Death of a Fop (Bow Street Consultant series Book 1)

by Sarah Waldock

  Dolly gave him a filthy look and went sulkily into the bedroom.

  “Mrs Churchill; I would like to get you away from here” said Caleb anxiously.

  “Mr Armitage, if you think I intend to leave that poor girl alone when that monster might come back, you can think again!” said Jane. “I am taking her home with me!”

  “Mrs Jane!” wailed Ella.

  “Ella” said Jane “You are an excellent abigail and I appreciate your services; pray find it in your heart to extend a little charity to this unfortunate fallen creature in her most unhappy hour.”

  Ella blew her nose hard.

  “If you insists Mrs Jane” she said “But it isn’t what I’m used to. And places like this; my pore mother would turn in her grave!”

  “Your mother,” said Jane firmly, “would adjure you to do whatever your lady needed; and to thank your Maker that you were not yourself in the situation that this, er, Dolly is in.”

  Ella nodded dubiously, not entirely convinced; but sufficiently shamed to be subdued at least.

  Jane nodded her to the bedroom.

  “You shall insist that Dolly packs and help her” she said. “We shall place her…..dear me. She is to be my guest but one can scarcely place her in the red room; it is NOT suitable.”

  “No indeed Mrs Jane!” said Ella “She ought by rights to have that Juliet’s room once the hussy goes; but…. Mrs Jane, there are rooms suitable for elder children; might she be placed in one of those?”

  “Excellent” approved Jane “I leave it in your efficient hands, Ella.”

  Caleb watched with a raised eyebrow as Ella stalked into the bedroom.

  “You have the management of that one down to a ‘T’” he said.

  “Ella is a good woman; and a little too impressed by her concept of my consequence” said Jane. “She is also proud of her own abilities. Doubtless with her skills we shall soon have Dolly speaking acceptable English and dressing in such a way that I may find her a position with a mantua-maker or milliner; for I have every expectation that the trim on her gown is what she has herself added.”

  “You really are a most remarkable lady, Mrs Churchill” said Caleb who had not up to that point noticed the competently executed vandyked ruffle on the smouldering gown.

  Chapter 7

  Dolly was reluctant at first to leave her ‘own little nest’ but Ella was firm and Dolly gaped at the fine town house in Pembridge Square with its gleaming white stucco frontage. It might be on the unfashionable side of the square and not so large as those on the North side but to Dolly it was next thing to a palace. She squealed with delight and hugged Jane.

  “Dolly dear, you must save such effusions for our private rooms if you want me to teach you how to act in a ladylike manner” said Jane, firmly. “Come now; Ella shall issue orders that a room is prepared for you and we shall drink tea.”

  “Cor this beats Pimlico” said Dolly enthusiastically. “Don’t you have no blue ruin instead of tea?”

  “Certainly not” said Jane “I am certain that it would be bad for your complexion.”

  Dolly was taken firmly on ahead by Ella and Caleb murmured to Jane, “I am amazed that you knew that blue ruin is a name for gin.”

  “Mr Armitage, I had no idea” said Jane primly “But I suspected it was some kind of spirituous liquor and made the comment accordingly. That poor girl needs careful handling.”

  “You’re a remarkable lady!” Caleb said again. “She’ll find a lot of difference in this fine modern house to from the old timber framed buildings in the West End. Though I fancy the residents there will find themselves evicted when someone realises how big the city is growing and how close it actually is to the centre of London.”

  “And remarkable that she has managed to keep as clean as she is in such insanitary places” said Jane. “And she must have a modicum of conversation, albeit rough and untutored. Frank may have kept her for other reasons then conversation but he always likes – liked to show off how erudite he was and how clever and if she did not appreciate that I fancy he would have got rid of her in short order. Dear me, what a charge he has left upon me! And consider if she might also be with child! I wish I had male relatives that I might rely upon; but I will not hang upon the sleeve of Colonel Campbell who has been so good to me; and I certainly do not wish to involve Mr Churchill for he will surely see how much disarray Frank’s affairs are in. And I must sell the horse; but I have written all my worries to dear Emma and I hope that she may advise me.”

