Social Graces (Victorian Vigilantes Book 5)

by Wendy Soliman

  ‘You look as though you were born to such a life.’

  ‘Well then, there must be more of my sister in me than I had supposed. She would have been in her element if she’d found herself here and would certainly not have felt intimidated.’

  ‘And nor should you. I cannot believe that you have been made to feel anything other than welcome. Jake is not the type to stand on ceremony.’

  ‘Everyone has been very kind,’ she replied as Otto took the chair beside hers.

  ‘We were just telling Sophia that Jake had an unexpected visitor this afternoon,’ Lady Torbay remarked.

  ‘Lord Riley Rochester came spying,’ Sophia said, wrinkling her brow in evident distaste. ‘Lord Torbay insists that his father did not send him to find out what we know, but I am not convinced.’

  ‘I agree with Jake,’ Lady Torbay said. ‘I got the impression that Riley is neglected by his father and has little respect for him. It must be very humiliating to be looked upon as an inconvenience simply because one is a younger son. But despite that, I don’t suppose Riley wants his father to be a murderer. It would ruin the entire family and keep the ton in gossip for months.’

  Her prediction lightened the mood and everyone laughed, including Sophia.

  ‘I haven’t had an opportunity to tell the ladies what we discovered this afternoon,’ Jake said.

  He preceded to do so, leaving nothing out and outlining the conclusions that he and Otto had reached.

  ‘Let me see if I have got this straight,’ Lady Torbay said. ‘You suspect the porter at Connie’s apartment building of knowing more than he is admitting about poor Connie’s murder. You also think that he might have used information gleaned from his observations of the tenants’ activities for monetary gain.’ She clasped her cheeks between her hands. ‘Oh my goodness! Do you suppose he knows who committed the murder and intends to blackmail that person in return for his silence?’

  ‘It’s a possibility we cannot afford to ignore,’ Jake replied mildly.

  ‘We know he helped himself to residents’ possessions,’ Sophia added. ‘Connie had a pair of diamond earrings and they are not with the rest of her jewellery. They were the latest gift from Lord Chichester. I never actually saw them, but Connie wrote and told me about them. She was surprised by his generosity, and told me it was most unlike him. Anyway, they are not with her other valuables and no one but Stoker could have taken them.’

  ‘Apart from the killer, perhaps. Describe them for me,’ Jake said. ‘I will have enquiries made at local pawnbrokers. If Stoker stole them, I’ll wager that’s where they will be found. There is a possibility that Chichester took them back, of course. You told Olivia that they were his most recent gift, designed to remind her what she would be giving up, one presumes, if she went against his express wishes and toured with Felsham’s company.’

  ‘Very possibly,’ Otto agreed. ‘Chichester is also known to be tight with his blunt so might have simply decided she didn’t deserve them.’

  Sophia nodded and described the earrings. Jake took no notes but Otto knew he would forget nothing and that Parker would soon be conducting enquiries in the hope of tracking them down. If they could be found and the identity of the person who pawned or sold them established, it would help the enquiry no end.

  ‘I agree that Lord Chichester might have taken them back,’ Sophia said, ‘but equally, Connie might have caught Stoker ransacking her belongings and threatened to expose him. If she did that, Stoker might have silenced her permanently. I don’t like the man, nor do I trust a word that comes out of his mouth.’

  ‘We have reached the same conclusion,’ Otto told her, ‘and are keeping a careful watch on him.’

  ‘You think Connie’s agent was in love with her,’ Lady Torbay said, ‘but if she had decided to leave his agency in preference for Woodford’s, then he would have lost his main source of income and been left with a broken heart. He thinks that he gave Connie her big break and would resent being repaid in such a shoddy fashion.’ She shrugged. ‘If he couldn’t at least have control of her career then no one would. Men have killed for less.’

