‘And what will you do?’
James removed one hand from the reins and scratched the back of his neck. ‘I need to get to the bottom of Porter’s involvement in this business, always assuming he is involved.’
‘You think he’s still out to make trouble for Darcy?’
‘I cannot afford to ignore the possibility. Porter spent his formative years constantly being told that he had been hard done by at the hands of the Darcys. He’s also ambitious and has an eye for Miss Darcy.’
‘Ah, so that’s why you’ve decided not to give him the benefit of the doubt.’
James shot his friend a withering look. ‘You know better than that.’
‘Do I?’ Dawlish seemed unaffected by the level of ire in James’s expression.
‘His interest in Miss Darcy acts in his favour. He knows he’s got an uphill struggle in front of him if he hopes to win her hand.’
Dawlish looked astounded. ‘You imagine he’s thinking in those terms?’
‘There are no other terms when it comes to a gal with so many influential connections. If his thoughts run in that direction, he needs to do something exceptional to impress both father and daughter. It’s his only hope. Working with the forger would at best see him dismissed.’
‘So we need to decide how to keep Covington’s steward under observation in the hope that he will lead us to the forger.’
‘I don’t see how we can do that. We can’t get onto the estate and I doubt whether Covington has the forger hidden away on his own land.’
‘What about the pretty governess?’
‘What about her?’ James replied, riding into his own stables, dismounting and attending to Gladiator’s needs himself.
‘She’s the one who recognised Bevan from Italy,’ Dawlish replied, removing his horse’s saddle. ‘Perhaps she will have some ideas.’
‘I can’t talk to her without raising suspicion.’
‘No,’ Dawlish said, grinning, ‘but your Miss Darcy can.’
‘I will not involve her.’ James led Gladiator into his stall and commenced rubbing him down. ‘There has to be another way.’
‘Her brother.’ Dawlish’s voice rose up from the adjacent stall. ‘You tell me he seems keen on Miss Stoughton.’
‘It’s tricky.’ James put his brush aside and filled Gladiator’s manger with fresh hay. ‘I don’t want to overset Mrs Darcy, or Darcy himself for that matter, by mentioning Covington’s connection to Bevan and Porter’s suspicious meeting with Covington’s steward.’
Both men emerged from their horses’ stalls and walked back to the house together. ‘I see your point, but something has to be done.’
James sighed. ‘I’ll go to Pemberley this afternoon, see if I can corner Spence and ask him if he has any suggestions.’
‘Right you are.’ Dawlish sent James a look that bordered on sympathetic. ‘But you have more immediate problems to wrestle with.’
James didn’t pretend to misunderstand. ‘Beatrice,’ he said resignedly.
‘Quite so. What do you intend to do about her? Her arrival here cannot be a coincidence.’
‘Oh, it is not but I’ve made it clear I don’t want her here.’
Dawlish banked up the fire. ‘You might have been better advised to appear pleased to see her—’
‘What makes you suppose that I wasn’t?’
Dawlish straightened up from his task, brushed his hands against his thighs and fixed James with a probing look. ‘It’s me you’re talking to.’
‘You noticed my reaction because you are the only person who suspects my true feelings for Beatrice, or lack thereof.’ James let out a slow breath. ‘But we all have our cross to bear and until I decide what—’
‘Ah, so you’re finally coming to your senses.’ Dawlish brightened considerably.
James looked away. ‘You know that I am not free to please myself.’
Dawlish shook his head. ‘Well, if you want my advice…’
James rolled his eyes. ‘Doubtless I will get it, asked for or not.’
‘And free of charge, too!’ But, for once, Dawlish wasn’t smiling. He actively disliked Beatrice, even though he had initially pretended that James would be insane not to snap her up. James imagined he had taken that line as a means of warning James off when he was at the height of his infatuation with the heiress and wouldn’t hear a word against her. James had been too besotted to take heed, until he was in too deep to do anything about it. ‘Anyway, women are perverse creatures and the quickest way to send her on her way is to pretend you don’t want her to go.’
