“She said she’s been thinking about it a lot lately, and she recalls that Mrs. Honesdale often made her some tea when she came to visit. Priscilla thinks the tea was drugged.”
* * *
• • •
AFTER THE CAB DRIVER DROPPED HIM OFF IN FRONT OF ENDICOTT Knight’s old home, Gideon stood on the sidewalk for a long moment studying the house. He couldn’t stop thinking about Elizabeth’s theory that Daisy Honesdale had drugged Priscilla Knight in order to make her more compliant. The very thought was inconceivable, or rather it should have been and would have been a mere week earlier. Today, however, nothing seemed beyond the realm of possibility.
Maybe Elizabeth was right and he should have brought someone with him to go through the house, but he still couldn’t think of whom he could have asked in good conscience. Of course, he might not find anything at all, which was his fondest hope.
With a weary sigh, he climbed the front steps and found the correct key and opened the front door.
“Hello?” he called, just in case. “Anybody home?”
But as Alfred had described, the house was cold and empty, the rooms dim behind their drawn curtains. Dust covers draped most of the furniture so it looked like a dwelling for large, blocky ghosts.
Gideon went systematically from room to room. The image from the photograph was burned into his memory, so he recognized the painting the instant he found it in the largest bedroom upstairs. The masculine furnishings of the room told him this was the master’s bedchamber. The beds in the other bedrooms had been stripped and the mattresses rolled up, but here the bed was made, as if waiting for the master to return at any moment.
The other rooms were dusty, and this one was, too, but here the dust had been disturbed. Not swept or cleaned, but shifted and dragged and probably even caught up by the equipment pictured in the photograph. Mercifully, that equipment had been removed, or at least moved from this room. Gideon had no intention of searching the attics for it. All that remained from the photograph was the ordinary painting hanging on the wall of men on horseback hunting foxes.
What things had happened here? And now that Priscilla had raised the possibility that she had been drugged to make her more compliant, he had to wonder about Endicott as well. Had he willingly posed for that photograph? Because a photograph like that, taken indoors in poor light, would have required a camera, a photographer, and a flash lamp that produced a blinding explosion of light.
No one had snuck up on him and caught him by surprise. Either he had knowingly cooperated or he’d been under the influence of something stronger than alcohol and hadn’t known what was happening. Since the photograph had been used to blackmail him, Gideon couldn’t imagine Knight had participated willingly. He might have regularly indulged his appetites in unusual ways, but no man in his right mind would allow someone to obtain proof of it that could ruin him.
No dust covers protected the furniture in this room, so Gideon took a few minutes to check the drawers in the dresser and nightstand. Finding them empty, he went into the bathroom to check there. The cabinets were empty, but he did see a small brown glass bottle that had rolled into a corner.
It was empty now, too, but it had once contained laudanum.
* * *
• • •
GIDEON CLIMBED OUT OF THE CAB THAT EVENING AND TOOK the steps two at a time up the front porch of the ramshackle old house where Elizabeth lived. Even though he’d seen her earlier today, he couldn’t wait to see her again, and he twisted the doorbell with a little more enthusiasm than was necessary. The door opened and there she was, wearing a bright red dress with lots of straps crisscrossing on the top that still left her silky white arms and shoulders bare, and a long skirt that clung to her curves, making his breath lodge sharply somewhere behind his breast bone.
“Hello,” he managed.
“Is that all you can say?” she asked, twirling completely around so he could appreciate her from all sides.
“Just let me catch my breath.”
Her laugh rang like fine crystal. “Come inside and kiss me so I can put on my lip rouge.”
He happily obeyed.
“Won’t you be cold?” he asked while she used the hallway mirror to paint her lips.
“Oh, please,” she said, laying her free hand over her heart. “I don’t think I can stand all this romantic talk.”
“I’m only thinking of your welfare.”
“Women never think of their welfare where fashion is concerned, but don’t worry, I have a coat.”
She did indeed, an amazing thing with a cape-like collar made of some kind of fur. “Is this new?”
“Most of my clothes are new. You made me return all those beautiful things I got in Washington City.”
The beautiful things she’d stolen in Washington City, but he wouldn’t mention that. It was a lifetime ago, in any case. Or almost two months, which was practically the same thing with Elizabeth. “Well, it’s beautiful, and the dress is . . .”
“Breathtaking?” she offered with a grin when he couldn’t come up with a word to describe her magnificence.
“Completely. Come on. Anna will be freezing out there in the cab.”
“I hope she has a coat,” Elizabeth said with a laugh.
Anna was tucked up under a lap robe of dubious origins, since it came with the cab, but she did indeed have a coat over her gown. “I hope you appreciate the sacrifices I make for you both,” she said when Elizabeth had climbed into the cab and greeted her.
Gideon climbed in behind her and instructed the cab driver to take them to the theater, where the three of them were going to see a very funny comedy, according to the reviews.
“Sacrifices?” Elizabeth scoffed. “We’re taking you to the theater.”
“Gideon has paid me so much attention lately that David is convinced he’s going to marry me.”
