“I think he mentioned that. At my prompting. I asked if Mrs. Drable had sent him. I thought it might be worthwhile to know where those servants came from, and if any were like us.”
Meaning, if any had been placed there by Chase or some family member looking for information. Minerva had a high regard for Jeremy’s initiative. He possessed a shrewdness that could be very useful.
“I wonder if he might take employment from us when we have need of an amiable man who makes friends easily,” she said.
“My guess is he will take any employment that is legal.” Jeremy pointed to the coins before he swept them up. “If this is what they paid him, it won’t last long.”
Jeremy downed his port and left. Minerva rose to leave too. “There will be a caller in fifteen minutes,” she said to Beth.
Beth collected the glasses and set them in the washing basin. “Who might that be?”
“Mr. Radnor.”
She received a pointed glance and frown. “You getting sweet on him?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You know I am not—” She let it hang there, because of all people Beth knew just how ridiculous it was.You know I am no longer capable of feeling that way about a man.It would not do to tell Beth that with Mr. Radnor she had begun to feel very capable.
“It has been a long while now. He is handsome and can be charming when it suits him.”
“I do not need a lecture, Beth.”
“Don’t you? He broke into this house because he is looking to blame someone about that duke’s death. He still is, no doubt. He is dangerous.”
“I have forgotten nothing. At the moment, however, we have a common goal.”
“The problem ishethinks to makeyouthe means to reachhisgoal. I don’t trust him and you should not either.”
“I am not so stupid as to forget who and what he is, or the truth of his intentions. But for all I learned from Jeremy and Elise, and saw and heard myself, he is one of them and knows far more. You go up to bed. I will make sure the front door is locked before I follow.”
* * *
Chase handed his horse to a groom at a public stable two streets from Minerva’s house. It would not do to have his mount standing outside her home at this hour. She might dismiss the notion of gossip harming her name, but he knew better than most how people like to talk.
That thought conjured up memories of the meeting with the solicitor, and how Aunt Dolores, when seeing her battle being lost, spoke the unspeakable about one of her nephews. Him.
I find it odd that you are favoring his counsel, Nicholas. They probably would have shot him if not for my brother’s intercession on his behalf.It was the closest anyone had ever come to voicing the belief he had been under suspicion of cowardice in the army. He wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than the real reason for his departure.
Did you kill him? How often had he heard that question in his head? In the colonel’s voice. In Uncle Frederick’s. In his own.
He had become expert on closing the mental door on that question and the history that provoked it. He did so now with a slam. He walked the rest of the way to Minerva’s house, lining up what he would tell her and what he would hold back.
Among the latter particulars would be his brief conversation with Sanders after the meeting. While the solicitor was quite sure that the correct Minerva Hepplewhite had been found, the lack of a documented connection to the woman known as Margaret Finley bothered him.
“The only two people who know her under both names are in her household,” Sanders had explained. “How your uncle knew of her under either name remains a mystery. I am satisfied, but with the mood of the family, it might be best to find another person who is disinterested. You are still advertising for the other two women. Why not add a notice regarding her married name?”
She opened the door herself when he arrived, backlit by the lamplight in the reception hall. Immediately the intimacy of their last night meeting stretched between them. As if she felt it too, she backed away from the door and let him enter and close it himself.
She led him to the library again, but did not sit. Instead she appeared unsure of herself. That was unusual, and fascinating.
“I suppose we could have done this in the park,” she said.
“It would have been very dark there.”
“I meant in the morning.”
“Then it would have been very light. It would be better if all of London does not wonder why I am strolling the park with one of my cousin’s temporary servants.”
“Of course. Yes.” She sat on the divan, in her usual spot. She did not lift her feet onto the cushions. She did not lounge, but remained upright. Stiff.
