Social Graces

by Wendy Soliman

  Of all the times to show an interest in her affairs! But in spite of the potentially deadly situation, Sophia felt a moment’s gratification that finally…finally one of her relations had put her welfare first. But it was too little, too late. Felsham caught her in a vicious hold, showing an abnormal amount of strength for such a small man. Caught off balance, her struggles proved futile. She was powerless to prevent him from manipulating her into a stranglehold, much as he must have done with Connie, and dragging her towards the door.

  ‘Come along, Barton,’ he said. ‘Finally, you can make amends. We shall have to get out of London fast and Miss Larson is coming with us as insurance.’

  Sophia wanted to make it clear that she wasn’t going anywhere with them but Felsham’s arm viciously crushing her windpipe made it hard to breathe, much less talk. She felt increasingly weak and feared that she might lose consciousness. So much for saving the day!

  But she was not dead yet, and whilst there was a limited amount of breath in her body, there was still hope. She wilted against Felsham, limp and unresponsive, hoping that he would relax his hold. If she could regain a little of her strength she would find a way to fight back.

  ‘What about her?’ Tyrell asked, pointing at Grandmamma.

  ‘No one will believe the ravings of an old lady who disapproved of her granddaughter and never went anywhere near her.’

  ‘Even so,’ Barton said. ‘Miss Larson is not…’

  ‘Shut up! Goddam it, for once in your life show some backbone!’ Felsham’s screeching voice was as high-pitched as a woman’s. He backed towards the doorway, taking Sophia with him. ‘Don’t fight me or I’ll have Tyrell finish her off,’ he said, nodding towards Grandmamma. ‘A thin skull like hers would crack open like than an eggshell. No one would be able to prove that she didn’t fall.’

  ‘You snivelling coward, hiding behind a woman’s skirts!’ Grandmamma sneered.

  ‘Get the door,’ Felsham barked at Barton, who rose slowly to his feet, looking as reluctant as a schoolboy returning to class on the first day of a new term. But it was clear that he would do as he was told. There would be no help for them from that quarter. ‘Tyrell, stay here. You know what to do.’

  ‘Take me,’ Sophia spluttered. ‘But leave Grandmamma be. She’s an old woman. She’s no threat to anyone.’

  ‘Don’t be so sure of that.’

  Sophia was astounded when her grandmother spoke with complete assurance. If she realised quite how serious their situation was then it didn’t seem to concern her. She obviously didn’t appreciate that only she was in a position to create a diversion that would distract Felsham and provide Sophia with the opportunity to escape. Sophia wondered whose side she was actually on, reminding herself that leopards did not usually change their spots overnight. Did she actually want rid of Sophia because she worried that she would follow in Connie’s footsteps and embarrass the family? It was easy to believe that must be the case since Sophia had spent most of her life looking upon her grandmother as a disapproving matriarch.

  Sophia closed her eyes when she heard the door open, defeated and out of ideas. But instead of being dragged away, she heard loud voices—authoritative voices that she was convinced she’d conjured up in her imagination. There was some loud bangs and then the pressure of her windpipe mercifully released. Dizzy and disorientated, her legs wouldn’t hold her and she crumpled slowly towards the floor. A strong pair of arms caught her around the waist before she actually reached it.

  ***

  ‘Ah, Lord Torbay, there you are.’ Mrs Larson’s voice soundly commendably calm. ‘We have been expecting you.’

  Otto glanced at Sophia, still dazed and in his arms—the place where she belonged. Her eyes widened, implying that Jake was the last person she had been expecting.

  ‘You’re all right now,’ Otto said to her softly, guiding her to a chair. ‘You’re safe. Not that you deserve to be,’ he added in an undertone, aware that recriminations must wait until later. This situation was still volatile. Barton looked to be no threat. Parker had Felsham, swearing and blaspheming fit to turn the air blue, with his arm twisted viciously halfway up his back. If he tried to loosen Parker’s hold he would probably only succeed in breaking his own arm. But Tyrell might still do something foolhardy. ‘Just sit down and take a moment to regain your breath. Are you hurt?’

