What Darkness Brings

Chapter 49

Sebastian was crossing Pall Mall, headed toward Carlton House, when he heard himself hailed by Mr. Thomas Hope.

“My lord,” said Hope, panting slightly from the unaccustomed exertion of hurrying up the street. “This is fortuitous indeed. If I might have a word with you for a moment?”

“Of course,” said Sebastian, moderating his pace to the other man’s slower gait. “Is something wrong?”

The banker’s mouth worked furiously back and forth. “You’ve heard, I assume, that Yates is to be released from prison?”

“I had heard, yes. Do I take it you find that troubling?”

“What? Oh, no. It’s not Yates’s release that worries me, per se. It’s what we’re hearing about the death of this fellow Jud Foy. All these deaths associated with the diamond! It’s as if it’s cursed or something. First King Louis and Marie Antoinette, then the Duke of Brunswick. And now Eisler and Foy and that French thief whose name for the moment escapes me. To be frank, I’m worried about Louisa.”

Sebastian studied the banker’s homely, haggard face. He wondered if Hope realized he’d just admitted to knowing the true origins of his rare blue diamond. “You don’t still have the diamond, do you?”

“No. But then, neither did the King and Queen of France when they lost their heads. Or Brunswick when he was killed in battle. Or-”

“People die all the time. I’ve no doubt if you knew the entire history of any large gem, you’d find many people associated with it who died violently. Apart from which, I don’t believe Jud Foy actually had anything to do with the diamond.”

“You don’t? But. . They’re saying he’s the one who killed Eisler! Are you suggesting you now believe Yates-”

“No. To be frank, I still don’t know who killed Eisler. Or why.”

Hope sank his upper teeth into his lip and worried it back and forth, as if summoning the courage to speak. “I fear I’ve not been entirely honest with you.”

“Oh?”

“I told you I didn’t know if Eisler had a buyer interested in my diamond. That was not strictly true.”

Sebastian waited.

Hope sucked in a deep breath, then blurted out, “Prinny. Prinny was interested. Most definitely interested.”

Sebastian said, “I had rather suspected that.”

“You did?”

“I don’t imagine there can be many potential buyers for a stone of that caliber.”

“True, true. But there is one thing you may not know: The Prince’s representative was scheduled to meet with Eisler in Fountain Lane the very night he was killed.”

“Do you know the identity of that individual?”

Hope shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. But I should think it would not be all that difficult to discover. I believe Lord Jarvis was also involved in the negotiations.”

“Jarvis?”

Hope blinked rapidly several times, so that Sebastian wondered what the man saw in his face. “Yes, my lord.”

Sebastian’s history with his father-in-law was defined by a level of antagonism that had included-but was not limited to-physical assault, larceny, attempted murder, and a certain memorable kidnapping incident.

In one sense, Sebastian could not help but admire the big man’s dedication to the preservation of England and her monarchy. But he had no illusions about the level of Jarvis’s ruthlessness. The King’s powerful cousin could have taught Machiavelli a thing or two about duplicity, cunning, and the unswerving elevation of expediency over such maudlin notions as sentiment, principle, and morality.

To Sebastian’s knowledge, Jarvis possessed only one humanizing trait, and that was his affection for his sole surviving child, Hero. The man despised his aged, grasping mother and his two foolish sisters and would probably have consigned his addlebrained wife to Bedlam had it not been for Hero.

But when Sebastian reached Carlton House, it was to discover that Lord Jarvis was not there.

Swearing softly to himself, Sebastian turned toward his father-in-law’s Grosvenor Square town house.

His peal at the door was answered by a trim, wooden-faced butler named Grisham whom Sebastian suspected had not yet forgiven him for a certain incident a few weeks before, when Sebastian had hauled a dead body up the curving staircase to dump it on Lord Jarvis’s drawing room carpet.

“My lord,” said Grisham, his professional mask firmly in place. “I am afraid Lady Devlin is no longer here, having left shortly after her conversation with his lordship this morning.”

“Actually, it’s Lord Jarvis I was interested in seeing.”

A breath of wariness clouded the butler’s normally impassive features. “Unfortunately, his lordship is unavailable at the moment, as he has retired to his dressing room in preparation for an important audience with-”

“That’s quite all right,” said Sebastian, brushing past the butler and heading for the stairs. “I won’t be but a moment.”

