A Fatal Likeness

by Lynn Shepherd

  “No!” she cried, her eyes wild. “And he must not be told of it! Never!”

  “But he must discharge his duty!” I exclaimed, my mind in fury. “Not merely towards your existing children, but towards this one yet unborn. To have behaved so despicably—to have continued to exercise all the rights of a husband, while presenting himself in that character to another woman—another woman who has already borne him two children—”

  “You do not understand,” Harriet wept. “Bysshe is not to blame—I have not seen him—not since—not since long before—”

  But I knew she was lying; I was certain Shelley had visited her here, just as he had, all too probably, visited her at Chapel-street prior to his departure for Geneva, and the miserable predicament in which she now found herself was the only too obvious result. I was on the point of remonstrating with her once more, despite her tears, when the door flew open and a woman strode into the room, holding a small boy by the hand. He ran at once to his sister’s chair where he climbed up beside her, and proceeded to watch us in that quiet, circumspect way children acquire who have known little but disturbance in their lives, and wish not to add to the sum of it. The young woman in question—though I use the adjective out of courtesy, rather than exactness—turned at once to me. The first impression I gained of her was of a height and an appearance utterly at odds with her sister’s; from a distance she might well have been deemed handsome, with her abundant black hair and pale complexion, but standing as I was, within a few feet of her, I could see that her skin was seamed with the small-pox and of a dead white, and her hair, of which she was evidently very proud, coarse and wiry.

  “Who are you, sir?” she demanded. “My sister is not nearly well enough to receive casual visitors.”

  “Please, Eliza,” whispered Mrs Shelley, going at once to her side. “Mr Maddox was offering to help me. Perhaps he might be able, if he knew—”

  “I can give you all the assistance you need,” replied Miss Westbrook firmly, leading her resolutely to the bed. “You need no-one but me, Harriet,” she said, as she settled her gently against the pillows, “you have never needed anyone but me. And now that that villain has gone, we may be together once more, and forever.”

  Seeing her then, bent over her sister’s prone body, her hand to her cheek, and her eyes full of a burning tenderness, I wondered. Wondered if Mrs Shelley might have sought more than concealment in fleeing her father’s house; wondered, indeed, whether the story she once told Shelley of her yearning to escape a domestic oppression might have had nothing to do with a supposed parental tyranny, but have been, instead, a naïve and girlish attempt to describe a domination of a far subtler nature, and from which, it seemed to me, she had never truly escaped.

  At that moment Miss Westbrook seemed to recall my presence, for she straightened up, marched swiftly to the door, and held it open. There was no mistaking the gesture, just as there was no mistaking the look that flickered across Mrs Shelley’s face as I stepped briefly towards her and made my bow.

  “You know where you may find me, Mrs Shelley,” I said gravely, contriving to leave a fold of bank-notes on the table by the bed. “I am at your service, and will remain so.”

  “Mr Maddox?” said Miss Westbrook as I drew level with her in the doorway. “Do not call again. We need no interference from strangers. However seemingly benevolent.”

  I had, needless to say, no intention of acceding to this demand, but recognising that it was useless to attempt to see Mrs Shelley again in her sister’s presence, I judged it best to wait until the morrow, and call upon her again then. But other urgent business calling me from town, I was not able to make good on this intention. The first I knew, therefore, of what had occurred was when I was summoned from my breakfast on Sunday to see ‘a lady.’ A most insistent lady, the housemaid informed me, and not to be gainsaid, despite the day and the early hour. I did not stay to don my coat, but went down at once. But it was not—as I hoped—Mrs Shelley, but Miss Westbrook I found awaiting me there. I had scarce opened the office door when she fell upon me with fevered eyes, gripping my arms and commanding me in ragged tones to reveal what I had done with her sister.

  “I have done nothing with her, madam,” I countered stoutly, pushing her, somewhat indelicately, from me.

