'Comfortably off?'
Susan was shocked. 'You've no right to ask such a thing.'
'Nevertheless,' said her father, 'I'm happy to provide you with an answer. No, Mrs Kitson is not comfortably off.' He grinned as he saw the look that was exchanged between the sisters. 'She is
'That sounds promising,' observed Serle. 'May one inquire how you first met the lady, Sir Julius?'
'Through a mutual acquaintance who was at Newmarket one day. It was pure accident,' he said, 'but she has transformed my life. Mrs Kitson has been kind enough to say the same of me. That's why I'm glad that you and Lancelot have descended on us, Brilliana.'
'You were not so pleased a minute ago,' commented Susan.
'I was still trying to hide and dissemble then. Now that it's out in the open, I can speak freely at last.' He looked at his younger daughter. 'I know that you disapprove, Susan, but only because you have never met Mrs Kitson. That can soon be remedied. Only today,' he told them, 'when we dined together, she said how much she was looking forward to meeting my family. I'll arrange it at the earliest opportunity.'
Sarah Bale made no secret of her fondness for him. When Christopher Redmayne called at the house on Addle Hill that evening, she gave him a cordial welcome and ushered him into the little parlour as if he were an honoured guest. She then took her two young sons into the kitchen so that Christopher could speak to her husband alone.
'What sort of a day have you had, Jonathan?' said the architect.
'An exhausting one,' replied Bale.
'Did you find out anything of value?'
'No, Mr Redmayne. I've walked far but learned little.' 'Where exactly did you go?'
Bale told him about the three people whose names had been given to him by Francis Polegate, and how none of them recalled passing on the information to anyone else that Bernard Everett would be at the house in Knightrider Street on the previous day. Christopher felt a twinge of guilt.
'I owe you an apology, Jonathan,' he said.
'Why?'
'I may, unwittingly, have sent you on a wild goose chase.'
'But it's crucial for us to find out who was aware of the fact that Mr Everett would be at that address. That's why I tracked down those three friends of Mr Polegate.'
'You asked them the wrong question.'
'Did I, Mr Redmayne?'
'I think so,' said Christopher. 'Having made some inquiries on my own behalf, I'm not at all sure that the man at that window shot the person he was really after. My feeling is that he was there to kill Sir Julius Cheever.'
Bale blinked in surprised. 'Sir Julius?'
'He's the man who has caused such a stir in parliament, not Bernard Everett. If, as I believe, this murder has a political dimension, then Mr Everett was killed by mistake.'
He gave his reason for thinking so and told him of the conversation with his brother. Bale was sceptical. He found it difficult to place much reliance on the word of Henry Redmayne. Having met him a number of times, and being aware of the decadent existence that he led, he had the gravest reservations about Christopher's elder brother. In the constable's opinion, Henry symbolised all that was wrong with the Restoration, an event that Bale would never be able to accept as either necessary or in any way advantageous to his fellow-countrymen.
'Who were these other men you spoke to?' he asked.
'Roland Askray and Ninian Teale. Both have been Members of Parliament for several years.'
'And are they are close friends of your brother?'
Christopher smiled. 'If you mean that they are amongst Henry's many drinking companions,' he said, 'then I must concede that they are. But that does not disqualify them as shrewd judges of the political scene. Mr Askray has been talked of as a future Secretary to the Treasury and Mr Seal is part of the Duke of Buckingham's entourage.'
Bale was surprised. 'The Duke?'
'Yes, Jonathan, so he is close to the seat of power. Nobody has more influence over the King's councils than Buckingham.' He grinned as the other man gave a sniff of disapproval. 'Yes, I know that he would never win plaudits from you, Jonathan, but perhaps you should remember that he married the daughter of a Parliamentary general.'
'It's the Duke of Buckingham who needs to remember that,' said Bale, censoriously. 'Lord Fairfax's daughter deserves more respect from her husband. By all accounts, he leads the kind of life that makes a mockery of the marriage vows.'
Christopher did not contradict him. It was common knowledge that Buckingham was a notorious voluptuary, acquainted with every vice in a city where it flourished in abundance. But it was the way that he flouted the law that outraged Bale. In the previous year, Buckingham had killed the Earl of Shrewsbury in an illegal six-man duel, a scandal that was heightened by the fact that, before and after the event, the Countess of Shrewsbury was Buckingham's mistress. It worried Christopher that so much power had been vested into the hands of such a man. It appalled Bale. In his codex, Buckingham was Henry Redmayne writ large.
'I'm not asking you to admire Roland Askray or Ninian Teale,' said Christopher. 'Neither man is a saint. But you must accept that their experience of political matters commands attention.'
'Yes, Mr Redmayne.'
'They both told me how Sir Julius has a positive gift for making enemies, some of whom would like to see him forcibly removed from the Parliament House.'
'Then Mr Everett is to be pitied even more.'
'He is, Jonathan. He took the bullet that was supposed to kill another man. That means we have a second reason to catch the villain.'
'A second one?' said Bale.
'He needs to pay dearly for one murder, and be prevented from committing another. As long as the man is at liberty, Sir Julius's life is in danger.'
'Have you warned him?'
'I tried to,' admitted Christopher, 'but he refused utterly to believe that someone would wish to kill him. Indeed, he was so indignant that I should ever suggest such a thing that he threatened to ban me from his house. You can imagine how difficult that would be for me.'
'Yes,' said Bale, knowing of his attachment to Susan Cheever. 'It could make things very awkward. But, if you were unable to convince him that he was in jeopardy, why did you not ask his daughter to take on the office? From what I recall of the young lady, Miss Cheever knew how to deal with her father better than anyone.'
'That's certainly true.'
'Then entrust the task to her.'
'I dare not do so,' explained Christopher. 'It would only cause her grief and expose her to the sort of hurtful rebuke that I suffered. Susan would be terrified whenever her father stirred from the house.'
'He needs someone to keep watch on him.'
'He's too perverse to allow it.'
'Then what are we to do, Mr Redmayne?'
'Pursue the killer relentlessly and hope that we can overhaul him before he makes a second attempt on Sir Julius's life.'
'So my efforts today were in vain?'
'I take the blame for that, Jonathan. I should have stopped you.'
'What I should have asked Mr Polegate was whether or not he told those three friends of his that Sir Julius would be among the guests at his house yesterday.'
'That, too, would have been a futile exercise.'
'Why?'
'Because I suspect that it was not Francis Polegate who let the cat out of the bag,' said Christopher,