“No, he’s not,” Gideon said. “He told me last night that he’s thinking of sending you to college.”
“Really? Did he say that?”
“Yes, he did, after I convinced him it would keep you out of trouble.”
“Oh, Gideon, I could kiss you!”
“No, you couldn’t. It would spoil your lip rouge.”
“Oh, Anna, that’s such good news,” Elizabeth said. “How soon could you start?”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to ask Cybil. Probably not until the fall term. The spring term starts in just a few weeks. Did David say he would pay my tuition?”
“I assumed that would be his responsibility,” Gideon said, surprised that she would ask. “He just received a commission from General Sterling, so now would be a good time to ask him.”
“General Sterling?” Anna cried in delight. “Are you serious?”
“He’s very generous,” Elizabeth said primly.
“I’ll have to thank him next time we meet,” Anna said.
“That’s not really necessary, and it would just embarrass him,” Elizabeth said, confirming Gideon’s suspicion that her father knew nothing of the payment. “So did you find anything at the house today, my darling?” she added before he could comment on General Sterling’s generosity.
“What house?” Anna asked. Elizabeth briefly told her about the mortgage situation and the painting. “So did you find anything?” Anna echoed when she had been brought up to date.
“Nothing that was in the photograph except the painting, I’m happy to say.”
“What else was in the photograph?” Anna asked eagerly.
“The less you know about it, the better,” Gideon said sternly. “I didn’t search the attics or the cellars, so something might be hidden there, but the only thing in the house itself was a . . .”
“A what?” Elizabeth prodded when he hesitated.
“An empty bottle of laudanum.”
“Laudanum?” Anna
echoed. “How Victorian.”
“Lots of people still use it,” Elizabeth reminded her. “They just have to get it from their doctors now.”
“That’s true, and I’m sure we have a bottle of it somewhere in the house. Probably everyone in New York does.”
“You may be right,” Gideon said, “but Knight’s house didn’t have anything else like that, or at least his bedroom and bathroom didn’t. He’d taken all his personal belongings to Priscilla’s house when they married, I guess. In any case, the bottle was on the floor in a corner, like someone had dropped it and not bothered to go pick it up.”
“Maybe he dropped it himself when he was packing,” Anna said.
“But you don’t think so, do you?” Elizabeth said.
“An empty bottle? No, I don’t think so. I was trying to imagine what happened the day—or night—that photograph was taken. Someone had to set up a camera and use a flash lamp. Knight had to know someone was taking a photograph.”
“Oh, I see,” Elizabeth said. “It doesn’t seem logical that he would allow such a thing.”
“My goodness, no,” Anna said. “How awful if it fell into the wrong hands.”
“Which it did, since someone was blackmailing him,” Elizabeth said.
“So unless he’d lost his mind, I think Knight was somehow tricked into having the photograph made,” he said.
“Just as Priscilla was somehow tricked into marrying Mr. Knight,” Elizabeth said.
“Did Knight drug her, do you think?” Anna asked. “That would certainly explain why she married him.”
“We think someone drugged her,” Elizabeth said before Gideon could reply. “Knight must have been desperate by that time.”
Anna sighed. “What a horrible situation, and poor Priscilla was an innocent victim.”
Fortunately, they had arrived at the theater, or at least to the queue of cabs lined up to drop people at the theater, so all discussion of Endicott Knight’s tragedies had to end. Gideon assisted his two ladies from the cab and counted his blessings. He would be the envy of every man who saw him tonight, and he intended to enjoy it. Knight and his troubles could wait for another day.
* * *
• • •
IN SPITE OF HER LATE EVENING, ELIZABETH WAS UP EARLY ON Sunday morning. She had to attend church with Gideon and Mrs. Bates, and not just because she was planning to marry Gideon someday. Now she should probably cultivate her friendship with Mrs. Honesdale and figure out a way to win the Reverend Mr. Honesdale’s confidence as well. Before she did that, however, she needed to set something else in motion.
Cybil and Zelda were still sound asleep when Elizabeth crept downstairs and placed a telephone call to the Old Man.
“Lizzie, what in God’s name is the matter? And it better be life or death if you woke me up at the crack of dawn.”
“It’s only the crack of dawn because it’s wintertime and the sun comes up late,” she informed him. “And it is life and death, although not my life or death, I’m happy to say. I need to have some people followed.”
“What people?”
“Just some people,” she said, ever mindful of eavesdropping operators.
The Old Man muttered something that was probably not a phrase usually heard in church. “Why on earth do you need to have people followed?”
“You know why.”
“Oh,” he said, probably only now coming fully awake. “And did the man I told you about prove to be, uh, helpful?”
“Yes, he did, and now I just need a recommendation, someone who can tell me where certain people go and who they see.”
“I’ll tell Jake.”
“Jake?” Jake would hate being given such a menial task. He was the Old Man’s son, after all, and destined for great things.
“Yes, Jake. He’s not good for anything else anymore. He’s lost his nerve.”
“What?” she cried, outraged.
“It’s true. He’ll tell you himself. I’ll send him over.”
“Have him come to Cybil’s for supper tonight.”
