Deadly Engagement: A Georgian Historical Mystery (Alec Halsey Crimance)

by Lucinda Brant

  “Want a drink? The lad fetched up a bottle of burgundy.”

  “Thank you,” said Alec and followed Cosmo through to the dressing room, the greyhounds prancing along behind. He took the glass Cosmo poured out for him and after a sip said in a much calmer tone, “Did you have any success with the guests?”

  Sir Cosmo glanced knowingly at Tam, who had scrambled to his feet, and Alec, quick to understand, sent Tam to take the dogs for a run saying, “I won’t need you for another half hour.”

  Sir Cosmo waited to hear the outer door close. “You showed more patience than I with that weasel Tremarton.”

  “I wanted to throttle him! Hear the whole?”

  “For the most part. The lad must have, too, though he kept on with his experimentation, as if deaf to it all. Do you give much credit to Tremarton’s drivel?”

  Alec sipped his wine thoughtfully. “That Delvin murdered Jack? Undoubtedly. The whole scene at Green Park points to it, the absence of seconds, of any of the formalities of dueling. Jack wasn’t jealous of Delvin. He wasn’t even interested in females. He was having an affair with Simon Tremarton.”

  Sir Cosmo shook his head. “Defies reasoning!” But his surprise sounded rehearsed.

  Alec frowned.

  “You’ve known all along about Jack’s inclinations.”

  “Er, well, yes,” confessed Sir Cosmo guiltily and added hurriedly when Alec’s frown deepened, “Not that Jack told me. I dare say the majority didn’t look beyond what they saw. Of course a few of us had our suspicions about J-L, though it’s not something you want to ask a man or want to know about a man, and he had married Selina, so that somehow put it to rest. But when Selina confided in me about her marriage, it was a horrible shock, and then when she mentioned Jack’s part in it all, and I thought about it a bit I could see how it was and then, well, there you are!”

  “I beg your pardon, but I’m not understanding you,” Alec said politely. “What did you know about Jamison-Lewis and what has he to do with Jack and his preference?”

  This time Sir Cosmo was surprised and he blinked.

  “Ah! Well. I’m for it now…” he said more to himself and took snuff. He slipped the enameled box back into his frockcoat pocket and wondered how best to explain himself. He coughed. “I presumed you knew. But as you had no idea about the—the beatings I can see now that you’d have absolutely no idea about the rest of the sordid business. Perhaps it would be best if I didn’t say more. My tongue’s running on and Selina might not want me to—”

  “For God’s sake, Cosmo!” Alec said with annoyed exasperation. “Tell me and be done with it. Now I know how that monster treated her, surely it can’t be worse than that?”

  “Jack was J-L’s catamite,” Sir Cosmo said bluntly, the color ripening in his face. “Had been for years. Nothing changed after J-L’s marriage. Selina was there to provide an heir. George looked on her as nothing more than a brood mare and used her accordingly.”

  Alec sat down heavily. He felt as if the breath had been knocked out of him.

  “What I don’t understand is where this unsavory worm Tremarton comes in on the act,” Sir Cosmo continued, oblivious to the impact of his words. He could very well have been talking to Alec through a thick fog. “Jack must’ve kept the affair with Tremarton a well-guarded secret. Everyone knew what a jealous possessive monster J-L was with Selina so imagine his feelings if he’d found out Jack was cheating on him!” Sir Cosmo rubbed his stubbled chin. “Come to think on it, Alec, Jack was much more comfortable with his inclination than J-L ever was. Went to a lot of trouble to be the man’s man, did J-L. Think that’s why he finally married. Ned knew about J-L, but he never openly showed his disgust for the man. I think your brother was a little afraid of him.”

  “I don’t doubt it. And Delvin has the knack of praying on those weaker than himself,” Alec said quietly, mind still reeling with new knowledge. “I can well imagine Delvin teasing Jack about his relationship with J-L out of earshot of the monster himself. And Jack was not the type to run with tales. He’d have dealt with the matter in his own quiet way.”

  “Fighting a duel in the Green Park is hardly that!”

  “But threatening Delvin with something devastating to my brother’s security is.”

  Sir Cosmo snapped his fingers. “Lady Margaret’s letter! Jack threatened Ned with the letter your mother wrote to Lady Margaret! It has to be that. That’s the trump Tremarton’s got in his possession. I’ll lay you odds it is! Did he show you paper?’