There was a time when such an intrusion would have motivated Grisham to call the constables. Now he had to content himself with closing the front door with unusual force.

Sebastian took the stairs two at a time and entered the dressing room without knocking.

Jarvis was standing before his dressing table, his back to the door. Pausing in the act of fastening his cuffs, he looked up, his gaze meeting Sebastian’s in the mirror. He calmly straightened his cuffs and glanced over at his valet.

“Leave us.”

The man bowed and carefully laid the neckcloths he’d been holding over the nearby daybed. “Yes, my lord.”

Jarvis waited until the man had closed the door. Then he turned to select one of the cravats. “Well?”

“The Prince’s representative who was to meet with Eisler the night he was killed-who was it?”

Jarvis carefully eased the length of starched linen around his neck. “Heard about that, did you?”

“Yes.”

“To be frank, I’m somewhat surprised you didn’t make this discovery days ago.”

Sebastian gave his father-in-law a hard, gritty smile. “His name?”

“The gentleman’s identity is immaterial-an amateur although highly knowledgeable lapidary who had agreed to inspect the gem prior to its formal presentation to the Prince by Eisler at the Palace.”

“Which was scheduled for when?”

“Tuesday.”

“When one is dealing with murder, no potential witness-or suspect-is ‘immaterial.’”

Jarvis smoothed the folds of his cravat, his gaze on his reflection in the mirror. “The gentleman in question arrived at the scene nearly an hour after the shooting occurred and, upon observing the commotion, quietly left. He declined to step forward because he has no information of merit to add and because it is of the utmost importance that the Prince not be seen to be involved in anything of this nature.”

“And does the Prince know, I wonder, that the gem in question was once the French Blue?”

“As it happens, he does. Indeed, the item he ordered designed for it was to be an emblem of the Golden Fleece.”

“But he isn’t a member of any of the Orders of the Golden Fleece.”

“He is confident that he soon shall be.” Jarvis turned from the mirror. “I fail to understand your continuing interest in this affair. The authorities have determined some deranged ex-soldier murdered Daniel Eisler. I understand he was seen actually watching the house.”

“Jud Foy was watching the house, yes. But I don’t think he killed Eisler.”

A faint smile curled Jarvis’s full lips. “So certain?”

Sebastian studied the big man’s half-averted profile. He could not shake the suspicion that behind this subtle play and counterplay of arrest, imminent hanging, and sudden release lurked Jarvis’s long vendetta against Russell Yates and Kat Boleyn. He said, “And does the Prince know that the diamond he covets was once in the possession of his own wife?”

“That he does not know.”

“Yet you do?”

Jarvis turned, his face set in bland lines. “Seventeen years ago, His Royal Highness took an unfortunate, instant dislike to his bride. That dislike has since solidified into an aversion-”

“Actually, I think I’d be more inclined to call it an irrational but powerful loathing colored by a petty lust for revenge.”

“-and a determination,” continued Jarvis, ignoring the interjection, “to be rid of his wife. Such a step would, however, be disastrous for the stability of the realm and the future of the monarchy.”

“Hence the need to conceal from the Prince the entire history of the stone?” said Sebastian. “If my memory serves me correctly, the Prince Regent was named executor of Brunswick’s estate, which means that Princess Caroline technically should have handed over to her husband’s keeping any of the old Duke’s jewels in her possession. Obviously she did not do so.”

“Caroline may be stupid, but she’s not that stupid,” said Jarvis. “Fortunately, she at least stopped short of publicly accusing Prinny of playing fast and loose with her father’s estate.”

“Unlike her brother, the current Duke.”

“Just so.”

Sebastian said, “I think Daniel Eisler knew the circuitous route the stone had taken to come into Hope’s possession and was using that knowledge to apply pressure on the Princess in order to obtain something from her that he wanted. You wouldn’t happen to know what that was, would you?”

“No.”

Sebastian studied the big man’s complacent, aquiline countenance. “I don’t believe you.”

Jarvis possessed a startlingly winsome smile he could use with devastating effect to charm and cajole the unwary and the credulous. He flashed that smile now, a sparkle of genuine amusement lighting his steel gray eyes. “Would I lie to you?”

“Yes.”

The sound of Jarvis’s laughter followed Sebastian down the stairs and out of the house.