I halted, making myself think. If Armitage had killed Colonel Isherwood, wouldn’t his troubles be over? Margueritemightknow of the orders at Salamanca, young Isherwoodmightknow, and I might. But as Brandon said, it would be our word against his. It would be too risky for Armitage to kill us all. He’d never cover up four murders.
He had wanted me to be found over Isherwood’s body, had drugged me for the purpose. Even if I didn’t go to the gallows for the murder, who would believe me when I bleated about betrayal at Salamanca? I would not have much credit after being found standing over his body.
I had shared port with Isherwood. Perhaps the dose had been in that, put there by Armitage—or Desjardins, who’d admitted he’d been in the room—starting to work as I walked in the Steine with Grenville …
But why would I have returned to the Pavilion? If I’d felt odd and unwell, wouldn’t I have simply returned home and gone to bed? And why had I stopped in the public house where Captain Wilks had seen me?
Armitage obviously hadn’t believed I’d be able to flee the Pavilion before being discovered, and they hadn’t expected Isherwood’s son to keep silent about the crime.
When I hadn’t been arrested, Desjardins had tried twice to shoot me. He’d claimed accident the first time, and that he’d shot at Marguerite in anger the second. But he’d hardly confess to trying to murder me when I taxed him with it.
Marguerite, if she now attempted to tell her tale, might be dismissed as a vindictive woman. Young Isherwood, on the other hand, was highly respected, well liked.
“I am off to see Isherwood’s son.” I drained my coffee and clattered the cup to the table. “Will you send word to Marguerite for me? Brewster knows where she’s lodging. He can tell you, or Bartholomew, if Brewster refuses to run the errand himself.”
Brandon rose, a frown in place. “Have a care, Lacey. Armitage is dangerous. If you accuse him, he’ll have the best solicitors and barristers on his side, and he can turn around and accuse you of whatever he wishes. At the least, he’ll have you in lawsuits the rest of your life for slander, your wife along with you.”
He had a point. “Then we will have to catch him without a doubt,” I said fervently. “Make surehe’sruined if nothing else.”
I had plenty of ideas on that score, none I would share with my former commander. Brandon would only try to talk me out of them.
* * *
Brewster wouldby no means allow me to walk across Brighton without him. He waited like a bulwark outside, and so Brandon would have to send the message to Marguerite through Bartholomew.
I also sent a footman running for Quimby, telling him to meet me at young Isherwood’s home, urgently.
Except Isherwood wasn’t home. He was at Preston Barracks, his footman stiffly informed me, on duty today. The footman was contemptuously surprised I would not know this.
Nothing for it but to hire a hackney to drive us north out of Brighton to the barracks.
It had been a long time since I’d been in an army camp. This one was permanent, not the temporary bivouacs I’d stayed in throughout Portugal and Spain. The barracks reminded me of the one I’d been assigned to in Kent, where I’d trained others in the lull in the war before I’d been sent to the ill-fated campaign in the Netherlands.
Long brick buildings housed both horses and men, enclosing a yard where soldiers drilled, cared for the horses, or vigorously polished tack.
I was directed after inquiries to an office above the stables. There I found young Colonel Isherwood conferring with Major Forbes on a shipment of buckles that had gone missing.
Army life was mostly this, not the excitement of battle many young men dreamed of—endless training, disciplining bored troops, and finding out what had become of a gross of bridle buckles.
The aid-de-camp unfortunate enough to announce me endured a blistering stare from Forbes and quickly retreated.
Isherwood, who was both more polite and more steely, shook my hand. “What news, Captain?”
“I believe I know who murdered your father,” I said. “But I will need your help to draw him out and prove it.”
Chapter 21
Absolutely not.” Major Forbes thrust himself forward, his scowl sending the ends of his mustache to touch his chin. “I wanted the murder reported, but Isherwood made me see sense in not making his father’s death a sensation. Now you want to spread the tale far and wide, disgracing my friend and his family?”
“In a few ears only, Major,” I said. “And let it be known I am beginning to remember events of the night.”
“Beginningto remember?” Forbes looked confused—I hadn’t related to them my entire part in the affair. “Ah, you mean you were drunk.”
“Something like that.”
Forbes gave me a disgusted sneer. “You were field promoted, weren’t you? From nothing to captain, because you were friends with Colonel Brandon and didn’t run away in the heat of battle.”
“It was a decisive flanking move,” I said stiffly, remembering the blood, terror, and my fury at Talavera. “My men were courageous enough to surround and capture artillery, which kept the battle from becoming a rout. The unit that was supposed to have done it was nowhere in sight. Mydecisionwon me my promotion, sir.”