  “A worn envelope. Personally, I believe Tremarton is playing an elaborate game of bluff. For all we know half of London is now aware of the fable put about by Lady Margaret. Tremarton could’ve picked up on this, heard it from Jack perhaps, and merely skewed it to suit his own purposes. He’s obviously desperate enough to do something half-brained. We have no way of knowing short of getting our hands on that envelope.”

  “Then we must get our hands on that envelope,” Sir Cosmo repeated with relish, yet he deflated immediately when his friend did not show the same enthusiasm. He peered keenly at Alec and wondered if he had suddenly taken ill. Then it came to him in a flash and all the pieces slotted into place and he blurted out, “Alec, my dear fellow, I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to tell you about J-L. I wish you’d found out from anyone but me…”

  “Better from you than any other,” Alec stated quietly with heightened color and drank down the final mouthful of wine. He rallied himself enough to say abruptly, “Did you learn anything today which may help our inquiries?”

  Sir Cosmo made himself comfortable in a wing chair opposite Alec’s dressing table stool. “Yes! That’s why I’m here,” he said, leaning forward with eyes bright. “I had my man do a bit of ferreting below stairs. He enjoys it. If I’m not careful he’ll run off and join Macara’s man’s brother at Bow Street. Of course they’re all jumpy down there. All fearing for their places. Neave has put the hard word on ’em, but no one is saying mouse! He did, however, fall into conversation with Ned’s valet; a greasy, nose-in-the-air fellow, who is prepared to swear on hot coals his master was in his rooms all evening.”

  Alec looked skeptical. “The word of Delvin’s valet, Cosmo?”

  “I know! I know! I don’t set much store on his story either. And he had the baldness to tell me that his master was entertaining two of the maids—”

  “Two maids?” Alec’s shoulders shook. “Oh dear, the story gets better and better! I suppose his valet had an eye to the keyhole for this orgy? Look, Cosmo, Cynthia Gervais came to my room last night, after she’d discovered Delvin wasn’t in his rooms.”

  “Ned’s valet probably lied to her. Covering up for him.”

  “Undoubtedly. And Cindy Gervais tells me she discovered Delvin in the shrubbery with a kitchen slut. I think it was Emily’s chambermaid.”

  “So there is a maid involved!” Sir Cosmo said with satisfaction.

  “But that doesn’t explain his whereabouts after he’d finished with the maid and before he went to Selina’s rooms.”

  “Surely he didn’t lift the maid’s petticoats, then go off and try and rape Emily and then be caught in flagrante delicto with Selina? He’d need an ivory horn!”

  Alec laughed. “Or he’d like us to believe he has one!”

  Sir Cosmo tucked in his chin and brooded. “And I don’t care what you saw with your own two eyes! It don’t wash that Selina and Ned were—”

  “Yes. I know that now and I apologize for jumping to conclusions. But that’s exactly what Delvin wanted me to think.”

  “Why?”

  Alec shrugged, looked uncomfortable and avoided answering the question. “I don’t want to believe Delvin capable of rape or of murdering a lady’s maid because he is my brother. But I do have suspicions about him, Cosmo. The fact his valet is putting about a tale that he was in his rooms with two maids shows to what lengths he has gone to cover his tracks. As for being in the shrubbery with the chambermaid and Cynthia Gervais catching them out�
�? Think about it a moment. The chambermaid isn’t going to come forward and tell us the intimate details of that encounter. Instant dismissal and no reference. Delvin can say what he damn well likes about the servants and whether it be true or false not one of them is about to deny the word of a nobleman. Therefore we have no way of knowing for how many minutes Delvin was out there amongst the foliage. It’s too smooth, Cosmo. And just the sort of thing Delvin would use as an alibi. That his mistress caught him there may also be an elaborate ploy on his behalf.”

  “How do you reckon that?”

  “It was the same ploy that ensured I caught him in Selina’s rooms. And what you see, as you rightly pointed out to me, doesn’t necessarily equate with what is actually going on.”

  “Blasted mess of a business!” Sir Cosmo grumbled. “I’ve spent all day with an ear to the ground and that was the best I could offer you. I’m not much help. Sorry.”

  “You’re the only help I have,” Alec smiled. “Nothing of interest from Olivia’s guests?”

