A Murdered Earl

by Marina Oliver

  ***

  He departed, and Luke wondered what to do. With his master dead he had no duties, and no others had yet been given him. If Miss Armitage was correct, the Countess could not have administered the poison. What about her son? If Maggie spoke the truth, and hadn't been with him, he'd have had the opportunity. But if she had been there he was also cleared. Where had Harris been? Surely he'd have been helping his master dress at that hour?

  Luke sighed. Perhaps he could find some of the servants who had been in the kitchen when the fatal chocolate had been prepared, and question them. The poison had to have been introduced then, or put in by someone who was upstairs at the time.

  Before he could move, however, Sam came through the baize-covered door. 'Luke, you're back.'

  'As you see.'

  'Where've you been? Never mind, don't waste time. His little lordship's in a fret and he's been demanding to see you for hours. It's trouble.'

  Luke shrugged. 'I expected it. Dismissal at best, accusations of murder at worst. But he can't prove me responsible any more than I can prove he did it.'

  'He's in the library.'

  Within two minutes Luke was standing in front of the Earl's desk, bade to wait while a letter was finished, sanded, and a wafer affixed. Then the Earl looked up, a gleam of triumph in his eyes. Deliberately slowly, he felt in one of the pockets of his fashionable blue coat, and Luke noted that he had as yet omitted to don mourning for his parent. He withdrew his hand, held it out, and glared at Luke.

  'Have you seen this before?' he demanded.

  'No,' Luke replied firmly. He dared not admit it.

  'You lie! It's my father's.'

  'It does look as if it could be one of his late lordship's rings, from the size,' Luke replied steadily, thinking that there had been some rapid cleaning if the ring he'd found under the bed had been discovered already. Perhaps the new Earl wished to move into the master bedroom without delay, to establish his authority.

  'Indeed it is,' the Earl said softly. 'One he complained of missing only a week ago. You should have been more cautious, Peters! If you'd disposed of it when you first took it, we might not have pinned the theft on you.'

  'Theft?' Luke swallowed. Before the Earl went on he had a suspicion of what was to come.

  'Yes, theft. This ring, a very valuable one, worth more than your paltry French estates would ever amount to, even if you still owned them, was found this morning under the mattress on your bed.'

  'Then someone else must have put it there. I did not.'

  'Did you see this happen?'

  'Of course not! No more than you saw me put it there! And who searched my possessions and found it?'

  'That is none of your concern.'

  'It is very much my concern,' Luke interrupted hotly. 'For what reason did anyone search my room? Have the other rooms been searched, the clothes of others you employ? If not, why choose me? Is it revenge for what happened down in Oxfordshire?'

  The Earl flushed, and his thin lips almost vanished as he pressed them together.

  'How dare you take that tone with me! You're a jumped-up, interfering peasant! I doubt if you have a title at all! You are to wait in your room while the constable is sent for. Theft will be the first charge, which is enough to hang you, but I'll see to it you pay for murdering my father too!'

  Luke bit back the retort on his lips. So this was how the Earl meant to punish him, by one false accusation, a trumped-up charge which would serve if the one of murder could not be sustained.

  The Earl rose and crossed to the bellrope. 'You will wait in your room,' he said viciously. 'Take him there, and lock the door,' he said to Sam who had appeared promptly in the doorway.

  'Yes, my lord, at once,' Sam said, his voice subdued. He cast Luke a worried glance, and Luke knew he must have been listening behind the door.

  Luke turned away and Sam stepped aside for him to leave the room first. 'Close the door,' Luke hissed at him, and Sam, affecting not to see the Earl stepping towards him, did so.

  'Luke, he planted it himself, he must have done!' Sam began indignantly, but Luke interrupted him.

  'Sorry, friend, no hard feelings. This is for your sake,' he said rapidly, and before Sam could move he tripped him up, felling him with a light punch to the jaw.

  The Earl, furiously offended to have a door closed in his face, came out of his library to see his footman crash to the floor, and Luke dragging open the big front door and sprinting down the steps. He emitted a frustrated howl, by the time he reached the door himself Luke was turning into South Audley Street.

