“He inquired about my interests. I expect I bored him.”
“I very much doubt it.”
Helen wanted to ask what her mother meant, but Fiske interrupted them. “A letter has come, my lady. I thought it best to bring it to you immediately.”
“Thank you, Fiske.” Mama opened and studied it. “It’s from your father. It appears his boat has docked safely in Liverpool. His departure will be delayed while he attends to business. He must arrange a consignment to be shipped to London.” She put the letter down in her lap with a relieved sigh. “It’s to be hoped he’ll soon be home. How good it will be to see him.”
“Yes, Mama.” Helen wondered how her mother bore her father’s long absences. Mama had once traveled with Papa to Constantinople but became quite ill in the heat. After that, she seemed content to remain at home and continue with her charities.
Helen yearned to visit exotic climes. She hoped that after a few years had passed, and her mother became resigned to her not marrying, they might allow her to accompany her father and assist him in his work. She did not express her wish now, however, because they would never believe her, and she knew it would cause a ruckus. Patience was required for timing was everything.
Her mother tucked the letter in her pocket. “Please go and see if his lordship requires anything, Helen.”
Was Mama pushing her in Peyton’s direction? She wanted to question her, but there was little point, for if she was, Helen knew the reason. Mama considered Helen spending time with a personable man to be a curative. If only it was that simple.
Chapter Ten
Jason was glad to find Kinsey’s secretary, Thorburn, absent from the library. He had no intention of including Thorburn in this investigation, as he remained high on the list of suspects.
He had learned nothing from the male members of the staff. The nervous footman, Jeremy, had been remarkably unobservant, considering his bedroom was next door to Bart’s.
“Only the muffled voice of Mrs. Chance, who tended to him. Very efficiently too,” Jeremy had said. “Kept him as clean and comfortable as was possible. And quite firm with the staff. Wouldn’t allow us to stay long unless we upset him, but poor Bart was too ill to notice that we were there.”
Disheartened, Jason had hoped for more. The maids’ chambers were segregated from the men’s, situated in a different wing. Fiske also had rooms at the opposite end of the corridor to Bart’s and was no help at all, apart from expressing sorrow that he’d chastised Bart for his negligent appearance.
“I heard Bart arguing with Mrs. Chance,” one of the upstairs maids, Alice, her eyes like saucers, whispered in a conspiratorial manner when he questioned her. “It shocked me to hear him speak like that, so I stopped and listened.”
“When was this?”
“A week or so before he took to his bed, milord.”
“What was the argument about?”
“Mrs. Chance wanted him to run an errand, and he refused. Bart said something I didn’t understand.”
“And what was that, Alice?”
“Bart said, ‘You must think me a fool.’”
“That was all?”
Alice chewed her bottom lip. “Yes, milord. Mrs. Chance told him to be careful. He might find himself out on the street without a character.”
“What do you think Bart meant by that?”
“When Mrs. Chance had gone away, I asked him. He just said he didn’t like to go on personal errands for her.”
“But footmen are required to run messages for the house, are they not?”
“Yes, milord. And when I reminded him of it, he just shrugged.”
The French lady’s maid was of no help at all. After reminiscing about how she and Bart conversed in French, she fell upon Jason’s chest in tears.
After calming Eloise, he sent her down to the kitchen for a cup of tea.
When Lady Helen entered the room, he was studying artifacts in a glass-fronted cabinet. Jason turned to her. “Your father has an excellent collection.” He watched her cross the room, coolly composed. He’d begun to suspect she donned her unruffled demeanor like steel-plated armor, and he wondered why. It could not always have been so, for he caught glimpses beneath the façade. He had no business wondering, of course, and wished he could stop. But each time he saw her, he came away wanting to know more.
“Yes. Although Papa donates most of his discoveries to the museum.”
