Death of a Matriarch (Riley Rochester Investigates Book 7)

by Wendy Soliman

  ‘Surely, if they were aware that your father and theirs were friends, it made sense for Lady Pemberton to have taken you up?’ Riley suggested.

  ‘One would think so, but you fail to make allowances for avaricious individuals who disliked one another yet closed ranks against anyone whom they perceived as an outside threat.’

  ‘A threat in what regard?’ Riley asked. ‘You just said that you didn’t ask for handouts.’

  ‘I did not, but Lady Pemberton confided in me in ways that she never did with her legitimate children. I think they felt threatened by our closeness and worried that I might poison her mind against them.’ Barlow shook his head emphatically. ‘It seems odd, I know, but I think you have yet to fully grasp just how…well, grasping they all are.’

  ‘We’re starting to get the picture,’ Salter grumbled. Riley knew that his sergeant harboured a healthy disapproval of self-entitled rich relatives that transcended the social divide to encompass the idle amongst the working classes. Salter strongly maintained that life didn’t owe anyone a living.

  ‘Trust me,’ Barlow continued, ‘if any of them had reached the correct conclusion, all hell would have broken loose. Only Lady Pemberton’s spotless reputation and the fact that the young lack vision and can’t imagine the old ever having been reckless in their youth prevented that situation from arising.’ He chuckled. ‘Lady P told me that Pamela once asked her if she and I were intimately involved. The suggestion made her smile.’

  ‘You said that you only discovered Lady Pemberton was your mother after Sir Joseph’s death,’ Riley said, crossing his legs and attempting to find a more comfortable position on the unyielding wooden chair he occupied. ‘How did you find out?’

  ‘I attended Sir Joseph’s funeral. I was acquainted with Lady Pemberton, of course, but not intimately. My father and Sir Joseph were fellow academics. What I did not know but what Lady Pemberton subsequently explained to me is that they were friends through their schooldays and went on to university together. “Inseparable” was the word Lady P used. They were introduced to the then Miss Violet Dalton at a house party thrown by Sir Joseph’s father. He and Violet’s mother had decided that they would make a good match. But Violet and my father were instantly attracted to one another. Their intimacy was actively discouraged by both sides; my father not being wealthy enough to satisfy Miss Dalton’s connections. But…well, passion will out and suffice it to say, I am the result of their indiscretion.’

  ‘So they would have been obliged to marry,’ Riley suggested.

  ‘Violet’s father was not a forgiving man. He would have felt the shame and disowned his daughter had the truth emerged.’

  ‘So she married Sir Joseph, who must have known you were not his,’ Riley said, failing to keep his scepticism in check. ‘Presumably Miss Dalton didn’t give herself to both men before she was married. So how was her reputation saved and how did you end up living with your actual father?’

  ‘I was as bewildered by the facts as you appear to be when I heard the truth. Lady Pemberton told me that as a young man Sir Joseph once saved my father’s life. They were larking about in a river on a warm day, as youths are wont to do, my father got out of his depth and couldn’t swim, Sir Joseph rescued him and naturally my father felt deeply indebted to him. He literally owed him his life. I had heard that particular story many times from my father’s own lips, so know it to be true.’

  Barlow leaned back in his chair and sighed. ‘What I didn’t know was that Joseph had fallen deeply in love with Violet, which made it easier for him to forgive her lapse, for want of a better description. But he was not prepared to acknowledge another man’s son as his own. That would have been asking too much, especially since it would have made me his heir. My father was still deeply in love with Violet, but she was now engaged to his best friend, the man who’d saved his life. What could he do?’ Barlow spread his hands. ‘Eventually he agreed to keep me with him, but Sir Joseph’s price for saving Violet’s reputation was that the pater sever all personal connections with her. He was well aware that she was still instinctively drawn to my father and wasn’t prepared to cover up another scandal.’

  ‘A generous gesture that not many single men would contemplate,’ Riley remarked.

  ‘Indeed. But by so doing, he saved the reputation of the woman he never stopped loving and repaid in part his debt to Sir Joseph by relinquishing all claim to her. Incredibly, they remained friends, despite the fact that they were competing for the affections of the same woman.’