‘Well, I’m not going to see her. I told her I didn’t have the time to spare for her.’
‘Sometimes I despair of you.’ Dawlish threw up his hands. ‘Now she will wonder why you are here. She probably wondered anyway, which is why she came. No doubt she imagines your affections are on the wane.’
‘I haven’t done or said anything to give that impression.’
‘Not consciously perhaps, but you had started to withdraw from her in little ways before we left London. You were less attentive, grasped at the smallest excuse not to see her—’
‘Good God, was it so obvious?’
‘All I’m saying is that she won’t carry on her way until she is reassured that you have not transferred your affections. Not that I believe she intended to travel any further than Derbyshire anyway. You will have to make your mind up about her and do it fast, James.’
James let out an exasperated sigh. ‘I can’t think about Beatrice’s unrelenting demands now. I shall concentrate upon my reasons for being here and deal with that problem when we return to London.’
Dawlish looked set to argue, but clearly recognised from James’s fierce expression that the subject was not open to debate and wisely reminded silent on the point.
ᴥᴥᴥ
Susie arrived back at Pemberley just as the rest of the household was beginning to stir. She changed into the morning gown Mary laid out for her and asked for refreshments to be sent up. Since clearing her conscience her appetite had returned. She ate slowly, thinking about the events of the morning, relieved at James’s reaction to her lack of discretion. But that relief couldn’t allay her worries over the possibility of Tobias’s involvement with the fraudsters. It simply couldn’t be! Until anyone could prove otherwise, she decided, her appetite evaporating again beneath the burden of her thoughts, she would continue to believe that Tobias was a reformed character.
Thus resolved, Susie made her way downstairs and found her mother where she always was at such an hour, in the small parlour that overlooked a pretty courtyard that attracted the morning sunshine.
‘Good morning, my dear.’ Mama smiled up at Susie as she bent over her chair to kiss her brow. ‘I hear you were up with the lark.’
‘I couldn’t sleep so went to see Mirabelle.’
‘I thought you might have done.’
Susie flopped into the chair opposite her mother. ‘Well, parties must be discussed at length after the event. You have told me so often enough yourself. God forbid that one of us should forget to relay some vital piece of information.’
Mama laughed. ‘My own mother was the worst offender in that regard. When Mr Bingley and your father first came to Hertfordshire, Mama was in alt because at the first assembly those gentlemen attended, Mr Bingley danced twice with your aunt Jane.’
‘Which shows great good judgement and constancy on his part.’ Susie sent her mother a shrewd look. ‘I assume Papa danced with you and you fell madly in love with him.’
‘Not a bit of it. He thought me merely tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt him.’
‘No!’
Mama chuckled. ‘Ask him yourself if you doubt me.’
‘Well, he came to his senses and I dare say you haven’t permitted him to forget his bad manners in describing you thus.’
‘You may depend upon it.’ Mama gave Susie her full attention. ‘And since Mr Tyrell’s arrival is an event every bit a
s monumental as that which your papa and Mr Bingley had upon Hertfordshire society, I assume you and Mirabelle discussed that gentleman.’
‘Oh, Mira only has eyes for my brother but despairs of him ever noticing her.’
‘I believe Marc is well aware of your friend’s existence but he is not yet ready to turn his thoughts in a similar direction to Mirabelle’s.’
‘Would you mind if he did?’
‘If Mirabelle became the next mistress of Pemberley?’ Mama took a moment to consider the question—but only a moment. ‘Not in the least. I like her very much and I consider her eminently suitable for the role. She is sensible, not given to putting on airs and understands the mechanisms of running a large house, to say nothing of Derbyshire society. Be that as it may, it is not my opinion that signifies.’
‘I told her to ignore him and devote her attention to other gentlemen. It is the surest way I can think of to make Marc sit up and take notice.’
‘How very wise of you.’ Mama put her sewing aside. ‘But what of you? What did you make of Miss Fleming?’
