Richard took his time looking the man over, taking in every detail of his appearance. Eventually he asked, “Why did you run?”
The man sniffed, staring at Richard in a calculating manner but he was used to addressing the Quality. He remained standing, his arms flat by his sides in the approved manner. “Because it looked bad for me. I thought they’d caught up with us, sir.”
“My lord,” Carier corrected him. The man didn’t look surprised.
“Who caught up with you?” Richard asked. The man’s gaze shifted from Richard to me, to Carier, to Barraclough and back to Richard again. He bit his lip.
Richard pursued him. “Would you like to tell us the story yourself?” The man remained silent. Richard’s tone was still smooth, conversational. “We can make you tell us.” Still the man didn’t speak but stood, the model of the perfect footman, silent as he must have stood in my aunt’s drawing room in Harley Street.
Richard tried a different tack. “If you’re afraid of anyone, we can protect you. We can even send you abroad, if you wish.”
Greene’s attention went up. He met Richard’s gaze before his chin dropped and he lost his upright stance. He put his hand to his mouth and dropped it again. “I asked her to marry me. She said yes.”
“Lucy? Where did you meet her?” Richard didn’t take his attention from the man’s face.
“At Mr. Drury’s house. We both worked there.”
With an effort, I stifled the gasp that came to my lips and stayed silent, my hands still folded quietly over the fan in my lap. Richard didn’t look away but nodded in understanding. “I thought as much. You both worked there?”
“Yes, my lord, but we were looking for another place.”
“And you found Mrs. Godolphin?” Richard’s questions came quicker, not giving the man a chance to think, to work out false answers.
“She’d just lost some of her staff when they married and moved away. We didn’t tell her we were…connected.”
“Did you find the places through Thompson’s?”
“No, my lord, through Black’s.” That was the name of a rival establishment. A pity, as we would have no access to the records to verify his story. “We wanted to get away but we didn’t want Mr. Drury knowing where we were going, so we bought some references from a man I know.”
“Why didn’t you want Drury to know?”
The man paused, studying me doubtfully. “Because Mr. Drury was having…relations with Lucy.”
This time I couldn’t hide my sharp intake of breath. Although the affair had been over a long time ago, it would still hit Richard hard. He and Steven Drury had shared a woman, someone who had once meant something. The mother of his first children. I’d avoided thinking about that, but it couldn’t be denied. Richard’s expression didn’t change but I glanced at Carier, who was looking dourer than ever and saw his chest lift in a sigh.
“Was this with her consent?” Richard hadn’t moved an inch. He held himself completely steady.
The man didn’t look pleased to be asked this question. He frowned. “At first, yes.”
“But not later?”
“He asked her to do…certain things she wasn’t disposed to do.” He glanced up at me, then dropped his gaze. “I’ll tell you, my lord, but I don’t think it’s suitable for ladies’ ears.” Richard looked at me and I saw the strain in his eyes, chilly with concern. I thought he should be spared rather than me. Then he nodded to the manservant and. “Go on.”
“They were insistent and Lucy refused. These weren’t ordinary favours, the sort a master usually asks of a servant. And by then Lucy and I had become…friendly. We decided to leave. We got the position with Mrs. Godolphin with false references and our plan was to move two or three times fast, getting some genuine characters, then move out to the country.” He stopped and his head dropped.
We gave him his moment. It seemed he had really cared about Lucy. He put his hand briefly to his eyes before he continued, his voice quieter than ever. “Then I came home and found her. So I got scared and I ran.”
“Why St. Paul’s?”
“I’ve got friends there,” came the short reply.
Richard turned to Barraclough then, standing mute witness and asked him how the man had been found. “We also have friends in St. Paul’s,” Barraclough answered curtly.
“You have rewarded whoever it was, of course?”
“Naturally, my lord.”
Richard sighed and stood, brushing down his coat in a nervous gesture not characteristic of him. Carier came forward to attend to him but Richard impatiently waved him away. “We’ll keep you here for a while,” he said to the manservant. “It’s either that or hand you over to the magistrates at Bow Street.”
A crafty look spread over the face of the man, the first time he’d looked anything but crestfallen in the whole of the interview. “But I’ve done nothing wrong, my lord,” he protested, without raising his voice. “And if you gave me over to Bow Street, it might become public and you wouldn’t like that, would you?”
Richard was crossing to where I sat but he spun round to face the man again. “Why would I care about that?”
“Society doesn’t generally want its dirty linen washed in public, in my experience. Aren’t you trying to save Mr. and Mrs. Drury from scandal?”
Richard studied him, his expression calm and unreadable. “We have no love for the Drurys here. Blab away to the Fieldings—it’s none of our concern. I’m only involved because Mrs. Godolphin is my wife’s aunt. The Drurys are nothing to us.”
“I heard different. I heard as how Mrs. Drury jilted you for her husband and you’d dearly love to get her back.”
“You heard this in their household, one presumes,” Richard replied, his voice as cold as ice. “The point is, do you prefer to be here for a few more days, or in Bow Street?”
The man shrugged. “I’m better treated here.”
