by Issy Brooke
“Why did he ask us to leave?”
“I think he spoke in anger. I cannot imagine that he meant it. But I am not sure. I pressed him pretty harshly on his reasons.”
Adelia paused in thought for a little while. There would have been some reason, she was certain of it; Theodore wouldn’t have noticed the undercurrents in Lord Mondial’s speech but there will have been a subtext, she knew it. And if Theodore had ‘pressed him harshly’ then Lord Mondial had quite possibly been roused to anger. She recognised that the Marquis would not want police swarming over his house, and she could understand why he was simply forging ahead with plans in spite of what had happened. It was the kind of man that he was. His determination and unswerving nature had often been cited as his best points. Now she was seeing that those character traits were double-edged swords.
“So what do we do now?” she asked at last.
“We stay, regardless,” Theodore told her. “He will come around to it. You can persuade him to let us stay, I am sure. We will stay for as long as our daughter needs us here.”
Nine
It was a silent and stilted dinner that evening in Mondial Castle. Dido presided alongside her husband, whose arm was strapped up out of the way and hidden under a coat that was unbuttoned. As no bones had been broken, it was merely a case of keeping things held fast while the flesh knitted itself together. He seemed fairly able to manage well enough with his left hand.
“You must begin to move it as soon as you can bear the pain,” Theodore told Mondial as they took their seats.
“Excuse me?”
“Your arm, Mondial. Early exercise will be key to your full recovery.”
“I see. Thank you.”
Theodore beamed at Adelia who, for some reason, was glaring at him.
Sir Henry was also present and he looked excruciatingly awkward. The chair where Miss Lamb would have sat was now removed, as was the seat previously occupied by her chaperone. She was remaining in her rooms until someone from Miss Lamb’s household arrived to collect their belongings and escort her home. Her lack of full vision and her doddery state rendered independent travel impossible. She was also, of course, sunk deeply into grief and mourning.
The rest of the long table was empty. It was an unusual state of affairs for the usually bustling castle. No doubt Mondial would soon fill it up again.
Theodore looked at Sir Henry and wondered if he was looking at a murderer.
But why?
Unless Miss Lamb had not been the target; unless it was Mondial that Sir Henry wished to murder.
Then why did Sir Henry remain here after his failed attempt to take another’s life?
Perhaps to convince everyone of his innocence.
But what could have possibly motivated Sir Henry to even try to kill Mondial?
As Theodore let his thoughts trundle along these logical paths, he became aware of a silence that seemed to be aimed directly at him. He dabbed at his chin, expecting that he was covered in soup or something equally obnoxious until Adelia said, in a tone that suggested she was repeating a question, “It would be lovely to see your mother again, would it not? And she would be pleased to come to the garden party.”
“I – what? Oh. Yes, she loves a party.” The Dowager Countess of Calaway was a cheerful and social woman, who seemed to get on remarkably well with Adelia. “But look here, Mondial, about this party you intend to hold. You have plenty of time still to cancel it. The invitations have only just been sent out. I am sure that no one has cancelled important plans, yet, to attend, and even if they had, they’d understand why you’d call it off. Have a thought, man. It’s a question of decency, don’t you think?”
Adelia was almost hissing at him but Theodore ignored her. She had tried to be tactful, no doubt, and Dido would have used her wifely charms, but now it was time to speak plainly, man to man. Surely Mondial would respect that.
Mondial did not look very happy about it at all. He flared his nostrils. “If the poor dead girl had been a relative of mine, then I completely agree with you. However, she was not. I see nothing in the manuals of etiquette that suggest I ought to cancel my plans because some girl has been attacked by a passing footpad and not even in my own home. Do you not recognise that such a course of action could, in fact, be misinterpreted?”
“Who would misinterpret it, damn it? Why would anyone misconstrue this? Cancel the party, if not for the sake of politeness, then for your wife’s sake. She has lost a close friend.”
“Calaway! Once more you overstep the bounds of decency. I tell you, sir, that I will not be spoken to like this in my house.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it? No one speaks to you in a way that you need to be spoken to.”
“I shall have you ejected, and you shall not return!”
Theodore threw down his napkin and tipped up his head. “It would be your right to do that. But would it be right to do that?”
Dido sniffed and Adelia coughed very meaningfully. The men were reminded of the women’s presence. Propriety settled on them like a thick and stifling blanket.
Lord Mondial picked up his spoon and continued to eat. Even that act annoyed Theodore as he realised that the Marquis was positioning himself as the bigger man by dropping the argument first.
The meal resumed in utter silence.
THE LADIES WITHDREW. Sir Henry took one look at Mondial’s thunderous face and fled too, citing a sudden bilious attack. Theodore trimmed a cigar and accepted a glass of brandy from Mondial, who began to pace around the room. Theodore thought, this man is seriously agitated. I shall ignore his previous outburst. He didn’t mean it, I am sure, and I can forgive him his emotions.
“Are you in pain?” he asked. “It makes a man speak out without considering his words first. I hold no grudge, you know.” I can also be a decent man, he thought proudly.