When they’d finished their conversation, Elizabeth replaced the earpiece on the candlestick phone and sighed. She shouldn’t feel guilty. It was Jake’s fault their last con together had curdled and things had gone so badly for both of them. But even if it wasn’t her fault, she might at least be able to set things right again.
The trick would be doing so without Gideon finding out any of this.
CHAPTER NINE
ELIZABETH HAD A DIFFICULT TIME CONCENTRATING ON THE sermon that morning. She kept imagining Reverend Honesdale as the man in the infamous photograph instead of Endicott Knight. Would she ever get that image out of her mind?
Only if she could figure out who had taken the photograph in the first place.
After the service, she left Mrs. Bates and Gideon chatting with some of their neighbors to find Priscilla, who was enduring some sympathetic ramblings from two elderly ladies when Elizabeth rescued her.
“Just get me out of here before I have to speak to Daisy,” she whispered to Elizabeth, who did try her hardest, but she was no match for a professional churchwoman. Neither of them even saw her coming.
“Miss Miles, Priscilla, how lovely to see you both,” Daisy said, cutting them off by stepping out of a row of pews to block their progress down the center aisle. They couldn’t proceed without literally shoving her out of the way. Elizabeth might have risked it if Gideon and Mrs. Bates weren’t standing so near.
“Mrs. Honesdale,” Elizabeth said brightly. “How are you this fine morning?”
“I’m so glad to see you are continuing to attend services, Miss Miles. Perhaps you’d like to make an appointment to meet with my husband to discuss joining the church.”
An appointment with Reverend Honesdale was exactly what she wanted, but she needed to discuss it with Gideon first. “I think I would like to speak with him. Should I telephone him at the church office?”
“That would be best, I think. I’ll tell him to expect to hear from you.” She turned her attention to Priscilla, who actually stiffened in response. “Priscilla, I hope you’re doing well. It seems like an age since we last visited.”
“I’m not really receiving right now.” Priscilla’s face had gone pale. “I’m sure you understand.”
“Friends can help allay the loneliness at a time like this,” Mrs. Honesdale said.
“Yes, they can. If you’ll excuse me, I’m not feeling well.” She stepped forward, giving Mrs. Honesdale no choice but to step aside if she didn’t want to get run over.
“If you need anything, please let me know,” Mrs. Honesdale called after them as Elizabeth took Priscilla’s arm and led her down the aisle.
Gideon had been watching and quickly joined them. He took Priscilla’s other arm. They even managed to slip by Reverend Honesdale, who was greeting worshippers as they left the church.
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said when they reached the sidewalk. “I didn’t see her coming.”
“Neither did I,” Priscilla said. She thanked Gideon.
“We could find a cab for you,” Elizabeth said.
“No, I’m fine. I just said I didn’t feel well to get away from her. I can walk home. The fresh air will do me good.”
“May I visit you tomorrow morning?” Elizabeth asked.
“Oh, please do!”
Priscilla took her leave, and Mrs. Bates joined Elizabeth and Gideon on the sidewalk. They explained what they had learned about what had happened to Priscilla as they walked the few blocks to the Bateses’ house.
“How terrible that Priscilla blames the Honesdales,” Mrs. Bates said as they removed their coats in the foyer.
“Not if they really are to blame,” Elizabeth said.
“They seem to have been involved at least in some way,” Gideon said.
“I can’t believe they knew about Mr. Knight’s secret life, though. He was an elder in the church, for heaven’s sake. How could Reverend Honesdale tolerate that? I know that things are starting to look bad for them, but what if they really are innocent victims?”
“We certainly will give them the benefit of every doubt,” Elizabeth said, earning a sharp glance and a frown from Gideon.
He didn’t have an opportunity to ask her what she’d meant until later that afternoon, though, since Mrs. Bates insisted on discussing more pleasant topics over Sunday dinner. When Mrs. Bates withdrew to her room to rest, Elizabeth and Gideon were finally able to speak freely.
“You’re planning something,” he said when they were snuggled up on the sofa in the parlor.
“That sounds more like an accusation than an observation.”
“Just tell me what it is so I won’t be surprised. I’m not going to have to watch Anna shoot you again, am I?”
“I told you how sorry I was about that.”
“I know, and I wasn’t even supposed to be there when it happened. I just don’t ever want to do that again.”
“I’m not planning any shooting.”
“But you are planning something.”
“I just can’t help thinking your mother might be right,” she said, trying out her innocent face to see how Gideon would react.
He wasn’t impressed in the slightest. “You don’t need to pretend to agree with her.”
“But I do feel sorry for her. She’s going to be terribly disappointed when she finds out how mistaken she has been about the Honesdales.”
“I don’t like being wrong about people, either, so it’s even difficult for me to accept.”
“How would you like some irrefutable proof, then?”
He muttered a curse she pretended not to hear. “Why do I have a feeling I don’t want to know how you’ll get this proof?”
“I already promised you, no shooting. Actually, it’s all perfectly safe, and you can even be there when it happens if you like. Of course you’d have to hide, but you could be there.”
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