  ‘And Felsham,’ Sophia added. ‘It sounds as though he has already made plans to exploit Connie’s death. If she decided not to tour with his company because of the pressure being brought to bear by Lord Chichester, or because she decided that associating herself with such a shoddy company would damage her future prospects, he would have felt equally hard done by and could easily have resorted to desperate measures. His company is teetering on the brink of financial collapse, and Connie could have saved it.’

  ‘So many suspects,’ Lady Torbay said. ‘Four so far including Chichester, and you have not spoken to Woodford yet.’

  ‘Four certainly,’ Jake said, ‘but so far we don’t have sufficient proof to accuse any of them of committing the crime.’

  ‘But you will find it,’ Sophia said with certainty. ‘I am absolutely sure of it. I hardly know how to express my thanks for all the trouble you are going to. I was foolish to imagine that I could have got to the bottom of things alone.’

  ‘It is entirely our pleasure,’ Otto assured her as Parker announced that dinner was served and he stood, offering her his arm.

  ***

  Dinner was a grand yet informal affair. Sophia was determined to take it all in and enjoy being pampered. Regardless of whether or not the investigation bore fruit, she could not impose herself indefinitely on important people who had more pressing demands upon their time than acting as her nursemaid. It would not do to become reliant upon them or grow accustomed to a way of life to which she was not entitled. Olivia’s lovely silk gown rustled and swished as she moved, making it easier to understand how Connie must have felt whenever she stepped onto a stage, pretending to be someone else. Sophia would commit as much as possible about the evening to memory. Perhaps she would be able to use some of the things she saw and heard in an abstract way in one of her newspaper articles.

  Despite her best endeavours, if asked afterwards she could not have said what she ate, or who said what to whom. Olivia teased her husband constantly, that much she did recall, and he tolerated her lively wit with an air of amused adoration. All three of them went out of their way to include her in the conversation, talking about things she would know something about rather than discussing their own friends who were strangers to her. The inherent good manners of the socially elite. Mr Milton was especially attentive and charming, cajoling her to taste just a little of every dish on offer and ensuring that her wine glass remained filled. He also made her laugh aloud with light-hearted stories from his days in the courtroom.

  ‘On the very first occasion when Isaac permitted me to question a witness,’ he said, ‘I was so nervous and asked such inane questions that I almost convinced the jury our clearly innocent client was guilty on all counts.’

  ‘What on earth did you do?’ Olivia asked.

  Mr Milton chuckled. ‘I was questioning the police pathologist and asked if he was sure the victim was dead? Had he checked for a pulse?’

  Everyone at the table laughed.

  ‘I wanted to crawl beneath a bench and stay there when I realised I’d asked him the question I had intended for the man who’d discovered the body,’ Mr Milton said. ‘Fortunately Isaac saw the funny side of it and we still managed to achieve an acquittal in a case that should never have been brought against our client.’ He took a sip of his wine and leaned back in his chair. ‘There was another occasion when we were defending the keeper of a house of ill-repute. She denied the claim and assured us that her house was a respectable one. When asked why so many men came and went at all hours of the day and night she claimed that gentlemen called to take tea and make polite conversation. Of course, the prosecutor tried to make the jury see how ridiculous that sounded, until the judge intervened. The lady then looked up at him from the witness box and said words to the effect that she hadn’t realised it was him and when would he be calling to take tea again?’ Mr Milton ch
uckled along with everyone else. ‘Needless to say, the prosecution collapsed.’

  After dinner the gentlemen didn’t linger over their port. Lord Torbay excused himself when Parker asked for a word in private. Sophia wondered if the rather frightening butler wanted to talk to his master about her situation, and if so why she couldn’t be party to that conversation, but she lacked the courage to ask. Olivia went up to the nursery in response to a message from her baby son’s nursemaid.

  ‘He is probably teething,’ she said, unable to completely disguise her anxiety, ‘but I had best make sure it’s nothing more serious. If you will excuse me for a moment.’

  ‘Gladly,’ Sophia said. ‘I do hope he’s all right.’

