The soft click of a lock sounded and she opened the door, peeking outside. Her hair was askew and there was a heightened color on her cheeks. She stepped back to allow us to enter. By the disarray inside the flat, she was in the process of packing.
She didn’t look directly at me but at Ash. “I suppose you heard from Jinx and Diggory.”
“I ran into your sisters and they told me you were in trouble.” Ash settled his hands on his hips. “Who are Jinx and Diggory?”
“Two inspectors from the Mayfair station. They came to inquire about my father.” She folded her arms across her belly, her expression drawn. The confident woman I was used to seeing was noticeably gone. “Are my sisters safe?”
“They are at my parents’ house and my mother is looking after the little ones while Eloise goes back to work.” Ash settled his hands on his hips, his mouth downcast.
“What did Jinx and Diggory want?” I asked, disturbed by the entire situation. Birdie was being harassed because of me. If it weren’t for that pesky Brown and his self-righteous cause, she wouldn’t be in trouble. Except I couldn’t place all of the blame onBrown. I had brought this on with my arrogant dismissal of his influence. I should have known better after seeing him with my uncle.
Birdie shook her head, her trembling lower lip cutting straight to my heart. “They claim he disappeared, but I assure you he didn’t.”
“He? Who is he?” Was she speaking of her father or her husband? No, she claimed Frank never existed. Or had she been involved with another man. Jealousy rushed through me, as well as shame. Even if she’d been involved with another man, she owed me no explanations. Something in her past had led her to this moment. And my own actions triggered her current predicament.
“My father.” Her words came out in a mere whisper, anguish in every syllable.
“He didn’t disappear, did he? Is he dead?” Ash asked.
I stared at him, shocked he hadn’t thought to impart that bit of information to me. Except he had told me he might not be able to get her out of this mess. I could forgive many things, but murder wasn’t one of them. “Did you kill your father?”
“No, I didn’t kill my father!” Birdie glared at me, still clearly upset over our earlier fallout. “He died, but I didn’t kill him. He died in the presence of a doctor, who himself died several days later.”
“Why would they think he was murdered?” I was still confused by what was going on. We all carried so many secrets.
“My father is buried in the family plot. I simply told no one he was dead and since his attending physician died, it seemed reasonable to keep my father’s death a secret so that I could provide for my sisters.”
My entire body sagged in relief. I shook my head, looking from Ash to Birdie. “That’s it? That is your big secret? I hardlythink that is a big deal. Unless Ash says it is against the law not to post someone’s death in the paper.”
“It isn’t against the law.” Ash continued to watch Birdie, his unease still showing. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
“You are correct.Thatpart was not illegal. What followed could be crossing the line.” The quiver in her lower lip increased and she clenched her hands. While one couldn’t truly differentiate a lady from other women simply by her looks, she carried a familiar air, one that was driven into young ladies of quality. She wore it without even realizing it.
“Go on.” The tension returned, my shoulders creeping up to my ears while I waited for her to speak, the room eerily quiet. It was hard to credit that our falling out had occurred only last night. She had told me her real name, and I had reacted badly. From the way she continued to ignore me, she was still upset with me, and I wasn’t very happy with her either.
“My father had an heir. He’s actually an earl and has no idea that he inherited the terrace house. I concocted the story about my father going to Greece because he and my stepmother had gone there often when they first married.”
“Which would explain why Violet told me about the postcards,” Ash said.
“Yes, they sent us postcards and I was able to manipulate the stamps on them to look like they were recent and not from a decade before. I didn’t do that to try to fool anyone but my sisters. They would have been devastated to know that our father had died. Only Eloise, myself, and Violet are aware that he is dead.”
“Why did the police take the postcards?” I felt like I hadn’t been part of the conversation, even though I was standing here listening to everything. Ash had not filled me in on what the Namath sisters had told him, and Birdie hadn’t given either of usthe information. It was all very complicated, which seemed to be the theme of my life lately.
“They wanted proof that my father is alive. In my panic that was the only thing I could think of. I asked Eloise to gather them. Jinx also took the memento box I kept them in, saying that he needed it for the investigation.” She worried her hands, rocking back and forth in her agitation. I wanted to reach out and take her in my arms but that wasn’t my place anymore.
“Then you’re simply going to admit that your father died and show him the death certificate,” I said. The truth was sometimes the best course. Once her name was cleared, she would be free of charges. I was concerned, however, that her association with me had farther reaching consequences than any of us realized. “That should exonerate you.”
Ash shook his head at me, and motioned for Birdie to continue. “Go on.”
“Are you sure you wish to hear this?” she replied, holding Ash’s regard. “I don’t want to get you in trouble and if your higher ups ask you about it, you will be obligated to tell them. I insist that you do, I don’t want you to suffer because of my mistakes.”
He glanced at me with a grim smile. “I’ve tendered my resignation to the Met. Effective the end of the week, I will no longer be an inspector.”
My jaw dropped at the news. “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”Because he was angry with you. But still, we told each other everything. Well, perhaps not everything, which was the source of our falling out.
With a shrug, he sighed. “I thought it was time. But I digress. I was telling Stark of my plans when we were told there was a disturbance. Little did I know that Moran and Brown were creating a spectacle.”
Her mouth opened and she stared between us. “You went outside to fight with Brown? I thought you were just going to shoo them away.”
