by Kate Parker
“Can I kill her now?” Denby took a step or two toward me, his knife held about waist-high.
“Not yet. How did you learn about that note?” Kaldaire reached in and pulled out a handful of jewelry boxes.
“The same way several others have learned about it. You’ve done a terrible job of keeping any of this quiet. It won’t take long for the police to come knocking on your door. If I were you, I’d cut and run.”
“The police can’t prove anything.” There was a sneer in his aristocratic tones.
“They already know you were in town on the night your brother died. The only question is which one of you killed Lord Kaldaire.”
“Can I silence her now?”
“Just a minute, Denby,” Kaldaire snapped. For the first time, he seemed nervous. “I won’t be accused of murdering my brother. Who have you shared your speculations with?”
“Lots of people,” I said, smiling despite my shaking legs, “none of whom shall be named. Since you want to do me harm, I’m not going to make it easy for you.”
“Oh, for…” Denby muttered the rest of his words as he stalked toward me.
I backed up in the direction of the window.
Kaldaire took a step or two toward the door, keeping an anxious eye on Denby, when a shadowy figure popped up by the safe, grabbed a handful of jewelry cases, and said, “Got ’em.”
“Why, you!” Kaldaire said, spinning around and reaching for the thief.
“Catch!” Jewelry cases shot into Denby’s face, toward the painting of the Lady in Blue, out the window. Any direction but where Kaldaire could catch them. Two more dark-clad figures leaped into action, snatching jewelry boxes and tossing them around.
“Stop them!” Kaldaire shouted.
Denby swung around, his knife extended, aiming at a dark-clad figure who snatched a jewel case out of midair. Another figure threw a case and hit Denby on the side of the head, ruining his efforts to skewer anything but shadows.
They made a ballet of sudden moves, leaping and ducking, throwing and catching. I knew, at the end, a few valuable pieces would disappear, their “fee” for services rendered.
My cousins would go out the way they entered. I wanted to stay in the house and check on Lady Kaldaire. I shifted around the edge of the room toward the door, staying out of the confusion. I was nearly there when I bumped against a marble bust. I grabbed it before it could fall and shatter.
The thief by the safe opened jewel cases and tossed rings and brooches across the room. He threw a heavy bracelet directly into Kaldaire’s face.
“Why, you—” Kaldaire took a step back, raising his arm to fend off the attack just as Denby lunged at a dark shape. The black-dressed thief jumped back and Denby stuck his blade into Kaldaire’s arm.
His lordship’s scream could have wakened the dead.
Chapter Thirty-one
Denby, gripping his bloody knife, rushed toward the door. He sliced the air as he passed me, narrowly missing me. I grabbed the bust by the base and swung it, clipping the side of his head. He sank to the floor, the bust thudding into the thick carpet and his knife falling harmlessly.
Cecily, Lady Kaldaire, arrived a moment later, followed by Prince Maximilian and Lord George Whitaker. She saw the blood soaking her husband’s sleeve and fainted. George tried to catch her but missed as she gracefully sank to the carpet next to the rat-faced Jonathan Denby.
When I looked around, the dark-clad thieves were gone. At first glance, it seemed as if all the jewelry and jewelry boxes were scattered across the wooden floor or on the carpet.
“I’ve been stabbed,” Lord Kaldaire groaned.
A moment later, a bobby’s whistle could be heard, followed by a pounding on the front door. Rawlings must have opened it immediately, because a moment later, he led two bobbies into the room.
Prince Maximilian was obviously used to taking command. He quickly ascertained that no one had gone for a doctor for Roberta, Lady Kaldaire, and ordered Rawlings to carry out the errand personally. He had a bobby fetch the police surgeon for Lord Kaldaire and reinforcements for locking up Denby.
“And lock up the thieves,” Lord Kaldaire commanded.
“What thieves?” the bobby left in the room asked.
“The ones that threw jewelry all over the room.”
“You’d better get a doctor quickly. He’s hallucinating. It must be the loss of blood,” I said.
“What happened, my lady?” the bobby asked.
