A Murdered Earl

by Marina Oliver

  Luke had made his excuses as soon as he could, despite Jenny's loudly expressed disappointment. He'd only escaped after promising to try and see her at Redditch House a few days later, and by saying he had the prospect of another post where, he thought, there was also an opening for a parlourmaid. He did silent penance for his lies as he sat on a secluded bench in Hyde Park trying to make sense of what he knew, and waiting for the time to go to Louis.

  'I don't think she has the wit to invent such a story,' he said now, helping himself from the dish of succulent portions of chicken Louis's manservant had placed on the table. They were coated with a delicate sauce, and he sniffed appreciatively. 'I miss this sort of cooking,' he said with a sigh. 'I'm sure she heard Frederick say that, but is it likely to be true?'

  'You mean it's too great a coincidence for Frederick to overhear that particular conversation? And how would he know the constables suspected such a man to deal in poisons? One can buy poison easily enough, for quite innocent purposes such as ridding a house of rats. Have some of this rice.'

  'Thank you. Yes. And would anyone as miserably cowardly as Augustus venture into Seven Dials alone? He'd be killed for his rings and fobs before he'd gone more than a few yards. And he'd never leave the house without half a dozen of each.'

  Louis nodded thoughtfully. 'Besides, if he really did have such dealings, would he speak about them where they could be overheard? It's all a lie.'

  'Which I'd have thought even Frederick would see couldn't be credible. So what did he hope to achieve by it?'

  'Frighten Augustus into making him an allowance?'

  Luke sighed. 'Perhaps. I might even ask him.'

  'Which reminds me, I have his direction. He is staying with his wife's mother in Theobalds Road.'

  'That's a little out of the way, isn't it? An unfashionable district. It's almost in the City.'

  'It's inhabited by merchants, Cits, in the main,' Louis agreed. 'She is a Lady Bates, and her late husband was a merchant, owned several ships, and given a knighthood because he supplied arms to Clive in India, I believe.'

  'Then it's no wonder both the Earl and Augustus despised her. They have no time for anyone who hasn't a title and land stretching back to the time of Elizabeth. English titles,' he added with a laugh. 'Mine goes back to Charlemagne, but it doesn't count! And her daughter is wife to the heir. Augustus must be frantically looking for a wife now, if only to cut Frederick and his brat Willie out of the succession.'

  'Before he is hauled off to the gallows?'

  Luke nodded. 'That's an interesting thought. I must go and talk to Frederick.'

  'Will he tell you the truth?'

  'Not if he knows who I am. But he only saw me briefly, and in difficult circumstances when his uncle was throwing them out of the house. My aunt assures me that no one ever looks at servants, so he's not likely to recognise me.'

  Louis laughed. 'That's probably true. I can only recall one or two of the prettier maidservants we had,' he said, smiling reminiscently. 'But how can you persuade him to talk to a stranger?'

  'I won't be just any stranger. I shall pose as one of the Bow Street thief-takers, making enquiries, and sympathetic to him. But first I need to visit my good friend Drummond again. He can tell me something about Frederick.'

  'You think he may know something to his detriment?

  'I'm certain he will. What servants, particularly upper servants like butlers, don't know the worst of their employers' secrets? And it might give me something with which I can bring pressure to bear.'

  Louis nodded. 'If he'll confide in you.'

  'He is so angry with all the Redditches I'm sure he will. He encouraged me to return. He is anxious for the gossip, even though he says he wants no more to do with Redditch House. This news would please him, I'm sure.'

  'Is it too late to go tonight?'

  'Fortunately it's not far away, and the Duke keeps late hours, he told me. If you'll excuse me I'll go now.'

  ***

  Drummond welcomed Luke as an old friend. 'Come in, do. I'll just put the rest of this silver away in the strong room, and we can taste something good,' he said, carrying a box of knives into a room which led from the pantry.

  Luke helped him, passing in the small silver bowls and the huge epergne which were placed on the shelves within. Then Drummond carefully locked the door, hung the key on a ring attached to his belt, and motioned Luke to one of the chairs drawn up to the table where cleaning cloths and polish were still set out.

