by Joan Smith
He smiled, swallowing all his anger. When he spoke, his voice was as dulcet as ever. “How is Deirdre this morning?” he asked.
“What, you mean you haven’t been to see her? Strange behavior from a suitor! Why, she’ll take the notion you are setting up a flirtation with me!” She laughed merrily at this idea, revealing a full complement of yellow teeth.
“It’s a temptation,” he replied with a small but extremely winsome smile.
Breeding: there was nothing like it, she approved silently. Belami would be an unfaithful husband, but he would at least take the time and bother to conceal it from his wife. “My niece was dreadfully upset last night,” she invented. “She is a sensitive girl, not the brassy sort of chit too often foisted upon a gentleman. She felt it, your not making a point of being here.” She took a bite of egg and chewed carefully, for her molars were no longer so firmly anchored as they had once been. Even a piece of soft bread or egg could cause a bothersome wobble.
At least she did not say “How could you?” “Did you notice anything striking or unusual about the man who took your diamond?” he asked.
“He was about the size of you,” she answered with no particular emphasis. “He moved lightly, quickly—certainly not an old man. His hair looked dark under the stocking. Every inch of his body was covered, even his hands. He wore black pantaloons and black patent slippers, as nearly everyone at the ball did. Actually, Herr Bessler wore silk stockings and breeches. He continues the old customs. The thief was a boor. He wrenched the thing from my neck, leaving a bruise as big as my fist. It’s fortunate I wear high necks to my gowns. I don’t know how the ladies can stand the winter winds across their necks and shoulders. I can tell you nothing more I was too shocked.”
“A most regrettable incident. Once more, I offer my sincere apologies. I must go now. I hope you will be able to join us belowstairs today.”
“As to that,” she said, lying back with a comfortable sigh, “I am not at all sure I shall. It has taken its toll on this wreck of a body, but you might send Bessler to me later, in about an hour. He will read to me. You are going to see Deirdre now?” she asked in an imperative way.
“I expect she will be at breakfast by now,” he prevaricated, and left with a graceful bow, to descend to the breakfast room.
Deirdre was indeed at the table, though the empty plate before her indicated she had not bothered to order any breakfast. A fairly sleepless night had left its calling card on her face, in the form of half moons under her eyes, in a hazy opal shade of blue. Looking at her with this trace of dissipation, Belami was struck anew at how attractive the woman could be, if only she were not so full of rectitude.
Belami ignored Pronto, who was also at the table. He bowed and mumbled the absurdity of, “Good morning, ma’am. I hope you enjoyed a good night’s sleep.”
“Yes, a wonderful sleep,” she answered ironically, suppressing a yawn behind her fingers. “All forty-five minutes of it. Quite delightful.”
“I have been to see the duchess,” he said, thinking this at least would please the woman. His thinking automatically shifted from girl to woman, when there were blue circles beneath a woman’s eyes.
“That would account for the mood you are in.”
“We had an interesting talk,” he said, ignoring her taunt.
“That is good news. I trust she conveyed to you that any notion of an alliance between us is now over.”
“That was not the tenor of our talk. I said interesting, not satisfying, not pleasing, not what you and I could wish for. No, she informed me that she would not abuse my sensitivities by refusing cash reimbursement for the stolen jewel, and that this regrettable incident in no way hampers her plan for our marriage. Neither, I might add, did she indicate you had shown any wish to call off.”
“I could hardly discuss it with her when she was in a state of shock!”
“Eh?” Pronto asked, setting his cup in his saucer without quite smashing either vessel. His companions looked at him, then at each other, in surprise. Pronto’s beady eyes were focused on the lady; they were brimming with the deepest suspicion. “Insured!” he declared.
“We hoped this might ensure an end to the engagement.” Belami said.
“Hear, hear,” Deirdre agreed heartily.
“Eh?” Pronto demanded again. “Not the deuced engagement. The necklace—it was insured.”
“How very strange your aunt neglected to mention it,” Belami said, his head turning to stare at Deirdre. The news so cheered him that he picked up a fork and ate a bite of gammon, without once removing his accusing eyes from the lady.
