“Gabby, what is it?” Emma said quietly. “You can trust us.”
Gabby swallowed a final morsel. “It’s nothing. Only that sometimes I wonder…I wonder if…”
Since they didn’t have all day, Tessa nudged her on. “Yes?”
“I wonder if I’m a very good wife,” Gabby blurted and burst into tears.
Crikey.Tessa froze, uncertain what to do.
Luckily, Emma and Polly hurried over in swishes of silk, flanking Gabby on the divan.
“There, there,” Polly said, patting the sobbing lady’s shoulder.
“Get it all out, dear.” Emma passed over a handkerchief. “And I have more of these in my reticule if you need them.”
“I d-don’t know what’s the m-matter with me,” Gabby said, dabbing at her teary eyes. “I’m not usually a w-watering pot…”
“We all have our moments,” Emma said. “And husbands, as we know, have a tendency to strain the nerves.”
Gabby let out a wail.
“Em,” Polly muttered, “you’re not helping.”
“I was only empathizing with Gabby—”
“But that’s just it.Yourh-husbands adore you. And why sh-shouldn’t they?” Gabby said between hitched breaths. “Both of you are perfect.”
“But nobody’s perfect,” Tessa said. Then, realizing that she had inadvertently insulted the duchesses, she added quickly, “No offense to present company.”
“None taken. That was sensibly said,” Emma said.
Emboldened by the lady’s approval, Tessa ventured, “Did something, um, transpire to make you think you are not a good wife, Gabby?”
“You can talk to us without fear of judgement,” Polly said.
“I know.” Gabby’s bottom lip wobbled. “You are the best of friends.”
“And the souls of discretion,” Emma said.
Twisting the handkerchief in her hands, Gabby said haltingly, “A few weeks ago, Mr. Garrity came home earlier than usual. He was…unlike himself. Agitated, as if he’d undergone some shock. I’d never seen him this way before, not in all our years of marriage. Yet when I asked him what had happened, he told me nothing was wrong.”
“If I had a penny for every time Strathaven said that…” Emma rolled her eyes.
“He shut himself in his study. That night, I couldn’t sleep, and I decided to check on him. He was still in the study and…well, a trifle disguised.”
“A trifle,” Polly murmured, “or more than that?”
“He’d finished an entire bottle of brandy.” Gabby shook her head in clear bewilderment. “My husband is not one to overindulge in anything. He is always in command of himself. Always.”
“And that night, he was not?” Brows drawn, Emma said, “Did he hurt you, Gabby?”
“Oh no, nothing like that!” Gabby sounded aghast, which Tessa took as a good sign. “Mr. Garrity wouldneverharm me. Not intentionally anyway.” Her eyes filled again.
“Tell us the rest,” Tessa urged. Her nape tingled; her intuition told her that she was about to discover something important.
“I asked him again what was wrong. I think, because he was foxed, he told me. He said…someone important to him had died. In a workplace fire. When I tried to get more out of him, he…well, he didn’t want to talk.” Her color notably high, Gabby mumbled, “The next morning, I saw in the papers that a fiery explosion had burned down a place called The Gilded Pearl… a house of ill repute,” she said in a broken whisper. “The coincidence was too great. I had to ask Mr. Garrity, and, when I did, I saw the truth written on his face. I may not be clever, but I know my husband. The person he was so upset over, whom he got drunk over, was someprostituteat that bawdy house!”
Gabby dissolved into tears again. While Emma and Polly comforted her, Tessa tried to make sense of the revelation. Someone important to Garrity had worked at The Gilded Pearl? If so, that would most likely rule him out as a suspect in the brothel’s destruction. Why hadn’t he disclosed this to Grandpapa during their meeting at Nightingale’s?