  ‘How was her pregnancy kept secret?’ Riley asked.

  ‘When Violet’s determination to marry my father met with the threat of disinheritance, it left Violet in a dilemma. So she confessed to Joseph, they married quickly and he took her abroad on one of his expeditions.’ There was a momentary edge to Barlow’s voice. ‘I was born in Egypt and my father was there to bring me back to England.’

  ‘Remarkable,’ Salter said, scratching his head.

  ‘Isn’t it just? I grew up believing my mother died giving birth to me in Egypt. My father never married, and I honestly believe that Violet was the love of his life. If he couldn’t have her, he wouldn’t settle for anyone else, so he dedicated himself to me and his work instead.’ He spread his hands. ‘Violet went through her life loving my father, I am absolutely sure of it, even if she didn’t go so far as to make that admission to me. However, after her marriage she never saw him alone again and, at Sir Joseph’s insistence, she never saw me at all. She had to give up her son, and she did until both my father and Sir Joseph were dead. Then she told me everything, but I think you can probably understand now why she preferred for our relationship to remain a secret. Apart from her daughters’ reaction, she was keeping her promise to the men who had saved her, even after their deaths.’

  Riley took a moment to reflect. The story was so remarkable and had such a ring of truth to it that he was inclined to believe Barlow.

  ‘It accounts, I suppose, for Lady Pemberton’s interest in the charity for unwed mothers,’ he said. ‘It would have created the most terrible scandal if she had borne a child out of wedlock fifty years ago, and times have not changed that much. I am sure she had great sympathy for young women who find themselves in that position nowadays, not always of their own volition.’

  ‘Quite. There but for the grace of God…’ Barlow sent Riley a look of mild concern. ‘How did you find out about my parentage?’

  ‘Were you aware that Lady Pemberton made you a generous bequest in her will, naming you as her son?’

  The astonishment in his expression convinced Riley that he had not been. ‘Oh dear. I wish she had not done that. It will put the cat well and truly amongst the proverbial pigeons.’

  ‘Lady Pemberton called upon you in Hitchin not long before her death.’

  ‘You have been busy, Lord Riley.’ There was an edge of sarcasm to Barlow’s voice.

  ‘You could of saved us the trouble by telling the truth in the first place,’ Salter muttered from his position at the wall.

  ‘I had forgotten about her visit, which is hardly surprising given the shock of her death. She turned up unexpectedly one day, and naturally I invited her to stay for as long as she wished.’

  ‘What reason did she give for her visit?’

  ‘She was curious to see where I lived, but I think she actually wanted to be inside the house where my father had lived for so many years.’ Barlow leaned back in his chair, relaxed and self-assured. ‘Theirs really was the ultimate love story, Lord Riley, complete with sacrifice and suppressed scandal. I could see it in Lady P’s eyes whenever she mentioned my father’s name, and I rather think that her feelings for him shaped her behaviour for the rest of her life.’

  ‘You live alone?’ Riley asked.

  ‘I do. I have already told you that I am unmarried and I have no siblings or close relatives.’

  ‘Then who’s the young lady what we saw in your gardens this morning?’ Salter asked, leaning on the table and
pushing his face close to Barlow’s.

  ‘That would be either Isolde or Maria.’ Barlow remained unflustered and smiled up at Salter’s pugnacious expression before turning to face Riley. ‘I assume you have heard of Benslow House College for Women, Lord Riley.’

  Riley inclined his head. ‘A pioneering advance in women’s education that is long overdue, in my opinion.’

  ‘And mine also. Lady Pemberton and I were both delighted when it was established in Hitchin. It’s hugely controversial, of course, but it’s a convenient distance from Cambridge and London. I hope that in time it will be incorporated beneath the Cambridge University umbrella, but of course there are many obstacles and prejudices to overcome before that ambition is likely to be achieved.’

  ‘Women getting a man’s education?’ Salter grunted as he mulled over the possibility. ‘Blimey.’