  ‘My throat,’ she gasped, raising a hand to it.

  Otto fetched her a glass of water, which she drank greedily. Their interchange was observed by everyone else in the room, preventing Otto from devoting his entire attention to Sophia. He touched her shoulder, moved away from her and introduced Jake and Parker to Mrs Larson.

  ‘Parker and I are already acquainted,’ the old woman said calmly, ‘albeit indirectly.’

  Sophia sent her grandmother a narrow-eyed look.

  ‘There’s no need to give me that look, young lady. I was not about to make the same mistake with you that I made with Connie.’

  ‘You do not make mistakes, Grandmamma,’ Sophia rasped. ‘How can you when you are never wrong?’

  ‘Times have changed and I have not changed with them. I can quite see that now.’ Sophia’s eyes grew even wider at the grudging admission. ‘I tried to warn your father, but he was having none of it. My fault, I suppose. I brought him up to believe his word was law, just as my own husband believed his to be. But the fact of the matter is that Connie had talent, was determined to be an actress and turned out to be an exceptional one.’

  ‘How would you know?’ Otto noticed that some of the resentment had left Sophia’s voice. It now reflected incredulity.

  ‘I saw her perform several times.’

  Sophia shook her head. ‘She never said.’

  ‘She didn’t know. I was proud of her, but also too proud to admit I had been wrong. Besides,’ she added, sniffing. ‘I couldn’t condone her relationship with Chichester.’

  ‘But you seemed as cold as stone when we heard of her death. You were unmoved by it.’

  ‘I was in shock.’ Mrs Larson’s rheumy eyes looked suspiciously moist. ‘I blamed myself for not giving her my support or standing up to your father and making him see that it would be criminal to curtail her talent for fear of what people might think.’ Mrs Larson’s expression softened as she regarded Sophia. ‘I was determined not to make the same mistake with you, and I fully intended to encourage you to pursue your journalistic ambitions, which is why I never told your father about them.’

  Sophia nodded. To imagine that her grandmother had actually taken pride in her efforts was clearly beyond her. Otto squeezed her shoulder but couldn’t think of anything suitable to say to fill the heavy silence.

  ‘You hated what I did,’ Sophia voice sounded hollow as she swallowed against what had to be a very sore throat.

  ‘I hated what your father would do to you if he found out even more.’

  Sophia nodded, clearly too shocked to say anything more.

  ‘You said you were already acquainted with Parker,’ Otto reminded her.

  ‘Yes well, when Little Miss Impetuous here stormed out of my cottage I knew she would not come back and I wasn’t about to lose a second granddaughter. So I engaged a man to keep watch over her. Parker saw him, and demanded to know—rather aggressively, I understand—what he thought he was doing. But he seemed gratified to know that someone was looking out for Sophia’s interests.’

  ‘You did not say,’ Sophia said, glancing at Jake.

  ‘We only found out yesterday, after you had taken to your room.’ Jake turned his attention to Parker. ‘Right, we’d best get word to the police and have these three arrested for Miss Saville’s murder.’

  ‘Just a minute…’

  ‘I didn’t…’

  Barton and Tyrell voiced simultaneous objections. Felsham remained mulishly silent.

  ‘I did not murder Connie,’ Barton said.

  ‘Nor did I,’ Tyrell added. ‘It was—’

  ‘Be quiet, you fool!’ Felsham yel
led. ‘They can’t prove anything. This was all a ruse to get us here. We should have seen through that damned article. I did see through it.’

  ‘Then why were you here?’ Otto asked.

  ‘I wondered if…if the murderer would show up. And he did,’ he said, waving his free hand towards Barton. ‘I went to his house as soon as I saw that article because I knew it was a trap, but he had already left. I knew where he must have gone, but by the time I got here, Barton was already with Miss Larson, about to admit to his crime.’ Felsham sent Barton a significant look. Barton turned away and Otto was unsure if he had even seen it, must less understood what it was supposed to convey. Surely if he was innocent he wouldn’t condemn himself to the gallows with his own words.