  “I would do what I could, Mrs Churchill, but I am not a man of affairs and I would not be taken seriously in undertaking any of your business needs” said Caleb, clenching and unclenching his hands in frustration.

  “Oh Mr Armitage your very offer of support is heartening” said Jane. “As a governess I should have had to manage all things for myself; and so I shall contrive to do, though I fear being cheated over the horse.”

  “I can make enquiries as to that if you will, ma’am” said Caleb. She brightened.

  “Would you? How kind you are! Then if you will do so – when your duties permit of course – I should be delighted. Now I know you wish to get that necklace safely away; will you return in time for dinner? I shall have Dolly write out some kind of affidavit if that will help you.”

  “Thank you; it will. I think it will not harm you if I say that as yet it is not known how a stolen necklace came into your husband’s possession; I cannot think that he would move in the right circles, either as a guest or as a servant, to be a thief.”

  “It must needs come out eventually that he was a criminal, however minor; how thankful I am that a wife cannot be sent to gaol for her husband’s misdeeds as a man might be for his wife’s!” said Jane.

  It made her feel quite cold to think that had not the law stated that a woman was too incapable to undertake illegal activities without the participation of her husband or other protector she might have been held liable for her husband’s misdeeds. Going to gaol for a crime she had no knowledge of – indeed was not even sure of the nature of – was a terrifying thought!

  Caleb left to relieve himself of the responsibility of the Avon necklace; and Jane went in to drink tea with Dolly under the disapproving eye of Fowler after Ella had looked over the girl’s wounds in a more detailed way than the perfunctory treatment at her rooms. .

  “Fowler, you will share the responsibility of helping Miss….” she looked a question at Dolly “Baxter, lidy” said Dolly.

  “Quite so, Miss Baxter, to feel at home and to adapt to living here,” said Jane firmly, “since it may be that she is to be the mother of a sister or brother of Miss Frances. I will not neglect the wellbeing of a half sibling of my daughter.”

  “Ow, you have a babby girl?” said Dolly “I love babbies! Frankie never telled me nuffink about her neether.”

  “Perhaps, Fowler” said Jane smiling at him “You will ask Annie to bring Miss Frances down to the parlour.”

  “Yes Mrs Churchill” said Fowler. “You want, er, Miss Baxter to be taught to be a lady? Have I those orders clear?”

  “I believe that Miss Baxter is perfectly capable of learning a ladylike manner that we might support each other in what is, after all, a mutual bereavement” said Jane firmly. “Please also send out for a doctor to attend to her at his convenience; she has been hurt by the villains who killed Mr Churchill and needs appropriate ointments for burns.”

  Fowler glanced involuntarily at the burn on Dolly’s cheek and shuddered.

  “Yes Ma’am” he said.

  Jane induced Dolly to write in her own words how she had been given the necklace as a love token from her protector and to make a brief description of it. Dolly sighed as she regretted the necklace but wrote obediently.

  Jane stiffened as she read ‘’undreds and ‘undreds of loverly shinin dyemons’.

  Hundreds. An hundred.

  That might be significant.

  She permitted Dolly to cuddle little Frances and play with h
er – Frances was at an age where she could sit firmly and was starting to crawl and wanted to investigate everything – and smiled to see the buxom girl dandle Frances on her knee and play ‘this is the way the farmer rides’ with her, a rhyme that must be universal. Jane took her own daughter for a while and showed Dolly how to play ‘Pat-a-cake’ which Dolly laughed over.

  “I fink I have played that when I were small, but not wiv my little bruvvers and sisters” she said. “Cuh, Mrs Churchill, I ‘opes you can get me a good position, ‘cos I were sending back a lot of what Frankie – er, Mr Churchill – gived me. And lucky I fort meself to be the peculiar of a classy gent like him after me bad luck!”

  “What bad luck is that?” asked Jane.

