a whole load of knives and forks.'
Charlotte's heart sank. Just as they were really touching Arthur, the boy behind all the trappings of grief, Fanny had changed the subject.
'He was very clever,' Fanny went on. 'Or perhaps I mean cunning. But that isn't a reason to kill him, is it?'
'No,' Charlotte said slowly. 'Not by itself. Why did they say the tutor killed him?'
Fanny scowled. 'Now that's what I don't understand. I did ask Titus, and he told me it was men's business, and not proper for me to know. It makes me sick! Boys really are so pompous sometimes! I'll bet it's nothing I don't know anyhow. Always pretending they know secrets that they don't.' She snorted. 'That's boys all the time!'
'Don't you think this time it might be true?' Charlotte suggested.
Fanny looked at her with the scorn she felt for boys.
'No-Titus doesn't know what he's talking about really. I know him very well, you know. I can see right through him. He's just being important to please Papa. I think it's all very silly.'
'You mustn's monopolize our guests, Fanny.' It was a man's' voice, and familiar. With a light flutter of nervousness, Charlotte turned around to face Esmond Vanderley. Dear heaven-did he remember her from that awful evening? Perhaps not; the clothes, the whole atmosphere, were so utterly different. She met his eyes, and the hope died instantly.
He smiled back at her with a sharp glint of humor, so close to laughter it dazzled.
'I apologize for Fanny. I think the music bores her.'
'Well, I find it a great deal less pleasing than Fanny's company,' she replied a little more tartly than she intended. What was he thinking of her? He had given evidence about Jerome's character, and he had known Arthur well. If he had the charity
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to ignore their first meeting, she was extremely grateful, but she could not afford to retire from the battle all the same. This could be her only opportunity.
She smiled back at him, trying to take some of the sting out of her words. 'Fanny was merely being an excellent hostess and relieving my solitude, since I know so few people here.'
'Then I apologize to Fanny,' he said pleasantly; apparently he had taken no offense.
Charlotte searched her mind for some way to keep alive the subject of Arthur without being too offensively curious.
'She was telling me about her family. You see, I had two sisters, while she has only a brother and male cousins. We were comparing differences.'
'You had two sisters?' Fanny seized on it as Charlotte had hoped she would. She was ashamed to use tragedy in such a way, but there was no time to be delicate.
'Yes.' She lowered her voice and did not have to strain to include the emotion. 'My elder sister was killed. She was attacked in the street.'
'Oh, how dreadful!' Fanny was shocked, her face full of sympathy. 'That's absolutely the most awful thing I've heard for ages. That's worse than Arthur-because I didn't even love Arthur.'
'Thank you.' Charlotte touched her gently on the arm. 'But I don't think you can say one person's loss is greater than another-we really can't tell. But yes, I did love her.'
'I'm so sorry,' Vanderley said quietly. 'It must have been very distressing. Death is bad enough, without all the police investigation that follows. I'm afraid we've just suffered all that. But thank heaven it's over now.'
Charlotte did not want to let the chance slip through her fingers. But how could she possibly pursue the less pleasant truths about Arthur in front of Fanny? And the