  ‘The way I see it,’ Jake said conversationally, ‘is that you all had your motives for wanting Miss Saville out of the way. Mostly revenge, because she was no longer prepared to do as she was told as she always had in the past. That evidence is sufficient to see you all arrested and tried. You’re a barrister, Otto. Which way do you think the jury will react when they hear that three greedy men who were supposed to have the best interests of one of the nation’s favourite actresses at heart actually killed her?’

  ‘The jury won’t take five minutes to convict them,’ Otto replied with asperity. ‘I’ve seen men hang on less evidence.’

  Tyrell paled. Barton’s hands shook.

  ‘Last chance to tell your side of the story, Barton,’ Jake said. ‘I believe that you were very attached to Connie, so why…’

  ‘I’ll tell you what I know,’ Tyrell said, no longer the flamboyant actor but a very frightened shell of a man. ‘Felsham and Barton grew up together in the workhouse. According to him,’ he added, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the cursing Felsham, ‘they looked out for one another. Felsham was small and ugly, which meant he had to learn to fight to defend himself. Barton was pretty and passive. You can imagine what some of the men who visit those hellholes made of him. What they did to him.’

  Barton nodded. ‘It’s true. What I endured as a child is beyond most people’s imaginings. There was one overseer who was especially brutal. He hired what he described as us pretty boys out for…well, I try not to dwell upon what happened to us. One night he came to where we slept, gave me the beckoning sign that I’d grown to dread, and Felsham…well, he was like a wild animal. He was half the man’s size but fighting mad. He attacked the overseer with a dagger he’d got from somewhere. The man died in the ensuing melee and in the confusion we were able to slip away. No one ever looked for us, as far as I know. The overseer was a brute and I would imagine he was not mourned by anyone.’

  Otto nodded, feeling a modicum of sympathy for both men. That children were routinely exploited to satisfy men’s unnatural desires was no secret. But it was repulsive and he could see why Barton would have felt beholden to Felsham from that point onwards.

  ‘We hung round a small theatre, got jobs running errands and whatever else needed to be done,’ Barton continued. ‘My ravaged body slowly healed, but the images inside my head are still vivid to this day.’

  ‘How did you live?’ Jake asked.

  ‘We slept on mats beneath the stage because Felsham wanted to act, whereas I wanted not to draw attention to myself. I knew what happened when people noticed me. The years passed, we learned more about the business, were gradually given positions of greater responsibility and…well, the theatre became our home. I drifted into agency work while Felsham started his company. We were closer than brothers. With our background, that’s hardly surprising, but Felsham always made me aware that I was in his debt. Not that I needed reminding. If he hadn’t stepped in when he did, those men would have killed me eventually. I repaid him by supplying him with actors who came my way needing a start. They never stay long with his company though, using it as a stepping stone to better things.’

  ‘And then came Connie,’ Jake said into the ensuing silence.

  ‘Ah, Connie! She was one of those rare talents that one sees once in a lifetime, if one’s fortunate. She was also a genuinely nice person.’

  ‘She and I attended acting classes together,’ Tyrell said, ‘and became friends. I recommended her for the part that got her noticed by Barton. There was nothing in that production for me, but we promised that we would help one another. When she became successful I knew she wouldn’t forget me and that my time would come.’

  ‘But she shocked you all by putting herself first,’ Jake said. ‘Felsham turned up at the theatre on the night before she died, as I’m told he often did, just to keep an eye on Connie. Barton was there and foolishly told him that Connie wanted to jump ship. He convinced Felsham that she would come round, but Felsham had his doubts. He knew that she would be confronting Chichester here in this apartment that evening, with the intention of terminating their affair. So he and you watch and listen, Tyrell, still not believing that she would go through with it.’

  ‘But there was no altercation that evening,’ Tyrell said. ‘Connie was exhausted after the performance and they went straight to bed. I couldn’t see or hear anything that happened in the bedroom.’

  ‘Well, that’s something,’ Mrs Larson said, sniffing.

  ‘But I heard their confrontation in this room the following morning. Half the house must have been woken by Chichester shouting at her. Then Felsham turned up, wanting to know if Connie had actually gone through with ridding herself of her benefactor.’