Without another word, Richard turned and held out his hand to help me up. Followed by Carier, leaving Barraclough to lock the man back up in his cell, we went to the office at the other end of the corridor. It was empty, Alicia being busy elsewhere today but we were invited to make use of it and tea was served to us there.
Since this was Thompson’s business, Carier sat with us but still kept his distance, seemingly more comfortable that way. While we took advantage of the comfortable armchairs, he chose a hard chair and sat on the edge, waiting to be called back to his duties.
“What do you think?” Richard asked.
“He’s lying.” I had watched the man closely, the way his eyes slid to one side at certain parts of his story, the way he clasped his hands together convulsively from time to time.
“I thought so, too. Some of his story was true enough but he’s rearranged matters to suit himself. What do you think, Carier?”
Carier answered. “He’s more involved than he cares to say, my lord. If he were completely innocent, he wouldn’t be so eager to avoid the clutches of Bow Street. I don’t know how he’s involved, though.”
“I hope he believed me when I told him it was nothing to me,” Richard said. “But one would have thought if he meant much to Lucy, she would have told him about her connection with me.”
“It was a long time ago,” I pointed out, “and she hasn’t come to you before.”
Richard sighed. “I wish she had, instead of getting into this mess.” He wouldn’t say any more on the subject, turning instead to the girl, Susan. She could be the vital key to this matter. She knew something, otherwise Julia wouldn’t be keeping her so close. And if we found who killed Lucy, we might find a clue to what had happened to Richard’s offspring.
“He didn’t mention her once,” I said. “Was he trying to keep her out of it for reasons of his own, or is he ignorant of her involvement?”
“He must have known something, my lady. He’s trying to excuse her for some reason.” I agreed with Carier—the man was shielding her. We decided to let the manservant think we belie
ved him for now, since Richard was hopeful of getting the girl to himself for a quiet word in the near future. We would try to get to the truth of the matter from that angle.
It was beginning to look as though the Drurys were implicated in this murder. They knew the servants involved and if the man was to be believed, they had driven them into hiding. It would explain the lack of personal effects in Lucy’s room but Richard had one more problem to share with us.
“Lucy’s book,” he said to us, his eyes brilliant in an otherwise expressionless mask. “She recorded payments made to her, presumably by Drury and others, for services rendered. The dates went right up to the night before she was killed. So she hadn’t broken with her previous life.”
WE ATTENDED A RIDOTTO that evening. The company was witty and glittering, the Drurys were present, so were Eustacia and the little maid, and I was miserable. Freddy noticed my unhappiness after he’d taken me on the floor for a country dance. “Are you and Strang estranged?”
Out of earshot of most people, I was able to disabuse him. “We’re pretending. Richard is trying to get closer to the Drurys, to try to find out about the maid she keeps taunting us with. She has something to do with the murder of Lucy Forder.”
Freddy looked to where Richard stood, sharing a joke with Eustacia Terry. “And that one?”
“The Drurys spread a rumour. There’s nothing in it.”
“I didn’t think there was. Not Strang’s style, that one. Nothing much about her.” He glanced at me. “And anybody who knows him well can see he only has eyes for you. Mind, if the field’s free—”
I laughed. “Freddy, you are incorrigible.”
“Worth a try. The girl’s ruined her chances, for this season at least, letting a rumour like that circulate. If she had any sense, she’d shun Richard, not let him be on such good terms with her. I suspect,” he said, turning back to look at me, “he’s getting his revenge now, instead of in Exeter.”
I sighed. “Yes, I think so, too. But she was foolish to do as she did and I don’t feel so forgiving toward her.”
Freddy shot me a sharper look. “She’s done something to upset you? I won’t ask what but that would make Strang determined.”
I knew it would but what I’d said to Lord Thwaite had been true. I no longer wanted to save Eustacia from the follies of her own iniquities.
THAT NIGHT I WAS ANXIOUS to get ready for bed quickly, so I would be there for him. Consequently I spent some time in bed on my own, fretting. When he came through, he cast his dressing gown aside and slipped between the covers, immediately taking me into his arms and lying in peace for several minutes. Then he kissed me and asked how I did. “Freddy looked after me wonderfully well but I wish it could have been you.”
“So do I.” He kissed my forehead as I lifted my face to look at him.
He looked tired but although my heart went out to him, I knew the subject had to be broached. “I’m so sorry that Lucy should have ended as she did.” Part time prostitute, the book a coded record of her clients.
He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Yes. I studied her notebook. There are initials next to the payments. It seems she’s been selling her favours for years.”
“Are you sure it was that? Couldn’t it have been for some other service?”
He looked down then and smiled, drawing the covers more securely around me. “No. I’ve been busy tonight. I thought I recognised some of the initials and I asked one or two of the men. They remembered her.” He looked away.
I lifted myself on one elbow to look at his face. “Perhaps she did it for the children.”
“Perhaps she did,” Richard replied but then, looking directly at me, he burst out, “I should have found her, Rose. They shouldn’t have taken her away from me like that!”
The cry was so unlike his usual controlled tones that I knew he was still hurt, would be hurt until we found the twins and probably for a long time after that. He needed me. He pulled me close and I rested my head on his shoulder, holding him, trying to give him some comfort. “They were my responsibility, no one else’s.” His anger was palpable, his muscles tense with strain.