Susie screwed up her nose. ‘I didn’t take to her at all. Your claim that Mira doesn’t put on airs is true, and is one of the reasons why we get along so well. Miss Fleming, on the other hand…well—’
‘I agree with you. She is undeniably beautiful but that doesn’t give her the right to put herself above her company, especially since she was not specifically invited to join our soiree in the first place.’
‘She seems determined to have Mr Tyrell.’
‘And if Mr Tyrell is not sensible enough to realise that looks fade but personalities seldom change with the passage of time, then they deserve one another.’
‘Poor Mr Tyrell,’ Susie said, sighing.
‘Speaking of whom, I hope he will call to see us today. I would be interested to know if any of our neighbours seemed discomposed by his unexpected appearance amongst us, most specifically Sir Robert.’ Mama shook her head. ‘I still find it hard to believe that he would involve himself in anything so tawdry. If it turns out that he has done so, I shall quite lose faith in human nature, and my ability to judge character.’
‘I have always liked Sir Robert.’ Susie leaned her chin on her fist and stared abstractedly out of the window. ‘I observed him at various points during the evening and he appeared to be his usual affable self. If he is behaving dishonourably then he might be better advised to consider a career in Drury Lane because he was very convincingly innocent.’
‘I agree that Sir Robert is incapable of duplicity, which is why I find it so hard to look upon him as a suspect. Anyway, always supposing that the forger is hiding out here in Derbyshire—and we have no proof that he is,’ Mama said in a speculative tone, ‘then it will be nigh on impossible to track him down if he doesn’t wish to be found.’
‘Not necessarily, Mama,’ Susie replied, brightening as possibilities occurred to her. ‘An artist requires seclusion and good light in order to work effectively. But he must also eat in order to keep body and soul together.’
‘Ah, I see what you mean.’ Mama nodded in a considering fashion. ‘He might be living in an out-of-the-way place, but someone must be cooking his meals and making his fires. Someone who is being paid well to keep their own counsel, otherwise word would have leaked out by now.’
Susie had an uncomfortable feeling about Tobias, well aware how easy it would be for him to fulfil such a role.
‘If the forger is here then it follows that the mastermind must be someone in the area who wants to keep a weather eye on their asset,’ Susie speculated, warming to her theme. ‘That person will have hidden the forger on his estate, perhaps, or in a disused, outlying farm building. We simply need to ask the right questions of the right people.’
And Susie had a good idea where to start.
ᴥᴥᴥ
All the family was in the drawing room when James called at Pemberley that afternoon.
‘Thank you so very much for taking so much trouble on my behalf last night, Mrs Darcy,’ he said when he had greeted everyone, doing his level best not to show Susie any favouritism. ‘It is greatly appreciated.’
‘You are entirely welcome,’ she replied graciously. ‘But was it any help? Are you any further forward with your investigation? Do you have any suspects?’
‘My wife, as you can probably tell,’ Darcy said with amusement, ‘fancies herself as a sleuth.’
‘Certainly I do.’ Mrs Darcy sent her husband a teasing smile. ‘If one of our neighbours is a villain, I intend to do my part to bring him to justice.’
‘If Mama has made that decision,’ Susie said, grinning, ‘the perpetrator of these crimes is as good as hanged.’
‘Does a forger hang for his crimes?’ Marc asked.
‘I have no idea,’ Susie replied affably. ‘It was merely a figure of speech. However, I feel persuaded that he ought to. I mean, people get hanged for stealing to feed their families, and they do that out of necessity. Committing crimes to feather one’s own nest seems far more iniquitous to my way of thinking.’
‘Well, you will be pleased to know that I have dismissed Sir Robert from my list of suspects.’
James went on to tell them about his visit to that gentleman and the conclusions they had drawn from it.
