Narraway had already told them what he had learned about Ingrid’s death and the accusation against Bennett Kynaston, and how Dudley gained such a debt of honour by having Harold Sundstrom rescue him, possibly from death.
‘And Ailsa was his son, Anders Sundstrom’s, wife, and then widow?’ Charlotte said as it became clear to her. ‘So she is collecting Harold’s debt from Dudley?’ She frowned. ‘Is Harold dead?’
‘No,’ Narraway replied. ‘I’ve been up half the night checking various details with people I know. Harold Sundstrom is quite an important man. He was certainly alive and well a few days ago. He has a position in naval research …’ He let that last sentence hang in the air, its implication clear.
Pitt sat silent for a few minutes, turning over the pieces in his mind. ‘And Ailsa manipulated her dead husband’s brother into betraying his own country because she is a loyal Swede?’ he asked thoughtfully. ‘Or to help her first husband’s father? That seems an odd division of loyalties.’
‘And a betrayal of Bennett as well,’ Charlotte added. ‘Rosalind said that Ailsa was still so in love with him that she can’t consider marrying anyone else … but she is still having a sort of an affair with Edom Talbot.’
Vespasia’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Edom Talbot? For heaven’s sake why? She’s a beautiful woman, certainly very striking. She could easily find someone of her own social class. And I think that would matter to her.’
‘Perhaps she loves him?’ Narraway suggested.
‘No … she doesn’t!’ Charlotte said quickly. ‘She finds him …’ She struggled for a word that was exactly right.
‘Distasteful,’ Pitt supplied it for her, remembering her description of the scene she had observed.
Stoker looked puzzled, and with some embarrassment Charlotte told him what she had seen reflected in the mirrors.
Instead of disapproval, which Pitt knew she had expected, Stoker’s face reflected a degree of admiration. ‘So she is still in love with Bennett Kynaston, her late husband, she is daughter-in-law of this Swedish chap in their naval department, and is using Edom Talbot, who is close to our Prime Minister, and sometimes to Dudley Kynaston, who is giving away our naval secrets to the Swedes,’ he observed with incredulity. ‘It doesn’t make sense. Especially added to the fact that she was the one who was trying to hunt down Kitty Ryder. We’ve missed something.’
‘Rather a lot,’ Narraway said bleakly.
‘Did Ailsa know anything about Bennett and Ingrid’s death?’ Vespasia asked.
‘She had to,’ Pitt replied. ‘It was her father-in-law at the time who rescued him, at some considerable labour and cost to himself.’
Vespasia looked at him, her brow puckered in thought. ‘What was Ailsa’s surname before she married Anders Sundstrom?’
Narraway pushed his chair back and stood up. ‘I shall find out. She is still a Swedish national, living here in Britain. It will be a matter of record. May I use your telephone, Pitt?’
‘Of course,’ Pitt replied quickly. ‘It’s in the hall.’
Narraway nodded and went out immediately. They heard his footsteps along the linoleum in the passage.
No one spoke until he returned. Minnie Maude silently made another piece of toast and refilled the teapot with boiling water, the patter of Uffie’s claws on the floor behind her the only sound.
When Narraway returned, the tension in his body and the look in his face gave him away.
‘Revenge,’ he said simply. ‘Ingrid Halvarsen was her sister. She probably married Bennett Kynaston for the purpose of revenge, only before she could ruin him he died of what seems to have been natural causes. She carried her vengeance on to Dudley. After all, he was the one who rescued Bennett from what she saw as justice the first time.’
No one argued, in fact no one said anything. It all made perfect sense now.
Charlotte was the first to speak. ‘So she wanted to have an exquisite revenge, the disgrace as well as the ruin,’ she said slowly. ‘I suppose she meant to get Dudley in beyond any way of extricating himself, and then she would have exposed him?’
‘Would have?’ Vespasia said quickly. ‘Surely she still will do?’
‘We must prevent that!’ Pitt responded. ‘It would do immeasurable damage to us. We would lose all respect, or credibility. Even our own navy would have no belief in us. Our allies, enemies-’
‘We understand,’ Narraway cut him off. ‘She is having an affair with Talbot, but does not like him. Therefore she has another reason for it. Does it have anything to do with the information going from Kynaston to Sundstrom?’
‘What do we know about Talbot?’ Pitt asked, speaking to himself as much as anyone else. He tried to put his personal dislike of the man out of his mind; his feelings were irrelevant, as was the fact that Talbot disliked him. He was surprised that it was Vespasia who answered.
‘An ambitious man, who desires to belong to Society, which will always see him as an outsider. Unfortunately he has allowed it to make him bitter …’
Stoker looked at her quickly, but was too aware of his own status to make any remark. Pitt knew he was seeing her as someone exquisitely privileged who had never known exclusion from anything, let alone Society itself.
She caught his glance. ‘I am not approving of it, Mr Stoker, merely observing it as possibly relevant to Mr Talbot’s behaviour. It may not be something you have thought of, but most women understand Society’s exclusions. Some of us even wish to have a vote as to which Government we live under, but that possibility does not seem to lie in the near future, regardless of our means, or intelligence.’
She had spoken quite gently, but Stoker blushed scarlet. Clearly he had never given the matter any thought; it was simply a part of life, and had always been so. He lifted his chin a little higher and swallowed hard.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, looking directly at her. ‘You are right. I never thought of that.’
She smiled back at him. ‘At least since the Married Women’s Property Act, I may own my own clothes.’
He stared at her in amazement.
She gave a wry, slight laugh. ‘You are too young to remember. I mention it only to persuade you that I do understand the anger at what one perceives to be totally unfair. I have some sympathy with Mr Talbot. He is probably more intelligent and more able than many who will always be his superiors, not because of ability, or honour, but the circumstances of both. The tragedy is that he may have allowed that resentment to rob him of the positions within his reach. No matter how understandable it is, anger is still a poison, albeit one that works slowly, eating away at the judgement, at mercy and eventually at life.’ She suddenly became aware that everyone was looking at her, and coloured very faintly.
Pitt was the first to speak, in order to fill in the silence. He saw Vespasia in a new light, perhaps more vulnerable than she had ever allowed herself to appear before. He had taken it for granted that all doors were open to her. Now that he considered it, clearly they were not. She was well-born and wealthy, perhaps. More importantly, she was still truly beautiful even now; but she was still a woman. His admiration for her, even love, had allowed him to forget that. But it would be tactless to say so now.
‘Then it seems extremely likely that Talbot is the one also seeking a kind of revenge by selling the secrets of the establishment that has denied him, on a prejudice he finds intolerable,’ he observed.
Charlotte drew in her breath as if to speak, then let it out again in silence.
‘Do you disagree?’ Pitt asked.
They all looked at her, waiting.
Now she had no choice. ‘I agree that it is almost certainly Talbot,’ she answered. ‘But I think revenge could have waited, and it will satisfy him little. To succeed would have been far better. I think his more urgent motive may have been money.’
‘Money?’ Narraway repeated. ‘Do you know something of his affairs?’
She smiled at him. ‘I’ve seen how he dresses, and I know what such suits cost Thomas. And shirts! Talbot has gold cuff links. I’ve noticed several different pairs. And shoes. And I’ve seen where he dines. I could feed my family for a week on the cost of one of his cigars. And I dare say some of the nice little trinkets that Ailsa wears were gifts from him. Whatever other arrangements lie between them, he desires her physically, and to court a woman like her, one needs to give gifts, flowers, to ride in carriages, dine at the nicest and most fashionable places. Possibly he has to compete with Dudley Kynaston, who has wealth, position and considerable good looks.
