A Poisoned Season

28

Davis, proving once again to be not only invaluable but possessed of an almost inhuman efficiency, located Molly within a matter of days. She had taken a position near Fleet Street, folding newspapers, and was working no fewer than twelve hours a day for very little money. I decided to wait for her outside her place of employment in the evening and caught her the moment she came out the door.

"Molly!" I called. She cringed when she saw me. "Don't even consider running from me." I took her by the arm.

"I'm sorry, Lady Ashton. I shouldn't have left the house like that. I should've given notice. You were so good to me."

"How much did Mr. Berry pay you to steal from me, Molly?"

"What?"

"I know about the letters and the Bible and the note that was to be sent to Mr. Hargreaves."

The girl burst into tears. "I would never steal, milady, never. Especially not from you. I tried to tell you I was going, but I didn't know Mr. Hargreaves was with you. I couldn't do it in front of him, milady."

"Have you had any communication with Mr. Berry since you left the Savoy?"

"Of course not! Why would I want to talk to that horrid man? Not that he even would talk to me." She was sobbing with such ferocity that it was difficult to understand her.

"Why, then, did you leave the house?" Her reply was unintelligible. "You must get control of yourself. Come with me." I sat her down in my carriage and gave her a handkerchief. "What is the matter?"

"I couldn't expect you to keep me on in my...my...condition. But I couldn't bear to have you let me go. I didn't know what to do. Gabby told me they was looking for girls here, so I took a job. They weren't particular about having a character from my previous position, but I suppose they'll get rid of me as soon as they know."

Now I understood. "Is it Mr. Berry's?" She nodded. I wasn't sure if she would want me to offer her comfort, but I couldn't stop myself. I embraced her, then spoke firmly. "I would never have thrown you out of my house for something so completely beyond your control. Do you want to return with me?"

"I...I don't know. It's all so awful. Everyone will think the worst of me."

"More than one person has told me that you speak highly of Mr. Berry. Why would you do that after having been so abominably treated by him?"

"He threatened me, Lady Ashton. Told me that if I ever said a word against him, he'd hurt me again. I saw him from a distance a few times in the park and wondered if he was watching me. I was scared."

I considered a number of scenarios. It would be best, perhaps, to get her out of London, to someplace where no one knew her. I could send her to Ashton Hall, but that might cause problems for her later with Philip's family. It would not, after all, be my home forever. "Would you like to work at Mr. Hargreaves's estate? I'm certain I can arrange for you to have a position there. We'll tell everyone that your husband died. No one need ever know about this, Molly."

"You would do that for me?"

"I only wish I could do more. Clean up your face, then go back inside and give your notice. You're coming home with me." I watched her walk away from me and heard a tap on the carriage window.

"Nice work, Emily. Will you let me in?"

Waters and the footmen dropped down immediately and surrounded my visitor. "It's all right," I said. "He's a friend." I opened the door.

"Rescuing a despondent maid from ruin. It is difficult not to adore you more with every passing moment. You may be nearly as romantic as I."

"Sebastian, I know who you are."

"Congratulations," he said. His hat was pulled so far down that it was difficult to see his face. He handed me a velvet bag. "I've no use for paste." He slipped away before I could even mention his mother's Bible. I followed him as best I could, calling after him to stop. He paid me no heed. My footmen joined in the chase, but he managed to elude all of us. Molly returned in the midst of the confusion, and Waters sat her next to him on his perch above the horses. She seemed content there, so I let her ride with him back to Berkeley Square.

Alone again, I opened Sebastian's bag, finding, as expected, the false diamond necklace along with a note.

Bitter waves of Love, and restless gutsy Jealousies and wintry sea of revellings, whither am I borne?

If Molly was innocent of the charges I'd thrown at her — and I did not for a moment doubt her — someone else in my household was to blame. It did not take long for my suspicions to fall upon Lizzie. She was also new, had turned up at odd moments, lingered over her tasks, and had taken more notice of my guests than she ought to have. Mrs. Ockley, my housekeeper, had hired two other girls at the same time as Lizzie, so I questioned each of them, just to be certain. One had been visiting her brother in Brighton the day the letters were stolen from my library, and the other came across as so candid, so straightforward, that I was hard-pressed to think her guilty of any crime.

