by Louise Allen
I may have imagined the relief in Lady Radcliffe’s voice when she said, ‘Very well. Now, tell me what I can do to assist your investigations.’
‘Thank you, Mama. Who do you know at the Home Office?’
‘With the new administration? I must know someone, I suppose. Yes, now I come to think of it, certainly I do. In whom are you interested?’
‘The two Under-Secretaries, Sir Thomas Reece and Mr Salmond. The man who committed suicide worked for Salmond. And when you are amongst the ladies they will no doubt tell you that the murdered man we found was a Doctor Talbot, a fashionable accoucheur.’
‘I know Lady Reece – dreadful pushy woman. Her father is an earl and she can never forget it. And you would like the gossip about the doctor too, I suppose?’
‘That would be helpful, thank you. Lady Turnham, a friend of Cassandra, is also making enquiries.’
‘That madcap chit? You spread your net wide. And who was responsible for attempting to kill you?’
‘I have no idea, although I believe we are beginning to irritate Reece’s nephew. But if I knew who hit me we would be a long way forward.’
But you were attacked before the garden party which is where we really began to rattle dear Elliott, I thought suddenly. Damn, I liked him for this.
‘Are you going to come and live at the Town House while we are in London?’ Luc’s mother asked suddenly. ‘You can hardly maintain you would be rattling around in it with the boys and me there and all the extra staff.’
There was a silence. I held my breath then caught myself just in time to prevent a sigh of relief when Luc said, ‘No. Better not. I do not know if whoever attacked me will try again, but I do not intend encouraging them to take an interest in the house when you and the boys are there. I’ll come round, of course, spend time with them.’ I could hear the longing in his voice. ‘But this is serious, Mama. Two men are dead and there is a possibility of some form of spying or treachery. We cannot let it lie.’
‘No. I see that. It is your duty as well as a question of protecting James.’ Lady Radcliffe got up and went to look at the boards. ‘What extraordinary handwriting. Whatever do they teach them over there?’ There was silence broken by the occasional, ‘Hmm,’ and ‘Good heavens, what imaginations you must have!’ Then, ‘I see you have the Comte de Hautmont as a suspect. That is quite ridiculous.’
I started to say, ‘Why?’ out loud, then bit the back of my hand to stifle the sound. And then I had to bury my face in both hands when the pain of that brought tears to my eyes and a strong desire to yelp.
‘Why?’ Luc asked. ‘Do you know him? I hadn’t realised.’
‘I met him when he first arrived in England, the poor young man. What a state he was in. I found him his first work as a translator, you know.’
‘No, I didn’t,’ Luc said grimly. ‘He has never mentioned you.’
‘I doubt he wants to speak about the past. Far too proud.’ Lady Radcliffe crossed the floor again. ‘We always have a pleasant conversation when we meet and pretend I never knew him as a skinny, frightened young man without a penny to his name who had seen his family dragged off to the guillotine.’
‘And I suppose you have seen him since he began to work at the Home Office? It is definitely the same young man you helped?’
‘Goodness, yes. I saw him the last time I was in Town. Do you really think he is a Bonapartist spy?’
‘It had crossed our minds, yes.’
‘If he has been that from the beginning… Lucian, he was very convincing.’ She sounded distressed. ‘But then I suppose he would have to be, I suppose. Would the French really have played such a long game?’
‘Perhaps.’ I could almost hear Luc’s shrug. ‘But there he is in the Home Office where all the intelligence work within Britain is carried on.’
‘How very worrying. I begin to see why someone might want you dead – you are threatening anyone with something to hide in the Home Office, all the patients whose medical history is exceedingly sensitive and your brother’s intimate circle.’
‘I am afraid so, Mama.’
She sighed. ‘I had best get back to Charles and Matthew.’
‘I’ll come to see them this afternoon. You will take care, Mama?’
‘I will.’ The two pairs of feet moved close together, there was the sound of a cheek being kissed. ‘And where have you hidden your… cousin?’
‘I have taken a house for her in Hill Street.’
‘Respectable.’ Lady Radcliffe’s voice faded as she went out into the hall. ‘You will turn me grey before my time, wretched boy. Do eat a proper breakfast, you need it, it seems. No, do not try and see me to the carriage wearing that robe! Garrick will escort me.’
