The Dark Enquiry (A Lady Julia Grey Novel)

by DEANNA RAYBOURN

  “Because Morgan would never take a straight path if the twisty one will do. He is as slippery a devil as I have ever met, but I would trust him with my life if the occasion demanded and, from time to time, it has. We understand each other.”

  “Do you think he would mind that you have told me?”

  “I think Morgan would be distinctly surprised if I had not.”

  I nodded. “He knows you so well then.”

  “He does. And he knows you. And no man who has met you could fail to respect your single-minded determination to put your nose into anything that does not concern you.”

  I ought to have been insulted, I told myself, but instead I was conscious only of a deep satisfaction. Brisbane had confided to me the most dangerous secret, and he had done it of his own volition.

  “And why tell me now? You had the chance, right at the beginning of the investigation when I noticed that you spoke with some familiarity of the Spirit Club. You said you could not explain then. What has changed?”

  He turned away from me, and when he spoke, his voice was low. “Because I am selfish. I wanted just one person in this world to know me for everything I am. And because sometimes I find it difficult to believe that you could love me if you knew the whole of it. So I give you bits and pieces of myself, a mosaic of the man I am, and I lie awake at night and wonder which of them will cause you to leave me.”

  His voice was cold and bleak as a moorland wind, and I wiped the tears from my cheeks before I put my hand in his.

  “Is there more? Things you have not told me?”

  He said nothing, but he nodded. I took a deep breath of resignation.

  “Well, you have told me this and I am still here. Leave the rest for another time.”

  I put my head upon his shoulder and rested it there. He crushed my hand in his, and I looked down to see the bruised petals of the flower peeping between our gloved hands.

  “Brisbane, does it not strike you as odd that in the cemetery, Morgan said he would see Felicity charged with my attempted murder and the murder of Agathe LeBrun? He said nothing of Madame’s murder.” I dropped the broken bloom of monkshood into his hand.

  “Aconitum napellus,” he murmured.

  “Would Morgan have done such a thing?”

  “Madame Séraphine had become a liability,” he said simply. “Felicity knew she had been followed once to Highgate and that her identity had nearly been compromised. I suspect that Felicity was growing desperate and showed up at the séance in order to force Madame’s hand and induce her to hand over the letters once and for all. Madame improvised with a message that Felicity would understand, a plea for time and money, and a message that was most definitely not of Morgan’s construction. That proved she was playing at her own game and had established contacts of her own with the enemy. There is only one remedy for a spymaster when one of his operatives has decided to follow a different course.”

  “I do not think I care for the notion of you working for someone so reckless. He might have poisoned the entire club with that horseradish.”

  “Not likely. It would not be in keeping with Morgan’s character to be quite so careless. I suspect the poison was never in the horseradish, but was in Madame’s face crème instead. Remember, aconite is absorbed through the skin.”

  I plucked the poisonous flower from his hand and flung it from the window. “How could he have got the stuff into her room without detection?” I wondered aloud.

  Brisbane pondered this a moment, then shook his head. “He must have been there before either of us arrived. I was on the area steps, and I watched everyone who came after me. Morgan did not.”

  “But he entered the public rooms of the club after I did,” I recalled. “He must have been upstairs then. It would have been an easy thing to slip into Madame’s rooms and poison the face crème.” I shuddered at the idea. I had quite liked Morgan.

  “I just thought of something. Sir Morgan knew Edward and the manner of his death. I wonder if it gave him the idea of how to dispose of Madame.”

  “We will likely never know,” Brisbane said. “But Morgan forgets nothing. I would not be surprised if he filed away that particularly nasty bit of business with an eye to using it someday.”

  I gave Brisbane a severe look. “I do not care for the notion of your working quite so closely with a man capable of such things. And I ought to be entirely put out with you for not telling about your employment sooner. A lady should never marry a man without knowing he is a spy.”

  “Does it make a difference?” he asked, and I knew he held his breath as I pondered my reply.

  I put my hand to his cheek. “Of course it does,” I said softly. “Now I can really be involved in your work.”

  “Bloody hell,” Brisbane said.