Lizzie, on the other hand, was belligerent, which took me greatly by surprise. I had always made a point of treating my servants with respect, and I recalled that when she first came to my house she had been rather nervous; I had done my best to calm her nerves. To find her now so rude was quite a shock.

"I don't know why I'm here," she said, looking me straight in the face. "I've heard all about what's happened in the house, but you can't possibly think I've anything to do with it."

"Why is that, Lizzie?"

"Because I know you can't prove I've done anything." Her smile was gratingly confident.

"Careful, are you?"

"I don't need to be. I haven't done anything."

"I should very much like to believe you. It's most unsettling to have a spy in one's midst. A letter was taken from the hall some days ago. Mrs. Ockley tells me that you were cleaning the floor there as well as the stairs at the time it disappeared. Did you see someone take it?"

"I wasn't paying any attention. I was busy with my work."

"Surely another member of the staff would have spoken to you as he passed?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"I also know that the day the letters were taken from the library, you were dusting in there. Again, you saw nothing?"

"I can't say that I really recall the day."

"Nothing stands out? The house was burgled. Davis questioned the staff immediately. You have no memory of this?"

"I remember it, I guess, but for me it was an ordinary sort of day. I didn't know I should have been looking out for a thief."

"When you were dusting, did you notice the letters on my desk?"

"Of course I did, but how could I know that two of them were missing? I didn't know how many there were to start."

"A keen observation, Lizzie. But unfortunately, Davis made a point of not telling anyone how many had been taken. How could you know it was two if you were not the culprit?" She sucked in her cheeks and stood very still. I sat there, saying nothing for some time. Then, taking a cue from Colin, I continued in the calmest possible voice. "If you did it, Lizzie, it would be best to tell me. I'm more interested in discovering who put you up to it than I am in punishing you."

She did not reply.

"I can, of course, call the police, but I'd much rather keep the matter private. This household has suffered enough scandal in these past months. Surely you would prefer that we settle this between ourselves?"

"So that you can turn me out of the house with no character?"

"You're hardly in a position to make demands, Lizzie."

"I think I am."

It took a great effort to remain calm; I would have to ask Colin how he managed to do it so well. "As you wish, then." I pulled the bell, and Davis entered the room. "I'm afraid we're going to need Inspector Manning."

"Very well, madam." He turned, very slowly, started for the door, and then looked back. "Have you ever visited a jail, Lizzie? Terrible place. You can't imagine what it's like. Not when you're used to a snug room in one of the best houses in London." Her gaze was still fixed on me, and Davis, standing behind her, actually winked at me. I nearly fell out of my chair. "Lady Ashton is generosity itself. I can't imagine she'd want any of her girls to wind up in such a situation. Rats. Lots of rats. Filth everywhere. The smell's unbearable. You'd probably wind up falling ill before long and would welcome an early death."

"Enough!" Lizzie cried. "I admit that I took your letters."

"Why did you do it?" I asked.

"I didn't think I was hurting anyone."

"Did you also pass information about myself and the Duke of Bainbridge?"

Now that she knew she was caught, all her confidence evaporated. She seemed nervous and began talking very quickly. "Not precisely, milady. I just confirmed that he was here a lot, and alone with you. And that he sent the flowers with the note."

"You read the note?"

"Yes, I'm sorry."

"How did you know that Mrs. Francis had come to call on me the day that you offered to bring us tea?"

"I don't remember, milady. Honest, I don't."

"How did you pass along your information?"

"I left notes tacked to a tree in Berkeley Square, milady."

"I don't believe you, Lizzie. Can you read?"

"Yes."

"And you read the note from the Duke of Bainbridge?"

"Yes." She swallowed hard.

"How did he sign it?"

"I don't remember exactly. I...I think he signed it "Bainbridge." Or maybe "Jeremy"?"

"What exactly did your employer ask you to do?"

"At first I was to keep an eye out for signs that you were having an affair with Mr. Berry, but I never saw any, so then he told me it was the duke I should watch for."

"So when you saw the note, you assumed it was from the duke?" She nodded.

"You can't read, can you?" She did not look at me. "The trouble is, Lizzie, the note wasn't from him. It wasn't even signed."

"Oh."