  He picked up a bottle from the dresser which filled one wall. 'Come and taste this port, young fellow. The Duke claims it's musty, but I'm beginning to think his judgement is either faulty, or overnice. I'd like to sample what he considers fit to drink.'

  I'll bet you have, unless the Duke marks the level on the decanter, Luke thought, but he grinned cheerfully and pulled up a chair while the butler filled two glasses. Drummond's room, a comparatively large one well away from the kitchen and next to the baize door which led to the front of the house, was made comfortable with a couple of old chairs and a table as well as the usual cupboards and dressers.

  'You have more news for me?'

  Luke nodded, and told him what Jenny had said. Drummond raised his bushy eyebrows, then shook his head.

  'I doubt if the Viscount – I can't think of him as the Earl yet – would venture into such a district on his own.'

  'That was what I thought. But why should Frederick make up such a story?'

  'He's one who acts before he thinks of the consequences. He was always in trouble as a lad, I've heard. Mrs Murphy, the cook before Mrs Robinson, used to tell me of the foolish things he did.'

  'Just foolish? Or were they sometimes worse?'

  Drummond shook his head. 'There was once a story of some bills the Earl lost, and he accused Frederick of stealing them. But Mrs Murphy said they, that is she and the butler who was there at the time, always thought it was more likely to be Augustus or Percy.'

  'Did the three of them get on with one another? Frederick is quite a few years older, is he not?'

  'He's eight years older than Augustus, so they never had much in common. Then he married, just before I was employed there, so he'd only been in the house a few times. That caused enough trouble, years afterwards.'

  Luke waited, and Drummond refilled the glasses. Luke took a sip, and tried to look encouraging. Then Drummond chuckled.

  'I've often wished I'd been there when it happened. The old man almost had an apoplexy when he heard. They ran away, you see.'

  'Frederick and his wife? Eloped, you mean?'

  'Yes. He was only just one and twenty, and she was eighteen. And she was the daughter of a Cit. What made it worse, in the Earl's opinion, was that he'd just managed to persuade one of his friends to betroth his own daughter to Frederick.'

  'You mean he jilted this other girl?'

  'I don't know the full truth of it, but they said Frederick didn't want the match, she was as ugly as sin and several years older than he was. I don't know if it was ever announced, but the commotion was heard all over London. What offended the Earl most, I do believe, was that the woman had a fortune which would have kept Frederick, and he'd have made no more calls on the Earl's own purse.'

  'If Frederick's wife was a Cit's daughter, didn't she have money of her own?'

  'A small amount had been settled on her, but her father lost all the rest a year or so later with some bad speculation. That annoyed the Earl all over again, and I was with him then, I saw him raging for days, and swearing he wouldn't help them as Frederick had been so ungrateful as to defy him in the first place.'

  Drummond spent a further hour recalling many discreditable stories about the Redditch family, but there was nothing else which seemed helpful to Luke. At least he now knew the main reason for the quarrel between the Earl and Frederick, but he was no closer to knowing whether Augustus had a different quarrel which would cause Frederick to make such unlikely accusations. Had he appealed to Augustus for financi
al help? Was that the reason behind his malice? Or might it, unlikely as it might seem, be the truth, and Augustus had met some villain somewhere? And if he had, was it for the purpose Frederick alleged?

  ***

  On the following morning Luke went to Theobalds Road soon after breakfast. He had dressed soberly in breeches and boots and a snuff brown jacket, with a dark green waistcoat rather than the unrelieved black suit he'd always worn on duty as a valet, and hoped he looked sufficiently official to convince Frederick he was from Bow Street.

  Having located Lady Bates's house he walked slowly along the far side of the road and observed it. It looked shabbier than its neighbours, with old and peeling paint, dirty window panes, the knocker less brightly polished, and over it all a general air of neglect. Money was clearly in short supply, and he recalled the Earl's sneer that Lady Bates was angling to marry a rich Cit. Luke felt a stab of sympathy for her. Any widow left in straightened circumstances was entitled to look for a wealthy husband to take care of her.