  ‘When Chichester struck Connie and stormed out, Felsham knew she had forgotten what she owed you all and had been persuaded to put her own interests first,’ Jake said. ‘You came here to confront her and…’ He looked expectantly at Tyrell.

  Felsham growled and struggled against Parker’s vicelike hold.

  ‘You know the rest, or can guess. We tried to reason with her, but she wouldn’t listen. He lost his temper,’ he said, pointing at Felsham, ‘and grabbed her neck, much as he just did Miss Larson’s. Not sure he meant to kill her, but he kept squeezing until her face turned blue and all the breath left her body.’

  Sophia whimpered and Otto took her hand.

  ‘He did the same thing all those years ago,’ Barton said. ‘To the overseer. He debilitated him by stabbing him and then strangled him.’

  ‘A curse on you all!’ Felsham yelled. He tried to twist away from Parker so violently that they all heard the bone in his arm snap. Felsham howled like a baby and crumpled to the floor. ‘She shouldn’t have fought against me,’ he mumbled, condemning himself with his own words. ‘She owed me, damn it! She promised me.’

  ‘Go and summon a constable, Parker,’ Jake said wearily. ‘He will give no trouble now. And then we had best take Miss Larson and her grandmother back to Grosvenor Square. They are both suffering from shock.’

  ‘I am not,’ Grandmamma said. ‘Larson women do not easily shock.’

  ‘No, Grandmamma, that’s because you have no feeling. You didn’t even look concerned when Felsham was on the point of strangling me.’

  ‘Foolish child. I knew he would not. He needed you alive in order to make his escape. Besides,’ she added, sniffing, ‘these gentlemen might think they move with stealth but I have the hearing that a bat would envy and they sounded like a herd of elephants clumping up the stairs. I knew salvation was at hand.’

  ‘You are a wicked old woman,’ Sophia rasped. ‘I was scared half out of my wits. You might have warned me.’

  ‘And given the game away?’ She gave a mirthless chuckle. ‘Not a chance.’

  Chapter Sixteen

  Olivia stood with Jake and watched a steady procession of people dressed in mourning attire wending their way through their drawing room, talking in subdued voices. A week after Felsham’s confession, Connie had been laid to rest. Sophia and Mr Woodford had met, talked for a long time and were now jointly mourning their loss. The two of them and Sophia’s grandmother had been the principal mourners at a service that saw the church packed to the rafters. Sophia’s parents did
not make an appearance.

  Olivia had insisted upon having the mourners return to Grosvenor Square to properly pay their respects to Sophia, sensing that her friend needed to hear them speak in sorrowful yet genuine terms about her sister’s kindness and talent.

  ‘I had always imagined that theatrical types were naturally jealous,’ Sophia said, joining Olivia and Jake. ‘Perhaps they were when Connie was alive but now that they no longer feel threatened by her they are all agreed that she possessed a rare talent.’

  ‘It was kind of you to let him come,’ Olivia said, nodding towards the forlorn figure of Barton, standing alone in a corner of the otherwise crowded room.

  ‘I feel sorry for him,’ Sophia admitted. ‘His loyalties were torn because he’s felt indebted to Felsham for all his adult life. A life he probably wouldn’t still be living if Felsham hadn’t fought his battles for him.’

  ‘The only fighting Felsham will be doing now is fending off other prisoners whilst he awaits trial for murder,’ Jake said. ‘I hope you are not still suffering from the after-effects of your run-in with him.’

  Sophia raised her hand to her neck. The fading bruises put there by Felsham’s fingers as he almost choked the life out of her were hidden beneath the high collar of her gown. ‘I was reckless, I will admit that much.’

  ‘So I should think,’ Otto said, coming up behind her.

  ‘I am sorry to have caused such trouble,’ Sophia said to Jake. ‘It is kind of you not to scold me,’ she added, sending Otto a significant look that made Olivia smile.

  ‘I am accustomed to headstrong women taking matters into their own hands,’ Jake replied with a long-suffering sigh.