4
Charlotte was not nearly so gentle with Caroline as Pitt had been, largely because she was afraid, and the feeling was so raw and urgent inside her it overruled the caution with which her mind would otherwise have softened her words. Old memories came flooding back as if the shock and the disillusion had come yesterday. The need to protect was stronger now, though, be shy;cause she could see everything so much more sharply, and this time she was on the outside, not numbed by her own emotions as she had been then.
'Mama, I think we cannot reasonably place any hope in the idea that Mina took poison by accident,' she said frankly as she sat in Caroline's withdrawing room the following day. She had called as soon as she could after hearing the news from Pitt. Gossip would fly very quickly; mistakes might be made at a single encounter.
'It would be very tragic to think the poor woman was wretched enough to take her own life,' she went on, 'and even worse to believe someone else hated her enough to commit murder, but closing our eyes to it will not remove the truth.'
'I have already told Thomas the very little I know,' Caroline said unhappily. 'I even made some rather wild guesses that I wish now I had not. I have probably been extremely unjust.'
'And rather less than honest,' Charlotte added harshly. 'You told him nothing about Monsieur Alaric's picture being in your stolen locket.'
Caroline froze, her fingers locked as if she had a sudden spasm; only her eyes were hot, scalding Charlotte with contempt.
'And did you?' Caroline said slowly.
Charlotte saw the anger in her, but she was too concerned with the danger to spare time for hurt.
'Of course not!' She dismissed the question without bother shy;ing to defend herself. 'But that does not alter the fact that if you lost such a thing, maybe someone else did too!'
'And if they did, what has that to do with Mina's death?' Caroline was still stiff with chill.
'Oh, don't be so silly!' Charlotte exploded with exasperation. Why was Caroline being so obtuse? 'If Mina were the thief, then she might have been murdered to recover the stolen article, whatever it is! And if she were the victim, maybe it was some shy;thing that mattered to her so much, was so dangerous for her, that she would rather die than face having it known!'
There was silence. A pan was dropped in the scullery, and the dim echo of it penetrated the room. Very slowly the hard anger died out of Caroline's face as she understood. Charlotte watched her without speaking.
'What could there be that was worse than death?' Caroline said at last.
'That is what we need to find out.' Charlotte finally relaxed her body enough to sit properly in her chair and lean against the back. 'Thomas can find facts, but it may take you or me to understand them. After all, you cannot expect the police to know the feelings of someone like Mina. Something that would seem trivial to them might have been overwhelming to her.'
It was not necessary to explain all the differences of class, sex, and the whole framework of customs and values that lay between Pitt and Mina. Both Charlotte and Caroline understood that all the sensitivity or imagination he was capable of would not guide him to see with Mina's eyes or recognize what it was that had accomplished her death.
'I wish I didn't have to know,' Caroline said wearily, look shy;ing away from Charlotte. 'I would so much rather bury her in peace. I have no curiosity. I can abide a mystery perfectly well. I have learned that one is not very often happier for having found all the answers.'
Charlotte knew that at least half her mother's feeling sprang from a desire for privacy herself, the need to keep her own secrets. So much of the pleasure of a flirtation was that other people should see your conquest, and this realization added to her fear. Caroline must be very enchanted with Paul Alaric if she was content for the relationship to be unobserved. That meant it was far more than a game; there was something in it that Caroline wanted very much, something more than admiration alone.
'You cannot afford not to know!' Charlotte said sharply, wanting to shock her mother into fear acute enough to bring her to some sense. 'If Mina were the thief, then she may still have your locket! When her possessions are sorted out, Alstoq will find it-or Thomas will!'
This had all the jarring effect she intended. Caroline's face tightened into a mask. She swallowed with difficulty.
'If, Thomas finds it-' she began; and then the enormity of it hit her. 'Oh, dear heaven! He might think I killed Mina! Charlotte-he couldn't think that-could he?'
The danger was too real for soft words and lies.
'I don't suppose Thomas himself would think so,' she an shy;swered quietly. 'But other police might. There must have been some reason why Mina died, so we had better find it first, before the locket turns up and anyone else has the chance to think anything at all.'
'But what?' Caroline shut her eyes in desperation, searching blindly for some explanation in the darkness of her mind. 'We don't even know if it was suicide or murder! I did tell Thomas about Tormod Lagarde.'
'What about him?' Thomas had not mentioned Tormod or any possible connection.
'That Mina might have been in love with him,' Caroline replied. 'She definitely had an admiration for him. It could have been more than we thought. And she did go to the Lagardes' house just before she died. Perhaps she had some kind of interview with him and he rejected her in a way that she could not bear?'
The idea of a married woman finding the end of such a relationship cause for suicide disturbed Charlotte. It was frighten shy;ing and pathetic in a way that repelled her, especially since she could not put Caroline and Paul Alaric from her mind. But then she did not know how disagreeable or empty the Spencer-Browns' marriage might have been. She had no right to judge. So many marriages were 'appropriate'-and even those born of love could sour. She reproved herself for making too hasty a judgment, an act she despised in others.
'I suppose Eloise Lagarde might know,' Charlotte said thoughtfully. 'We shall have to be very tactful in inquiring. No one would wish to believe they might have been the cause, however unintentionally, of someone else's taking her own life. And Eloise is bound to protect her brother.''
The hope faded from Caroline's face. 'Yes. They are very close. I suppose it comes from having only each other when their parents died so young.'
'There are several other possibilities,' Charlotte continued. 'Someone has been stealing. Perhaps they took from Mina some lover's keepsake from Tormod, and the fear that it might become public was unbearable to her. Perhaps they even went to her and threatened to give it to Alston if she did not give them money-or whatever else they wished.' Her imagination went on to thoughts that might drive a person into thinking of death. 'Perhaps it was another man who desired her. And that was the price of his silence.'
'Charlotte!' Caroline sat bolt upright. 'What a truly appall shy;ing mind you have, girl! You would never have been capable of such thoughts when you lived in my house!'
Charlotte had on her tongue a few pointed words about Caroline, Paul Alaric, and the question of morality, but she refrained from speaking them.
'Some truly appalling things happen, Mama,' she said instead. 'And I am a few years older than I was then.'
'And you also appear to have forgotten a great deal about the sort of people we are. No man in Rutland Place would stoop to such a thing!'
'Not so openly, perhaps,' Charlotte said quietly. She had her own ideas about what was done but would be called by a pleasanter name. 'But he doesn't have to be one of you. Why not a footman-or even a bootboy? Can you answer for them so surely?'
'Oh, dear God! You can't be serious!'
'Why not? Might not that have been enough to make Mina, or any other woman, think of suicide? Might you not?'
'I-' Caroline stared at her. She let out her breath very slowly, as if she had given up some fight. 'I don't know. I should think it is one of those things that would be so dreadful you could not know how you would feel unless it happened to you.' She moved her eyes to look down at the floor. 'Poor Mina. She so hated anything in the least unseemly. Something like that would have-shriveled her to the heart!'
'We don't know that that was what happened, Mama.''Char shy;lotte leaned forward and touched her. 'There