  Riley and Barlow exchanged a smile, both probably thinking that Salter’s prejudice would be commonplace—not least in the tavern where they had eaten their lunch.

  ‘What obstacles?’ Riley asked.

  ‘Most notably, the ladies accepted have to eclipse their male counterparts in order to be taken seriously.’ Barlow sighed as he cast a glance at Salter over his shoulder. ‘Such is life. The two girls living beneath my roof—who are properly chaperoned, I might add—were recommended to me by Lady Pemberton. You can ask them yourself if you doubt my word. They come from the lower middle classes but show huge intellectual potential. I have installed them in my house with a tutor so that they stand a better chance of being accepted at Benslow House.’ He smiled at Riley. ‘There is nothing more sinister about the matter than that. But I do not advertise their presence for fear of people drawing the wrong conclusions, much as you appear to have done.’

  ‘I see.’

  Barlow drummed his fingers on the tabletop. ‘I suppose it will all come out now, when the will is read; my relationship with Lady Pemberton, I mean.’

  ‘Without a doubt,’ Riley replied. ‘It seems as though she took a perverse delight in knowing that her daughters would learn the truth after her demise. However, to other matters. Where you aware that Lady Pemberton had sold all her jewels?’

  ‘I was not.’ Barlow hesitated momentarily and his gaze, which had been focused directly upon Riley, slid off to the left. ‘Are you sure? She was wearing her diamonds at her birthday celebration.’

  ‘Perfectly sure. In fact, she was almost out of funds.’

  ‘Then her daughters must have scrounged even more from her over the years than she led me to suppose.’ Barlow looked perplexed, but Riley felt that the expression was contrived. ‘I often wondered whether she overindulged them to assuage her guilty conscience about having given me up. Oh, she was formidable, there’s no doubt about that, but she spoiled her daughters and let them have their way when it came to their marriages.’

  ‘Because she hadn’t enjoyed the same privilege?’

  ‘Precisely, Lord Riley. And because they persuaded her that they were in love. She wasn’t so old that she had forgotten how that felt. She was very forward-thinking in many respects.’

  ‘Very well, Mr Barlow. Thank you for clarifying matters. Is there anything else that you have held back from us?’

  ‘Nothing.’ He held out his hands, palms uppermost. ‘And I would have told you the truth about our relationship had I thought it had the slightest bearing on her death. But it could not have, since as far as I am aware no one else knew about it.’

  ‘And yet I found out within a day of her death.’

  Barlow conceded the point with a wry smile. ‘I take your point. But then again, if you think that one of her daughters killed her because she felt her inheritance was threatened because of me, surely she would have been better advised to bump me off, given that you tell me I am mentioned in her will?’

  ‘That implies they knew about the contents of the will,’ Riley replied. ‘We did not find a copy of it amongst Lady Pemberton’s papers.’

  Barlow shrugged. ‘Perhaps she did not keep one for fear that one of her grasping daughters would search for it.’ He smiled. ‘I don’t envy you your job, Lord Riley.’

  Riley smiled. ‘Sometimes I wonder why I do it myself.’

  ‘Must be satisfying when you get it right, though.’

  ‘Yes, there is that.’

  Riley stood and shook Barlow’s hand, satisfied that for the most part he had been transparently honest. But Riley was almost sure that Barlow had known about the sale of the jewels, which begged the question why not admit it? What had happened to the considerable funds that resulted from the sale?

  ‘We shall be in touch,’ Riley said, opening the door and signalling to the uniformed constable stationed outside of it to show Barlow out. ‘I dare say we shall need to speak with you again.’

  ‘Anything I can do to help, Lord Riley,’ Barlow assured him.

  ‘What do you make of that, sir?’ Salter asked, after Barlow had left and the two men had returned to Riley’s office.

  ‘I believed him up to a point, but I’m pretty sure he knew about the jewels.’ Riley threw himself into his chair and rubbed his chin in contemplation. ‘The question remains, was he blackmailing her? I should imagine that growing up in a household without a mother and with a father more wrapped up in his inventions than his only child, a father holding a torch for a woman he’d never got over, would make the child resentful.’