"There's no shame in not being able to read. It's not your fault that you weren't given the opportunity to learn. Why did you steal the letters?"

"I thought they were from the duke, too, but started to worry that the person paying me would begin to figure out that I couldn't read them and stop paying me."

"Who is that person?"

"I don't know."

"Lizzie, do not lie to me now."

"I'm not lying. I don't know who it is."

"You obviously don't leave notes in the square. How do you communicate with this person? How did he contact you in the first place?"

Now the girl turned deadly pale. "I had trouble at my last position and was let go without a character."

"What had you done?" I tried to picture Colin. Calm Colin, able to persuade anyone to admit to anything.

"I...I flirted with my master's son."

"Just flirted?"

"Yes."

"Are you quite certain?" Surely I couldn't wind up with two maids in delicate situations in the course of a single evening.

"Oh, yes, Lady Ashton. His father turned me out of the house the moment he saw his son talking to me."

"What house was this?"

"Please don't make me say."

"You must tell me, Lizzie. I will have to confirm your story."

"It was Lord Grantham, milady."

Lord Grantham, the man whose Limoges box Sebastian had stolen. "So you were expelled from the house?"

"Yes. My mother's in service in Richmond, and got the housekeeper to let me stay with her while I looked for another position, but, as you can imagine, without a character, I couldn't find anything."

"Richmond? Whose house?" My heart was pounding. Was this all to be so easily solved?

"Mrs. Sophie Hargreaves, milady. A very kind mistress."

Not so easily solved. Sophie was married to Colin's brother, William. "So what happened?"

"I had just about given up and was ready to take a job in a button factory, when a man approached me and said he could help. He's in service, too, you see, and had spotted me on my rounds looking for work. Said he could get me a character if I would agree to help out his master and that I'd get extra money for doing it. I didn't see any harm in it. Sounded like a bit of fun."

"A bit of fun that could have destroyed me. And, Lizzie, had you succeeded in doing so, I would no longer be in a position to be able to help you."

"I'm sorry, milady."

"Who wrote the false character?"

"I don't know."

"Surely you know what house it was from? Otherwise how could you have known what to say when Mrs. Ockley interviewed you?"

"I just meant that I didn't know who had actually written it. It was supposed to be a Mrs. David Francis. She lives in Richmond, too."

This was certainly bad news, but I retained my composure. "And this man you spoke to? Who is he?"

"He wouldn't tell me his name. Too risky, you know. If we was to get caught."

"How did you communicate with him?"

"We'd meet on my day off in the park."

"Are you to meet with him this week?"

"I saw him a few days ago, and he said they didn't need me anymore."

"Did you give him the Bible that was in my carriage?"

"I did, milady."

"But you could not have thought that had something to do with the Duke of Bainbridge?"

"No, but after I brought the letters, the next week he said that if I came across anything out of the ordinary, it would be a good idea to bring it to him. When I heard the carriage had been run off the road, I knew that wasn't ordinary, so when Baines gave me your things, I looked through them."

"You went through my reticule?"

"Yes, milady." She no longer was meeting my eyes. "I thought it was odd you was carrying a Bible instead of that funny Greek book, so I figured I'd give it to him."

"Did you also take a letter that was to be delivered to Mr. Hargreaves?"

"I did."

"And you told Baines that I'd removed it from the mail tray?"

"Yes, milady."

"Is there anything else about this you think I should know?"

"I don't think so." She squirmed in front of me, and I knew she wished I'd let her sit.

"As you might imagine, I'm having a rather difficult time trusting you."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm a bit confused as to why you are so repentant now, after having been so contentious when I first began to question you."

"I shouldn't have done it, milady, I know. He told me that if I ever got caught, I should deny everything as strongly as possible. Said that if I stood my ground, there was no way you could ever prove that I'd done anything wrong."

"Lizzie, when a person has done something wrong, it can always be proved somehow."

"Yes, milady." She was beginning to look rather ill. I turned my attention to Davis, who was still standing at the door.

"Take her to Mrs. Ockley and tell her not to let the girl out of her sight until I have this all settled." As soon as they had left, I weighed my options. I could send letters to Sophie Hargreaves and Lord Grantham, but it would be best to speak to Beatrice in person. I wanted to see her reaction to Lizzie's story.