Mondial stopped by the fireplace. There was a display of pinecones in the empty grate. “You are impossible, Calaway. Utterly impossible. Yes. I cannot say this in front of my wife but yes, I am in pain. In my heart.”
“You can certainly say it in front of your wife. If you cannot share it with her, who can you share it with?” Theodore shared all his feelings with Adelia. He was sure she did the same with him.
“You don’t understand,” Lord Mondial said.
“So explain it to me. Tell me, Mondial, were you and that girl carrying on in some way together?”
Mondial knocked back his brandy and stamped over to the decanters to pour himself a double, awkwardly juggling the stopper and the glass. “Hell, no. Absolutely not. Yet that is exactly what everyone else will think. The fact that you voiced it just now – does that not prove I must go on with the party? I could not bear for scandal to attach to me or, more importantly, to my wife. She is your daughter, Calaway. You know that I only act in her best interests. Oh, if people thought I had a mistress – Miss Lamb or whoever – that is one thing. I can weather that storm. It would be normal. But the taint attaches itself to Dido and not me, and that I will not have. Do you see? She is blameless and must remain so.”
“Everyone understands you are an upright, honourable man,” Theodore reassured him.
“A man of my word. A man who sticks to plans. The party will happen. It ...” Mondial’s voice broke and that shocked Theodore. Mondial threw back a third double brandy and sank into his chair at the head of the table. “I need to have something to focus upon. I need people around me. I cannot ... I cannot bear how she looks at me, Calaway. I mean Dido. She looks at me as if I’ve let her down and the more that I give her, the more that I do for her, the more disappointed she looks. What else must I do, as a husband, to win her love?”
“You have already won her love! I am sure that she adores you. You have two fine sons. She speaks of you only in the highest terms.”
But Mondial shook his head. “She speaks of the local butcher in the highest terms too. She is always just beyond my reach, as if she is the other side of a window. I can
see her and I can speak with her but her mind is a mystery to me. I am alone, Calaway. I am so utterly alone. I must fill the house with people. Sir Henry must stay. You must stay. In spite of your ... you know. Your opinions and how you pick at me. Yes, yes, I know why you do it. And bring your mother as soon as you can. Let her come; let them all come. Invite anyone you can think of. I need diversions, and what else can I do? Instead of company, what else is there; if I don’t have company I shall turn to drink, or gambling ...”
“No. I would not suggest those things. Company and diversions, then, are better than drinking and gambling. Although don’t those things go together? Do you not run the risk of falling into ... such ill-advised ways?” Theodore stared off into the middle distance. He didn’t want to look at Mondial’s face, reflecting the pain and loss that he himself had once experienced. Now he understood the depths of Mondial’s confusion, and he understood the need to be focused on one thing. Before he had been rescued by Adelia, and after the death of his first wife, Theodore himself had faced a similar situation.
“I do not run any such risk,” said Mondial. “I will be less inclined to excess with the right sort of people around me. And another thing. I spoke sharply to you earlier. I suggested that you leave. You must understand I will not be called out in front of my household.”
“I do understand and I offer my heartfelt apologies. I overstepped the mark.”
“You did. I was shocked and I am angry about it. Do not do it again. Yet this has been a difficult time for all of us. Nothing has prepared me for this. I would rather forget it all and move on.”
“Quite so. We all would. However, there is someone out there who has committed the most dreadful of crimes. Mondial, I hate to suggest this, but it is entirely possible that Miss Lamb was not the target. Consider the possibility that you were the target. And consider, also, that they might return to finish the job.”
Mondial inhaled deeply. “I maintain that it was a passing robber.”
“Who fired two shots in quick succession?”
Mondial blinked. “He had two pistols.”
“You saw them?”
“I did.”
“But not his face? How close was he?”
“He was masked. He was close enough to speak to me and demand my pocket-watch. I fought back, naturally, and that is when the pistols discharged. I cannot tell you any more than that; it is a blur.”
Theodore tried to imagine juggling two loaded pistols, fighting someone, and taking their watch. How many arms did the assailant have? “The police will want more information. You cannot prevent their involvement.”
“The police can go hang. They are good for nothing and don’t understand the ways of polite society. Let them go about their business of banging heads together in inns and chasing lost pigs, but I will not have them here. I am close with Judge Anderson and he is on his circuit here at the moment. He will take my side, I can assure you.”
“And the detective from London? I know that you changed your mind but you could still send for one.”
“No. Listen, Calaway, if I did believe the attack was targeted, you may rest assured that I would call for a detective without hesitation. But I have had time to think over the past day or two and I do not believe it is worth incurring the expense or the hassle to call someone here who will poke into all our affairs and discover nothing. There will be nothing for the detective to discover; the robber is long gone.”
“Yet if you are the target, he will not be gone.”
“I do not think I could have been the target.”
“Robbers don’t attack in private grounds like this.”
“Robbers are not known for their intelligence!” Mondial was growing increasingly agitated again. He had had a severe shock. Theodore prided himself on his own logic but he knew that not everyone was as blessed as he was with a cool rational approach to things.