‘I am relieved to learn of Sir Robert’s innocence, but not surprised,’ Darcy said. ‘And we now have a plausible explanation for Bevan’s presence in his house.’ He sent James a speculative look. ‘You are thinking, I would imagine, that Bevan contrived to have his uncle and aunt break their journey in this part of the world because the forger is hiding out somewhere close by and he needed to check with him. I mean, if he is responsible for collecting the forgeries and delivering them to purchasers, he could hardly entrust that task to anyone else, nor could he afford to be seen too often hereabouts without drawing attention to himself. But if he is a member of a house party, no one will spare him a second glance.’
‘It seems the logical conclusion to draw,’ James agreed. ‘He stayed with Sir Robert less than three months ago, but that gentleman didn’t remember him at all.’
‘Bevan made the mistake of becoming too greedy,’ Marc mused. ‘I believe it’s a fairly common failing amongst thieves. I imagine he fell into conversation with two of Sir Robert’s other guests, saw an opportunity to sell them forgeries and grasped it. He did not stop to consider that by so doing, he drew the attention to himself that he has been at pains to avoid.’
‘Over-confidence,’ Darcy said. ‘It happens when fraudsters become victims of their own success. And he must have been confident because the two men who purchased those forgeries, the ones you found out about, Tyrell, knew who Bevan was and where to find him. He took an almighty risk.’
‘That’s a good point, Mr Tyrell,’ Susie said. ‘But clearly they did not reveal that information when you found out about the forgeries. I wonder why not.’
‘Presumably because they felt foolish to have been duped. They took the loss but wanted the pater to know that someone was impersonating his work. It was good of them. They need not have done so.’
‘Could it be that Bevan arranged to meet those guests here for the purpose of supplying them with the pictures and the forger is somewhere else entirely?’ Marc asked.
‘Susie and I were discussing the matter this morning,’ Mrs Darcy said. ‘We are agreed that if the forger is doing his work in this part of the world then he must be supported by someone with influence.’
James glanced at Susie, fairly sure that their thoughts of the subject coincided. Pemberley was vast, with any number of remote cottages and outbuildings. Porter was trainee steward—steward in all but name, in actual fact, since Susie had told him that the man he would be replacing was beginning to put more and more responsibility upon Porter’s shoulders—and had ultimate control over those buildings. The forger could remain concealed on the estate for a year and the Darcys most likely would be none the wiser. But surely even someone as brazen as Port
er wouldn’t take such a massive risk?
James had no idea how extensive Covington’s estate was, but that was more likely to be where the man was concealed. James urgently needed to speak with Spence alone and beg him to pay a visit to Miss Stoughton so that they could devise a means to search the land. But he could not make the suggestion in front of the Darcys without revealing Porter’s possible involvement—something he ardently hoped would prove to be unnecessary.
‘That is a distinct possibility,’ James agreed.
‘Well then, you must make use of my sons,’ Darcy said. ‘Well, Spence at any rate. Marc and I have estate affairs to keep us occupied but I dare say Spence will be happy enough to show you around the area.’ He noticed Mr and Mrs Darcy exchange a nod, as though glad to have found a useful occupation for their son. ‘He knows all the estates in the district, can give you chapter and verse on their owners, and will be aware of some of the more likely hideaways.’
‘As boys, we neighbours spent many a happy hour turning one another’s estates into battlegrounds,’ Marc said, presumably in response to James’s blank look. ‘It was almost a rite of passage.’
‘Even so,’ Susie said. ‘It will be near impossible to narrow the search down simply by riding around the area.’
‘Fear not, little sister,’ Spence said with a lazy smile. ‘Tyrell and I between us will think of something.’
‘Do stay and dine with us, Mr Tyrell,’ Mrs Darcy said, ‘if you are not otherwise engaged, of course. Miss Fleming—’
‘Thank you, ma’am, I should be delighted, if you consider me fit to be seen at your dining table, dressed as I am.’
Mrs Darcy smiled. ‘You’ll do.’
He made no comment upon Mrs Darcy’s reference to Beatrice and the rest of the company was too polite to pursue it. The ladies went up to change, Darcy and Marc excused themselves and James and Spence were alone.
‘I’m glad of a chance to speak with you,’ James said.
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