To my amazement, no one corrected his use of “my lady.” “Lord Kaldaire opened the safe to show me a piece of Lady Kaldaire’s jewelry. He wasn’t certain which Lady Kaldaire it belonged to and he wanted my opinion. Then Mr. Denby burst in waving a knife and demanding the jewelry.”
Lord Kaldaire remained slumped in a chair, with a man I suspected was his valet dealing with his wound. His lordship watched me through narrowed eyes in his pudgy face, waiting to see how my story would end.
“The two men struggled and a moment later, jewelry and jewelry cases flew all over the room. Mr. Denby struck Lord Kaldaire with his knife and started to run away with some of the jewelry, so I hit him in the head with the bust.”
“Is that true, my lord?” the bobby asked Prince Maximilian.
“I wasn’t in here. Lord George and I came in with Lady Kaldaire when we heard a scream.”
“Lord Kaldaire?” the bobby said.
He gave me a dark look before he nodded.
“If I may, I’d like to see how Roberta, Lady Kaldaire, is doing and whether the doctor has arrived yet. Prince Maximilian, could you have someone fetch Lady Kaldaire’s lady’s maid and her smelling salts?”
He bowed to me, a smirk playing on his lips. He obviously didn’t believe a word of my story.
Considering the circumstances, I thought I’d stayed fairly close to the truth. Not wanting to waste any more time, I stepped around Lady Kaldaire and asked, “Where is the other Lady Kaldaire?”
“She’s in the morning room with Mama,” Lord George said.
“Thank you, my lord.”
Lady Kaldaire was laid out on an ugly brown sofa that appeared to be molting. Lady Linchester sat next to her in a side chair, rubbing her wrists and murmuring to her. I hurried to the women, patted Lady Linchester on the shoulder and then felt Lady Kaldaire’s forehead and neck. She was still breathing and she had a pulse, but both were very slow and faint.
The doctor came in and asked Lady Linchester a couple of questions about dinner. He gave Lady Kaldaire a cursory examination and sniffed the wine glass, presumably the victim’s, that had been brought in by a footman. Then he said, “Do either of you have a strong stomach?”
The elderly Lady Linchester shook her head and nearly ran from the room.
Lady Kaldaire had rescued me from going to jail the night her husband was murdered. Tonight I needed to repay the favor. I straightened my shoulders. “If it means saving her life, then yes, I can stomach anything.”
What followed seemed like the longest hours of my life, although it was less than one. Covered with a tablecloth, I held Lady Kaldaire in position while the doctor put a tube down her throat to pour soapy water into her stomach. That came back up along with wine, soup, and presumably the poison.
When it was done, maids carried away the basins and cloths while murmuring the house was like a hospital with all the sick and injured. Lady Kaldaire was limp as a ribbon but awake and relatively alert.
“Thank you,” she said in a hoarse voice as she clutched my hand.
“We’ll talk tomorrow,” I told her.
“I’m glad to have a tomorrow,” came out in a whisper.
“I’m glad you do, too.”
She gripped my hand tighter for a moment. “Denby? And Kaldaire? They were here tonight. And the prince.”
“Denby has been arrested for stabbing Lord Kaldaire in the arm.”
Her drooping eyes sprang open. “Will he live?”
“I think so.”
“Pity.�
�� Her eyes closed again.
There was a knock on the door and a maid came in and spoke to the doctor. After a minute’s consultation, he came to the patient’s side and said, “Prince Maximilian has offered to take you home in his carriage. I think you can make the trip without further injury and will feel better once you are in your own home with your own servants.”
“You’ve been talking to Cecily,” Lady Kaldaire said to the doctor, struggling to sit up with my help.
“She fainted and landed like a rock on the carpet at the sight of Lord Kaldaire’s blood,” I told her with a smile.
“Miss Gates was most ingenious,” Prince Maximilian said as he walked in with Rawlings and a footman. “After Lord Kaldaire was stabbed, she hit his attacker over the head with a bust of Sophocles.”
“Appropriate,” Lady Kaldaire murmured. It was slow going, and she needed a great deal of support, but finally she and Prince Maximilian were in his carriage.
