Social Graces Page 6

  ‘Oh no! You don’t get away from me that easily.’ Mr Milton countered those orders and, needless to say, the man obeyed him. He was paying the fare, but even so… Sophia was too irritated to hear what address Mr Milton gave. It didn’t matter. She would simply remain in the cab when they arrived and insist upon being taken on to Haughton Street.

  He sat beside her, whistling tunelessly and not attempting to engage her in conversation, which was most unreasonable of him. She had assumed he would pepper her with questions and she fully intended to maintain a dignified silence. It was very difficult to remain dignified, she was quickly discovering, when one was being ignored.

  As the cab rattled along increasingly prosperous streets she began to worry that he was taking her to confront Chichester. That was exactly what she wanted to do, she told herself, but on her terms. Besides, she had no intention of entering Chichester’s private lair, or going anywhere unfamiliar with her roguish abductor. But she also refused to be treated like a prisoner and it was that thought which caused her to break the uneasy silence that reigned between them.

  ‘If your plan is to deliver me to Lord Chichester, then it won’t serve. I will not set foot in any establishment owned by that ogre.’

  ‘And yet you are willing enough to live in your sister’s rooms, which indirectly belong to Chichester. He has paid for them, after all.’

  ‘Thank you for reminding me,’ she responded with a glower.

  ‘I don’t like the man either, but facts must be faced, Miss Larson. Your sister willingly placed herself beneath his protection.’

  Sophia shuddered. ‘I advised her most strongly against so doing, but she wouldn’t listen. She thought I was worried for her virtue, but that wasn’t it at all.’

  ‘You approve of her loose behaviour, then.’

  ‘Of course I do not!’ It was a cold day but Sophia suddenly felt very hot and flustered. ‘But I do believe in equality. You would not be criticised for entering into such an arrangement. In fact, I expect your friends would think you were a fine fellow and envy you your good fortune, despite the fact that you were already a married man—’

  ‘I am not,’ Mr Milton replied.

  ‘I was speaking figuratively,’ Sophia said. ‘I neither know nor care about your personal circumstances, since we shall not be seeing one another again.’

  ‘That would be a terrible shame.’

  ‘Stop pretending to…just a minute, what did you mean when you said you dislike Lord Chichester too?’ She turned and bestowed her full attention upon him, but he had tipped his hat low over his eyes and it was hard for her to read his expression. ‘You are clearly a gentleman, presumably one of his inner circle. Do you make a habit of socialising with people whom you dislike, or do you hope to raise your own prospects by ingratiating yourself with a marquess?’

  ‘Hardly. I am a humble barrister in training.’

  ‘Even worse,’ Sophia replied, twisting her lips into a pout of disapproval. ‘I assume his lordship has engaged you to represent his interests, which is why you came to see me, just to make sure that I won’t publicly denounce your client. He is paying you, and yet you admit to me that you don’t like the man.’ She chewed her lower lip to prevent a smile from escaping. ‘That is not very professional of you, Mr Milton. No wonder you are still in training.’

  ‘You’ve hit the nail on the head, I’m afraid. There really is no hope for me.’

  Sophia, who despite her earlier reservations was enjoying this conversation a little too much, huffed indignantly. ‘You make it very hard for me to disapprove of you when you insist upon agreeing with everything I say about the despicable man.’

  ‘Well then, just to make you feel better, I will let you into a little secret.’

  ‘Please don’t.’

  He raised a challenging brow. ‘You have a disinclination for secrets?’

  ‘Not at all. It’s just that if you confide in me, it will no longer be a secret.’

  ‘I can see that you are something of a pedant, Miss Larson.’

  ‘I suppose I am.’ She treated him to a brief smile. ‘How kind of you to say so.’

  He threw back his head and laughed. ‘You are very easy to compliment. Not many females of my acquaintance would know what I meant, much less feel gratified to be labelled a pedant.’

  ‘In that case, you must mix with some very dull-witted females. But then that’s the problem with the upper classes, in my humble opinion. They can only marry within their own ranks, which leads to…well, inbreeding, I suppose. A bit like pedigree dogs succumbing to all sorts of maladies for much the same reason. Defects get passed down from one generation to the next. Throw in the occasional mongrel and the bloodline improves. Do so with your lot and some of the women might even be able to think for themselves.’