  He took a deep breath, braced his shoulders, crossed over and lifted the knocker. Almost immediately a maidservant in a dirty apron and with mobcap askew opened the door and stared fiercely at him.

  'What d'yer want?' she demanded.

  'I have to see Mr Frederick Redditch,' he said, trying to make his tone stern.

  Somewhat to his surprise she stepped back and gestured to him to enter. The hallway was narrow, and dark, and when the maid shut the front door behind him it was difficult to make out the surroundings. The girl moved past him and opened a door to the left, which allowed a faint gleam of light to penetrate the gloom.

  'Wait in there,' she said abruptly, jerking her head, and clattered off up the stairs.

  Luke went into a small, overcrowded parlour. It was in deep gloom, the curtains open a mere slit, but he could see enough to know that he dare not move incautiously. Too many ornaments were displayed in no sort of order on too many small tables.

  Then, as his eyes grew more accustomed to the dimness, he perceived a figure seated close to the window.

  'I – I beg your pardon,' he murmured. 'I didn't realise there was anyone here.'

  The figure, he could now see that it was a female, though he could distinguish no features, turned towards him. By the shape of her, with gentle curves, it wasn't Frederick's scrawny wife, and it couldn't be her mother either, for she wore no cap.

  'Oh, please don't be concerned. I was sitting here just for a few minutes, doing nothing. Won't you sit down? Have you come to see my mother? I'm afraid she is not well, she cannot see anyone today.'

  Her voice was low, and gentle. Who on earth could she be? Luke moved cautiously towards her, avoiding the many tables, wary of overturning one of them and sending its contents smashing onto the rather worn carpet.

  He decided he didn't care to accept her invitation and trust himself to one of the spindle-legged chairs, for fear it collapsed beneath him. He moved to the window, where there was a rather larger space than elsewhere, and turned. Now, in the light from here, he could see the girl, and he caught his breath in surprise. She was beautiful, an unexpected treasure amongst the clutter and bad taste all around them. She had a delicate, heart-shaped face, framed in dark brown curls, and eyes of a startling violet looked curiously up at him.

  'I came to see Mr Redditch,' he said. 'I don't have the pleasure of your mother's acquaintance.'

  Was there someone else living here? Then he cursed himself inwardly for a fool. Her mother must be Lady Bates. Although the girl was probably no more than seventeen, that was only a dozen or so years younger than Frederick's wife. He's never considered she might have sisters, or brothers, for that matter. He looked more closely at the girl. How could she be the sister of that scrawny harridan he'd seen so briefly at Redditch Court? She was pale, as though she never saw the sun, but her eyes were a deep soft violet, the texture of velvet, and her hair, he decided, was the glossy brown of ripe chestnuts. She was slender, but had shapely curves. Superficially they had similar colouring, and perhaps Amelia had once been pretty. Marriage to Frederick, and bearing his children, could have turned even this exquisitely fragile girl into a travesty of beauty.

  She was smiling at him, revealing small pearly teeth. 'Then you are not here to dun us for money either,' she said, and he thought she breathed a sigh of relief. He felt a sudden surge of fury that such a one might be troubled by debts and such problems.

  Before he could think of anything to say, feeling like a tongue-tied adolescent to be struck dumb by such loveliness, Frederick appeared. He wore a brightly coloured and patterned dressing robe over shirt and breeches. He had not yet shaved, and displayed dark stubble showing a few flecks of grey.

  'Well?' he asked, not attempting to come far into the room, or offer Luke a seat. 'Bella, what the devil are you doing here? Go to help Amelia with the children, they are being fractious as usual. And she wants you to exercise her dog, he hasn't been out this morning. If you refuse to give us the help we most require of you, you can assist us in small things, I would imagine.'

  The girl suppressed a faint sigh and rose to her feet. She cast a wistful glance towards the street outside, then nodded briefly to Luke and went submissively from the room. Frederick watched her go, a grim look on his face. 'Well, and what do you want with me? It's inconvenient to be interviewing tradesmen so early in the day,' he complained, swinging round to Luke, the skirts of his dressing gown catching and rocking a small figure of a shepherdess.