  “And I just remembered the terms of our wager. Madame was murdered by someone at the séance,” I said with satisfaction. “You owe me one hundred pounds.”

  Naturally, Brisbane saw no reason at all that I should aid in his efforts to protect the security of crown and country, and I knew the process of convincing him otherwise would take some time. No matter, I decided. I could wait. He also refused to settle the wager, arguing that as we had no actual proof of Sir Morgan’s culpability, the case could not be considered closed. I accused him of pedantry and we agreed to double or nothing as terms for the next investigation that I took a hand in.

  We worked at Brisbane’s various cases and I continued to pursue my photography. Naturally, it was not until some weeks after the accident that I ventured back into my little studio at the top of the house on Chapel Street, but I was happy that I did. I had missed the cosy rooms devoted to my hobby, and I puttered away for some hours until Plum called to me that Mrs. Lawson had just brought up the tea and the post.

  I made my way down to tea, relaxing as soon as I saw the cosy scene. Brisbane was at his desk, legs crossed at the ankles upon his blotter as he perused his post. He had a cup of tea at his elbow, and a plate of warm muffins with the butter melting in. Plum, freshly released from the splints of his broken arm, was toasting up a few for me, and I munched contentedly as Plum stroked Rook and sipped at his own tea. I applied myself to my letters, sorting the various notes and bills until I came to one in a familiar hand. I felt a rush of excitement.

  “Bloody hell,” I said. Plum blinked and Brisbane roused himself.

  “What is it, my dear?”

  I tore open the letter and skimmed it quickly. I brandished it at Brisbane. “We are going to Italy,” I said. I gave him the letter to read, hopping from foot to foot as he came to the end.

  “Bloody hell,” he agreed.

  “We must go,” I insisted.

  “We must not,” was his equally firm reply.

  I smiled, knowing that a battle would ensue, and equally confident I would win. I was already planning what to pack as we left for Rome and the new adventure that beckoned.

  But that is a tale as yet untold.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Tremendous thanks to my readers! You make me grateful every day, and I am so happy to share my stories with you. And heartfelt thanks to the booksellers and librarians who share my stories with others.

  I am incredibly grateful to the MIRA Books team for their enthusiasm and the exquisite care they have lavished on my novels. Many, many thanks to the unseen hands whose work is often unremarked upon but so very essential—and much appreciated.

  As ever, many thanks to my editor, the stylish and exacting Valerie Gray, whose commitment to my writing has been truly humbling in the best possible way. My life and my work are the better for knowing you.

  And thanks most of all to my family—thanks to my mother for endless support and faultless proofreading, to my daughter and my father for their many kindnesses large and small, and to my husband, for everything and for always.

  QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

  This novel sees the return of Nicholas and Julia to London, where they continue married life after an extended
time away from the city. What are the most significant challenges facing Nicholas and Julia as they settle into domesticity? How does the setting influence the story?

  This period in history saw tremendous change in technology, in social interests, in the world in general. Describe some of these changes and how they affected Victorian life.

  With her lack of interest in domestic details, Julia is not a typical Victorian housewife. In some ways, she is not unlike a modern twenty-first-century woman. Do you agree and if so, what similarities do you find between Julia and the modern woman?

  Several new characters are introduced in this book—most significantly, Sir Morgan Fielding. Describe his relationship to the established characters and what role he might play in the future.

  What motivates Lady Felicity Mortlake?

  Does Plum’s presence in the enquiry agency change the dynamic of the working relationship between Nicholas and Julia? In what ways do you think Plum will be an effective enquiry agent?

  Nicholas reveals more of his past to Julia in this novel. What does he reveal and how might it affect their relationship? What do you think their marriage will be like in five years? In ten years?

  How do the Roma characters fit your perception of Gypsies? How do they differ? How does Granny Bones fit into the development of Nicholas’s character?

  What are the difficult lessons learned by Lord Bellmont in this story? Then, as now, it is not uncommon for men in power to acquire female relationships outside marriage. Why do you think this happens? Why would someone gamble so heavily on their future in this way?

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-0766-0

  THE DARK ENQUIRY

  Copyright © 2011 by Deanna Raybourn

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