  ‘What a novel suggestion.’

  ‘I live to serve.’

  ‘Do you always babble when you are angry?’ Mr Milton asked, sounding amused.

  ‘I was not babbling. I was speaking with authority, but then I wouldn’t expect you to recognise common sense when it springs from the mouth of a mere woman, given that you have already admitted to never mixing with any who have anything worth saying.’

  Mr Milton focused his attention on her mouth and flashed a lazy smile that made her blush. Damn it, she thought she had gained the upper hand and yet he’d stolen it back simply by smiling at her.

  ‘We have strayed from the point,’ he said. ‘I was engaged in my professional capacity to protect his lordship’s interests, but this morning he dispensed with my services. Does that satisfy you?’

  ‘So why did you come to Grandmamma’s?’

  ‘I have an annoyingly curious nature, a great respect for your sister’s talent, and I wanted to see if I could find out who killed her and why.’

  ‘That’s easy. Lord Chichester killed her in a fit of jealousy. They were always arguing, you know.’

  ‘Yes, he mentioned something along those lines.’

  ‘Well, I don’t suppose that will be enough to prove…where on earth are we?’ She peered through the window when the cab came to a halt and gasped when she found herself gazing up at an enormous mansion. Presumably he had lied to her, distracted her with his lazy smile and silly compliments, into believing he was on her side. This must be Lord Chichester’s house. ‘I am not going in there!’

  ‘Of course you are. Don’t you trust me?’

  ‘Not an inch.’

  He gave a dramatic sigh. ‘You wound me with your forthright manner, Miss Larson.’

  She smiled in spite of herself. ‘I dare say you will recover.’

  He paid the jarvey and the next thing she knew she was standing in front of the house with no clear memory of having left the cab, voluntarily or otherwise. Mr Milton seemed to possess the ability to make her act against her will. It was very annoying. Before she could regain her scattered wits, the door to the mansion was opened by a tough-looking butler and Sophia was propelled through it.

  ‘Good morning, Parker. Is his lordship at home?’

  ‘He is, sir.’

  ‘Mr Milton?’

  Sophia looked up as a lovely lady drifted into the hallway and felt immediately reassured. She was too young to be the marchioness. Too old to be one of her daughters.

  ‘Ah, Lady Torbay, forgive the intrusion.’

  ‘Torbay?’ Sophia muttered, her mind working a mile a minute. ‘I know that name.’

  ‘I expect you do,’ the lady said, offering Sophia a kindly smile. ‘I am somewhat notorious, or was at one time. The stigma never complete leaves one, you know, but one becomes accustomed. Will you introduce us, Mr Milton?’

  ‘With pleasure. Lady Torbay, may I make Miss Sophia Larson known to you?’

  ‘Oh, you poor dear,’ Lady Torbay replied, clasping Sophia’s hand. ‘It was your sister who was so brutally murdered. You have my heartfelt sympathy. I am so glad Mr Milton had the good sense to bring you here. Come through to the drawing room.
I dare say you would like some tea. My husband is in his library, Mr Milton. I expect he will be interested to hear how you got on this morning.’

  ‘In that case, ladies, if you would excuse me.’

  ‘Yes, go along with you.’ Lady Torbay seemed unmoved by his elegant bow. She shooed him away with one hand and took Sophia’s elbow with the other. ‘Now come and sit down, my dear, and we can talk undisturbed by the men. They do tend to take over, don’t you find?’

  Chapter Five

  Jake looked up from the report he was studying and smiled when Otto Milton walked into his private lair.

  ‘Just the excuse I needed to put aside my steward’s recommendations,’ he said, placing the dreary report aside. ‘He will insist upon using ten words where one would suffice.’ He stood and extended his hand, which Otto clasped. ‘How are you?’

  ‘Well, thank you. I apologise for calling without an appointment. I am aware that my report should reach you through Isaac, but circumstances overtook me.’

