“Was that when you came here?”
“I left before he died.” She lined up what she needed to explain, and what she might avoid. “I left Algernon and went to live on my own, with Beth and her son. He kept trying to force me back. He began some court proceeding that would obligate me to do so. I decided I could not accept that. So I found the information that would stop him.”
“You conducted an inquiry.”
“My first. Beth helped. Even Jeremy helped, boy though he was. We learned that Algernon was not always impotent. On occasion he could be most potent. With another woman, who played peculiar games with him.”
“Did that stop him?”
“He laughed at me when I threw it at him. He wasn’t even ashamed that his lover was a relative. An aunt, for goodness’ sake. A blood relative at that. So I arranged to catch them at it.”
“I trust you brought witnesses.”
“Of course. I found where they met. I waited until they were together, paid off the innkeeper, and up we went with the key. There they were, doing something he would not want described in a courtroom. He tried to bribe my witnesses on the spot, but they held firm for me. He agreed to a separation a week later. That helped, but not as much as I had hoped.”
“You are uncommonly brave, Minerva. Brave and resourceful and smarter than most men. I have never seen the likes of you.”
She would have given him a kiss if they were not in a public park. Admiration from this man counted for something.
She sensed more questions. He did not speak them, but his deep thought and the vague dismay shading his expression told her what they were.
“Yes,” she said. “What you are wondering. Yes. It all started with that, you see. His anger about his impotence is what turned violent first. Eventually nothing between us, no conversation or any connection, was not touched by violence. The only way to survive was to feel nothing at all.”
He closed his eyes. “If I had known I would have never—”
“You would have never kissed me or touched me.” She did kiss his cheek then. “And I would never have known that he had not completely ruined that part of me.”
He raised her hand and kissed it. “Let us spend the rest of the day doing better things than talking about this. We will go someplace where you can smile and laugh and be Minerva Hepplewhite. Only Minerva Hepplewhite.” He smiled. “I’ll even go shopping with you if you want.”
“I was planning to order a new ensemble. Perhaps you know of a good modiste.”
“I know of one or two, so that is what we will do.”
They strolled through the gardens and back to where he had left his horse. He hired a carriage and tethered the horse to it, then climbed in with her. She hoped that this modiste would take the commission based on her expectations. He appeared so pleased with his idea that she didn’t want to ruin it by being practical, however.
* * *
“It was an exorbitant self-indulgence.” Minerva voiced her thoughts while the carriage took them toward her house. The self-scold could not blight the fun of buying not one, but two ensembles. She smiled whenever she thought about it.
“It was not a self-indulgence at all,” he said. “The owner of Hepplewhite’s Office of Discreet Inquiries requires a suitable wardrobe. It was a pity you did not order that dinner dress as well.”
“It was too expensive.”
“You forget that you are an heiress now.”
“You should not have told Madame Tissot that. It was very bad of you.” The modiste had been merciless after learning that, tempting her with luxuries. Like that dinner dress.
She saw that dress in her mind. Raw silk with a subtle shimmer, the hue reminded her of primroses. Pearls bedecked the neckline and waist, and more discreetly studded the lower skirt’s floral embroidery. The cost of it all would have left her too dependent on her expectations, however, and for a dress she might never wear.
“The wool ensembles will be enough for now,” she said. Their purpose, and rationale, had her mind returning to her inquiries. She tucked away the one she had pursued today, and raised another.
“I never had a chance to tell you, but something was revealed to me at Melton Park by a servant,” she said.
She repeated what the servant Joan had said to her, about being on the roof and seeing and hearing someone. “She said she could not swear to it, but I think that was her way of trying to avoid ever being asked to.”
“It might have been another servant, of course.”
“It might have been, but I do not think it was. Do you?”