  ***

  Chapter 7

  'You must get out of London, at once,' Joshua Prevost said. He was elderly, his face deeply lined with wrinkles, and had spectacles perched on the end of his nose. His hair, though, was thick and almost black, startling against his pallid complexion.

  Luke looked with affection at the man seated, his back hunched, on the other side of the table in the small workshop behind his shop. He was a good friend. Then he shook his head. 'If I do that it will seem as though I admit my guilt, Uncle Joshua,' he said.

  'You'd be safer in Oxford. If they know you are still here you will be taken, put in prison, and helpless to change matters.'

  'I can't disprove the charge anywhere else. I will have to risk being seen and recognised while I try to find out the truth. For most of the time I can be invisible.'

  'Don't forget Bossard is looking for you too. He vowed revenge when you killed his friend.'

  Luke sighed. 'That was only because the wretch was one of the local heroes of the revolution. In other words an unscrupulous villain. And I didn't mean to kill him. It was an accident, the way he fell. Bossard's real objective is the jewels my father hid, and he believes Sylvie knows where they are.'

  'And if Bossard discovers she does not, he might also try to take revenge on Sylvie. Have you considered that?'

  'I know, they are monsters, attacking children. That is one reason why I decided to come to London, just in case he recognised me that time in Witney, then traced my family to Oxfordshire, and through me, found Sylvie.'

  'But it is riskier for you in London. That is where they would search for you. You could both go somewhere quite different. Heaven knows, you have enough English relatives scattered about the country who would be able to help. Or you could wed the heiress. Did your grandfather mention her?'

  Luke grinned. 'Only a couple of times. He was too concerned with the threat from Bossard, and almost forgot her. But even if I liked her I wouldn't hang on a woman's petticoats. Besides, she'd demand to be introduced to London Society. That, and the title, was why her father proposed the marriage. They don't know how few acquaintances I have in London!'

  'You are right, whether you like her or not. A young man shouldn't be tied down at so young an age.'

  'As it is I avoid the émigrés, and London is surely big enough to get lost in.'

  'Is there any hope of that? If the heiress doesn't appeal, you could go to America, take Sylvie, and start a new life.'

  'How could I support her in even the comfort she now has? Not for years. It would be more difficult than in England, where at least I have family to help, like you and Aunt Caroline.'

  'Do you realise, my boy, this is the first thing you have ever asked us to do?'

  'And that puts you at risk, if they know you have sheltered me, hidden me from the authorities.'

  'But you say none of the authorities know you are here, just your fellow footman, and he's unlikely to betray you, despite your treatment of him.' Joshua Prevost smiled. Luke could not help but return it. His uncle had a peculiarly sweet and gentle expression, which inspired those who came to him for help with confidence. The poorer people of Clerkenwell who depended on his concoctions to cure their ills must be made better just to be receiving that smile. But his uncle, the husband of his mother's sister Caroline, could not cure his present misfortune. He had to depend on himself.

  'Unfortunately hitting Sam w
as the only way I could think of that would preserve him from blame for my escape,' he explained. 'He is a bright lad, he'll understand. But I won't stay here long,' he promised. 'Tell me again about cyanide. I was in a great hurry yesterday, I didn't take in what you said.'

  'It's obtained from many plants, most often those of the prunus family, from seeds or pits. It is used mainly for killing insects, and as you know collectors use it for butterflies and moths. It's also used for killing rats and mice. On humans it can be fatal almost instantly, as with the Earl. It can be swallowed, or absorbed through the skin, or if a gas, it can be inhaled. It would have been easy enough to slip some of the salts into the chocolate.'

  'There could have been some in the house, for killing rats, I suppose. I can ask Mrs Grimsby, she'd know.'

  'But she might not be willing to admit it. It's very dangerous stuff to leave around.'

  Luke nodded. 'I need to try and discover who was in that kitchen, talk to them, and then I'll think again.'

  'Try the butler or the cook first, if you can discover where they went. Apart from their disaffection the upper servants usually know a great deal more than people think of what goes on in their employers' houses. And they know about others in the family. Who is there?'

  Before Luke could reply the bell in the shop tinkled, and Joshua rose to his feet. 'My apprentice's brother gets married today, he has a few hours off. I must see what is wanted.'