She was annoyed with herself for being unable to halt the flush that rose up from her neck to engulf her face. “It’s true the necklace was insured,” she admitted.
Pronto went on to pinpoint the transaction more closely. “Bidwell, it was, mentioned it last night.”
“How would Bidwell know?” Belami asked.
“His uncle Carswell has the policy. I fancy Bidwell wasn’t half sorry to see the thing nabbed, though he’d have thought better of it by now.”
“Carswell, the Lloyd’s agent?” Belami asked.
“The same,” Pronto told him. Deirdre nodded her head in agreement.
“He’s Bidwell’s uncle, you say? It’s Carswell who will have to pay it out of his own pocket. The Lloyd’s agents are all independent dealers.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Pronto,” Deirdre said. “Bidwell is Carswell’s heir. Carswell has no one else to leave his fortune to. Why should Bidwell be glad his uncle had the policy?”
“Just what I meant. Said he’d have thought better of it by now. He’s the one will be out the thirty thousand in the long haul. Daresay he’s in the sullens this morning. Chirping merry enough last night, but he’d be down to earth by now.”
Belami listened, arranging and rearranging these facts to look for a meaningful pattern. “But Carswell isn’t an old man. Bidwell couldn’t look for anything in the way of an inheritance for a couple of decades.”
“Very true,” Pronto agreed, “but eventually . . .”
“Eventually he may not lose a sou,” Deirdre announced blandly.
Belami looked surprised. “Why, thank you, ma’am. I didn’t realize you had such confidence in my powers of solving the case.”
“That was not my meaning, Belami. The fact is, the insurance policy expired at midnight. It will be for the courts to decide whether Carswell is liable for it.”
“Why did your aunt let it lapse?” he asked.
“It was prohibitively expensive.”
“I see. Pockets to let, eh? Ten or so pounds a year was too steep for her. Well, well, this puts a new light on the matter.” There was some insinuation in his tone that Pronto could not fathom. Whatever it meant, Deirdre had pokered up like a ramrod. Her eyes were shooting sparks at Belami. Soon she arose from her seat and stood rigid, staring at him.
“Are you daring to suggest that my aunt acted in collusion with someone to have her necklace stolen?” she demanded.
“What a shocking thing for you to say, my dear,” Belami replied, rising languidly to his feet. He had some strange admixture of courtesy and bad manners that permitted him to say or imply the most monstrous things, but do it with all outward show of politeness. When a lady stood, he would not retain his seat, even if he was calling her a scoundrel. “Really, that is a most dangerous notion for you to be bruiting about. We did not hear the lady, Pronto.”
“I heard her. Ain’t deaf,” Pronto countered. “Her aunt colluded to pinch the glass herself, for the insurance money, then tried to weasel payment out of you as well. Dashed clever scheme. Old Charney is up to all the rigs, but we still don’t know who was wrapped up in the sheet and stocking. Wasn’t Knag, and that I do know. You never wore gloves when you was scaring the servants.”
“Why don’t we sit down and finish our breakfast?” Belami suggested pleasantly. How obliging of Pronto to say all those things civility prevented him from
saying himself.
Deirdre thumped angrily back into her chair, while Belami resumed his in a more graceful fashion, gliding gently into it, as though wafted by a zephyr.
“This is utterly ridiculous. Preposterous!” Deirdre declared, her white hand thumping the table to reinforce her position. “My aunt would not wait till the very last minute to have done it, if it were her intention to claim insurance money. And why would she have arranged it to occur at a ball? To have it burgled from the London house, or while traveling in the carriage, or from her bedroom here would be much easier.”
“I see you have canvassed the options open to her,” Belami mentioned casually. “I expect the insurance companies are reluctant to insure jewels—so easy to lose or have stolen, in any of the ways you mentioned. I have heard of their refusing to honor claims, due to those suspicious circumstances. A jewel stolen, and seen to have been stolen by a roomful of witnesses, of course, is quite a different matter. It would be impossible to renege, I should think, without being hauled into court.”