  ‘Don’t give it another thought.’ Jake took a chair beside the fire and ushered Otto into its twin. ‘What news do you bring?’

  Jake frowned as Otto related the particulars of Chichester’s interview with Dowd. ‘I swear to God, Lord Torbay—’

  ‘No need for such formality. If you are to help me with this enquiry, you’d best call me Jake.’

  Otto inclined his head, looking pleased at the prospect of being included. ‘Very well. Thank you, but the fact of the matter is that our investigative powers, such as they are, might no longer be necessary.’

  ‘Dowd has made an arrest already?’ Jake expressed his surprise by means of a negligent shrug. ‘That’s fast work, even if the good superintendent isn’t in the habit of allowing the facts to stand in his way once he has decided upon a person’s guilt.’ He stared at the flames dancing up the chimney. ‘He is the man responsible for my wife being charged with her first husband’s murder, simply because she was the most obvious suspect. As you can imagine, there is little love lost between us, and I have no respect for his slapdash methods.’ Jake shifted his position and allowed himself a moment to get his temper under control. Thoughts of Dowd were, even now, sufficient to rouse him to anger. ‘Anyway, I take it Chichester was not carted off in irons.’

  ‘I was not aware that Dowd was involved in Lady Torbay’s situation, but am not surprised to hear it. He took every word Chichester spoke as gospel and didn’t ask a single telling question. I wasn’t needed, and frankly I felt sickened by the entire charade.’

  Jake leaned his elbow on the arm of his chair and rubbed his fingers against his lips in a considering manner. ‘In theory, that ought to be a cause for celebration—Chichester not being arrested, I mean. Regardless of how that situation came about, we can be fairly sure that Dowd’s detectives won’t trouble Chichester again. But it’s clear to me that you are not in a celebratory mood. Care to explain to me why that is?’

  ‘With pleasure. Chichester sends you his compliments, his apologies for troubling you and no longer has need of our services. Well, actually, that’s not entirely true. There were no compliments or apologies as such.’ Otto flashed a disgruntled smile. ‘We have simply been relieved of our duties, rather like the inconsequential underlings he looks upon us as being.’

  Jake smiled. ‘In that case, I am tempted to send him an account for our services.’

  ‘I wish you would.’

  Jake knew that Isaac thought highly of Otto Milton. He had often described him as a man of high intellect and relaxed disposition. An optimist who seldom permitted the injustices inherent to the British legal system to wear him down. Yet he scowled now, offended by Chichester’s assumption that he would be afforded the benefit of the doubt simply because of his privileged position.

  ‘You would prefer to see Chichester accused without proof of his guilt?’

  ‘In my line of work I have seen men accused on far flimsier evidence. Chichester was the last person known to have seen Connie before she died, so Dowd ought, at the very least, to have asked him about that. But the subject was barely touched upon and when it was, Chichester controlled the nature of the questioning.’

  ‘Which ought to be the end of our involvement.’ Jake smiled. ‘But I sense it isn’t going to be. Perhaps you had better tell me the rest.’

  Jake noticed just how frequently Otto frowned as he described his visit to Highgate and the callous attitude of Miss Larson’s grandmother.

  ‘Miss Larson was not pleased to see me, but that was because she thought I was there at Chichester’s behest.’

  ‘She thinks he killed her sister?’

  ‘She does, and frankly I’m half inclined to share that view. The man has a quick temper, and from what little Miss Larson has thus far admitted, her sister was not above flirting with other men in front of him. He might have finally run out of patience, given that she was ignoring his advice about touring with Felsham’s Repertory company.’

  Jake nodded. ‘I don’t like Chichester either, and I have little trouble imagining him capable of such a crime. He looked upon Connie Saville as his personal property, bought and paid for, and wouldn’t tolerate being embarrassed by her behaviour indefinitely.’

  ‘He could do what most men would if the arrangement had run its course. Terminate it.’ Otto gave a grim smile. ‘But not in quite such a dramatic fashion.’

  ‘His feelings were engaged, but his sentiments were not returned. That would have infuriated a man of Chichester’s stature. He has an inflated view of his self-worth and would have had little difficulty convincing himself that Connie liked him for more than just his money. But still, it’s no longer our problem.’ Jake fixed his visitor with a probing look. ‘Except I rather think that it might be. You don’t want to let this go, do you?’