  ‘I still find it hard to imagine Lady Pemberton getting that carried away.’

  Riley chuckled. ‘Loose behaviour is not restricted to the lower classes, Sergeant. Far from it.’

  ‘Yeah well, you’d know more about that than me, guv’nor. I don’t care what class of person we’re referring to. We all ought to live by our Christian beliefs, then the world would be a much better place.’

  ‘And we’d be out of work.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Salter scratched his whiskery chin. ‘Did Barlow blackmail her ladyship in return for her silence, do you think, sir? I mean, if he revealed his parentage to the world, her reputation would have been ruined.’

  ‘I doubt it, Jack. If he had, why would she invite him to socialise with her daughters and behave so generously towards him in her will? Speaking of which, did you notice that Barlow didn’t ask what he’d been left.’

  ‘I did, sir, and thought it damned odd. But then again, he doesn’t seem short of funds, so perhaps it’s not important to him.’

  ‘Anyway, I don’t think Barlow blackmailed his mother. No one we have spoken to suggested any tension between the two of them. Quite the opposite.’ Riley shook his head. ‘If I was a betting man, I’d say the money went to some sort of charitable institution because she would have preferred it to benefit a good cause rather than line the pockets of her daughters and their inadequate husbands.’

  ‘You think Barlow knows what happened to it, sir?’

  ‘I think he could make an educated guess, but I’m unsure if Lady P confided in him. Ah, you two are back.’ Riley glanced up as Carter and Soames appeared in his doorway. ‘What did you find out?’

  ‘Well, sir,’ Soames replied. ‘If Huxley told you that his farm was doing all right, then you’ve been grievously misled. He’s sold off over twenty acres of prime farmland this past year and every tradesman we spoke to in the local village reckons he owes them money. He’s teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and that’s a fact.’

  ‘Well done. I had a feeling that might be the case.’

  ‘His wife’s credit is no longer good with the local modiste,’ Carter added, with a dark frown that made Riley smile.

  ‘Now that would humiliate her,’ Riley said. ‘But would it be enough to make her desperate? Write up your report after Sergeant Salter has updated you on our progress, such as it is.’ Riley pulled his half-hunter from his waistcoat pocket and stood up. ‘I have an engagement with Danforth.’

  The explosion he expected that knowledge to invoke from his sergeant was not long in coming. ‘What the bloody hell for
? We only just got shot of the bugger.’

  ‘There’s more than one way to get answers, Jack. Danforth was a terrible police officer but he’s proving himself to be an adequate private detective. I want him to watch Pamela Kinsley’s movements and we don’t have the men to spare for tedious jobs of that nature without just cause.’

  ‘Why her?’

  ‘Mrs Kinsley was keenest of all the daughters to get her hands on Lady Pemberton’s jewels. Besides, something about her circumstances makes me suspicious. I want to see what she’s up to. Then I shall beard Parkinson at White’s and see what he can tell me about Kinsley’s investment company.’ He reached for his hat and coat. ‘Until tomorrow, gentlemen.’

  Riley left his three detectives with their mouths hanging open, donned his outdoor garments and left the Yard. He walked the short distances to The Feathers, fighting against a stiff breeze that wafted the smells from the river across the city streets, and found Danforth there ahead of him. He looked smarter than he had on the last few occasions when Riley had seen him; as though he had made an effort in order to score some sort of obscure point. He’d also lost a considerable amount of weight. His clothes hung off him and his skin folded back on itself beneath his chin. He sat at a corner table, watching the door, a tankard of ale in front of him.

  He looked up and raised a hand when Riley walked in.

  ‘I was surprised to get your message,’ Danforth said, as soon as Riley had purchased ale for himself and replenished Danforth’s. ‘You have taken the promotion, I hear. Thought you would. I still have contacts,’ he added, when Riley raised a brow.

  ‘I have, and I am also investigating Lady Pemberton’s murder,’ Riley replied, seeing little point in wasting time on small talk when there was no friendship and little respect between two men who had nothing in common other than a connection to Scotland Yard.