  Sophia was conscious of the door closing behind Olivia and being left alone in the elegant drawing room with just Mr Milton for company. She racked her brains for something to say to ease the tension that might or might not be a product of her imagination. Nothing sprang to mind. What would Connie have done in such a situation? She never permitted awkward silences and always knew precisely how to behave. Sophia, in comparison, felt maladroit and uninteresting, wondering if Mr Milton already regretted involving himself in her affairs. She folded her hands in her lap and looked everywhere except at him, thinking she must seem very provincial to his sophisticated eye.

  ‘Do I make you uncomfortable?’ he asked softly.

  ‘No. Well yes, actually.’ She found the courage to lift her head and look directly at him. A smile lit up his rugged features as he caressed her with his warm gaze. ‘I was trying to think of something witty and light hearted to say but my mind is a complete blank. Connie on the other hand, if she were here, would know precisely how to lighten the mood. She had the ability to shine in every situation without seeming to hog the attention. I wish I knew how she did it. I asked her once and she said that all the world was a stage.’ Sophia laughed. ‘We know where she borrowed that line from, of course, but I think she actually believed it and lived her life by that tenet.’

  ‘She acted the entire time? You never knew the real person?’

  ‘I knew her better than anyone—which is to say not very well. She hadn’t decided what she wanted from life, other than that she didn’t want to finish up as the wife of some provincial farmer, which is why she defied my parents and left home. But I don’t think she saw herself as a long term mistress, either.’

  ‘Is that what your parents expect of you? To marry a local man, I mean.’

  Sophia lifted one shoulder. ‘There is one man, a neighbour, who is very attentive.’

  ‘Damned cur!’ Mr Milton muttered. ‘Do you return his regard?’

  ‘Not in the least, but if he asks me to marry him and I decline, I know it will cause a serious dispute between myself and my father. A dispute that I would prefer to avoid for the time being. I am of age, just, so I can do as I please. But I would like, if I can, to find a way to please myself and not disappoint my parents.’ She waved a hand in agitation. ‘An almost impossible ambition to achieve, I know that very well, but I suppose I am more dutiful than Connie ever was. Although not nearly so dutiful as my dreary brothers, neither of whom I have ever heard express a single original thought or idea of their own.’

  ‘You came to London to seek your sister’s advice because you wanted to find a way to deter your amorous neighbour. Instead you find yourself in the middle of a murder investigation.’ He took her hand and kissed her fingers, sending spirals of awareness streaking through her bloodstream. She tried to fight against the intoxicating thrill but it was simply too strong for her to do the sensible thing and snatch her hand away. Tarnation, this simply wouldn’t do! ‘I am so very sorry. You have lost your only confidante. Your guiding influence. Your inspiration. But rest assured, we will catch whoever killed her and so at least you will have the satisfaction of knowing that he didn’t get away with his crime.’

  ‘Thank you. I know you mean what you say, but as things stand I don’t see how that will be possible. There is no evidence pointing to any one particular person, and I don’t suppose the culprit will oblige us by making a confession in order to salve his conscience.’

  ‘Oh, I have great faith in Jake’s abilities. He has resolved more perplexing crimes than this one long after the police have given up. And if I make myself useful he might actually allow me to become one of his vigilantes.’ Mr Milton’s confident smile was broad and infectious. ‘The idea of righting wrongs that powerful people think their position allows them to get away with appeals to my sense of justice.’

  ‘The same sense of justice that made you follow a career in law?’

  ‘I would imagine so. I’ve never really thought about it. It was just always what I wanted to do, ever since visiting the Old Bailey as a youth and watching a gross miscarriage of justice because the accused, who was clearly innocent, had such poor representation.’ He released her hand and stared at the opposite wall. Firelight painted flickering patterns on the pictures hanging there, making the characters depicted in them seem alive and filling Sophia with a capricious desire to throw caution to the wind. But for what purpose? She had never been in a situation like this before—alone with an attractive gentleman who seemed interested in her—and didn’t quite know what was expected of her. ‘You planned, I suppose, to make a life for yourself with your writing, having declined your neighbour’s proposal and earned parental disapproval.’

