Miss Tonks Turns to Crime

by M C Beaton

  Miss Tonks Turns to Crime

  A Novel of Regency England

  Being the Second Volume of The Poor Relation

  M. C. Beaton/ Marion Chesney

  Copyright

  Miss Tonks Turns to Crime

  Copyright ©1993 by Marion Chesney

  Cover art to the electronic edition copyright © 2010 by RosettaBooks, LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  First electronic edition published 2011 by RosettaBooks LLC, New York.

  ISBN e-Pub edition: 9780795315312

  For Ann Robinson and her daughter Emma

  Wilson, with love.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter One

  Unless God send his hail,

  Or blinding fire-balls, sleet or stifling snow,

  In some time, his good time, I shall arrive.

  —ROBERT BROWNING

  MISS TONKS stepped into the waiting carriage as if stepping into a tumbril. Pale but brave, she sat down and lowered the glass and looked out at the faces of her friends standing outside the Poor Relation Hotel in London’s Bond Street.

  “I shall return with money,” she said firmly.

  “Do be careful,” said little Mrs. Budley. “If it is too dangerous, simply come back to us. No one will reproach you.”

  “I shall,” said the horrible Sir Philip Sommerville, looking more like an elderly tortoise than ever. “Just pick up some expensive geegaw, slip it in your reticule and make off.”

  Colonel Sandhurst looked at the sky as if for inspiration, as though he were mentally detaching himself from the whole distasteful project. Why could not Sir Philip himself go on a raiding mission? It was not fair of any of them. They had forced poor Miss Tonks into it.

  “Courage,” said Lady Fortescue, leaning on her ebony cane.

  The carriage moved off. Miss Tonks’s white handkerchief fluttered from the window in farewell.

  Lady Fortescue, Sir Philip, Colonel Sandhurst and Mrs. Budley retreated into the Poor Relation and up to their private sitting-room.

  The oddly assorted group had met some time ago. All of them had been poor relations, the genteel paupers of society, living on little more than their dignity. They had banded together and had started the Poor Relation Hotel, money for the venture having been supplied by Sir Philip Sommerville, who had stolen a vastly valuable necklace from the Duke of Rowcester and put a fake in its place to avoid detection of the crime. All had hoped their infuriated relations would buy them out, but as the hotel prospered, they had begun to enjoy the fruits of their labours. Then the hotel had burned down, Sir Philip had not paid the fire insurance, and although the Duke of Rowcester had married their partner, Harriet James, and had been generous in paying for the restoration of the hotel, they were once more in need of funds.

  To stoop to crime in the days of their poverty, when all had a burning resentment at their humiliating treatment at the hands of their relatives was one thing; to turn to it again when they had known a certain amount of prosperity and success was another. But their joint ownership of the hotel, much as they grumbled about it, had become an obsession. The hotel must go on. And so Miss Tonks, the weakest, had been persuaded to go on a raiding mission to her sister, Mrs. Honoria Blessop, who was unaware that Miss Tonks had sunk to trade and still fondly imagined her living in one dingy London room.

  Lady Fortescue owned the building. When Sir Philip had first suggested the hotel, the house in Bond Street had been all that Lady Fortescue possessed and she had lived there alone with only her two old servants, John and Betty, for company.

  Lady Fortescue, tall and white-haired, with snapping black eyes, surveyed the group. “I fear that sending Miss Tonks was not a good idea,” she said. “She will return with some trifle which will not even pay a chambermaid’s wages. Sir Philip, you, on the other hand, are accustomed to thieving.”

  “Let’s see what Miss Tonks does,” said Sir Philip. “I sometimes think the rest of you won’t be happy until you see me dangling on the end of a rope.”

  “Have you ever thought it might be Miss Tonks who will end up dangling on the end of a rope?” asked the colonel.

  “For pinching something from her own sister? Tcha!” said Sir Philip.

  “We are fully booked for the Little Season.” Mrs. Budley, her large pansy eyes looking around at the others, gave voice. She was in her early thirties but looked much younger with her cloud of soft brown hair and unlined face.