  “Well, see, I worked as a barmaid in an inn at Sadler’s Wells – the resort just outside town y’know – and gent took my good name away by force, and I was turned orf account I had the babby in me, Well I ‘ad it dealt wiv…… only I were right ill of it and landlord, he found out.”

  “You were lucky not to die from the ministrations of the awful old women who do that!” said Jane, scandalised. Such things too she had heard of in whispers when she had been finding out all the pitfalls that might befall a governess.

  “Yerse, I fort I were going to fer a while” said Dolly. “And me away from ‘ome and fambly; Bethnal Green we comes from, a long way away. But I di’n’t turn up me toes, and so I come into the city and found I could work on me back standin’ up as you might say round the back o’ Covent Garden theatre, and that’s where Fr – Mr Churchill picked me up and offered me lodgin’s and well, I been his peculiar ever since. ‘E said I weren’t ‘ardened and ‘e liked a girl what was quiet and com- comp – I forget the word.”

  “Compliant” said Jane. “Yes, his aunt was domineering; he picked me for my compliance.”

  Dolly regarded Jane and wondered whether a stiff necked lady had actually been compliant enough in the way Frankie had liked and decided not to ask. Swell morts probably did not know that gentlemen sometimes liked playacting. And she had heard stories of some flash coves who liked their playacting to include hurting so she had been well off with Frankie It had been a kind of freedom not to be bound by the conventions, but she had been so happy as a barmaid, flirting without meaning anything with the coves who came in to drink, out in the countryside of Sadler’s Wells which was right pretty, but with enough amenities not to be as inconvenient as she had heard the real countryside could be. Being respectable might be nice; and seemingly as she did not have much choice with the gentle forcefulness of Mrs Churchill she might as well do as she was told. Poor Frankie dead!

  She burst into tears.

  Jane put her arms around her; and let her sob out how she missed her nice job and her family and Frankie all about as much as each other. Ella came in without knocking as a good servant must to tell Jane that a room had been prepared and Jane sent Dolly up to undress and lie down for a while. It would be convenient too for the doctor when he arrived.

  She cuddled Frances for a while then handed her back to Annie to take back to the nursery; by which time the doctor had arrived and could be shown up to Dolly.

  Jane used Dr Wingfield, the physician who was recommended by Isabella Knightley; and he came into the room looking grave.

  “Mrs Churchill, I cannot know where you found that unfortunate woman but the burns on her did not occur by accident; she was burned deliberately.”

  “Yes I know” said Jane impatiently “I was going to see her – she was my husband’s mistress – and found the villain actually hurting her. Are the burns going to heal without complication?”

  “I believe so” said Dr Wingfield. “Excuse me, Mrs Churchill, why would you wish to go to see, er, your husband’s mistress?”

  Jane had no intention of sharing her husband’s possible shame with the doctor.

  “Don’t you consider it civil to inform the poor woman that she too is bereaved?” she said with as much hauteur as she could muster. “Thank you; you have given a prescription to my maid to have made up?”

  “Yes Mrs Churchill I have; and I believe that the young female will soon be on her feet again and in no need of foisting herself onto you any longer” said Dr Wingfield in disgust.

  “I believe” said Jane sweetly “I pay you for your medical opinion not your social judgement. Good day.”

  Chapter 8

  Jane asked Fowler to show Caleb Armitage into the parlour when he arrived.

  “Mr Armitage,” she said, as the tall figure of the Bow Street Runner entered the room, “I believe I may be able to throw some light on the documents my husband was writing – forging. It was Dolly describing the necklace for your affidavit that made me think of it.”

  She passed it over.

  Caleb read through Dolly’s laborious scrawl.

  “Hundreds and hundreds…… you think he was describing jewels, perhaps to fences? – that's the name of men as can sell such stolen things?” he asked. “Why would he need parchment?”

  “Perhaps you have never seen one of these” said Jane, passing him a piece of parchment.

  He read it through, his eyes narrowing as he perused the contents.

