Sonnet to a Dead Contessa

by Gilbert, Morris

  Praise for Book Two in the Lady Trent Mysteries,

  A Conspiracy of Ravens

  “With mischief, murder, and blossoming love, this cozy mystery is a delight.”

  —Historical Novels

  “The Victorian England setting is made for mystery, family secrets, and murder. Lady Trent is a treat; not your typical English rose, she is forthright and has quite the sense of humor. The main male character is a Prince Charming in an actor’s body.”

  —Romantic Times

  OTHER NOVELS BY GILBERT MORRIS INCLUDE

  The Lady Trent Mysteries:

  The Mermaid in the Basement

  A Conspiracy of Ravens

  The Creole Series

  The Singing River Series

  The House of Winslow Series

  The Lone Star Legacy Series

  Visit your online bookstore for a complete

  listing of Gilbert Morris’ books.

  © 2009 by Gilbert Morris

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee. Thomas Nelson is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

  Thomas Nelson books may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

  Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

  Published in association with the literary agency of Word Serve Literary Group, 10152 Knoll Circle, Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80130.

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Morris, Gilbert.

  Sonnet to a dead contessa / Gilbert Morris.

  p. cm.— (A Lady Trent mystery ; bk. 3)

  ISBN 978-1-59554-427-8 (pbk.)

  1. Women private investigators—England—Fiction. 2. Aristocracy (Social class)—England—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3563.O8742S675 2009

  813'.54—dc22

  2009007875

  Printed in the United States of America

  09 10 11 12 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

  CONTENTS

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  To Gale Towne

  Thanks for the memories!

  ONE

  Lady Stephanie Welles entered the Blue Room, paused, and at once noted that almost every man in the room was looking at her. She was pleased, but not surprised, for she had long known that her ability to draw attention was highly developed. She was wearing a crimson gown with such a breathtakingly wide skirt that it made her waist look as if a man could span it with his hands and overlap his fingers. Her eyes and her lips gave a hint of her will and her pride. She was tall and shapely in a manner that would draw any man’s eyes. Aware of the effect her entrance had on those who watched her, she tilted up her head in an imperious manner and then turned toward the three women who were waiting for her.

  Marchioness Rachel Reis rose and moved across the room, her raven black hair framing her face, her Jewish blood evident in her features. She was an attractive woman of twenty-eight, not tall but with a good carriage. She came to stand in front of Lady Welles.

  “I’m glad you were able to come, Lady Stephanie. It’s a good cause we’re working for,” she said, smiling, and waited for a reply.

  A caustic humour touched Lady Stephanie’s eyes. “Of course—and I’m always anxious to do my bit for a good cause.” She saw the expression on Lady Reis’s face and laughed. “You find that amusing? Well, I have to do some good works, or I won’t get into heaven, will I?”

  “You will be able to add your contribution to the London Festival of Arts. The profits will go to help the poor of our city.”

  “I’m not sure what I can do to help.”

  “There will be work enough for us all—but just your name and your support are greatly appreciated. Come and we’ll get started.”

  The two high-society women made their way over to a table where two other women of superior status were seated. “I’m amazed that Stephanie has volunteered to help with the festival,” said Baroness Danielle DeMain, a tall woman with a fine figure and aristocratic features. “She’s not known for her good works, is she, Margaret?”

  “Now, Danielle, don’t be harsh.” Countess Margaret Acton was a short, rather well-padded woman of thirty-three. She had a wealth of light brown hair and a pair of warm brown eyes. “She just wants to help, I’m sure.”

  Lady DeMain smiled. “You’d speak well of Judas Iscariot—or of the devil himself, Margaret. And I’m not sure that Stephanie isn’t the devil—no, the devil is a male. But Stephanie must be one of his demons.”

  “Shh! She’ll hear you, Danielle!” She rose and smiled, saying, “I’m so glad you’ve decided to join us, Lady Stephanie.”

  “Why, as I just remarked to Rachel, I’m always available for good works.” She paused and smiled thinly. “I see skepticism in your faces. Well, you are right. I’m not given to holy causes—if that’s what the festival is. I always thought it was about greedy artists trying to gouge more money out of buyers.”

  Lady DeMain laughed. “You are right, Stephanie, to some degree. But as you know, 25 percent of all sales will go to help the poor.”

  The four women ordered lunch and discussed ways to entice more influential citizens to join them. Suddenly Lady DeMain exclaimed, “Look at that!” Her three companions turned to see what she meant, and Lady Welles laughed. “I thought this was an exclusive restaurant. What in the world are those women doing here?”

  “I know one of them,” Rachel Reis said, her voice strained. “Her name is Martha Bingham. She’s been after me to join her organization. She’s really quite a bore.”

  “What organization?” Stephanie asked, eyeing the trio. “Not a crusade to wear the ugliest clothing in England, is it?”

