Miss Granville’s more savage approach to the text. Is that fair, Mr Fleet?’
‘It’s more than fair.’
‘Will the lady herself take the same view?’
‘We can but ask.’
‘Then I urge you to do the asking. For some reason, I irritate the lady.’
‘I simply can’t understand why,’ said Fleet, concealing the lie behind a broad smile. ‘Once again, I am ready to act as a willing go-between.’
‘Remember what the Bible says – “Blessed are the peacemakers”…’
‘I think that we should bless your dear wife as well. Mrs Mundy may have found the way to save all our skins.’
Slipping quietly into the church, Marion Mundy walked down the aisle then stepped into a pew. She knelt down and went through the prayers that she routinely said every day. Her mind then turned to her husband. Secure in the house of the Lord, she prayed in earnest for the success of his play and for the removal of the incessant bickering that it had so far produced. She remained on her knees until the pain eventually forced her to get up.
‘I’m worried, Laetitia.’
‘It’s not like you to lose your nerve.’
‘I haven’t lost my nerve,’ retorted Hamer. ‘I’ll face any kind of jeopardy without a shred of fear but I prefer it to be visible. That’s what makes this situation so maddening. Things are happening out of sight.’
‘We can deal with them.’
‘You can’t shoot at what you can’t actually see.’
‘I thought you might have worked out who is behind it all by now.’
‘That’s what I’ve been trying to do. Rawdon came up with the best suggestion. He wonders if it might be someone from whom I parted rather abruptly. The obvious name was Eleanor Gold.’
‘Was she that pouting young woman with a high opinion of herself?’
‘She was very appealing at first.’
‘What happened?’
‘I made the mistake of trusting her, Laetitia.’
‘In what way?’
‘Thinking it was safe to do so, I let her stay in the house when I wasn’t there. Rawdon believes that she might have taken the liberty of reading your correspondence to me and of sneaking into my little museum. In other words,’ said Hamer, ‘Eleanor could have stolen that Spanish dagger of mine.’
‘And if she read my letters to you,’ said Laetitia with growing alarm, ‘she’d have been aware of what we’d planned. She’d know, for instance, the exact time when the duel was taking place.’
‘More importantly, she could have studied your hand carefully enough to forge a summons to that credulous fool, Bowerman. Yes,’ he decided, ‘I think we may be on the right track at last. Eleanor Gold and an accomplice are the villains.’
‘Then it was stupid of you to let her get so close. Why didn’t you just take what you wanted and throw her out?’
‘She was very sweet, Laetitia.’
‘She’s sweet and murderous, by the sound of it.’
‘Rawdon and I will find her,’ he vowed. ‘We just have to hope that someone else doesn’t get to her first. If that happens, we’re done for. Eleanor will be able to tell them how you tricked Bowerman into changing his will, then handed him over for me to kill in a duel. We must catch her first.’
‘You’ll have no competition from the Bow Street Runners.’
‘I wasn’t thinking of them.’
‘Are you still concerned about the Skillen brothers?’
‘They are the real problem,’ he conceded. ‘Rawdon tried to frighten them off but his plan was foiled. He’s trying to devise another way of diverting them.’
‘Then he needs to put it in place very soon.’
‘I’d happily meet anyone in a duel but I’d think twice about it if the man with the other weapon in his hand was Paul Skillen. He’s dangerous.’
‘I agree with you, Stephen. He troubles me as well.’
‘His brother is an equal threat to us.’
‘Then we may have to get rid of both of them, permanently.’
‘That won’t be easy,’ he said.
‘Are you afraid of them?’
‘No, of course I’m not, Laetitia. But I treat them with respect. When you signed the death warrant for Bowerman, you gave me an easy task. I�
�d have shot him dead before he’d even pulled the trigger.’ He pursed his lips. ‘Killing Peter and Paul Skillen is a much more daunting task but it’s not one from which I’d flinch. In fact, I think I’d relish it.’
She was merciless. ‘If it needs doing, you and Rawdon must do it.’
Laetitia heard the clang of the doorbell and moved to the window. When she peered around the curtain, she saw Yeomans and Hale standing outside. She turned quickly back to Hamer.
‘It’s those damnable Runners again,’ she said. ‘They mustn’t find you here.’