  While he was gone Luke studied the shelves which stretched all round the room, from floor to ceiling. They were full of jars and boxes, all neatly labelled, mostly with Latin names or chemical symbols, and contained the materials for the apothecary's trade. Many of them, in the wrong doses, were no doubt poisonous. If his connection to an apothecary became known he would appear to have the means of obtaining cyanide. Indeed, he'd barely heard the word before the doctor used it – was it only yesterday? Until he'd asked Joshua he'd had no idea whether it came as a powder or a liquid, whether it originally came from a plant or not, or how much would be a fatal amount to swallow.

  What he did know, only too well, was that he and his gentle uncle were in danger if he were found. But would the authorities, with only the Earl's accusations, believe him guilty of murder, let alone the theft of the ring? He hoped Sam would come soon and tell him what was happening at Redditch House.

  An hour later Luke and Joshua left the young apprentice, back from the wedding and merry with unaccustomed quantities of ale, curled up behind the counter where he generally slept. They walked the short distance to his uncle's house, and found Sam being entertained in the drawing room.

  'I didn't contrive to kill you, then,' Luke said, grinning as Sam immediately stroked his chin and tried to look aggrieved. 'How did you get away?'

  Sam laughed. 'I've been telling Mrs Prevost about the uproar. The Earl tripped over me, then went squawking after you. He was telling me to chase you, gobbling like a turkey cock, so I stayed down for a bit longer, and staggered when I managed to drag myself to my feet. That was a scaly trick to play on a fellow.'

  'If you'd let me go you'd have been dismissed,' Luke pointed out. 'I was doing you a favour.'

  'Didn't feel like that when my head hit the tiles. That floor's hard, and your fist's harder! Not sure whether my pate or my chin came off worst.'

  'Do you have to get back?'

  'No, the Countess is still in her room, expecting poor Miss Armitage to wait on her twentyfour hours a day, and his little lordship stormed out to his club. He won't be back till morning, now he's got the blunt to gamble with.'

  'Then I'll buy you some ale and a pie. I can't expect Aunt Caroline to feed us.'

  'Nonsense, my lad, I keep a good table, and two more won't cause the rest of us to starve,' his aunt protested, and finally Luke laughed and agreed. They were eager to know what had happened, and might have ideas. Of all his aunts Caroline was one of his favourites. She was small and plump, always bustling and busy, had endless compassion and an acute intelligence. Besides this, she had early in life shown her independence and determination by insisting on marriage to her Joshua.

  'Who searched Luke's belongings?' Joshua asked when they had been served a delicious fish soup by a plump, smiling maid.

  'The Earl himself, of course. He wouldn't trust anyone else. I was just going downstairs to change my stockings, as the Countess insisted I wore black instead of white when I went out on an errand for her, and he was coming out of our room.'

  'So he has no one to support his word that he found it there,' Joshua said.

  'It couldn't have been there, it was under the old Earl's bed. I wonder how he found it himself?' Luke said, and explained how he had seen it under the bed himself hours before.

  'Maggie was set to cleaning out the room,' Sam said. 'If she'd found it she'd have given it to him.'

  'But will she admit it? It would be our word against his, and even the two of us might not be believed.'

  'Young Maggie's behaving oddly, ever since that set-to with Jenny,' Sam said, chuckling. 'She gets all red and flustered, and she's avoiding people. If anyone does speak to her she snaps their head off. If I didn't know better I'd think she was embarrassed.'

  'She would be, no doubt, people knowing about her and the Earl. He's no conquest to boast about.'

  'Do I understand she was the Earl's mistress?' Aunt Caroline asked, and Sam blushed as red as Maggie.

  'I beg your pardon, Ma'am,' he stuttered, but his hostess stretched across and patted his hand.

  'I've heard far worse,' she said, her eyes twinkling. 'I'm no maiden aunt to have the vapours just because some truths are unpleasant. From all I hear I understand this young man is no Hector or Adonis to turn a girl's head?'