  “From what I can gather, all of ’em are pretty much accounted for after they retired for the evening. All except the ones we mentioned earlier. Macara was up late wandering the terrace smoking his infernal cheroots. Seems he doesn’t sleep well; back injury. If Cynthia Gervais was with you, that’s you covered,” he said, tripping over his tongue at Alec’s grin. “No pun intended! Which leaves Gervais. And what Neave tells me, our boorish judge was left prostrate beside the sideboard. Two footmen came to carry him up to bed when the port was locked up but he’d gone. Then there’s myself. Ah, yes, well, I’m afraid I was rather boring and slept alone, so remain the only celibate one amongst you!”

  Alec chuckled. “Make that two of us, Cosmo. Oh, don’t look so amazed. I’m no saint when it comes to beautiful women, but I draw the line at bedding another man’s mistress, my brother’s into the bargain!”

  “Oh, there is one other thing,” added Sir Cosmo. “That frockcoat left in the Billiard room. It belongs to Ned. His man snapped it up the moment Neave took it into the servants’ hall. So that’s not much use to us then, is it?”

  “Isn’t it? His valet claims Edward was entertaining two maids in his room; his mistress says she saw him out in the shrubbery with a maid; and I discovered him annoying Selina; and his frockcoat is found in the Billiard room, suggesting he spent time playing a game of billiards at some point in the evening. That Sybilla’s boy and his cousin were caught out in the servant passage outside the Billiard room by Delvin seems to bear that out. All this happened around the time Emily was being attacked? Incredible!”

  “You’d think there was more than one Ned running about the place!”

  Alec smiled crookedly. “Yes. I imagine that’s precisely what someone would like us to believe.”

  Plantagenet Halsey came through to his nephew’s dressing room and stood watching Tam put the finishing touches to his master’s toilette. Alec was being helped into a black velvet frockcoat, the great upturned cuffs heavily embroidered with silver thread and the short skirts stiffened with whalebone. He wore fine white lace ruffles at both wrists, diamond encrusted buckles in the leather tongues of highly polished shoes, and a large, white satin bow at the nape of his neck, another secured the end of an eight inch long thick black plait that fell between his shoulder blades. To complete this ball dress, at his throat Alec wore a large diamond headed pin in the folds of his intricately tied lace cravat.

  Tam stepped back to view the whole and was just as pleased as the old man to see his master looking so splendidly handsome. Alec caught them both grinning and was instantly self-conscious.

  “I do look a peacock, don’t I? Or should I say magpie? I haven’t worn Court dress since Versailles and I can tell you, Uncle, give me an old, brown riding frock any day! This rig-out is damnably close.”

  “You ought to be pleased you cut such a fine figure without the need for buckram. Damned uncomfortable buckram, and liable to shift when you least expect it,” said Plantagenet Halsey, adjusting his own linen cravat in the long looking glass by the dressing table. He saw his nephew looking him up and down with a smile and frowned. “What do you find to smirk at, aye?”

  “Oh, I was thinking what a fine figure you cut for a man who cannot abide frippery,” Alec said lightly. “Olivia will be most impressed with her republican guest.”

  “Now, you stop that!” the old man said gruffly, turning to Tam who was still in the room. “Haven’t you chores to do?”

  “Come through to the sitting room,” suggested Alec, ushering his uncle from the dressing room as he picked up a lace handkerchief from the clutter on the dressing table. “Don’t be too hard on the lad. He’s been through more than you know. Which reminds me, I’ll ask it of you now because there’ll not be another chance tonight. Tomorrow afternoon I’m expecting a visit from a Mr. Yarborough, Junior or Senior. I’m not sure which—”

  “The lawyers?”

  “That’s right. I’ve asked them to find out some information about a hanging that occurred some six or seven months ago. If for any reason I’m not about, I’ve instructed them to give you the information, so keep an eye open for their arrival. I don’t want anyone else speaking with them.”

  “A’course, my boy. Who was hanged?”

  “Dobbs, Tam’s master.”

  The old man was incredulous. “For what? Dispensin’ without a prescription?”

  “For sodomy.”

  Plantagenet Halsey was too stunned to even swear.

  “Above the apothecary’s shop there was a gaming hell and a brothel: apparently young male prostitutes for the well-heeled. But before you ask me, no, Tam was not involved. He tells me he was Dobbs’ apprentice and nothing more and I believe him.”

