“Then I won’t waste time.” I folded my hands over the top of my walking stick. “We are trying to ascertain everyone’s whereabouts from when we returned from the shooting field until lunch on Friday.”
A muscle ticced in his jaw. “My wife already told you.”
“No, she told us where she was and where she assumed you were.” I arched an eyebrow. “Where do you say you were?”
He crushed his cigar onto the side table. “I was with my wife in our room.”
“And you wouldn’t want to contradict your wife.” Henry tapped his fingers on his knee.
“What does that mean?” Havenstone asked, voice sharp.
“You lost a great deal of money when Perrin’s investment went sour a couple years ago.” Henry pinned him with a look. “I had heard that you almost lost your home because of it. It was only through your wife’s intervention that you were saved.”
I controlled my expression, trying not to show my surprise. Henry had left out a few details he’d learned during our discussions.
Havenstone’s face mottled. “You heard wrong.”
“That’s possible,” I agreed. “I’d heard that you went to Mr. Edric Cooke, first hoping to win a large sum in his hells, and next for a loan. A loan that you paid off in a short amount of time. Are you denying you acquired the funds to repay the loan from your wife’s father?”
Havenstone jerked his head back. “How did you…?”
“I have my sources,” I said and left it at that. I didn’t want Mr. Cooke to gain a reputation for being indiscreet, especially as that might limit the information he could provide to me in the future.
He slumped back in his chair. “All right. Yes. You’re right. Do you know how humiliating it is to beg your father-in-law in order to save your ancestral home?”
I did not, but I could imagine. “And this last time you needed funds? This second loan you’ve taken from Mr. Cooke. Was that also the fault of Perrin?”
His face paled. “How do you know this?”
I sniffed. “That is neither here nor there. Please answer the question.”
Havenstone gave a harsh chuckle. “Indirectly. Can you believe he asked me to invest with him again? That he had the gall to think I’d give him more money?”
Katherine leaned forward. “But if you didn’t give him money, why did you need funds?”
The baron scratched at an invisible mark on his trousers and mumbled.
I put my hand to my ear. “What was that?”
He sighed, all the air seeming to leave his body. “I thought to give Perrin a taste of his own medicine. There was a competing venture which I funded, hoping….”
“That Perrin’s investment would fail.” Henry frowned. “I take it that didn’t happen.”
“No.” Whatever was on Havenstone’s trousers had fully captured his attention. “Perrin’s venture bankrupted mine. Had I invested with him this time, I would have made back my previous loss in full.”
It was all very Shakespearean. The quest for vengeance doubling back and trapping Havenstone instead. Perrin finally having a successful investment but dying before he could enjoy the fruits.
I didn’t admit this to many, but I didn’t enjoy the works of our national pride as much as many. The melodrama and histrionics. The overwrought plots. There were moments of inspiration, an understanding of important truths in Shakespeare’s plays, but all too often it felt as though I was watching or reading overly emotional children behaving badly, and that never held my interest.
But perhaps we were destined to always remain emotional children and behave badly. Perhaps Shakespeare had understood human nature on a deeper level than me.
“And the letter you received a few nights past?” I asked. “The one that had you marching out of the sitting room in anger?”
He slouched deeper into his chair, seeming almost to become one with it. “That was from my wife’s father. He has refused to repay my loan at this time.”
“I see.” I stared at him over the top of my walking stick. “Why did you accept Perrin’s invitation to this party? You’d lost money because of him a second time. Being in his presence couldn’t have been a pleasure.” Unless he’d come for a purpose. His plans for financial revenge having failed, had Havenstone decided to enact the ultimate vengeance?
“My wife saw the invitation,” he said. “She wanted to come.”