  Indeed, the three women advanced toward their table. The leader was a tall, strongly built woman with a squarish face, a prow of a chin, and dark brown hair. She pulled up in front of the seated women and stridently said, “My name is Martha Bingham. I have come to enlist your aid in helping the women of England assume their rightful place in our society. This young woman is my aide. Her name is Miss Jeanne St. Clair. And this is Miss Violet Bates, my secretary. They will be glad to assist you in filling out papers that will enable you to join us. We have a place for each of you.”

  “And what is that place, Miss Bingham?” asked Lady DeMain. She was amused at the woman but at the same time annoyed that they had invaded the restaurant.

  “I am founder and president of Equality for Women,” Miss Bingham said. “I believe you have all received my invitation?”

  “Oh dear, yes,” Lady Welles said. “I think I re
member something of the sort. Please send no more. My wastebasket is full of such ‘invitations.’”

  A young woman to Miss Bingham’s left suddenly took a step forward. She had blue eyes and reddish-blonde hair. She was wearing a plain black taffeta dress that revealed a trim and rather athletic figure. Her voice was low, but a thread of anger tinted her words. “You call yourselves women? Fah! You’re nothing but slaves to men who bargained with your parents for rights to your bodies! I despise you!”

  “Now, that will do!” Lady Welles said angrily. “You know nothing about us! You have no idea what nobility means!”

  “Do I not?”

  Margaret Acton was shocked at the vehemence in Jeanne St. Clair’s face. There was something almost feral in her expression, and her voice throbbed as she spat out the words, “Noblemen can be full of evil! You don’t know what’s happened to me. A member of Parliament”—she broke off in angry sobs—“he went to church every Sunday . . . It was wrong, I tell you, wrong what he did to me! Is that what nobility is?”

  “That will do!” Lady DeMain said loudly. She saw that the manager had approached and said, “Howard, show these women out!”

  Mr. Howard, a tall, thin man, had been watching the scene nervously, and now he scurried forward, saying, “I must ask you ladies to leave.”

  Martha Bingham’s face reddened. “I will not leave until I have spoken to these women.”

  “Howard, get rid of them!” Lady Welles said. “Call a policeman if necessary.”

  “I trust that will not be necessary. You must leave.” He nodded to a burly man who had been watching. “Joseph, help these ladies out, please.”

  “Yes, Mr. Howard.” The man advanced, reached out, and took the arm of Martha Bingham. Then, at that instant, Miss Bingham’s secretary began to weep. Joseph pulled at Miss Bingham’s arm, but Jeanne St. Clair leapt forward and struck him a powerful blow in the throat. He stepped back, his face crimson, and began to gag.

  Chaos took over. Martha Bingham shouted her message; the manager ran from the room but soon returned with a policeman. He was a broad-shouldered fellow, and when Jeanne tried to hit him, he simply shoved her to the floor and took Martha Bingham’s arm. “You’re under arrest for disturbing the peace. Come along now. Don’t make things worse.”

  Margaret Acton was shaken by the event. She watched them leave, and when they were at the door, Martha Bingham turned and shouted, “You’re unfit to live! Slaves, that’s all you are! But that will change! We don’t need you or your fancy title . . . !” Margaret then saw the large woman turn and put her arm around the younger secretary. She patted her back and spoke soothingly to her.

  “She’s got some affection in her,” Margaret said in a murmur.

  “I suppose even wild beasts in the jungle have some sort of tender feelings for their offspring,” Lady DeMain said. “But that other one, she’s as wild as any tiger!”

  “What a fine dinner!” Lady Welles said. “The entertainment was very exciting. Well, I must go. Not,” she added, “to enlist in Miss Bingham’s organization. There are ways to master men with-out force. They’re weak creatures, after all.”

  Three days after the scene with Martha Bingham, Lady Stephanie Welles had almost forgotten it. She had told her husband, Lord Herbert, of the affair and he had grunted. “Old biddy ought to be locked up!”

  “I’m going out tonight, Herbert.” Stephanie noted that her husband was not interested enough to ask where she was going, but she was accustomed to this. She dressed and got into her carriage, saying, “Take me to the Old Vic Theatre, Alvin.”

  “Yes’m, Lady Stephanie.” He spoke to the horses and soon they were on Drury Lane. As always, the area was bustling with activity even as the sun went down over London. Although it was one of the better sections of the city, Lady Welles was slightly on edge, as always, for even here good and evil mingled. Side by side with noble ladies dressed in the finest of clothing, prostitutes with painted faces and gaudy attire paced in the flow of traffic. One expected to find harlots in the Seven Dials District or London’s notorious St. Jiles District, known as the Rookery, but here in the heart of London, the evil seemed somehow out of place to Lady Welles. The theatre crowd filled the street, all headed toward one of several playhouses. For most the destination was the Old Vic. As her carriage drew up in a line in front of the theatre, Lady Welles waited until the driver hopped down and opened the door for her. “Here we are, ma’am.”

  “Very good, Alvin. You’ll have to watch when the crowd comes out and be sure you don’t park too far away.”

  “Oh no, ma’am. I’ll be on watch for you.”