  Sam, relieved, chucked. 'He's skinny, but dresses to kill and believes he's a devil of a fellow. But from all accounts the trollops he sets up in style always move on to someone else within weeks. Probably when the money runs out, or perhaps even they can't stand the boredom. And I've never heard a whisper that he's interested in any of the girls on the lookout for a husband. Nor has there ever been any hint of a liaison with a married woman.'

  'Too afraid the husbands might object,' Luke suggested.

  Joshua nodded. 'If he's not attractive to women, he must be reduced to coercing those in his power.'

  'Or seeking his pleasures amongst the lower classes,' Luke confirmed, recalling the episode in the stables at Redditch Court. 'I once caught him trying to force a girl, no more than twelve, and terrified.'

  'Oh, Luke, how dreadful,' Aunt Caroline said softly. 'It must have reminded you.'

  Luke nodded. But Sam was speaking.

  'You never said,' Sam exclaimed. 'That must be why he has it in for you, if you knew about that.'

  'Let's make plans, if you're willing to help me.'

  'Try and prevent me!'

  'Thanks, Sam. Can you ask Maggie if she found it? She won't admit it, but you may be able to tell by how she behaves whether she's telling the truth. And do you think Jenny would meet me somewhere?'

  Sam chuckled. 'Not a hope she wouldn't! She'd venture into Seven Dials for the chance of a kiss!' He glanced apologetically at Mrs Prevost, but she was smiling fondly at Luke. Luke himself frowned slightly, but didn't allow it to distract him from his thoughts.

  'I need to find Drummond and Cook, Mrs Robinson. Didn't he say he was hoping to work for the Duke of Derby?'

  'What can they tell you?' Sam asked.

  'I don't know. But if no one in the family put the poison in the chocolate, it must be someone else who was about upstairs, or someone in the kitchen. They were there. To begin with, anyway. I'm not sure when they left in the hackney. They'll be able to tell me who else was, and perhaps who had a big enough grudge to kill. And if you can, find out who has business upstairs at that time of day. Are the housemaids working there?'

  Sam sighed theatrically. 'I'll find out. Full time job you're giving me!'

  'I'm sorry!' Luke was instantly contrite. 'It's not your pro
blem, and if the Earl discovers what you're about he'll dismiss you.'

  'If you find he was responsible I'll be out of a job anyway,' Sam pointed out. 'But that wouldn't bother me. Plenty of openings for good footmen. When you want another job yourself, we could try for positions together again. Though I say it meself, two such handsome fellows are rarely available! Unless you feel yourself above mere footmen, having been a gentleman's gentleman!'

  'If you don't stop flattering me I'll make some more tender parts of your body ache,' Luke warned, grinning, and Sam clutched his head and groaned.

  Soon afterwards he left, arranging to meet Luke the following afternoon. Aunt Caroline picked up some sewing and Joshua sat back in his chair, cradling a huge goblet of brandy.

  'What can we do to help?' he asked Luke.

  'I'd like a list of possible places someone could have obtained the cyanide, and what they might have said they wanted it for,' he said slowly. 'Could you do that for me?'

  His uncle shrugged. 'There's no point. Any apothecary could provide it, for killing rats. You won't find out much that way. I'm disappointed you don't have any need for me to arrange clandestine meetings with buxom wenches,' he went on musingly. 'I can't say I blame you for keeping that for yourself.'

  Luke grinned as his aunt threw a skein of her embroidery silk at her husband. He retrieved it, and glanced at the clock. 'I want to go and see if any of the menservants are in the local tavern,' Luke said.

  Joshua was immediately serious. 'Is it safe?'

  'I don't think any of them would betray me,' Luke tried to reassure him.

  'One of them might be a murderer.'

  'True. But somehow I can't believe it. It's too vicious and deliberate a crime for anyone who wasn't intimately involved with him.'

  'Then perhaps it was his son. You could try investigating him. Had he debts? Was there some scandal about to break?'

  'I'll have to ask, but if Maggie was with him, as Jenny thinks, he has an alibi.'

  'Perhaps she did it for him.'

  Luke stared at him, then burst out laughing. 'Do you really believe a girl who doesn't especially like her employer, and only endures him because if she didn't she'd lose her job, would commit murder for him?'