‘Yes,’ Luc said. ‘Now we have to work out why and how we are going to get a confession out of her.’
‘Bloody hell. Sorry.’ James cast the apology in my direction as he sat down with a thump, looking as though someone had cut the strings of a marionette. ‘But why?’
‘I think because she had fallen in love with him and something happened to make her fall out of love so violently that she was possessed with a murderous rage,’ I said. ‘Perhaps she went to him, poured out her feelings and he told her it was impossible and why.’
James shook his head. ‘Philip wouldn’t be that rash. He’d have the same repertoire of stories for dealing with women who start to fall for him as the rest of us do. He would have made a vow of celibacy after a loved one died or he’d got a secret fiancée but he’d got to win round her grandfather or he’d suffered an embarrassing wound and couldn’t possibly ask a woman to marry him.’
‘Well, whatever it is, we have to get a confession out of her and in front of reliable, neutral witnesses,’ Luc said, raking his fingers through his hair.
‘Your mother?’ I suggested. ‘With a magistrate and the Coroner behind a screen?’
‘You saw them,’ James said. ‘Can you see either of them agreeing to that?’
‘But I know who would,’ Luc said. ‘Sir William Abernathy, the magistrate who dealt with Lord Cottingham when Cassie was here before. He’s very senior, very energetic and he’ll believe us. He’s got the influence to be able to bring another reliable witness with him – I’d suggest a lawyer.’
‘How on earth do we get Miss Reece away from her parents for us to try this?’ I asked, puzzling over the logistics. ‘Her father, at least, wouldn’t let me take her out for a drive or a shopping trip, he knows I’m associated with you.’ Then I had a sudden inspiration. ‘I know – Chloe. But we’d have to tell her, I can’t involve her without letting her know what she has let herself in for in case there are repercussions.’
We all piled into the carriage and went to the Town house in the end. Lady Radcliffe was shocked, angry, then fascinated. She took the news about Coates and Talbot being lovers with merely a blink and she nodded agreement with our assessment of both Sir Thomas and Elliott’s actions and our interpretation of what had happened with Talbot.
‘I am appalled,’ she said finally. ‘The poor girl. And what about the baby?’
‘That’s been worrying me too,’ I confessed. The men all looked blank. ‘Annabelle’s baby,’ I snapped. ‘The only innocent in all of this. What’s happened to him?’
‘We will find out, Cassandra dear.’ Lady Radcliffe leaned over and patted my hand. ‘They might have arranged a perfectly respectable and kind foster home, of course, but one does hear such dreadful stories…’
I was coming to terms with being addressed as Cassandra dear by Luc’s mother when I surfaced to hear him announce he was off to find Sir William and that I had better locate Lady Turnham and secure her assistance.
‘I won’t tell her who it is about at first, not until she agrees to help,’ I said, thinking aloud. ‘I’ll go now.’
‘Garrick, go with Cassandra,’ Luc said. ‘James, with me. Mama, these are probably safest here.’ He dumped the ledgers and the transcriptions on the table. ‘With any luck we can have this solved tomorrow.’
But what happens to Annabelle, I wondered. What happens to her child?
I had expected that sitting in a closet with Sir William Abernathy, Justice of the Peace and late General in His Majesty’s armies, would be like sharing space with a firecracker. The last time I had seen him he was waving his one arm around, rattling off orders and generally behaving as though he was about to lead a cavalry charge. But now he held his tall, thin body still on the hard chair beside mine and said nothing as Percival Grainger, King’s Counsel and prominent prosecuting attorney, settled his rather podgier frame on my other side.
Then Grainger’s clerk, a thin redhead, slipped round the screen in front of us, adjusted it and curled down at our feet, notebook in hand. ‘They are coming,’ he breathed.
I felt the two men on either side of me look up, as I did, out through the open closet door, over the top of the screen, to where a mirror had been fixed high up on the wall, its slanting top touching the ceiling. To anyone with their back to it, it would be invisible but it gave us – and Garrick and the two armed men in the closet behind a screen on the opposite side of the drawing room – a clear view of the space between and of Luc’s mother sitting behind an unusua
lly substantial tea table. No-one was taking any chances with Lady Radcliffe’s safety.
I couldn’t see the doors open but I heard the butler. ‘Lady Turnham and Miss Reece, my lady.’
‘Do come in, Miss Reece. Thank you so much, Lady Turnham.’ It was a clear dismissal. Chloe knew what was going on but, just in case things went pear-shaped, we were keeping her out of the line of sight.
I saw Annabelle in the mirror now, her head turned as Chloe closed the door behind her. ‘Lady Radcliffe? I do not understand. Lady Turnham suggested we call but – ’
‘Do come and sit down, Annabelle. And have a cup of tea.’ There was, indeed a pot, but no tea urn full of scalding water. Just in case.
The habit of politeness must have brought Annabelle across the room. She sat down, her expression hidden from us. ‘Thank you.’ She took the cup and set it down immediately. ‘Lady Radcliffe?’
‘I know about the baby, dear. No, sit down again, the door is locked.’ It wasn’t, but it was a useful lie.
‘You…’
‘It must have been very distressing for you,’ Lady Radcliffe said. ‘I hope they were able to find a good home for him – that would have helped, I imagine.’
‘I… Yes. Some distant cousins. Mama heard they couldn’t have children and told them he was the son of the daughter of a friend of hers.’ Annabelle’s voice broke. ‘I met them once, they are… good people. How did you know?’