So in the end, he replied, mildly, “I support your decision to continue with the party. I can understand your reasons now, difficult though they are. And my mother will be delighted to arrive as soon as we can send word to her. Let us fill this house, Mondial; I will assist you in whatever you need. However, I am concerned for your safety. Let me conduct a few discreet investigations around the place, on your behalf.”
“No. It is not necessary.”
Theodore tapped the ash from the end of his cigar. It was almost gone. It had been a good one. They lapsed into a silence that Theodore was not sure how to break.
Then Mondial spoke as he got to his feet. “Let us join the women. And Calaway? These investigations? I get the feeling that you shall not let up, whether I give you my permission to investigate or not. Your wife is likewise a woman of penetrating gaze. I expect you will discover nothing but if you want to speak to my staff or the people on the estate, you can go ahead and do so. I suspect it will amuse you and you are otherwise quite bored. So follow your whim. I ask only one thing of you.”
Theodore thought that it would be a demand to keep any enquiry into Mondial’s personal relationships off limits. But he was surprised when Mondial said, “I ask only that you allow me to be at your side throughout the investigation.”
“But...”
“This is my house and I was one of the victims, intentionally or not.”
Theodore could not argue with that. “Very well. As you wish.”
ADELIA WAS FURIOUS when Theodore told her what had transpired between himself and Lord Mondial, and she knew that he couldn’t understand why, not at first. She could see it in his face. Theodore stood in front of her late that night, while she sat on her bed and brushed out her own hair. Smith had been sent to bed an hour before. Adelia didn’t mind attending to her own toilet. She quite liked the intimate evenings when it was just her and her husband, talking about the events of the day.
Except for times like now, when he was telling her of his idiotic agreement to allow Mondial to accompany him in his investigations.
“But this is what you wanted,” Theodore protested in confusion. “You wanted to look into the murder!”
“I did. But can’t you see that Lord Mondial himself is not above suspicion?”
“He was injured.” Theodore tapped his upper arm and mimed holding a pistol. “He is a victim. He was shot in his own right arm. He is right-handed. He is quite handy with his left hand but did not do this to himself, Adelia. It is impossible. I did think of that, you know,” he added in a voice that was almost petulant.
“The man is brimming with secrets. There is much that he has not told us, Theodore. So much of this attack does not make sense and you have said it yourself. He only wants to be at your side so that you do not uncover what he wants to remain hidden.”
“And that is his right. This is his house. Would you allow him to poke freely into every part of your house and life?”
“I would not; but...” Adelia trailed off.
“My love, come here.” Theodore sat down alongside her and she put down her brush and let him pull her into his embrace. “We have gained a huge concession. We are not being asked to leave. I am allowed to make enquiries. Perhaps it will come to nothing but, like you, I am suspicious. I still have my doubts about Taylor the valet and, I must confess, Sir Henry too. And yes, Mondial is not all that he seems. I want to find out the truth because if ... if there is something very amiss here, we need to know. For Dido’s sake. Do you see? And if the only way I can do that is by conceding to Mondial’s demands, then I shall do that.”
“Of course,” she said. “And thank you for all that you do for our family.”
“My family.” He kissed the top of her head. “Our family. Us. We are a unit that shall never be divided and if I discover that Mondial has hurt our daughter in any way, then I will not need a pistol to wreak my revenge.”
She quivered, just a little, and it wasn’t in fear or anger.
A NOTE WAS DELIVERED to Adelia the next morning at breakfast. The hot weather had finally broken, and rain was sheet
ing down, just as Sir Henry had predicted. Replies were still coming back to Dido accepting the invitations to the forthcoming garden party. Adelia had caught her daughter as they had entered the breakfast room, and drew her off to one side in the corridor.
“I am quite well, mama,” Dido had insisted. “Perhaps it is for the best that I stay busy with all the things that I must now arrange.” She had pulled away and gone into the room, leaving Adelia feeling annoyed, though she directed her anger more towards Lord Mondial. Theodore had seemed to be more sympathetic to the Marquis now, as if they had some common ground between them, but Adelia wasn’t so happy to ignore things. Dido was struggling with something in her private life and Adelia longed for her daughter to open up to her.
Adelia resolved to bide her time. She adjusted her face into a bland attitude of indifference and entered the room for breakfast.
The note came to her as she was finishing her second cup of coffee.
She could not help a small squeal of delight. Theodore raised one eyebrow and Dido frowned at her mother. Adelia adopted a more mature air once more, but she had to work at repressing her smile. “Harriet is in town!” she declared.
Theodore’s face remained set. She had expected that look of bland indifference. He did not get on with Adelia’s best friend. Harriet Hobson was the wife of a bumbling bishop. When she entered a room, it was as if the sun was breaking through clouds. She had been at Adelia’s side through thick and thin. Of everyone in the world, Harriet knew her best. In some ways, she knew more about Adelia than Theodore did.
Adelia felt bad about that.
But she was sure that Theodore did not suspect it.
He simply didn’t like Harriet and that was that.
She folded the note away and escaped to her rooms as quickly as she could so that she could send a reply by the earliest opportunity.