  “I do not believe you!” she cried. “I know all about you—going to her lodgings claiming to be her friend and all the while in the pocket of that odious man. And do not seek to deny it—I saw the note she left—she found out, you know—what the two of you were conspiring—”

  At this moment George Fraser came to the door with a look of enquiry on his weather-beaten features, attracted, no doubt, by the sound of raised voices. I assured him that all was well, and requested he ring the bell and have the maid bring coffee. I then turned back once more to my interlocutress. The interruption had done little to calm her fury; her sallow cheeks were red and her bosom heaving with suppressed emotion.

  “Perhaps,” I said, indicating a chair, “you would have the goodness to explain what you mean, Miss Westbrook, and then I will attempt to be of assistance to you. The discovery of persons absconded, kidnapped, or otherwise missing being one of the services I am pleased to offer.”

  If such words sound sardonic now I fear they were indeed so; at the time I thought only that poor Mrs Shelley had endured her sister’s suffocating affections long enough, and had sought, for a few days at least, to elude them. I knew furthermore that Harriet now had money, and might have secured herself a room in a far more salubrious establishment than Hans-place. Miss Westbrook, meanwhile, glared at me with palpable hatred, and for a moment I thought she was on the point of hurling abuse in my face and storming from the room, but I have encountered such as her before and I continued coolly to hold her gaze. A few moments later she dropped her eyes and sat, almost meekly, in the chair I had proffered. I likewise took a seat, and composed myself upon it. “Now, Miss Westbrook, perhaps we might advance a little. You say your sister is no longer at her lodgings?”

  “She has not been seen since taking an early dinner yesterday,” she replied forlornly. “Mrs Thomas said she had become ever more despondent and gloomy since Thursday last, saying little and keeping largely to her bed. That was when you called, Maddox—this is all your fault—”

  I held up my hand. “There is no evidence whatsoever to support that assertion, Miss Westbrook, and I am not accustomed to let such unfounded accusations go by unchallenged. Now, you spoke of a note?”

  She nodded, and extracted a sheet of paper from her reticule.

  Is it not enough that I should be pursued by those dreadful letters, but that they should harry me now in person? That man—that Maddox—is in Godwin’s pay—he is Godwin’s creature. The mischief that man has made is not to be told & now he wants nothing more than to get me out of the way so he can marry his daughter off to my husband. Money, money, money is all he thinks on & my Bysshe it is who has paid the price. He is no longer the man I loved—a cruel imposter has taken his place. I know now there is no joy in this unhappy world; I can only pray there is another where those that have endured as much suffering as I will at last find peace.

  Do not think to follow—

  “To what letters does your sister refer?” I asked.

  “Do not feign ignorance,” Miss Westbrook hissed. “You know very well that Harriet has received letter after letter, each one viler than the last, telling her that no-one regards her, that it would be better for all if she were to put an end to a life that is a torment to her, and which renders her nothing but a burden to all those unfortunate enough to be associated with her.”

  “And from whence do these letters come?” I asked, my throat dry, though I knew the answer; knew and feared it.

  “From Bath,” she replied. “From Bath. As well you know.”

  I got from my chair then, and walked to the window, remembering that it was just such a letter, from that same place, that had cast poor Fanny Imlay into the last melancholy
that had driven her to a pauper’s grave. Remembering that, and cursing myself in equal measure that Harriet Shelley had discovered—I knew not how—that I remained, in theory if not in fact, employed by the one man she seemed most to fear.

  I turned then and strode to the door, and called down to Fraser to have the carriage brought round at once. Then I faced my interlocutress and took a deep breath. “You are correct in one respect, Miss Westbrook. I was—I stress the word—recently commissioned by Mr Godwin to discover the whereabouts of your sister—”

  She gasped then and half rose to her feet, but I interrupted her. “Please hear me out. I said I was employed. By the time I paid that call on your sister I no longer considered myself to be so. The concern I expressed for her situation was genuine, and sincere. And I give you my word that I have told Godwin nothing of her being at Hans-place. If he has knowledge of that address he has not had it from me.”

  I confess I feared a tirade then—a rain of fists or a fit of hysterics—but I was wrong. She merely slipped slowly back into the chair and began to weep. Great gasping sobs that seemed to tear her very frame apart.

