“The idea of being a housemaid. That was how Betty and I insinuated ourselves into Apstead House.”
The captain sat forward so suddenly that he almost fell off the seat. “You wereinsidethe house? As a housemaid?”
“Well, yes. How else do you think Lord Tarvin knew where the gold bars were hidden?”
“I just assumed you knew… or your father had told you. Tell me about the house. Tell meeverything, Miss Nicholson.”
Tess could see no reason not to comply. She told him all about her stay there, and if she skated over any details, he asked questions until he knew everything. He was interested in the recent improvement in finances, and the gentlemen callers in the evenings, but when she reached the episode of Miss Rochester, the captain was astonished.
“It was Eustace Atherton’s carriage? Are you quite sure?”
“Positive. I recognised the coachman, and the footmen’s livery.”
“Footmen on the back? How many?”
“Two, and two coachmen, and four horses. Eustace was doing her proud — no expense spared. He is not noted as being free with the readies, so it must be quite a romance.”
The captain rubbed his nose thoughtfully. “As to that… I do not think he is courting Miss Rochester.”
“Then why else send his carriage for her?”
He exchanged a glance with his wife. “We have heard, Miss Nicholson, that the ladies of Apstead House are… Luce, how would you describe them?”
“They are not of the first respectability,” she said crisply. “Not the sort of female that any gentleman would marry.”
“Oh, like opera dancers,” Tess said.
They both burst out laughing. “What does an innocent young lady like you know about opera dancers?” the captain said.
“Only that they are not at all respectable. Are they like mistresses? Grandfather had an opera dancer in London, once,and a mistress in Yorkshire, and Walter had a mistress, too, but the earl and countess put a stop to it.”
The captain laughed even more, but his wife frowned. “I cannot approve of anyone telling you about such things. It is most improper.”
“No one told me,” Tess said, with a wry smile, “but when one is small and insignificant and likes to hide away behind the curtains or sofas with a book… well, one hears things.”
The captain chuckled. “You are a lady after my own heart, Miss Nicholson.”
“So Miss Rochester is… a mistress? Or an opera dancer?”
“Well… something of the sort,” the captain said, waving an arm vaguely. “Most likely all the young ladies in that house are of that type, and Mrs Mayberry manages them, but on no account should you mention that to anyone, and especially the connection to Mr Eustace. What tricks he plays are entirely his own affair.”
“Not a word shall pass my lips,” she said, but she chuckled all the same. What a delicious titbit of information to discover about Eustace! She had never particularly liked him, for he had teased her unmercifully when she was a child, but she could respect a man who had his own little secrets.
***
Nothing had changed at Corland Castle, Tess speedily discovered. The Dowager Countess lingered on, asleep for most of the day, and not fully aware even when she was awake. Olivia was still weepily miserable. The earl was still oddly distracted. Kent was still annoyingly cheerful. And her mother was as cool and composed as ever. Apart from the occasion when she had found her husband hacked to death in the marital bed, Tess could not remember her ever showing the least emotion.Sometimes she wondered if she was devoid of the capacity for it, but then she remembered the way her voice had softened when she spoke to her husband, just as his had. But neither of them had ever spoken to Tess that way.
“So you are back, are you?” Lady Alice said, when Tess first arrived. She was sitting in the library while Mr Alfred Strong read extracts from the newspaper to her.
“I am back, Mama, for a while. Captain Edgerton wished me to return. There have been developments in the matter of the murder.”
“We heard all about thedevelopments,” she said, her mouth making a moue of distaste.
“We thought that business was all settled,” Mr Strong said. He was a neighbour, a genial man of about Lady Alice’s age. He held a government position at the Treasury, but with Parliament not currently sitting, he lingered in the north. “Now the fellow has retracted his confession, and we still have not the least idea who might have killed poor Nicholson.”
“So you know of it already?” Tess said, surprised.
“Lord Tarvin told us,” Lady Alice said.