“Roberta,” Cecily, Lady Kaldaire, said, hurrying outside with the hatbox. “You forgot your newest—”
“It’s yours, Cecily. You were complaining you didn’t have a hat to match your latest gown for garden parties, so I had Miss Gates bring something stylish as a present.”
“Oh, I couldn’t accept it. Not after all that’s happened tonight.” Cecily was still looking pale.
“I suppose a peace offering is in order. Although, next time,” Roberta, Lady Kaldaire, added with steel in her tone, “it should come from whoever poisoned me.”
“Poisoned you? Don’t be—”
“Oh, yes,” I said, warming to the notion of scaring the new Lady Kaldaire while I pretended to be amazed. “The doctor was quite clear about that as I helped him save Lady Kaldaire’s life. Someone in your household is a poisoner. Can you imagine the gossip about this?”
Cecily paled to the point of looking like a ghost, her eyes glancing around at the bystanders who still lingered. “Something in the food must have gone off. I’ll speak to Cook immediately. She could have killed us all.”
She turned to run inside when she remembered the hatbox in her hand. “Thank you so much for this, dear sister. I’ll call tomorrow and see how you are feeling. Please don’t mention this to any of your customers, Miss Gates.”
I looked into the carriage at Lady Kaldaire. She nodded. “Nothing will be said if she’s content,” I told Cecily.
I noticed she slumped as Prince Maximilian said, “Good night,” and tapped on the roof of his carriage. His horses immediately began their sprightly pace.
“Good-bye, Miss Gates,” Cecily snapped and turned away to reenter her house, only to find the dowager Lady Linchester and Lord George in the doorway.
Before Cecily could say anything, Lord George passed her and joined me. “Miss Gates, wait. I’d love to give you another ride in my motor. You did so enjoy it before.”
I gave him a smile. “I did, indeed.” We walked over to his vehicle while he told me all he’d done to improve the automobile and how it rode on the paved streets of London. I didn’t understand a word.
“You missed the police taking Mr. Denby away in handcuffs. The detective inspector was very stern with him and with Lord Kaldaire,” Lord Whitaker told me.
Detective inspector. Oh, dear. “It wasn’t Detective Inspector Russell, was it?”
“Yes, I think that was his name.”
“He’s the same man who’s investigating Lord Kaldaire’s murder.”
“Golly. Do you think Mr. Denby was responsible for both?”
I was about to say no when I remembered Jeremiah Pruitt was killed a half hour before Lord Kaldaire and very close by. “I don’t know. Did you know Jeremiah Pruitt?”
“I’d met him. Why do you ask?”
Then I realized Lord George meant both Lords Kaldaire when he said “both,” meaning attacks, not two murders on the same evening. It didn’t matter. He had my thinking running through two different possibilities now. Mr. Denby had killed both men, or Mr. Denby knew who killed Lord Kaldaire because he was present or because someone told him.
I’d already judged Denby guilty of murdering Pruitt based on his frighteningly thin, lethal-looking knife.
I dragged my mind back to my conversation with Lord George. “I’ve heard all sorts of stories about him. He wasn’t really a wastrel, was he?”
He nodded, his bland face grave. “I’m afraid he was. My brother warned me not to get involved with him, but it was all right in the end. Jeremiah didn’t buy a motor carriage after all.”
“Oh, he was a motoring enthusiast.”
“No, I’m afraid his heart just wasn’t in it.” I thought I heard him sigh. “All right, Mummy. In you go. We’ll give Miss Gates a lift home on our way to Lady Kaldaire’s.”
“Oh, good. Someone to ride in front with you, George.” Lady Linchester was all smiles as she was handed up into the back seat and put on the motoring scarf I’d given her. She showed such flair with it I guessed she’d been forced to use it frequently.
I dug my own motoring scarf out of my bag and put it on for the first time since I’d returned to London.
“She was poisoned, wasn’t she?” Lady Linchester asked just before George started the engine.
“How did you know?” I shouted over the noise of the engine.
“What?”
