“This is very serious.” Colonel Fitzwilliam stepped between them, motioning Caroline back. “If Mrs. Scott is telling the truth, then the only thing we have against Mr. Belvedere are his suspicious letters of recommendation. I don’t feel at all comfortable turning him over on such pretext.”
“Never said a truer word in your life,” said Mr. Belvedere, with a hopeful edge.
“However,” he went on, “I’m afraid Mrs. Scott’s word is not enough. No disrespect, ma’am, but your actions have not been above board—so to speak—and we cannot take such serious accusations on faith.”
“Obviously not!” cried Lady Marston.
“But it’s not an—accusation, precisely,” Sophia said. “This is a confession. Isn’t that enough?”
“Er, no,” said Captain Wentwoth, squeezing Anne’s hand, for she had clutched onto him for support. “Your story places Lady Marston at the center of the plot, and we still have no evidence or even logic to support it.”
“We’re not averse to helping you,” Caroline added, “but we must understand. Why would Lady Marston be so desperate? What information did she destroy?”
Sophia shook her head. “I hardly know. I don’t fully understand it myself.”
Captain Wentworth turned to Sir Mark. “What do you say, then? It is your business more than anyone’s.”
“Well—I say—I mean, it’s what my lady has said! Obviously a pack of nonsense.”
“That is what youwouldsay,” Sophia shot back. “You will always follow where she leads.”
Caroline furrowed her brow.In her recollection, the Marstons hadnotalways been like that. Lady Marston had always been described as a forceful woman, but one who wisely turned a blind eye to her husband’scrim. cons. He was hardly tied to her apron strings.
“I know I am in trouble,” Sophia went on. “I know I ought never to have consented toanyillegal scheme, let alone one I did not understand. But I was—desperate.” She laughed drearily. “None of you would understand.”
“We must clear this up,” Richard said. “No further dramatics, please. I suggest we take this below.”
Lady Marston scoffed, but Sir Mark inclined his round face, now rather pale and doughy. “Never fear, guvnor. This is a simple matter to clear up, I’m sure!” He tugged at his cuffs and darted a glance at Lady Marston. In Caroline’s opinion, it was the look of a man who is fully out of his depth and looking to another for direction.
It was not the look of a man who had moved confidently through thebeau mondefor decades; who had fathered several children out of wedlock, and who required his wife to ignore it all and present a perfect appearance.
In fact?—
Caroline gasped as the answer fell into her lap. Sir Mark, who was to inherit his uncle’s fortune, had not been himself since the start of their journey. Sir Mark, whose deplorable manners could not fully be explained by the regrettable coarseness of his generation. Sir Mark, who Lady Marston barely let out of the cabin and constantly shushed up or corrected…
“I—I know,” said Caroline, just as Richard geared up to begin questioning Sophia. “I know what Lady Marston hoped to do, and Sophia is—I suspect—ignorant of it all.”
Everyone looked to her, and Caroline thrilled to it. “It has been before us from the start. This man isnotSir Mark Marston.I suspect that this plot—whatever it consists of—is centered on using an imposter to gain access to the fortune of Sir Mark’s uncle.”
Sir Mark began to flush, his doughy face now getting blotchy, but Caroline pressed on. “Sir Mark said only days ago that he’d never fished before, but what gentleman with a country estate hasneverfished?”
“I did not,” he corrected. “I said I’d—er—never fished inthatway.”
“You amended what you said when Lady Marston glared at you; I saw it. And he has deplorable manners?—”
“Here, I say!” he expostulated.
“It’s true, isn’t it?” Caroline said. “We all excused it as the eccentricities of the older generation, but the older generation does not descend intocantwhen they are flustered, which Sir Mark has done multiple times.”
Mr. Belvedere broke in. “Would that explain why his snuff is so cheap that evenIfound myself reluctant to touch it?”
“And what sort of gentleman offersladieshis snuff, as Sir Mark did that first day?” Caroline continued. “Someone who is used to very different company, that’s who! Someone who smokes cheroots, belches at a fine meal, and is, perhaps, not a gentleman at all.”
Richard’s brow wrinkled. “Caroline?—”
“I know it is absurd but do listen! All of Sir Mark’s clothes have been recently let out—I noticed when we searched their cabin. Almost as if Sir Mark’s wardrobe suddenly needed to fit someone quite different. Someone who put on a good act of pseudo-gentility but grew quite crass when he forgot himself. Someone who is, you see,not Sir Mark at all.”
“But surely, someone would notice.” Captain Wentworth looked between the two of them. “Ihave not been long returnedfrom the Navy, but you have been in company with him. Didn’t you recognize him when first you met?”