  ‘Yes. I thought Connie might help me to find a place to live. But now…well, it seems disrespectful to be feeling sorry for my own situation when Connie is not even in her grave.’

  ‘And yet you must think about yourself. We must all survive somehow and, trite though it might sound, life goes on.’

  ‘Which is another reason why you decided upon a career in the law, I would imagine,’ Sophia said, anxious to turn the conversation away from herself.

  ‘I have to make my way too. I have an older brother, who is my father’s heir, but unlike Riley Rochester, I have not been dismissed as an irrelevance just because I am a younger son.’

  ‘Your family are close?’

  ‘Too close, I sometimes think,’ he replied with an indulgent smile. ‘I have two younger sisters, both of whom are married, as is my brother.’

  ‘It will be your turn soon next, then,’ Sophia said. ‘I expect your mother has someone in mind for you.’

  ‘Oh, I dare say she does. That’s what mothers most enjoy. Matchmaking, I mean, and I don’t have it in me to discourage her. She so enjoys it, you see.’

  Sophia matched his light tone, not liking the thought of her sophisticated companion united with any woman. Sensible enough to know that woman could never be her. She would never be deemed acceptable. Good heavens, when had the unrealistic possibility that she ever could be entered her subconscious? It was a ridiculous notion and she shook her head to rid herself of it. Sophia was well aware that there was a wealth of difference between a gentleman making himself useful and her harbouring any more lasting ambitions. She liked him and sensed the feeling was mutual, but he had just told her of the expectations that rested upon his shoulders. He had probably noticed her interest in him and was kindly pointing out the impossibility of any lasting connection between them.

  How humiliating!

  Well, Sophia had her pride. She would heed his warning and stop herself from thinking of him in that way. Besides, he had just told her that he was anxious to prove his abilities to Lord Torbay so that he would be accepted into his inner circle. If he could uncover Connie’s murderer’s identity, he would likely achieve that ambition.

  ‘Does your mother have a particular lady in mind for you?’ she asked playfully.

  ‘Probably. My problem is that I’m an amiable chap and enjoy the society of both sexes. Unlike many of my unmarried contemporaries, I don’t avoid balls and parties even though I know before attending that a procession of suitable females will be paraded in front of me. I find them all charming, which only encourages my mother.’ He spread his
hands and sent her a rueful smile. ‘But what am I to do? It’s simply the way that I am made. I find something to interest me in everyone I meet, and it would be hard for me to pretend otherwise.’

  ‘I should think it would, but does your attitude not encourage the ladies whom you aren’t actually interested in marrying?’ Sophia nibbled at her index finger and viewed him over it. ‘That would be rather unkind, don’t you think?’

  ‘Oh dear, I had not considered that possibility. Thank you, my sweet. I shall take your advice and try to be more circumspect in future.’

  Silence again threatened and so, for something to do, Sophia stood and strolled the length of the room, coming to a halt at the full length windows that looked out over Grosvenor Square. The curtains had not been pulled across and she could see from the halos of light reflected by the gas lamps that the rain had finally stopped, the sky had cleared and the stars were putting on a show.

  ‘Impressive, is it not?’ Mr Milton asked, coming to stand directly behind her, so close that his breath peppered her cheek. He rested a hand lightly on her waist, and Sophia didn’t feel she ought to make a fuss about it. In the same situation, Connie would have laughed the incident off. Sophia didn’t want to seem gauche, unworldly. Besides, the feel of his hand was reassuring, even though her heart raced a little faster when he increased the pressure and made no attempt to remove it.

  ‘Yes, but not as impressive as it would be in the country, where the air is cleaner away from the smoke of the city.’

  He chuckled. ‘You are a hard woman to please.’

  ‘I am a countrywoman, unused to the ways of the city.’

  ‘And yet, if you intend to pursue your journalistic career, you will have to adapt. Presumably your parents know nothing about it.’