  Lady Fortescue sighed. “But the Little Season is cold, and that means fires in all the rooms.”

  “Perhaps we should have approached the Duke of Rowcester?” suggested Mrs. Budley.

  “My nephew and Harriet have gone abroad,” said Lady Fortescue, “so that’s out. I had thought of that already.” She looked at the clock. “Dinner time, Colonel. Your arm, please.”

  Lady Fortescue and Colonel Sandhurst served the guests themselves in the dining-room, or rather, carried the first course to the tables, most of the work being done by two efficient waiters. But they knew their very presence in the dining-room gave the hotel cachet and put the prices up.

  “Have you heard about Tupple’s?” asked Sir Philip as they were on the point of leaving the room.

  Lady Fortescue stopped. “You mean the new hotel over in George Street? No. But I gather it cannot compete with us. The food is reported to be dreadful.”

  “I saw Tupple himself skulking about our area steps,” said Sir Philip. “He’s probably after our cook.”

  “What, Despard? If he goes, we shall be ruined.”

  “You forget. He can’t go,” leered Sir Philip. “He’s an escaped Frenchie off the hulks, ain’t he? Wouldn’t dare leave.”

  “You’d best have a word with him and remind him of that,” said the colonel.

  “Already have.” Sir Philip grinned.

  “To which he replied?” Lady Fortescue raised thin eyebrows.

  “To which he replied that come the revolution, he would see my head in a basket first.”

  “Oh, dear!” Mrs. Budley opened her eyes to their widest in alarm. “Do you not think it rather dangerous to have such a bitter Frenchman in the kitchen?”

  “Course it’s dangerous,” said Lady Fortescue. “But the man cooks like a genius. Our whole life is dangerous. If Miss Tonks gets into any trouble, we can’t just sit here and let her take the blame herself.”

  “I can,” said Sir Philip cheerfully. “I can just see her on the scaffold. All noble. As a farewell present, we’ll buy her a white gown. She’d make a noble speech. Best moment in all her dreary life.”

  “You,” said Lady Fortescue awfully, “are disgusting. Come, Colonel.”

  A look of hurt crossed Sir Philip’s watery eyes. He saw Mrs. Budley looking at him reproachfully and defiantly poured himself a glass of port.

  * * *

  After a long journey in a comfortable post-chaise, Miss Tonks, after praying that something in the nature of highwaymen or thunderbolts would stop her inexorable journey into Gloucestershire, arrived unscathed at Chapping Manor, home of her sister, Honoria Blessop.

  Chapping Manor had been the setting for many humiliations in Miss Tonks’s dreary past. When her parents died, they had inexplicably left everything to Honoria, who gave a small yearly pittance to Miss Tonks. Not only that, but Mr. Blessop, Honoria’s husband, had long ag
o seemed on the point of proposing marriage to Miss Tonks and then, inexplicably, he had veered off and married Honoria instead. Miss Tonks, on visits, was treated like the poor relation she was, being given sewing tasks and expected to take her meals on a tray in her room when Honoria was entertaining any distinguished company.

  The slab-faced, over-corseted woman who was Honoria Blessop had produced two children, Cassandra and Edward. Edward had escaped from the maternal bosom to the navy. As she stood shivering on the steps of the manor, Miss Tonks calculated that Cassandra must be now eighteen. She had had one Season, that Miss Tonks knew from the social columns—she had not been invited to any of the functions during Cassandra’s come-out—and had also heard through the grapevine that Cassandra had “not taken” and was still unwed.

  The butler opened the door, saw Miss Tonks, and snapped his fingers at a footman to carry her modest trunk indoors.

  “Are … are the family in the drawing-room, Brooks?” asked Miss Tonks timidly.

  “Yes, Miss Letitia. You are to change and join them for dinner. We dine at six. Lord Eston is coming.”

  “Who is Lord Eston, Brooks?”

  “His lordship is recently returned from the wars and lives at Courtfield Park not far from here, Miss Letitia.”