We lay tightly entwined until he recovered a little, then I lifted my head again and gazed at him gravely, without speaking. He returned my regard dry-eyed and smiled tightly. “I’m sorry. It’s done and we must do our best with what we have. It makes me more determined to care for this one properly.” Gently, he touched my stomach.
“You don’t have to tell me any more.” It was hurting him too much.
“Yes, I do.” A harsh note entered his voice and he took a deep breath. “I thought Julia might try to seduce me tonight and then Drury would bring you to see her triumph.”
“I thought so too. I gave him every opportunity but Freddy and Gervase wouldn’t let him too close after one dance.”
He smiled, a genuine smile this time. “I must thank them. It would have been an unedifying scene and in public at that. She did try, though. She took me into a dark corner and confessed she still wanted me. I asked her if Steven wasn’t enough for her and she shrugged and since I didn’t offer to kiss her, she introduced the little maid.” This had been what we’d been waiting for. He grimaced. “She continued where her mistress had left off.” I wouldn’t let him look away this time.
“What? She can’t be more than fifteen.”
He sighed. “She’s no stranger to the ways of seduction. There was nothing subtle about her approach. They want something more, Rose. They want to draw us in, perhaps take us both.”
“Dear God.” I was truly shocked. Although I had known such things went on, I had never come across it at first hand before. “They’re acting together?”
“We must assume so.” His gaze softened and he laughed softly. I was relieved to hear it, the laugh, indicating that he had regained some control, was thinking again. “You’re shocked, aren’t you?” I confessed I was. “Then I’d better not tell you what she suggested.”
“What, what did she say?” I demanded, indignant that he would hide anything from me.
He gazed at me, amusement creeping into the previously bleak features. “She thought I might like her to service us both,” he told me, holding me tight so I had to look at him.
“Oh,” was all I could manage. I took a few breaths as he watched. “Would you like that?”
Then he did laugh properly, his previous melancholy swept away for the time being in his delight at my answer. “Share you? Never.” He drew me to him and kissed me soundly, releasing me to study my face, a question in his eyes. “Would you like it? Rose, I love you so much I can survive anything except you not wanting me anymore. If you want something like that, say so.”
My shudder gave him the answer he wanted. “It eats me up to think of you with anyone else. To see it would be terrible.”
“Rest easy, my love. I promise you it will never happen.”
“What if we had really quarrelled?”
“We can’t assume that will never happen. It probably will, in the years to come, but I’m not about to fall into the first pair of arms that open for me. I’ve too much to lose.”
“Do you think they do it?”
“Julia and Steven Drury?” He lifted a lock of my hair, twisting it around and around his finger. “I always thought Julia was a cold fish. The only time she ever offered was when she was hopeful of trapping me into a compromising situation.” I remembered that. I’d been hiding in his dressing room at the time. “But Drury might have unlocked something in her since then. She was certainly warm tonight. Perhaps the maid does pleasure them both, she seemed to know what she was about.”
I wrinkled my nose in distaste, then, not wanting to dwell on it any longer, asked him if he’d discovered anything about Jackson’s presence in Aunt Godolphin’s house. “She said she had been there. When I could finally hold her at arms’ length for long enough.” I shuddered. “She says she saw the body and ran in terror to her friends the Drurys.”
“
It sounds plausible enough. She’s young. Such a sight would have frightened someone older than her. But it doesn’t mean I believe it. Where did she come from?”
“That I was unable to find out. Yet. She said she didn’t know Lucy well, having come up from the country to find a place in the big city. It seems strange to me, that both the maids should know the Drurys.” He frowned. “There’s something else. Perhaps they were placed there. It wouldn’t be difficult to find out that Mrs. Godolphin is your aunt.”
“You’re not suggesting the Drurys had something to do with the murder?” I wasn’t shocked. I knew they were capable of it.
“They might have.” He paused. “Lucy might have threatened to expose them, or refused to do whatever it was they asked of her. If they asked her to seduce me, perhaps she might have balked at that. Especially if she didn’t tell them of our previous connection.”
Anxious not to see that look return to his face, I tried another tack. “If they are involved, what do we do?”
“We have a meeting at Thompson’s and consult, once we know all the facts. That’s why we set it up in the way we did. No one person takes the blame or the responsibility for what we do. We’re slowly gaining the upper hand, I’m sure of it. If we continue to go softly, we’ll get there. As for now,” he continued in a different tone, letting go of my hair and rolling me gently on to my back, “you were tired when we left the ridotto, so you must be even more tired now. I’ll put out the candles and we’ll sleep.” He kissed me, then got out of bed to extinguish the lights, coming back to take me in his arms again and murmur soft endearments to me as I fell asleep.
Chapter Eighteen
IN THE MORNING, RICHARD said he would go to Thompson’s and check on any progress. I decided to go shopping, just to get some fresh air.
Standing in Bond Street, talking to the Skerrits, I saw someone I knew but didn’t expect to see there, hurrying anxiously towards me. I excused myself and stepped aside to speak to him quietly. “Barraclough? Is anything wrong?”
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