“Which might be why I’m enjoying talking about it. I might be less gleeful about a true attempt at murder.”
“As you should be. Someone intended something and took a great risk over it. The attempted murder of three princes would not be treated lightly by the courts, whether it was intended to work or not. The culprit could still hang.”
“Then who took such a risk and why? What gain was worth the possible price?”
“Precisely. I’ll visit Sidmouth this afternoon to see if anything new has come to light. What are your plans?”
“A walk in the park for Sillikin, and another visit to the house. I want to take a more serious look at what needs to be done if we’re to use it in spring.” She couldn’t resist asking, “You’re not tempted by such delights?”
“Extremely, but there is a serious matter beneath the farce, and I must attend to it.”
That could be true, or it could be a polite excuse. She had no doubt he enjoyed her company in the night, but was less sure about during the daytime. Perhaps all Kit Kat’s adoring men only enjoyed her company in a group.
Except for Edison. She hoped she’d seen the last of him.
Chapter 38
Complete with entourage, Kitty gave Sillikin exercise and then continued to the house on foot. She did intend a more thorough inspection, and would have some furniture unshrouded, but she had a purpose beyond that. If the house was as it had been when the fifth viscount died, it might tell her more about him.
Consequently, when she arrived at the house, she set Henry to chatting to the housekeeper and getting as much gossip as possible, and Edward to inspecting the mundane parts of the house and the yard behind. Keeping her cloak and gloves on, she went directly to the bedrooms. If anything personal remained, it would be there.
She entered Lady Dauntry’s bedroom first. No matter what the sleeping arrangements had been when Diane had been a dutiful wife, once she’d gone, her husband would surely have used this rather than his dressing room.
Kitty opened the doors of the clothes press, but there were no clothes there. She took the cotton dust covers off the bed, night table, and washstand, revealing no secrets. But then, as she fully opened the small drawer in the night table, she found a slim brown book. The gold title on the spine saidTown Follies. She opened it and found humorous and often salty poetry about society’s foibles.
That fit with her assumption that the fifth viscount had not been a man for serious matters. But when sheflipped through the pages, she found dried rose petals between tissue paper in one space. Did the petals belong to some other person, or had he been the romantic sort to treasure such mementoes?
Of Diane, once?
That verged on tragedy.
She put the book in her pocket and went to the dressing room. She found no personal items there, either. Some damnably efficient person had cleared out everything.
She went next to the library downstairs, where there were still books on the shelves. She unshrouded the desk, but all she found in the drawers were some stray ivory gaming counters and a few tradesmen’s cards. She studied them but could see nothing of importance.
She walked along the shelves, wondering if there were any secrets to be found in the books.More dried flowers, or even love notes?A search would be exhausting, however, and she didn’t have the time.
But then a slim, tall book caught her eye.
It almost filled the height of the shelf and had been put beside one of the wooden dividers so that the brown spine seemed part of it.Placed there deliberately so as not to catch the eye?When she eased it out, she found it was a ledger quite similar to the ones at the Abbey. This one was used for accounts.
Unlike Braydon’s neat records, the handwriting was messy and often wandered off the lines. She recognized it as the fifth viscount’s.
To repair of leading on the front window.
For new fire irons.
To repair thatch on the north side.
Not this house, then. There was no thatch here, and it was rare in London these days.
She checked the flyleaf and foundL Cottage, Edgware.
Edgware!
So the fifth viscount had taken an interest in a place there, but it had somehow slipped out of the rest of the viscountcy’s records.
Or been hidden?
