Raoul’s senses came alive. “Your client? Some person other than Mr Temple, I surmise?”
“Indeed, my lord.”
A glance at Felicity betrayed her feelings. She was white of face, the freckles standing out, her eyes fierce. “The Beast!”
Rusper tipped his head to one side. “I beg your pardon?”
“It’s what Papa called him. In his journal. It must be him you mean. My father detested him. He came to Middenhall because he hoped the Beast would be induced to increase his allowance. By you, Mr Rusper. He meant to ask you … and then he was killed.”
“A most distressing occurrence, Miss Temple. I have ever regretted I was on my travels at the time. Knowlton did what he could, but he had no authority beyond organising the funeral. He sent an express to my client, but that too was received too late to be of immediate use.” Another slight smile appeared. “However, we must dotheBeastthe justice to own that he did take an interest in your welfare.”
“Interest?” Not much to Raoul’s surprise, Felicity fairly exploded. “He left me in Bath to rot! Much he cared if I was alive or dead all this time. No, nor if I had so much as a sou to my name, which I may tell you I haven’t now, thanks to Lord Maskery. I am quite destitute, and if it had not been for Lord Lynchmere and his cousin, I don’t know what would have become of me. So pray do not talk to me of doing him justice. Whoever he is, Mr Rusper, he is a beast indeed!”
The lawyer took this tirade without a blink, merely surveying Felicity as if he had encountered a rare specimen. On the point of saying something soothing to her, Raoul was prevented by the re-entrance into the room of the elderly clerk, who was carrying a file of yellowed parchments tied up with red tape. These he brought to Rusper, who set them on his knee.
“Sherry for my guests, Knowlton. You may take one yourself and remain, if you please. I might need your elephantine memory.”
A sour smile creased the other man’s mouth, but he said nothing, merely crossing to a cabinet to one side of the room, from where he extracted a decanter and several glasses. Raoul withdrew his attention from the fellow’s proceedings and found Felicity was focused upon the file in the lawyer’s lap.
“Is that all?” Her voice was shaky. “What became of my father’s property? All his clothes? His books? Papers? I have only his journal and I don’t even recall how I came by that.”
“I may be able to enlighten you, Miss Temple,” said Rusper, waving his clerk, who was hovering with a filled glass, towards Felicity. “But take a sip or two, if you will. I feel sure you are in need of a little restorative.”
She took the glass with a gesture rather grudging than gracious and drank a little. Done to appease? Raoul sipped with approval from the one handed to him. Rusper had taste and could clearly afford the best.
“Well, sir?” Impatience sounded in Felicity’s voice.
Rusper was taking a glass himself. He nodded to the clerk, who effaced himself somewhere behind them. “Mr Temple’s hostess, Mrs — hm, memory fails me. What was her name?”
“Mrs Kimble,” Felicity supplied. “We have just come from there.”
His brows lifted a fraction. “Ah, indeed. She has been your informant?”
“She told us where to find you. Also that you had come for me and you meant to find where Lord Maskery had taken me. That is all she knew.”
Rusper nodded. “Quite. As to your father’s property, Knowlton cleared the rooms and packed it all up and held it here for my decision.”
Felicity looked to be half hope, half fury. “Then where is it?”
“I am coming to that, ma’am. My first priority was to discover your whereabouts. Lord Maskery’s progress was erratic and it took some time to catch up with him. I located him at length in Brighton, by which time, I regret to say, his remorse had somewhat diminished.” A faint look of distaste entered the fellow’s face. “His lordship appeared to believe he had discharged any obligation to his victim’s daughter and could not be expected to do more.”
“Scoundrel!” Raoul’s rage with the fellow revived. “Did he pay down his dust for Miss Temple’s education?”
“He had, he said, the intention of so doing. However, he took my advent in good part, expressing himself as happy to think there was a relative, and one with means too, who had Miss Temple’s interests at heart.”
Glancing at Felicity, Raoul saw her fingers clench on the glass, but she did not speak. He transferred his gaze to the lawyer. “In sum, he washed his hands of her, I take it?”
Rusper looked dry. “With every expression of regret and goodwill.”
This proved too much for Felicity. “Regret? He had none! Besides, he could not have been ignorant of my remaining at the academy since he came for me just last week, claiming to be my guardian.”
A collection of recalled tidbits she had let fall swept through Raoul’s mind. “Did he say that? Or was it your assumption?”
She looked at him, meditatively sipping from her glass. Did she even realise what she was doing? “I thought it. Perhaps he did not say it. I can’t remember now.”
“It is of little consequence, ma’am,” interrupted the lawyer. “Suffice to say that once I had your direction, it behoved me to consult with my client.”
Felicity’s gaze veered back. “This so-called relative. Who is he, sir?”