  “So this is the copy of a letter to Lloyds of London to insure a necklace for travelling….. with a minute description of the necklace. But surely it would be a risk to claim ownership and then subsequent theft……”

  “This is the necklace belonging to Frank’s grandmother which was sent to us for me to wear on our wedding day” said Jane. “Set with, as the document says, thirty five rubies of seven carats to eleven carats in ascending order towards the centre and small diamonds numbering seventy in between them. It is a hideous thing” she added. “However I was advised that should I ever need to sell it, this insurance description may count as something called ‘provenance’ which is a proof that I have the right to the necklace; and Lloyds also require, should I have it reset, that a description of the reset piece be appended to the original document” she went on, adding thoughtfully. “There was also much made of the fact that Mr Churchill has a letter from his ancestor who first gifted it to the first ancestress to wear it in 1687. It would appear to me that if there were false provenance for newly reset pieces that had been made up from stolen jewels so that the original owners themselves would not recognise them, then this might constitute a means by which higher prices might be commanded for pieces sold to regular jewellers who can see what appears to be proof of ownership; where surely if the ownership is unconfirmed and the seller seems in a hurry to sell, as must often be the case with stolen items, any jeweller is going to be wary of giving a full price.”

  “Mrs Churchill; you are prodigious clever” said Caleb.

  “I also recall Frank asking me what became of the Lloyds’ documentation because he wanted to check something” said Jane “Which is a discrepancy; you said discrepancies are clues. Frank never bothered himself with paperwork; he threw all correspondence that was not personal unopened into the escritoire; and bundled in personal letters on top too. Bills that he found that I had not dealt with he dealt with by throwing on the fire. I believe that his aunt dealt with most of the matters arising in their household before her death and Frank had very little experience of undertaking any kind of record keeping. It surprised me at the time that he should want to actually deal with anything pertaining to paperwork. ”

  “Well I already knew he was useless and feckless” said Caleb. “How’s the girl Dolly?”

  “Grieving more than I” said Jane with a sigh that might have been regret; whether regret on behalf of Dolly, or on her own behalf that she felt no urge to mourn, Caleb was unable to divine . “Perhaps I am deficient in that I have shed no tears of grief for Frank; though I cried enough bitter tears when I found out that his affection for me was never more than superficial and that I may as well have been a superior kind of housekeeper to whom he might also boast of who he had seen and to whom he had spoken in town and that he had……” she
paused. “I was considering that I was making a cake of myself speaking out so but he said that he had made a friend who would see him right-and-tight for life” she said “I took it for a social acquaintance, a potential patron; but it was when he gave me the fifty pounds. He laughed a lot and said that you could not call his new friend a Tulip of Fashion but that he was onto a better thing than the original tulipmania and that Holland had plenty to give with two lips that might whisper promises. He liked word plays like that” she added.

  “I should of said it was a little forced meself” said Caleb “I would’ve thought rather than labouring the connection if he wished to be obscure he’d of done better to hint at ‘two lips meeting in financial gain across the north sea’ if he wanted to say without saying that he was speaking of a Dutchman.”

  “Why Mr Armitage, that is extremely subtle!” said Jane. “You are a much cleverer man than your speech suggests if I may say so without causing offence.”

  “I take no offence, Mrs Churchill” said Caleb “And right glad I am to be able to speak as I think and have my love of words and wit appreciated; for I have not lost my rough Soho accent nowise and most expect me to be stupid. Which has its advantages.”

  “To be underestimated must be an advantage” agreed Jane “So too was I underestimated when Frank and I courted secretly; though often I was angered at the lengths to which he went to disparage me in public, yet I hid it.. I do not know why I tell you this; I have never been so forthcoming to any.”

  “Bless you, Mrs Churchill, you may have learned indifference to Mr Churchill, but you still grieve for the love you once held for him; and you will be shut of me when we have uncovered who has killed him so you may speak freely without worrying about what a neighbour or friend might later think” said Caleb heartily.

  Jane gave a small smile.

  “I fancy, Mr Armitage” she said, “that perhaps it is more that you are a man who is big and safe and good at listening who thus elicits confidences from people that they might not give were you not good at just sitting.”