“It would not be reneging if the policy had lapsed,” Deirdre fired back. “And it very likely had. The clock was striking twelve at the precise moment, the ugly old long-case clock in the hallway. It may have been a few minutes slow.”
“You mean fast, surely. And can you possibly be referring to my exquisite green lacquered clock with the painted panels, by Edward Moore, of Norwich?” Belami inquired, amazed at her description of this priceless objet d’art.
“I mean that ugly piece of merchandise with the balls and fins on top of it, like a Chinese pagoda!” she snapped back.
“The Edward Moore! She actually calls my Moore an ugly piece of merchandise,” he told Pronto, who sniffled and poured another cup of coffee.
“Was never fond if it myself,” Pronto admitted.
“You never claimed to have any taste. I expected better of Miss Gower. It keeps perfect time, by the by. I tend to the regulation of it myself, the balancing of the pendula—there are more than one—the oiling, and so on. It is a very precise clock. If it was chiming, then it was past midnight.”
“In that case you can hardly claim my aunt arranged the theft to profit from the insurance.”
“But I didn’t suggest it, my dear. It was you who first cast such a wicked aspersion on Her Grace. Downright ungrateful, I call it, after all she has done for you. And will do still upon her demise. You are her heiress, n’est-ce pas?”
“Now you’re saying I did it!”
“Not in the least. How you do jump about, from accusation to accusation, with no basis. I am merely pointing out that Her Grace would not live to enjoy much of the thirty thousand pounds, whereas you will have the benefit of it. You did not care for the necklace, if memory serves. A gaudy lump, I seem to remember hearing you call it.”
“Ac-tually I was in the ballroom when it was stolen,” she reminded him.
“I did not mean to suggest you worked alone. An accomplice of more or less my own size and height was required. You don’t suppose folks will take the notion we contrived it together, do you?” he asked, smiling at this whimsical idea. “No, impossible. No one would think me foolish enough to steal it when the policy had elapsed.”
“I doubt very much it would occur to anyone but you that I was involved,” she said. “It is known well enough, however, that you have suffered severe losses recently at the gaming tables.
“True. Very true.”
Pronto snorted into his collar. “Rubbish. Won a monkey at Whites t’other night. Never lost a guinea. Luckiest gambler I ever saw. Only put about he lost to sour old Char—Heh, heh.” He subsided into silence as he became aware he was being glared at.
“Pronto, dear boy,” Belami said, “would you be so terribly kind as to—ah, see if Mama is, ah, up yet?”
“Yes, Pronto, do see if Lady Belami is up yet, before you blurt out that His Lordship only pretended he was dipped, to prevent my aunt from forcing me to marry him,” Deirdre said, directing her speech over Pronto’s head to Belami.
“Well, I will see if Bertie’s up yet if you like,” Pronto answered amiably, “but it ain’t likely she is. Never does get up before noon.” He picked up a piece of toast and wandered from the room, muttering to himself. “Believe I put my foot in it. Didn’t mean any harm.”
As soon as he was gone, Belami directed a fierce, white-lipped look at Deirdre. “What do you mean, forcing you to marry me!”
As there had been nothing but persuasions brought to bear on her, she twitched guiltily. “You know perfectly well what I mean.”
“I’m afraid I do not.”
“How could I refuse when—when I . . .”
“When you are well over twenty, and no one else offered, you mean?” he goaded.
“That’s not true! I had plenty of offers my first season.”
‘‘But that was many seasons ago.”
“Plenty since too! Twombley offered last season. And never mind saying he’s an old man, Belami. He’s only ten years older than you.”
“Yes, dear heart, but I already am ten years your senior, nearly.”
“Seven years.
“Seven and a half. Did you have anything to do with this curst robbery? Did you arrange it to embarrass me because I didn’t come to the party?”
“Certainly not! I was delighted you stayed away.”
“I would have been here if I’d had the least suspicion of this robbery.”