  “What am I to do?” she wailed. “I cannot bear the thought of life without her—if Harriet has harmed herself—if she has left me—”

  I moved quickly towards her then, and helped her to her feet. “As I stated before, Miss Westbrook, I am skilled in recovering those who are absent, from whatever cause. Indeed there is no man in London better placed than I to find your sister. But I need your help. You knew her best, and it is vital, therefore, that you recruit your spirits as well as you may and assist me, for her quick discovery may depend on something that you alone know, even if you are not at present aware of it.”

  She nodded then and endeavoured to still her tears. Fraser appeared at the door with my coat over one arm and my hat in his hand, saying the carriage awaited us downstairs.

  Hans-place was much as I remembered it, as was Mrs Shelley’s room, though it seemed, if anything, smaller and more cramped without her. I asked Miss Westbrook to look over her possessions, lest there should be some clue there only she might perceive, but I did not need her assistance to conclude that her sister had taken but few clothes with her. Her personal effects likewise remained, meagre as they were, and her small writing-case was found to contain a number of letters sent her by Shelley, though none of these were from Bath, and all—as far as I could tell—must have been written two years before, in the first few weeks after he abandoned her. I felt my face grow hot with indignation as I read the unutterably careless and self-regarding words he had penned to her, telling the woman about to bear him a child that, unlike the woman he had deserted her for, she had never filled his heart with an all-sufficing passion, and accusing her one moment of mean and despicable selfishness, and demanding the next that she send him clean stockings. There were no other papers aside from this, and certainly nothing that might explain how Mrs Shelley had come to know of my connection with Godwin. Nor could her sister enlighten me further in this respect. But then a thought occurred to me. I persuaded Miss Westbrook—with some difficulty, I confess—to stay for me in the carriage, and had Fraser summon William Alder from his room on the floor below. It being the Sabbath, I judged we would find him at home, and no doubt still abed, and it was indeed only a few minutes later that I heard the sound of two men ascending the stairs.

  Alder revealed himself to be a young man of some self-assurance, with rather fine features for one of his class and an abler tongue than most such. Fraser showed him into the room, and then stood with his back against the door. I think it must have been at that moment that Alder sensed that things were not all they may have seemed.

  He looked to me, to Fraser, and then to me once more. “What’s afoot, gentlemen?”

  I affected to be absorbed in the letters on the table. “We wished to ask you some questions about Mrs Smith.”

  “She’s a’right ain’t she?—I was worried—when I didn’t see ’er last night—”

  “As well you might be. Mrs Shelley has disappeared,” I said, turning slowly to face him, “and there is a very great deal of evidence to suggest that you, Alder, may have had a hand in it.”

  “Me?” he spluttered, “I only tried to ’elp ’er! She needed somewhere to stay for a while and I knew there was a room free ’ere. What she did after that, I ain’t got a clue—honest to God.”

  “You have worked at her father’s house, I believe?”

  He nodded. “As a plumber. That’s ’ow I earns me bread.”

  “And hence Mr Westbrook asked you to assist him in the dragging of the Hyde-park ponds?”

  He was red-faced now, and merely nodded once more.

  “And you did not think to spare yourself the trouble, and Mr Westbrook both the expense and the undoubted distress of such a proceeding, by informing him that his daughter was all the time resident here?”

  “She made me promise, on me ma’s life, not to say nothin’. Weren’t my place to interfere, were it,” he finished sullenly.

  “And was it your place, Alder,” I said, moving towards him as he retreated uneasily, “to meddle in my business, and carry stories of that business to Mrs Shelley—stories, may I inform you, that have proved to be completely erroneous, and as a result may have contributed directly to this latest disappearance?”

  His face was white now. “Don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, guv. Honest.”

  “I should be careful how I bandied such a word, Alder. It may return to haunt you in the most unpleasant fashion.”

  Alder had by now backed within a foot of Fraser, who took hold suddenly of his arm, twisting it hard behind his back.