There was the sound of the front door and then Luc came in, walked towards me and, before I could wriggle out, collapsed onto the sofa.
I gave a yell as the webbing underneath sagged, pinning me to the floor and he rolled off so we lay almost nose to nose.
‘That,’ Luc said, ‘Was a very narrow escape.’ He moved backwards, held out a hand, hauled me out from under the furniture, then kissed me until I was glad we were already on the carpet because I was becoming dizzy.
‘Imagine if she’d found me looking like this,’ I said when we came up for air. ‘I’m not even dressed decently.’
‘Seems perfect to me.’ Luc, who had managed to lose his robe in the process, was sketchily clad in just a shirt and was happily discovering the benefits of an absence of corsets.
‘Mmm… Stop it.’ I wriggled free reluctantly and got up. ‘We will traumatise Garrick and anyway, we need breakfast.’
Luc stood up, giving me a tantalising glimpse of his muscles working. ‘I suppose so. Did you hear all that?’
‘Yes. Secret agents who are put in place years before they are needed are called sleepers, by the way.’
Garrick came back in as we were making ourselves comfortable at the kitchen table. ‘Her ladyship is using the closed carriage and has one of the under-keepers with a shotgun inside and both grooms and the coachman are armed,’ he reported.
I made coffee and toast while Garrick cooked bacon and eggs and Luc cut bread. ‘You’ll be with your children this afternoon so what shall I do?’ I asked him as I juggled hot toast from hand to hand on the way from the hearth to the table. ‘I could call on Chloe and see if she has gleaned any information.’
‘Garrick will drive you,’ Luc said. ‘Armed. We could all be targets.’
‘And I’ve got the knife you gave me,’ I remembered.
We ate and sent a message warning James that his mother was in Town and spent the rest of the morning tidying up the boards.
‘I think we can eliminate everyone from Coates’s building,’ Luc said, chewing the end of a pencil. ‘And I haven’t changed my mind about Talbot’s valet, I’m sure the poor devil didn’t kill him.’
‘I agree. So what does that leave us? The Home Office for Coates, the patients for Talbot and their private lives for both of them. What if Coates had been unfaithful, had ended that relationship but was threatened by the unknown lover? He kills himself, full of guilt, and the unknown man murders Talbot in a jealous rage.’
‘That does link the two deaths and I can’t believe they were coincidence,’ Luc mused. ‘The other way they could be linked is through the Home Office if someone was using their private lives to blackmail Coates. I cannot for the life of me see how Talbot’s medical practice might lead to Coates’s suicide.’
‘We are going to have to leave the infidelity and the jealous lover theory to James, aren’t we?’
Luc nodded. ‘I suppose we had better keep an open mind on the patients, especially in the light of those coded ledgers.’
‘At least let’s see what Chloe and your mother come up with,’ I suggested. Something was still niggling at the back of my mind about Talbot’s patients, but I couldn’t for the life of me pin it down. ‘Now I am going to wash my hair and decide what to wear to make calls.�
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I caught Chloe just tripping down the steps of her house, an outrageously pretty hat with a curling ostrich plume on her head.
‘Cassandra!’ She waved enthusiastically when she saw me, causing the maid behind her to wince visibly. ‘Miss Lawrence, were you coming to call? How lucky you caught me because I was just off to make calls myself and now you can come with me.’ She lowered her voice and murmured, ‘I intend visiting several of You Know Who’s patients.’
‘Thank you, but can we go in Lord Radcliffe’s carriage? Only he insists on his man Garrick accompanying me and I don’t think he wants me to take an open carriage either.’
Chloe seemed delighted by the hint of danger. ‘Excellent. Come along, Jones, we are taking Miss Lawrence’s carriage.’
We climbed in under Garrick’s disapproving stare. I could see he was not at all sure that Luc wanted me gadding about making calls on anyone other than Chloe but, on the other hand, knew perfectly well that he wasn’t going to be able to stop me.