‘I’ll hide in there,’ he said, moving towards the adjoining room.
‘Don’t come out until I call you.’
‘Listen to what they want then send them quickly on their way.’
‘Just go,’ she urged, opening a door for him.
When Hamer had gone, Laetitia sat down again in a posture that suggested grief and remorse. She was still wearing the black dress and exuding a sense of irreplaceable loss. When the servant brought news of the visitors, she agreed to see them on the condition that they stayed only a short time. After passing on the message to the Runners, the servant ushered them into the room.
Yeomans came straight to the point. ‘Where is Captain Hamer?’
‘I beg your pardon,’ she said.
‘You told us that you detested the man.’
‘And I do, Mr Yeomans. His name is abhorrent to me.’
‘Then why did you let him into this house?’
‘I’d never deign to do such a thing,’ she said, hotly.
‘Oh, yes, you would, Miss Somerville.’
‘We had the captain’s house watched,’ said Hale, triumphantly. ‘Earlier today, he was seen to leave his abode and ride straight here. One of your servants stabled his horse as if he was used to seeing Captain Hamer.’
‘So I’ll repeat my question,’ said Yeomans, moving forward until he loomed over her like a huge, dark cloud. ‘Where is he?’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Laetitia Somerville was rarely at a loss for words but she was groping in vain for them now. Their arrival and challenge was so unexpected that it took all the wind out of her. Maintaining her composure, she retreated into silence. It was soon broken. The door opened and Stephen Hamer charged angrily into the room.
‘How dare you treat me like this!’ he yelled. ‘It’s insulting. The chief magistrate will hear about it.’
‘He will,’ agreed Yeomans, ‘and he’ll praise us for exposing your lies.’
‘Miss Somerville swore to us that she had no time for you,’ said Hale, ‘yet here you are, walking into this house as if you own it.’
‘I have every right to a private life,’ said Hamer with asperity, ‘and so does Miss Somerville. What has this city come to when it condones the use of Peeping Toms on innocent people?’
‘We’re not sure that you are innocent, sir.’
‘I take the same view as my colleague,’ said Yeomans, heavily. ‘When a person tells us one thing then does completely the opposite, we grow suspicious.’
‘The captain was allowed in for only one reason,’ said Laetitia, regaining her confidence, ‘and for one reason only. He’d written to me, asking for permission to apologise in person. Because he expressed his heartfelt sympathy for the death of Mr Bowerman, I agreed to see him.’
‘It’s true,’ said Hamer, catching her eye and reading its message.
‘It does not mean that we are now on terms of friendship,’ she went on. ‘I’ve made that crystal clear. I’ve accepted the apology but that’s all I’ve done. From today onwards, the captain is not welcome within these four walls.’
‘It’s no more than I deserve.’
‘And that’s all you have to say, is it?’ taunted Yeomans.
‘Yes,’ said Hamer, ‘so you can get out right now.’
‘We haven’t finished yet, sir. If – as you and Miss Somerville claim – this was a brief visit to say that you were sorry, two questions arise. Thanks to a colleague of ours, we know the exact time when you were admitted to the house. It was over an hour ago. Does it always take you that long to offer an apology?’
‘Don’t be impertinent!’
‘The second question is the important one. If you had a good reason for being here, why were you hiding in another room so that we didn’t see you?’
‘If you are going to interrogate us like this,’ said Laetitia, grandly, ‘beware of the legal consequences. I retain one of the finest lawyers in the capital. If officers of the law step out of line, as both of you are now doing, he will have no compunction in having you dismissed.’ She stood up to confront them. ‘What did you do before you became a Bow Street Runner, Mr Yeomans?’
‘I was a blacksmith,’ he replied.
‘It’s an occupation more suited to a man of limited intelligence like yourself.’ She turned to Hale. ‘What about you?’
‘I was a harness-maker,’ said the other.
‘So the pair of you worked exclusively with horses, did you? That will explain your total lack of manners. Dumb animals have no need of etiquette.’
‘We’re used to people sneering at us, Miss Somerville,’ said Yeomans. ‘It’s usually a sign of their guilt.’
‘Of what are we supposed to be guilty?’ demanded Hamer.