  “Is the boy somehow mixed up with the law?”

  “Not that he is aware.” Alec flicked a speck of dust from his velvet sleeve. “Tam is adamant his master was innocent. He says Dobbs knew very well what was going on but preferred to turn his back than to report it to the authorities.”

  “Then he’s no better. I ain’t sayin’ he deserved to be hanged as a sodomite but—”

  “I know. His complacency begs the question, why he permitted such an outrage under his own roof. I intend to find out why and who ran this so-called Ganymede Club; if in truth Dobbs was used as a scapegoat, and by whom. I’m hoping Yarborough can help uncover the truth.”

  Plantagenet Halsey sucked in air through his clenched teeth. “Alec, if Dobbs was a scapegoat, if this Ganymede Club was frequented by men of fortune and rank, Yarborough will be met with deaf ears wherever he asks a question.”

  “I don’t disagree with you but there are truths which can’t be covered up. Who was the trial judge who sentenced Dobbs? Who gave evidence against the man? Who owned the building that housed the apothecary and the businesses on the upper floors? That information should be relatively easy to come by.” Alec glanced at his uncle. “Uncle, is there anything you know about the lad that you would like to tell me?”

  “About Thomas Fisher?” The old man was puzzled.

  “Tremarton knows he’s from Delvin; that he was apprenticed out around the time of Lady Delvin’s death.”

  “Does he? That don’t say a whole lot. But for what it’s worth the first time I set eyes on the boy I knew there was something familiar about him. So I wasn’t surprised to learn his aunt was housekeeper at Delvin and that his mother was that woman’s younger sister Iris Fisher. Both were carrot-topped like Tam. All the Fishers are. I don’t recall ever seeing the boy when I visited Delvin. But he would’ve been kept below stairs. He’s from the wrong side of the blanket. Iris Fisher was never married.”

  “Pretty, was she?”

  Plantagenet Halsey’s gray eyes surveyed his nephew blandly. “Very, by all accounts. Died in childbirth.”

  Alec smiled grimly. “Interesting you should know so much about the Fishers of Delvin.”

  “Not as interestin’ as may be, my boy. Your mother didn’t have much
to occupy her time while she was bedridden, except in reminiscing. Naturally household gossip loomed large in her memories.”

  “Unlike her son,” Alec muttered, one last glance in the looking glass.

  “Alec, there’s something I need to tell you before you join the festivities,” said his uncle. “Emily St. Neots is determined to marry Delvin. She wants to be Countess of Delvin. She told me as much.”

  “Yes. I know.”

  Plantagenet Halsey was unsure how to interpret this short response and said diffidently, “There is the pull of a coronet. Helen—your mother… If I’d been earl and Roderick my second, well things would’ve turned out differently.”

  “How differently?” Alec asked his uncle’s reflection. “Would she have remained faithful to you, had your child and not given it up as she did me? You’d have married such a shallow creature knowing it was your coronet which had persuaded her?”

  The old man looked down at his knotted hands. “You don’t know the half of it, my boy; why she made the choices she did. And I—I loved her in spite of everything.”

  Alec adjusted a fold in his cravat. “She didn’t deserve your devotion,” he said brutally. “She gave you nothing in return.”

  “She gave me you,” was his uncle’s quiet reply before he turned away to fiddle unnecessarily with the large leather tongue of his left shoe.

  Alec smiled lovingly at the stooped back. “For that I will be eternally grateful to her.”

  “Damme! I talked to the chit at length, and all I got was an earful of her damned wedding plans!” Plantagenet Halsey blustered to cover an embarrassing pause. “She spoke as if her whole dependence and delight were invested in this marriage, as if it’s going to right the wrongs of her mother. If I didn’t know better I’d say that child is as shallow-brained as they come!”

  “Right the wrongs of her mother…” Alec repeated softly. “So that’s Lady Charlotte’s trump!”

  “You wouldn’t find two females more different than those two who took a turn about the terrace with me,” continued his uncle in the same blustering tone. “One has yet to form any opinions of her own and the other is too opinionated for her own good. And that Titian haired Amazon’s got a quick tongue and a ready sense of the ridiculous. Marvelous she was able to pull through such a disastrous marriage virtually unscathed—”