Mrs Gladwin, the first lady we called on, was a disappointment. She was only too happy to discuss her health at great length, but the entire twenty minutes of our call was devoted to her singing the praises of the departed Doctor Talbot who had cured her of the terrible hot flushes she had endured.
‘And the tea was not even good,’ Chloe complained as Garrick escorted us back to the carriage, his eyes scanning the street in a way that made me distinctly jumpy. He only needed a black suit, a bulge under one arm and an earpiece to be a twenty-first century bodyguard.
‘Where to next, Lady Turnham?’
‘Lady Reece, Mount Street,’ she said.
‘Miss Lawrence, are you sure?’
‘Yes, thank you, Garrick.’ What on earth he thought was going to happen to me, even if Sir Thomas was behind all of this? Poisoned tea? Lethal muffins?
We passed two ladies leaving as we arrived and were ushered into a drawing room that had me blinking. It wasn’t that it was in poor taste, it was more that it was overpoweringly perfect, a cavern of lush formality in teal green, gold and polished woods.
Two footmen were replenishing the hot water urn as we walked in and another was setting a fresh platter of tiny cakes on the side table. Lady Reece and Annabelle were seated either side of the tea things looking as though an artist had just carefully posed them for their portrait. Annabelle looked pale and sulky.
I took a quick look at the clock. Half an hour was the maximum time for a so-called morning call and I had no idea how Chloe was going to open the subject of Talbot and extract anything meaningful in that time.
‘Lady Reece, Annabelle. Do allow me to introduce my friend, Miss Lawrence, all the way from Boston in America.’
‘I have met Miss Lawrence,’ Annabelle said, her voice colourless. ‘Good day.’
‘So pleased to meet you.’ Lady Reece extended her hand for the briefest of hand-shakes. ‘Do take a seat.’
‘Thank you. Yes, Miss Reece and I met at a dance class, although I am the merest beginner against her skill.’
That piece of crawling wrung a faint smile from Lady Reece. ‘Dear Annabelle is very accomplished in many things.’
‘I am introducing Miss Lawrence about,’ Chloe said. ‘The poor thing deserves some pleasant company – she had the most ghastly introduction to London – a murder no less.’
‘Doctor Talbot, I assume,’ Lady Reece looked unamused at corpses being mentioned over the tea table. ‘I must say – ’
‘Lady Radcliffe, my lady.’
I dropped my plate.
Chapter Seventeen
Fortunately there was nothing on the lovely piece of Minton that I dropped and the carpet was so thick that the plate bounced. A footman hurried to retrieve it and, just for a moment, I considered fainting, crawling under the tea table or screeching Fire.
Impossible, all of them. I was well and truly trapped up to my neck in a quicksand of gentility. With Luc’s mother.
‘Hermione, dear.’ She passed me, hands outstretched, pretending my clumsiness had not happened. ‘You see me back in Town and not a moment too soon – my wardrobe is a disgrace. I have left my son with his boys – the noise is indescribable – and decided to seek the tranquillity of my friends.’
Lady Reece rose, they kissed cheeks. Annabelle got to her feet and produced a curtsy and had her cheek kissed too. Chloe rolled her eyes at me and shrugged. She had no idea how to get out of this either.
‘Lady Turnham.’ Lady Radcliffe obviously decided she had allowed long enough for the unknown gauche female to pull herself together. She and Chloe shook hands and Cloe turned to me.
‘Do allow me to introduce my friend. Miss Lawrence, from Boston in the United States of America, recently arrived in London.’
I could see where Luc got his sang froid from. His mother narrowed her eyes at me, her lips firmed into a thin line, but she held out her hand without missing a beat. ‘Miss Lawrence. How interesting to meet you.’
A curtsy was clearly in order. I did my best, found a smile from somewhere. ‘Lady Radcliffe.’
We all sat down again. Lady Reece remarked, ‘I believe Miss Lawrence is a connection of yours, Lady Radcliffe.’
‘Very, very remote,’ I said.
‘So I believe,’ Lady Radcliffe said. ‘I understand you have taken a house in Hill Street, Miss Lawrence. I must call, of course.’