  ‘Well, er…actually, I can’t. You see, Miss Larson is a little hot-headed. She disagreed with her grandmother and refuses to remain beneath her roof. But instead of returning to Hertfordshire she is determined to stay in London and get to the bottom of things.’ He gave a little smile. ‘I wouldn’t put it past her to confront Chichester with all sorts of unsubstantiated accusations that could land her in serious trouble.’

  Jake nodded pensively. ‘I see.’

  ‘She was on the point of taking up residence in her sister’s rooms.’

  ‘Good lord!’

  ‘Exactly my reaction.’

  ‘So what did you do about it? Where is she now?’

  ‘To be honest, I didn’t quite know what to do.’ Otto flashed a boyish smile. ‘So I bundled her into my cab and…well, I brought her here. I thought Lady Torbay might know of someone who would take her in and keep a watchful eye on her. But I didn’t get the opportunity to ask her. Your countess met us in the vestibule, took one look at Miss Larson and…’

  ‘And took change of her,’ Jake finished for him, smiling. ‘I am not in the least surprised to hear it. I assume they are in the drawing room now.’

  ‘Sorry…’

  ‘Don’t be. Olivia will probably insist that she remains here for the time being, and frankly it’s probably the safest place for her.’

  ‘That is most compassionate of her. Thank you. But what do we do about Chichester? The only person I met in his household who impressed me was his son, Lord Riley. When I mentioned the fact to Chichester he simply dismissed him as a younger son. He has absolutely no idea what he has there, Jake. I know Chichester’s heir and he’s an indolent fellow, not one tenth of the man that Riley will hopefully become.’

  ‘I don’t know Riley, but I look forward to making his acquaintance, should our paths happen to cross whilst he’s in town.’

  ‘He’s due back at Eton next week, so I doubt they will.’

  ‘Shame.’

  ‘Anyway, as to Chichester, if he is guilty, the thought of his escaping justice doesn’t sit comfortably with me.’

  ‘Nor me. But you don’t need me to tell you that it will be twenty times harder to prove his
guilt than that of a man of lesser stature. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is and there are some things that even I can’t change.’ Both men laughed. ‘Not that he is necessarily guilty of anything other than pomposity and pulling rank—and if that was a crime then most of the British aristocracy would be swinging from gibbets,’ Jake added. ‘All I’m trying to impress upon you is that it doesn’t do to jump to conclusions. We must discover the facts and then make an informed decision.’

  Otto’s eyes came alive. ‘Are you saying that we should continue to investigate?’

  Jake enjoyed seeing the enthusiasm in the younger man’s expression, and was now keen to meet the spirited and opinionated Miss Larson. He would then be in a better position to judge whether that enthusiasm sprang from an urgent desire to see justice served, or a very different type of desire that was aimed at making an impression upon Sophia Larson.

  ‘It cannot hurt to ask a few questions. The agent, Barton, and this fellow with the repertory company would be good places to start. And the doorman at Connie’s apartment building, of course. His evidence could prove vital, since we only have his word for it that no one called upon Connie after Chichester left her.’ Jake stood and Otto followed suit. ‘In the meantime, shall we see what your Miss Larson has to say for herself?’

  ***

  Olivia felt immense sympathy for the bewildered Miss Larson as she ushered her into the drawing room and asked Parker to bring them refreshments. Not so long ago she had found herself in a very similar position, but with one vital difference. She had been the person under suspicion rather than a grieving relative bent upon revenge. She had not exchanged a word on the subject of her sister’s murder with the young woman yet. Even so, she could already tell from the determined set to her features—undiminished despite opulent surroundings that had been known to intimidate persons of far greater significance—that getting to the truth was the force that drove Miss Larson, keeping her sorrow at bay.

  ‘I am very sorry about what happened to your sister, Miss Larson,’ Olivia said, ushering her guest towards a comfortable chair and taking the seat beside her. ‘Miss Saville was a great talent and, if memory serves, a genuinely kind person.’