  Luke saw the shepherdess settle back into her place and released the breath he had been holding. He dragged his mind back to the business which has brought him here.

  'Mr Frederick Redditch? Cousin to his Lordship, the Earl of Redditch?' Luke asked, and breathed a sigh of relief that his voice sounded normal.

  'What of it?'

  'Bow Street, sir. We understand you have some information which might assist in determining how the late Earl died.'

  Frederick looked startled, and then nodded slowly. 'So you're looking into it at last, are you? I must confess I am pleasantly surprised. But the way the constables and the magistrate in that parish treated me when I first made the accusation I wasn't expecting anyone to take any notice of me. It's always the way, money obtains influence, whatever the truth of the matter.'

  'The accusation, if I have it right, is something you saw your cousin do?' Luke prompted. 'You have information, Sir?'

  'Yes, I do,' Frederick replied, then halted as if unsure of how to proceed.

  Frederick came a little further into the room and sat on one of the fragile chairs. 'Sit down,' he said, gesturing to another, and seeing that it bore the other's weight Luke did so. 'Do? Yes, and what I heard him say! The miserable cur was plotting to poison his own father! I actually heard him purchase the poison.'

  'In Seven Dials, I understand?'

  Frederick nodded.

  'How did you, a gentleman, come to be in such an area?' Luke asked, permitting a hint of incredulity to enter his voice.

  Frederick bridled. 'I don't normally frequent such dubious places, but I'd seen my cousin earlier, coming out of his club, as it happens. Not one of the better clubs, I might add. It has a spurious air of respectability, but is known as little more than a gambling hell. I followed him. I needed some private speech with him.'

  'Yes?' To ask for money, no doubt, Luke assumed, but it was unlikely Frederick would admit that, and it wasn't of importance. What did matter was the truth of the rest of it.

  'He walked fast, took a hackney, and I had difficulty keeping up with it. It was because of this I didn't at first realise where we were. It is not a district familiar to me.'

  'You must have been out of breath, sir, if you ran so far after the hackney.'

  'Yes. Then it set Augustus, my cousin, down, and I saw where we were. I tried to speak to him, I wanted to urge him to come away, but before I could reach him he'd stopped and was talking to this ruffianly looking man.'

  'You must have feared for
him.'

  'I did. That's why I crept closer, ready to intervene if he was attacked.'

  'And no doubt that's how you came to overhear what they were talking about?' Luke suggested. It was neat, he'd thought it out well, if it was a lie.

  'Yes. I could scarce believe it. Augustus asked if it was there, and if there was enough. The villain, a big ugly fellow, laughed, handed over a small packet, and said there was plenty to kill a man.'

  'Could you describe him? Or recognise him again?'

  'No, he wore a muffler round his face.'

  Of course, he would, Luke thought. 'You said he was big, and ugly. How could you tell that if you couldn't see his face?'

  Frederick looked offended. 'Do you doubt my word?'

  'Of course not, sir. I just wondered how you knew,' Luke said smoothly.

  Frederick grunted. 'Well, he was big, you can't disguise that. And he hunched his shoulders and poked his head forward. That must be why I thought him ugly.'

  'Why did you not ask your cousin what he had?'

  'I meant to, but as soon as he left that dreadful alley he hailed another hackney, and I was so weary I could not chase it. Besides I knew I could ask him the next day, if I called at Redditch House. I'll never forgive myself, for by the time I did it was too late. But I swear I had no notion of what he intended. How could I? A man I've known all his life, my own cousin!'

  'The man who supplied the poison mentioned killing a man,' Luke pointed out.

  'Yes, but I thought that was just some dreadful jest of the kind such a ruffian would make.'

  'Did either of them mention what the package contained?'

  'No. How could I possibly imagine it was something like cyanide? I wasn't even sure it was poison, it was hard to believe.'

  'So in fact your cousin might have received something else after all?' Luke suggested.

  'I suppose it's possible, but unlikely. And he denies ever being there, in Seven Dials. So unless someone else who saw him comes forward it is his word against mine, and we all know the world believes the man with money and position!'

  'How did you come to say that the man was known to the constables as a purveyor of poisons?'