I mumbled something and took refuge in a lemon tartlet. Clearly Lady Reece had not obtained the reaction she had hoped for, so the conversation turned to mutual acquaintances and recommendations for hairdressers. Chloe contributed her share of the conversation, I stayed silent in the hope of becoming invisible. Luc was going to go spare when he found out about this.
The hands of the clock crawled round. Twenty five minutes since we had arrived… Finally Chloe put down her cup and stood up. ‘Thank you so much, Lady Reece, such a delightful tea. So good to see you back in London, Lady Radcliffe. Miss Reece.’
‘Mrs Forsyte, Miss Forsyte, Captain Darfield.’ The butler ushered in the newcomers. There was a flurry of greetings as we made our way out.
I had regained the hall and my breath when I heard the cut-crystal tones behind us. ‘And I really must be on my way too, Lady Reece. So nice to see you again. Goodbye.’
One could hardly sprint down a long marble hallway under the gaze of a butler and two footmen, but I did my best, Chloe at my heels.
‘Miss Lawrence.’
I stopped, the front door almost within reach, and turned. ‘Lady Radcliffe?’
‘You will drive with me, Miss Lawrence.’ It was, in no way, a suggestion.
‘I regret, but Lady Turnham shares my carriage.’
‘Yes, I thought I saw Garrick outside.’ So, she hadn’t been surprised after all. ‘He can take Lady Turnham home or to her next call. I am sure she will excuse my desire to get to know a… connection, however distant.’
‘Of course. And there is no need for Garrick to transport me,’ Chloe said. ‘I have my maid with me and my next destination is just around the corner. Such a lovely day for a walk. Goodbye, Cassandra dear.’ She lent in to kiss my cheek and murmured, ‘Good luck.’
‘Most obliging of you, Lady Turnham.’ They shook hands and we all stepped out. ‘Garrick,’ Lady Radcliffe said, ‘You may follow behind my carriage.’
‘My lady.’ It was his turn to roll his eyes as her footman helped her into the smart town coach. There was a burly young man in home-spuns sitting up behind with the groom – one of the under-keepers, I guessed.
I followed, wondering where we were going. Did she intend to take me to confront Luc, or, Heaven help me, decide she would give me a lift back to my supposed house in Hill Street, the one I’d never seen, with the address I had forgotten?
The faint hope that she’d a maid waiting in the carriage was banished as we sat in the plush interior. I took the seat opposite her so we could look each other in the eye. ‘Are you related to our family in any way, Miss Lawrence?’ she en
quired.
‘No, Lady Radcliffe. Not in any way.’
‘Honest, at least. Or perhaps intelligent enough to know that story will not wash. My son tells me you are not his mistress.’
‘I do not discuss my private life with strangers, Lady Radcliffe. What your son chooses to tell you is his business.’
She gave me a long, hard look, then a nod of what looked surprisingly like approval. ‘Are you involved in these deaths?’
‘In investigating them, yes.’
‘A most unusual thing for a young lady to be doing.’
‘I am an unusual young lady,’ I countered. ‘Are we going to play – ’ I almost said ping pong, ‘ – pat-ball back and forth until we arrive at wherever we are going? Lucian and James know who I am and where I am from.’ And when. ‘I care very much for both of them.’
‘Both?’
‘In their different ways. I do not care what preferences a man has, only that he is a good man. And I know how to keep my mouth shut when it might endanger a friend.’
‘I see.’ Lady Radcliffe leant back against the velvet upholstery and I saw how tense she had been. ‘No, that was a foolish thing to say. I do not see in the slightest, but my mind is set at rest, a little.’
‘I am grateful that you supported the story of who I am at Lady Reece’s house.’ Her lips quirked into a wry smile. ‘But, of course, you were concerned to protect your sons. Where are we going?’ I glanced out of the window, recognised Jermyn Street from the church and saw the Comte de Hautmont sauntering into a shop as we passed.
‘To our Town House in St James’s Squ – ’ The gunshots, the shower of breaking glass as the offside window shattered, the thud of something hitting the squab beside my head, wrenched a scream from her.
I jumped, grabbed her by the shoulders, pushed her down to the floor in the narrow space between the seats away from the broken window and threw myself over her as a succession of shots from across the street rang out over our heads, all around us.