  “ ’Ere—leave me alone—I ain’t done nothin’—I swear—”

  “On your mother’s life?” I said, raising an eyebrow. “I should not be so rash, in your position, for I have my own means of finding out people, and Fraser here is not the sort of caller most elderly ladies would wish to find at the door, in the dark, when they are in the house alone.”

  “All right, all right,” he rasped, his features contorted in pain, “I’ll tell yer.”

  I nodded to Fraser, who loosened his grip, but did not release it.

  “I was working at the Chapel-street ’ouse a few weeks back, when I ’eard one of the maids say she ’ad a new fancy-man. Only she weren’t too sure of ’im ’cause ’e seemed more interested in what was goin’ on in the ’ouse than ’e was in ’er. That got me thinkin’ so when I saw ’im later I took it into me ’ead to follow ’im along. And ’e led me straight back to your place. Nice crib that, though yer gutters needs replacin’. That’s ’ow I knew it were you when you came ’ere. Would ’ave recognised that carriage anywhere, never mind round ’ere.”

  “I see,” I said, keeping my expression impassive, but impressed, despite myself. “And how did you discover the connection to Mr Godwin?”

  He shrugged. “That were just luck. I was just about to ’ook it when I saw another fellow come to the door, so I sidled a bit closer and made as if to tie me boot. Then I ’eard ’im say ’e ’ad an urgent message from Mr Godwin, for Mr Maddox. That’s ’ow I knew your name, and ’is name, and after you left ’ere the other night I went up and told ’er and all the blood drained from ’er face. I knew then as you were bad news.”

  His tone was defiant now, as if daring me to contradict him. Fraser caught my eye and I nodded.

  I took up my hat. “I will await you in the carriage, Fraser. See that Mr Alder here is left in no doubt as to the very great unwisdom of daring to cross me. But do him no permanent damage. Once he has learned his lesson, I intend to offer him a position. In my employ.”

  As indeed I did. Alder proved, in fact, invaluable in the following days, spurred no doubt as much by the prospect of a very much more lucrative occupation, as by feelings of personal culpability in relation to Mrs Shelley. I set him to maintain a watch on Hans-place, and obtain what intelligence he could from the occupants; a task facilitated
, no doubt, by the affaire he was already conducting with the maidservant, one Mary Jones. He likewise told me everything he knew as to Mrs Shelley’s movements in the previous weeks, but of her present whereabouts and future intentions, he could offer no insight. I was not, at first, deterred by this, having a just estimation of both my own talents and the means at my disposal, but as the days lengthened into weeks I became both dispirited and ever more apprehensive. My men could discover no trace of Harriet Shelley, neither at the most likely lodging-houses, nor at any of the London coach depots. I endeavoured, more than once, and with increasing insistence, to persuade Miss Westbrook to inform her father of what she knew, but I could not prevail. I fear that her failure to reveal her sister’s first place of refuge coloured her judgement in this, and led her to shrink from what I can only concur would be a justified rebuke.

  November had passed and December commenced before I received any word of Mrs Shelley. I was at dinner in Downing-street, whence I had been invited to offer my advice as to the apprehension of the miscreants responsible for the late disturbances in Spa-fields, when the waiter slipped me a message in Fraser’s hand: Alder has seen her—Chapel-street. I made my excuses immediately and hurried down to the waiting carriage. The night was dark and the fog so heavy we could not move at any pace through the crowded streets, and I half despaired of arriving in time, but the carriage eventually drew to a halt a few yards from the Westbrook residence, and Alder stepped forward to open the door.

  “Saw ’er by chance, guv. I were in two minds whether to try to talk to ’er but thought it best to send for you instead.”

  I glanced at him; there was still the ghost of a bruise along his jaw and I could well understand that he wished to run no risk of further intimacy with George Fraser.

  “She’s been ’ere ’alf an hour and more. Just walkin’ up and down. Cryin’ I think she is, and talkin’ to ’erself. Once or twice I saw ’er approach the door but then seem to think better of it.”