‘We think you are in collusion with each other.’
‘That’s nonsense!’
‘You can rant and rave all you wish, sir. We see what you see.’
‘Then arrest me yet again, if you dare, and do the same to Miss Somerville this time. Take us before the chief magistrate and justify your mistake. I’ve been to Bow Street before, please remember, and I walked away as the innocent man I was. You would have been duly admonished for your mistake. On this occasion, I’ll warrant, your fate will be much worse.’
‘Not to worry,’ said Laetitia, ‘there’s always a call for good blacksmiths.’
‘Harness-makers are also in demand,’ said Hamer.
‘Do as the captain suggests and arrest us.’
They had reached an impasse. The certainty with which the Runners had entered the house had begun to crumble slightly. Had they placed the wrong construction on the fact that Hamer had called at a house where he was supposedly unwelcome? Ruddock had noted how familiarly he’d entered the building. Was that what had actually happened? If not, thought Yeomans, at least they’d have someone to blame. Ruddock would always be their whipping boy.
For their part, Laetitia and Hamer were hoping that their outraged denials were enough to put the visitors to flight. News that one of them was under surveillance had been a profound shock and a reminder that they needed to take the utmost care. Having derided the Runners, they now realised that Yeomans and Hale were not as inefficient as they’d assumed. When they saw grounds for suspicion, they acted accordingly. As a result, they’d caused Laetitia and Hamer acute embarrassment.
The two parties faced each other. Nobody moved and nobody spoke. Minutes steadily accumulated. Hamer looked for signs of weakness in the Runners while they, in turn, watched for an opening they could exploit. It never came. The impasse was eventually broken.
‘To use an army term,’ said Hamer, ‘I’d advise a tactical retreat on your part.’
‘We’d advise you to start telling the truth for once,’ Yeomans retaliated.
‘You have a warrant for our arrest?’
‘No,’ confessed Hale.
‘Then it’s time for you to withdraw.’
Though he was desperate to stay, Yeomans could find no reason to do so. Their mission had failed. He sought to win at least a token of gratitude from them.
‘There was another reason why we came,’ he said.
‘Tell us what it is,’ invited Laetitia, ‘then get out of my house.’
‘The inquest delivered its verdict.’
‘It was exactly what we said it would be,’ added Hale. ‘It’s recorded as a case of murder by a person or persons unknown.’
; ‘Then get out there and catch them,’ said Hamer. ‘You won’t find them here.’
‘You heard Captain Hamer,’ said Laetitia, reinforcing his command. ‘He’s given his word as a gentleman that he is innocent of the stabbing and I need hardly say that I, too, am wholly innocent of the crime. Your visit is therefore at an end. Please don’t have the effrontery to come to this house again.’
After mumbling their apologies, the Runners crept out of the room.
When the letter arrived, Hannah read it with a mingled interest and distrust. Delivered by hand, it had been sent by Lemuel Fleet and told of the offer made by Abel Mundy. Hannah read it three times before she handed it over to Charlotte, who was seated at the rear of the house with her. Charlotte’s response was more optimistic.
‘This is good news, Hannah.’
‘I wonder.’
‘To some extent, it’s an olive branch.’
‘It’s certainly not the surrender that I desire,’ said Hannah. ‘I am not only thinking of myself. I speak on behalf of the entire company.’
‘I think they’d be cheered by the manager’s letter. According to him, Mr Mundy is prepared to give ground.’
‘Yes, but how much ground?’
‘There’s only one way to find out,’ said Charlotte.
She was delighted that her friend had received encouragement at last. As well as reviving the hope that the play would be performed after all, it took Hannah’s mind off the fear of another attempt to harm her. Dirk, the manservant, had been going out of the house regularly to make sure that nobody was watching for a chance to strike again. So far nothing remotely suspicious had been seen. While that had calmed Hannah, the letter had a less soothing effect on her altogether.
‘His stipulation disturbs me, Charlotte.’
‘Why is that?’
‘Mundy insists that we discuss things together.’
‘Isn’t that the obvious thing to do?’
‘Not when it forces me to look at that repulsive face of his.’
‘Mrs Mundy doesn’t find it repulsive.’
A Date with the Executioner Page 19