pain, a balance; but remembered his place. Policemen did not give advice in the upbringing of children to ladies who lived in Callander Square. In fact, policemen did not philosophize at all.
“I’m afraid, ma’am, that they may well hear it from the servants,” he said gently.
She frowned at him.
“I shall forewarn the servants,” she answered. “Any servant who mentions such a thing will lose his or her position.”
Pitt spared a thought for the unwitting maid who in a careless, garrulous moment might yield to childish insistence, or even petty blackmail, and thus lose home and job at one blow. Childhood would have given her no such protection from the unpleasant realities of life.
“Naturally,” Pitt agreed sadly. “But there are other servants in the square, ma’am; and other children.”
Instead of the anger he had expected, she merely looked suddenly tired.
“Of course, Mr.-Pitt, did you say? And children will tell each other such gruesome stories. Still, I’m sure you will not frighten anyone unnecessarily. Do you have children of your own?”
“Not yet, ma’am. My wife is expecting our first.” He said it with a ridiculous sense of pride and waited for her approval.
“I hope everything goes well with her.” There was no light in her face. “Is there anything else I can tell you?”
He was at a loss, deflated.
“No, thank you. I shall almost certainly have to return; it may take us a long time to solve it, if we ever do. But that is all for today.”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Pitt. Jenkins will show you to the door.”
“Good afternoon, ma’am.” He bowed very slightly and went out to the waiting butler and the front door into the leafy square.
The Doran house was utterly different from the other houses in the square. It was unbelievably cluttered with photographs, embroidery, flowers dried, cased in glass, pressed, growing in pots, and even some fresh and arranged in painted vases. There were also at least three birds in cages, all hung with fringes and bells.
The door was opened by a middle-aged parlormaid. This one was an exception to the generality: by no twist of the imagination could she have been chosen for her looks; except that when she opened her mouth her teeth were perfect, and her voice was as rich and smooth as Devon cream.
“We’ve been expecting you,” she said calmly, with a faint southwestern distortion of the vowels. “Miss Laetitia and Miss Georgiana are taking tea. No doubt you will be wanting to speak to them first, as a matter of course.” She did not seem to require an answer to that, and turned away, leaving him to close the door and follow her into the inner recesses.
Laetitia and Georgiana were indeed taking tea. Georgiana was displayed fragilely on a chaise longue, bony as a halfpenny rabbit, and dressed in delicious mauves and grays. Tea was balanced on a three-toed, piecrust table at her elbow. She looked at Pitt without displeasure.
“So you are the policeman? What an odd-looking creature you are, to be sure. Pray do not be vulgar with me. I am extremely delicate. I suffer.”
“I am sorry to hear it.” Pitt controlled his face with an effort. “I hope to disturb you very little.”
“You have already disturbed me, but I shall put up with it in good grace, in the name of necessity. I am Georgiana Duff. This,” she pointed to a slightly younger, better-upholstered version of herself in the other chair, “is my sister, Laetitia Doran. She is the one to have the misfortune, or the ill-judgment, to own a house in such a disastrous place; so you had better address your remarks to her.”
Pitt turned to Laetitia.
“Indeed, Mrs. Doran, my apologies again; but owing to the tragic discovery in the gardens, I am sure you understand it is necessary for us to question the servants, especially the younger, female servants, in all the houses that face onto the square.”
Laetitia blinked.
“Of course,” Georgiana said sharply. “Is that all you’ve come to say?”
“To ask your permission to speak to your servants,” Pitt replied. Georgiana snorted. “You’ll do it anyway!”
“I would prefer to do it with your permission, ma’am.”
“Don’t keep calling me ‘ma’am.’ I don’t like it. And don’t stand there towering over me. You make me feel quite giddy. Sit down, or I shall faint!”
Pitt sat down, stifling a smile.
“Thank you. Have I your permission to interview your servants?” he looked at Laetitia.
“Yes, yes I suppose so,” she said uncomfortably. “Please endeavor not to upset them. It is so hard to replace a servant satisfactorily these days. And poor Georgiana must be properly looked after.”
Pitt privately thought that “poor Georgiana” would see to it herself that, come hell or high water, she would be properly looked after.
“Of course,” he stood up again and moved to the door before Georgiana had time to feel affected by his presence. “Have you had any servants dismissed in the last half year, young women who have left the house?”
“None,” Laetitia said quickly. “We have been exactly as we are for years! Years and years!”
“You have no children, ma’am? Daughters who have married and taken a lady’s maid with them?”
“None at all!”
“Thank you. I shan’t need to disturb you again,” he went out and closed the door softly.
He remained in the Doran house for two hours, but he learned nothing there either.
Charlotte was perfectly correct, Emily was beginning to find that the fashionable life lacked something, a certain bite, for which she was increasingly developing a taste. Beyond question, she enjoyed her life; it was the ideal mode of existence for her. When she and Charlotte were still at home in Cater Street with Mama and Papa, when poor Sarah was alive, Emily had known precisely what suited her. She had determined from very early in their acquaintance that she would marry Lord George Ashworth; and a very satisfactory arrangement it had proved. Of course George had his faults, but then what man did not? His overriding virtue was that he appreciated her, and was constantly both generous and civil; and he was undoubtedly handsome to look at, and witty when he chose. It would be pleasant if he would gamble a little less, it was a shocking waste of money. But if he flirted, he was eminently discreet about it, and he very seldom went out without inviting Emily also; and he did not nag her as to her occupations or the female society she kept. And that was a considerable point in his favor. Emily knew any number of wives who were forever being left at home while their husbands went to places wholly unsuitable for a woman of any decency at all, and yet criticized them for extravagance or for the afternoon parties they themselves put on.
But undeniably there was a certain lack, a purposelessness to her present round. Since she was Lady Ashworth, she had already done with relative ease all the social climbing she desired, at least for the moment. Charlotte’s disgusting mystery might prove to be just the diversion she required, and it had the additional advantage of being genuinely helpful to someone, if the wretched girl were ever found!
And also, she was very fond of her sister. Of course Charlotte was socially impossible! It would never do to introduce her to the afternoons, the dinners, and the balls she herself attended; although on some of the more pompous occasions she had frequently found it passing through her mind to wonder what Charlotte might have said, had she been there. This affair would also give her an opportunity for them to do something together, which in itself would be pleasant.
When George returned, in time to change for dinner, she abandoned her dignity and scampered up the stairs after him. He turned at the top in surprise.
“What’s the matter?”
“I want to meet Christina Balantyne,” she said immediately.
“Tonight?” He was incredulous, a smile on his elegant mouth. “She’s not all that amusing, I assure you!”
“I don’t want to be amused. I want to be invited to her house, or at least to be able to call without obviously seeking her acquaintance.”
“Whatever for?” His eyebrows went up over his dark eyes. “Is it Augusta you want to meet? Very grand, Augusta. Her father was a duke, and she’s lived up to it all her life; not that it is any effort, I think.”
It was not the reason, but it seemed an excellent explanation to adopt.
