weapons, the three ladies were left alone in the parlour before the roaring fire. Deafness prevented Lady Eames from doing little more than nodding and smiling though any conversation. When the old lady fell quietly asleep in her chair, Mrs Cardinal was able to talk more freely to Susan.
'Have you recovered from the journey yet?' she asked.
'I think so, Mrs Cardinal.'
'I've never known the coach toss us around so much.'
'For the pleasure of coming to London, I'd endure any discomfort. I'm so grateful to you and your son for bringing me. Apart from anything else, it takes away the feeling that I'm imposing on Brilliana.'
'Your sister would never let anyone impose on her.'
Susan laughed. 'I see that you've got to know her.'
'The whole of Richmond knows her. Brilliana has such energy. I am never with your sister but there's a shower of sparks flying from her. Was she always so lively?'
'Yes, Mrs Cardinal.'
'You have a much quieter disposition.'
'Do I?'
'Jack noticed that,' said the other. 'Fond as he is of Brilliana, he could not tolerate her company for this long. He feels that she would wear him out and yet Lancelot seems to thrive on it.'
'He's a very dutiful husband.'
'I suspect that your sister chose with him with great care.'
'She does everything with care, Mrs Cardinal.'
'I gathered that. Your father is a Member of Parliament, I believe.'
'A discontented one,' replied Susan fondly. 'Father thinks that everyone in the chamber but himself is a blockhead. The problem is that he insists on telling them that.'
'Sir Julius is not a man who seeks easy popularity, then.'
'No, Mrs Cardinal.'
'It's perhaps as well that he's not here now.'
'Why?'
'We'll be dining tomorrow with some of the people he would consider blockheads. Three of them sit in the House of Commons so they may know the name of Sir Julius Cheever.'
'It might be more tactful to keep it from them.'
'I hoped at one time that Jack might enter politics but he has no stomach for it.'
'Then he's wise to stay well clear of that world.'
'We'll all be pitched into the middle of it tomorrow,' said Mrs Cardinal. 'They'll be talking politics all around us at dinner. Lady Eames is the only person who'll be spared. Deafness has its compensations. But I'll expect you to talk to Jack,' she said. 'I'll make sure that you sit next to him so that he does not have to listen to all that earnest discussion of the state of the nation. Will you do that for me?'
'With pleasure,' replied Susan, guessing that there was another reason behind the request. 'You told me earlier that one of the guests was Sir Ralph Holcroft,' she went on, keen to know more about him after her visit to Fetter Lane. 'What manner of man is he?'
'Shrewd and sagacious, by all accounts.'
'Did you not say that he had a young wife?'
'Patience is the envy of his friends,' said Mrs Cardinal. 'Sir Ralph is over thirty years older and not the handsomest of men, yet he was her choice of a husband. He claims that she is a greater gift than his knighthood.'
'Have you met his wife before?'
'Only once but that was enough. Her reputation as a beauty is well-earned. She would dazzle in any assembly. Jack was rather overwhelmed by her but every other man in the room gazed at her in adoration. Patience Holcroft is a rare woman.'
'I look forward to meeting her.'
'You may have difficulty getting close enough,' warned Mrs
Cardinal with a chuckle. 'The men will crowd around her and I daresay that Lord Eames will have her sitting at his elbow during dinner.'
'Does her husband not mind the attention that she gets?'
'He revels in it, Miss Cheever.'
'What about his wife?'
'Patience, by name and by nature. She endures it all without protest. But enough of our friends,' she decided, adjusting her skirt. 'You have your own. We long to meet people in your circle as well.'
'It's very small, I fear.'
'No matter. Your sister told us that you had made some good friends in London. Jack and I will insist on being introduced to them.' Her good humour suddenly vanished. 'With one glaring exception, that is.'
'Exception?'
'Brilliana mentioned a young architect named Christopher Redmayne.'
'Yes,' said Susan proudly. 'Mr Redmayne is a friend of mine.'
'Then I'd advise you to sever the relationship at once. His brother, as I hear, has been arrested on a charge of murder.'
'Mistakenly, it seems.'
'Not according to common report. I tell you this for your own sake, Miss Cheever. End your friendship with this architect at once. When his brother is convicted of murder,' she insisted, her eyes rolling, 'the name of Redmayne will be a form of leprosy.'
It was dusk when Christopher left the goldsmith's shop to ride back home. He was glad that he had visited Martin Crenlowe again. There had been a subtle change in the man's manner that he did not understand but he was nevertheless pleased to spend time with someone who had such complete faith in his brother's innocence. As he picked his way along the crowded thoroughfare, he sifted through what the goldsmith had told him, feeling that there was something that he had missed. Christopher did not neglect his personal safety. He was alert, sword and dagger within easy reach.
Inevitably, Susan Cheever soon displaced everyone else in his mind. He remembered the courage she had shown to make contact with him in Richmond and the risk she had taken to visit him that afternoon. Christopher hoped that the time would soon come when their friendship was not so beset with obstacles. When he had asked her for a favour, she had agreed to grant it before she even knew what it was. Everything now turned on the way that she did the favour. All that he had asked her to do was to give a letter, in strictest privacy, to Lady Patience Holcroft. Susan had not even pressed him for details and he had been spared the embarrassment of telling her about Henry's romantic interest or of compromising the lady's reputation.
Reaching the house, he could see candlelight through the gap in the shutters. Since Jacob did not come out to greet him, he surmised that his servant was attending to their guest who must surely have returned from his visit to the bishop. Christopher decided to stable the horse by himself. He dismounted and led the animal down the passageway at the side of the house. Jacob had lit a lantern and it was hanging from a nail outside the stable. Opening the door, Christopher patted the horse and it went through into the stall. Before he could follow it, he heard hurried footsteps behind him.
Christopher swung round to see a figure hurtling towards him out of the shadows.
Chapter Fourteen
He was too slow. His attacker had the advantage of surprise. Before he could even draw a weapon to defend himself, Christopher was hit on the side of the head with a cudgel. Though his hat softened the blow, it still dazed him slightly. He put an arm up to ward off the next few blows and bunched his other fist so that he could throw a punch at the man who was belabouring him. It caught his adversary on the chest and sent him a yard backwards, but he flung himself at Christopher again with renewed energy and knocked his hat from his head. Using both arms to defend himself, Christopher was beaten back against the stable door. Resistance was being bludgeoned out of him. When he felt blood oozing down the side of his face, it prompted his instinct for survival.