  Lady Welles reached into her reticule, pulled out a coin, and handed it to him. “Buy yourself a good dinner. It’s rather a long play, I understand.” Without waiting for a reply, she turned and moved down the street toward the entrance of the Old Vic. A line was waiting to buy tickets, but she simply walked by them, and when she reached the door, she handed the man a reservation and a one-pound note.

  “Yes, ma’am, you’re just in time.” The doorman smiled, a tall, sallow-faced man with badly fitting false teeth. “Shall I show you to your seat?”

  “That won’t be necessary, thank you.”

  As she joined the flow of people moving through the large foyer, Lady Welles attracted the eyes of both men and women. She was a graceful and strikingly beautiful woman elegantly dressed tonight in a polished blue-and-grey-striped taffeta skirt with a white silk blouse and lace ascot with a small pearl stick pin. She wore a sapphire comb in her hair and a sapphire and diamond necklace that glittered under the gaslight as she moved. Men’s eyes seemed drawn to her, but she paid no heed as she made her way. The theatre was filling rapidly, but as she moved toward her seat, she was conscious of the chandeliers blazing so brightly one could barely look at them. The women everywhere wore glamourous jewels that sparkled on arms and throats and wrists, and the colourful dresses of silk, taffeta, voile, and velvet, along with the warmth of peach- and rose-tinted costumes, gave a flaring vibrancy to the room.

  She took her seat amidst the rustle and the whisper of the fabric of her dress, conscious of the voices and of the bursts of laughter that broke out from time to time. She turned at once to the woman who was seated next to her, and as she sat down, she said with surprise, “Why, Helen, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  Lady Helen Maddox was a short, rather dumpy woman but made every attempt to compensate for her lack of graceful figure by expensive dress. She wore a crimson gown that did nothing for her rather ashen complexion, but it was beautifully cut, the full sleeves ostentatiously decorated with blue velvet bows at the shoulders. She had a pair of lively grey eyes, and when she smiled and greeted Lady Welles, there was genuine pleasure in her voice. “Why, it’s you, Stephanie,” she exclaimed. “What a pleasant surprise! I was afraid I’d have to sit by a bricklayer or some other impossible being.”

  “Then both of us are happy. I was dreading that I might have to sit beside a ranting Methodist and be preached at.”

  The two women sat there chatting, for they were old friends. Both of them were of the nobility. Lady Stephanie’s husband, Sir Herbert Welles, was a member of the House of Lords. Lady Maddox’s husband was a mere baronet whose title would cease to exist when he did the same himself. Nevertheless, they were both addressed by the title “Lady.”

  “Look over there, Stephanie,” Helen said, her eyes glittering with excitement. “Up there in the first balcony.” Stephanie looked up and at once saw what Helen was so excited about. “The Prince of Wales,” she murmured.

  “Yes, and look at that woman with him. One of his mistresses, no doubt.”

  “No doubt.”

  “I think it’s terrible!” Helen exclaimed, not taking her eyes from the heavyset man with the pointed beard and the woman who sat beside him. “The Queen is terribly disappointed in the Prince. He’s nothing but a wastrel.”

  “So the gossip goes.”

  “Oh, dear
me, it’s not gossip! He has all sorts of women, some of them noble, if you can believe it. I think the one with him is an actress.”

  Stephanie took a closer look. “She’s attractive. Rather gaudy, I should say, but better than his usual choices, I would guess.”

  The two women sat there talking about the royal family, for Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were symbols of the solidarity of the British Empire. It was well known that Victoria had fallen madly in love with the German prince, and that even after they had produced a house full of children, she was still as much in love with him as ever. Somehow this union pleased the British public. They were more accustomed to their rulers being either without morals or able to conceal their baser doings adeptly. But Queen Victoria was, indeed, a most moral and upright woman. She had none of the flamboyance of Queen Elizabeth, but she was better at this point in time for England than that redheaded, almost manlike woman had been.

  The crowd grew noisier, and nobility and working persons were strewn throughout the audience. True, some of the better seats were more expensive, but many commoners afforded them, and a duke might find himself sitting next to a mere shopkeeper. Stephanie turned to ask, “I suppose you’ve seen Macbeth?”

  “Oh, indeed, I have! I’ve been to this production three times.”

  “Why in the world would you do that?”

  Helen shook her head. “You’ll see when the play starts. It’s Dylan Tremayne who plays the leading role. He’s simply divine! I do believe he’s the best-looking man in England!”

  Stephanie was rather bored and shrugged her shoulders. “That’s part of a stock in trade of actors, isn’t it? They’re supposed to be good-looking.”

  “Oh, he’s more than fine-looking!” Helen insisted. She leaned over and talked with excitement. “He has something about him that draws your attention the minute he comes onstage, and he’s exactly the same offstage.”

  “You mean he’s sexually alluring?”

  Helen stared at Lady Stephanie. “Well, I wouldn’t have put it in exactly those words, but in a way I suppose you’re right. Women just can’t resist him.”