  “But why am I invited to sit down with them?” asked Miss Tonks. “You know I am not invited when grand company is expected.”

  “One of the ladies invited dropped out at the last minute,” said Brooks. “May I point out, Miss Letitia, that you should go straight to your room. If you are found standing here talking to me, it would be frowned on.”

  “Oh, everything is frowned on,” said Miss Tonks with a rare show of spirit. “Brooks, I am heartily sick of being frowned on.”

  The housekeeper, Mrs. Blodge, came crackling up. Her starched aprons always crackled.

  “Your usual room is ready, Miss Letitia,” she said. “Follow me.”

  Miss Tonks was led, not upstairs to the guest-rooms, but to an odd no man’s land of a room in a stone passage leading to the servants quarters. It was barely furnished with an old iron bedstead, a toilet-table, and a thin rug on the stone floor. A great press large enough to house a whole family of skeletons took up one wall. No fire burnt in the grate. A tree tapped its branches mournfully against the one small dim window.

  “I would like a fire,” said Miss Tonks suddenly.

  Mrs. Blodge folded her red hands across her ample stomach.

  “You’ve never had a fire before, miss,” she said.

  “I am having one now,” said Miss Tonks in a voice that trembled at her own temerity.

  “Very good, Miss Letitia.”

  And that was that, thought Miss Tonks, as a footman appeared some moments later and began to build up a fire in the grate. Heavens, how brave of me! But if I am going to turn thief, I can surely be brave about little things.

  She wondered whether to call for a maid to help her dress, but thought that might be going too far. She unpacked her belongings and laid them neatly in the huge press in the corner. On the bed, she spread out with loving hands a gold silk gown that Mrs. Budley had made for her. It was in quite the latest fashion. She sat down at the toilet-table and deftly set her mousy hair in something approaching a Roman style before slipping on that precious gown. Round her shoulders she spread a magnificent Paisley shawl, lent to her by Lady Fortescue, put some scent on a handkerchief, a present from the colonel, put a coral necklace, a present from Sir Philip, around her thin neck, and then drew on a pair of fine kid gloves, lent by Mrs. Budley. And so, feeling armoured by the donations of the other poor relations, she made her way to the drawing-room.

  Honoria looked at her younger sister with eyes that bulged with surprise. How had Letitia come by that fashionable gown? And no one could ever in their wildest dreams have thought Letitia pretty, but there was something aristocratic about her long slender fingers and long narrow feet.

  She pecked Miss Tonks on the cheek and murmured, “Don’t go putting yourself forward. This is an important evening. Blessop and I have decided that Eston will do for Cassandra.”

  “Does Eston know of this?” asked Miss Tonks.

  “How can he? He’s not long arrived home.”

  “What is he like?”

  “I don’t know, you dithering fool. Never seen him.”

  “If you haven’t seen him, how do you know he will do for Cassandra?” asked Miss Tonks.

  “Because he’s a lord, he’s rich, and he owns Courtfield Park, and that should be enough for anyone. Now go and sit down.”

  Miss Tonks took a chair in a corner and surveyed the party. Cassandra Blessop came up to her and sat down beside her. “Just arrived, Aunt Letitia?”

  “Yes, dear.”

  “Put you in solitary confinement, have they?”

  “What?”

  “That grubby little downstairs cell.”

  “Well, yes, my dear, but I am quite used to it. How pretty you look.”

  “No, I don’t,” said Cassandra. “And I look worse than usual tonight, do you not think?”

  Miss Tonks could not help privately agreeing that the frilly pink muslin was the last thing Cassandra ought to be wearing. But she liked the girl’s looks, although they were not fashionable. Cassandra had a plain, honest face with a dusting of golden freckles over a snub nose. She had flaming-red hair and hazel eyes and a generous mouth. Taken bit by bit, thought Miss Tonks, she was a social disaster. Red hair because of its association with the Scots was disliked, and her mouth was too large for beauty when little primped-up rosebud mouths were the fashion. But she glowed with warmth and colour, and Miss Tonks could only wonder, not for the first time, that her sister and her husband had managed to produce such a good-hearted and honest girl.