“Of course you would. The least aroma of crime or any indecent behavior will always draw you like a fly to carrion, whereas common courtesy to your fiancée and your family are neglected. Birds of a feather roost together,” she finished, flouncing her shoulders.
Belami listened punctiliously, his face showing no emotion but boredom. When she finished, he asked, “Why does Bidwell dislike his uncle Carswell, do you happen to know?”
“I have no idea.”
“The relationship, if I recall aright, is on Lady Carswell’s side. Lady Carswell used to be a Bidwell. She’s dead, of course. Why would Bidwell think he is to get Carswell’s money? Only an in-law sort of relationship.”
“Pronto knows more about it than I do. Why don’t you ask him? When he’s finished verifying that your mother is still sound asleep, I mean.”
“You don’t want to marry me, Deirdre, and I don’t want to marry you. That is why I put about the story I was dipped, to call Charney off.”
“Then why did you offer for me?”
“Why did you accept?”
“I claim temporary insanity,” she said. “I have no objection to your sharing the excuse. We are both sane now, however.”
“You’ve had three weeks of studious neglect. It was enough reason to return you to sanity before now.”
“I couldn’t jilt you. It would look horrid.”
“No, it would not much tarnish the glow of rectitude that enshrouds you. Your reputation would benefit from a suggestion of levity, my dear, whereas a gentleman can less easily call off.”
“Yes, especially when he already has a string of jiltees to his discredit.”
“I never jilted anyone. A misunderstanding arose between me and Miss Mersey.”
“The misunderstanding being that she thought a fiancé would call upon her occasionally, and not call on quite so many other ladies.”
“I meant to be here before midnight last night,” he said in a mildly apologetic tone.
“Midnight? You knew we arrived three days ago! You should have been waiting for us, as you did not see fit to offer us your escort.”
“I offered to accompany you.”
“You knew my aunt wouldn’t let me come alone in a curricle with you. That’s the only reason you offered.”
“If I am such a dangerous fellow that I couldn’t control my base impulses for a half day in an open carriage, why did she encourage me to dangle after you?”
“Because she thought a good wife would cure you of your . . . ways.”
“I am touched b
y this solicitude on Her Grace’s part, and on your own, as I am left to assume you shared her views. It is misguided solicitude. I have no intention of changing my ways. A ‘good wife’ rarely drives a man to anything but distraction, but I suppose one must appear to accept that you actually believed that bit of impertinent nonsense. I wonder if your concern would have been as great if the sinner did not come with a fortune and title.”
“Believe what you like—it is immaterial to me—but I tell you now that despite the fortune and the title, I will not marry you. My turning you off at this moment is impossible. It is tantamount to saying I accuse you of stealing my aunt’s diamond. I don’t know whether you had anything to do with it or not, but after the affair is settled, our engagement will be terminated as noiselessly as possible.”
“And I will thank you, as quietly or as noisily as you wish.”
“You are entirely welcome, I promise you.”
“And we are still left with the riddle of how we ever got engaged in the first place,” he said wearily.
“The sooner we can solve this case, the sooner we can become unengaged. I mean to speak to Bidwell and see if I can learn anything from him. He and Chamfreys were out of the room at midnight.”
“Good enough. I’ll speak to Lenore.”
“I thought you would,” she answered with a sardonic grimace which he mistook for a smile.
She arose and strode briskly from the room. Belami arose with her, then sat down again, looking after her. The item that caught his interest was her walk. Deirdre didn’t walk like a prude, as one would expect her to. She undulated, her hips weaving from side to side like a real woman. So far as he could tell, the only feminine bones in her body were in her hips.
Ah, well, it would soon be over. He’d be rid of her, once and for all. Bidwell or some man-milliner like him would marry her. They could undulate together. Bidwell walked like a woman too. Odd that she chose to go and talk to Bidwell. What was there to learn from him? They already knew he was Carswell’s nephew and heir. This was just an excuse for putting herself in his way, now that she had jilted himself. She certainly wasn’t wasting a minute. That at least she shared with other women. She could have waited till they had announced the termination of the engagement.