“How did you—never mind.” I kept silent as we drove along, an evening breeze created by our speed. The roar coming out of the bonnet prevented any conversation. I noticed pedestrians didn’t stop and gape at the automobile as they would have just a few years before. We even passed a few other vehicles, with Lord George sounding his horn and waving wildly each time. One driver returned his greeting. The others just stared straight ahead as they sped on.
When we pulled up in front of the shop, I turned to Lady Linchester. “How did you know she was poisoned?”
“Because Roberta was right as rain when we arrived. I’m staying with her, you see. After a single glass of sherry, she was slurring her words and then just fell over onto the table and then the floor. That’s not normal.”
That qualified as quite abnormal. “Who poured her sherry?”
“Lord Kaldaire.”
“Not a servant?”
“No.”
Why had he done such a thing? “Did he know I was coming to the house?”
“Roberta told Cecily as soon as she arrived. Told her you were bringing a surprise for her. I guess he heard her.”
I was glad I’d talked to Grandpapa before going to Kaldaire House. Otherwise, Lady Kaldaire and I would both be dead.
The only question was how were we going to prove Lord Kaldaire, a peer of the realm, had a murderous streak? Or had a murderous friend in Mr. Denby?
* * *
I was up half the night trying to think of a way to prove Lord Kaldaire’s guilt or innocence in the death of his brother, the late Lord Kaldaire. Then I rose early to visit Grandpapa. And to thank him.
“Oh, good, pet,” he said when I arrived. “Set another place at the table, Aggie. You’ll have some breakfast with us?”
“I’d love to. Thank you, Gran.”
“I’m ‘Gran’ now that I’m feeding you, am I?” she said, but I saw her smile before she disappeared into the kitchen.
“So who were the hooded acrobats last night?” I asked.
“Your cousins Garrett, Vince, and Tommy.”
“They did splendidly.”
“And got away before the police arrived.” He spread jam on his toast while he added, “A good thing, since the investigating officer was Detective Inspector Russell.”
Gran set a teacup, plate, and utensils at the spot where I sat by Grandpapa. I smiled my thanks. “How do you know who they sent?”
“I waited in the crowd. I had to make sure you were safe.”
“Lord Kaldaire fussed about the ‘thieves’ as he called them, but since he’d been stabbed, I said he was hallucinating. Did they get away with any of the jewelry?” I guessed th
e answer was yes.
Grandpapa raised his eyebrows and took a bite of his toast.
“I think it was Lord Kaldaire who poisoned Roberta, Lady Kaldaire. When she fell ill, he didn’t send for a doctor.”
“Pet, I want you to stay away from them. All of them.”
“I can’t. We’re so close to finding out who really is guilty. After the stabbing, Prince Maximilian took over and set things to rights. It’s a good thing he did, because none of the Kaldaires were in a position to do anything. And then I helped the doctor clean out Lady Kaldaire’s stomach. It was awful.” I blinked away the memory. “How could he do that to her? She’s his family.”
“You like Lady Kaldaire.” He didn’t say it as a question.
“She reminds me of Gran. Underneath that gruff exterior is a good woman. A kind woman.”
“I’ve always thought of your grandmother as an aristocrat.” Grandpapa put on a smug expression as he looked at her.
“Then what am I doing with the likes of you?” she asked him as she set down the eggs and sausage and sat across the table from me.
I began eating my breakfast, staying well out of that discussion.
Chapter Thirty-two
When I returned to the shop, I found Jane waiting on a customer and Inspector Russell waiting for me.
One look at his face and I knew we needed to carry on this conversation away from my shop. I led him out to the alley. It was shaded by buildings, cool this early in the morning, and private enough for an argument.
“What did you think you were doing?” he demanded as soon as we were outside.
“Last night? All I did was deliver a hat as requested. The stabbing and poisoning had nothing to do with me.”
“Are you certain? Lord Kaldaire says otherwise.”
“Really. What does he say? And what does Mr. Denby say?”
“Lord Kaldaire said you let thieves into his study. Thieves who broke into his safe and pulled all the jewelry out. Thieves who ran when he and Mr. Denby entered the room. In trying to apprehend them, Mr. Denby accidentally stabbed Lord Kaldaire.”