  “This is all because of Lord Eston,” said Cassandra. “If only he could turn out to be … well, ordinary, like me, someone friendly and not terrifying, then I could be at ease.”

  “Perhaps he is,” said Miss Tonks. “You have no competition. I see your mama has not invited any other young person.”

  “No, and she’s going to make it vulgarly clear to this Lord Eston that he’s supposed to marry me, and even if I looked like Venus that would be enough to make any man sheer off.”

  “There is always hope, Cassandra. Sometimes when I think I know what my life is going to be like, something very exciting happens.”

  Cassandra surveyed her aunt with interest. “I wouldn’t have thought anything exciting would ever happen to you, Aunt Letitia,” she said bluntly.

  “Well, it has, and I shall tell you about it one day.”

  “Lord Eston,” announced Brooks.

  “Lor’,” said Cassandra.

  The guests had parted to either side of the room at his entrance and she had a full view of him.

  He was slim and tall and handsome in a graceful way. He was impeccably tailored. His golden hair was teased and curled into the latest fashion. His blue eyes under heavy lids surveyed the room with an amused look.

  Cassandra’s lip curled. “A popinjay,” she said.

  “Cassandra!” came her mother’s voice.

  Cassandra slouched forward and stood awkwardly, looking at the carpet.

  “Lord Eston, may I present my treasure, my Cassandra,” said Honoria. “Curtsy to his lordship, Cassandra.”

  Cassandra gave a sort of bob.

  The guests, who had been primed beforehand, moved off, as did Honoria, leaving the couple together.

  “That’s a very fine carpet,” said Lord Eston.

  “Is it?” mumbled Cassandra.

  “Yes, you are looking at it so intently, I felt sure you must be admiring it as well.”

  “Come and meet my aunt,” said Cassandra desperately. She walked away and he followed her to where Miss Tonks sat in the corner by the window.

  “Aunt, this is Lord Eston,” said Cassandra. “Lord Eston, Miss Tonks, my aunt.”

  Miss Tonks rose and curtsied. Cassandra made h
er escape.

  Miss Tonks would, before her adventures with the poor relations, have been too timid to carry on any conversation with such an elegant gentleman, but work in the hotel, not to mention the evenings spent in the company of Sir Philip and the colonel, had given her an ease of manner she had not possessed before. To her surpise, she found she was telling him London gossip, unconsciously copying Lady Fortescue, who kept up with all the latest scandals, and Lord Eston suddenly laughed and said he thought she was a dangerous lady and Miss Tonks flushed with simple pleasure and said, “Oh, if only that were true. I should love to be a dangerous lady.”

  Honoria fumed as she watched them. She did not want to break up a conversation where her prize guest was so obviously being highly entertained, but after ten minutes, she decided enough was enough and propelled Cassandra towards Lord Eston by a series of sharp pushes in the back.

  As Honoria approached, Miss Tonks fell silent, for the first time that evening taking in the full glory of the necklace her sister was wearing. It consisted of six strands of large diamonds, flashing and glittering in the light from the candelabra.

  Miss Tonks blinked. That was it! That necklace! Oh, that would solve all their problems, and how very proud they would all be of her back at the Poor Relation. She barely heard dinner being announced.

  Usually on previous visits, Miss Tonks had been too preoccupied with eating enough to bother much about anything else. But now she was used to good food and so was able to study Cassandra as she sat with her head bowed, replying in monosyllables to Lord Eston’s gallant efforts at conversation.

  Honoria weighed in, after casting a fulminating look at her daughter, “Are you going to Mr. Hereford’s hunt ball, Eston?” she asked.

  “Yes, I shall be there.”

  “Then you must save a dance for my little Cassandra. She is simply pining to dance with you.”

  His blue eyes lit up with mocking laughter. “Now how can Miss Blessop pine for a dance with me when she has never met me before?”

  “Ah, I know my little puss and I can see she is quite smitten.”