them properly anymore-not as you would someone you have just met. Maybe that's what happened with Jerome. His wife never noticed how big the change was in him.' She raised her eyebrows and looked at the table, reached for the bell, then changed her mind.
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'That could just as easily be true of Arthur Waybourne,' Charlotte reasoned.
'I suppose nobody was allowed to inquire.' Emily screwed up her face thoughtfully. 'They couldn't. I mean I can imagine the family's reaction to having the police in the house at all! Death is bad enough.'
'Exactly! Thomas can't get any further. The case is closed.'
'Naturally. And they will hang the tutor in three weeks.'
'Unless we do something.'
Emily considered, frowning. 'What, for instance?'
'Well, there must be more to know about Arthur, for a start. And I would like to see those two boys without their fathers present. I should dearly like to know what they would say if they were questioned properly.'
'Highly unlikely you'll ever know.' Emily was a realist. ' 'The more there is to hush up, the more their families will make sure they are not pressed too hard. They will have learned their answers by heart now and they won't dare go back on it. They'll say exactly the same thing whoever asks them.'
'I don't know,' Charlotte countered. 'They might say it differently if they are not on their guard. We might see something, sense something.'
' 'In fact, what you came for was to get me to find you a way into the Waybournes' house,' Emily said with a little laugh. 'I will-on one condition!'
Charlotte knew before she spoke. 'That you come, too.' She smiled wryly. 'Of course. Do you know the Way-bournes?'
Emily sighed. 'No.'
Charlotte felt her heart sink.
'But I'm sure Aunt Vespasia does, or knows someone else who does. Society is really very small, you know.'
Charlotte remembered George's Great-Aunt Vespasia with a tingle of pleasure. She stood up from the table.
'Then we'd better go and see her,' she said enthusiastically. She'll be bound to help us when she knows why.'
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Emily also stood up. 'Are you going to tell her this tutor is innocent?' she asked doubtfully.
Charlotte hesitated. She needed the help desperately, and Aunt Vespasia might be disinclined to intrude herself into a grieving family, bringing two inquisitive sisters to uncover ugly secrets, unless she believed gross injustice was about to be done. On the other hand, when Charlotte recalled Aunt Vespasia, she realized that lying to her would be impossible, and worse than pointless.
'No.' She shook her head. 'No, I'll tell her there may be a gross injustice done, that's all. She'll mind about that.'
'I wouldn't guarantee her loving truth for its own sake,' Emily replied. 'She'll be able to see all its disadvantages too. She's extremely practical, you know.' She smiled and rang the bell at last, to permit Gwenneth to clear the table. 'But then, of course, she would hardly have survived in society for seventy years if she were not. Do you want to borrow a decent dress? I suppose we'll go calling immediately, if it can be arranged. There's hardly time to lose. And, by the way, you'd better let me explain all this to Aunt Vespasia. You'll let all sorts of things slip and shock her out of her senses. People like her don't know about your disgusting rookeries and your boy prostitutes with their diseases and perversions. You were never any good at saying anything without saying everything else at the same time.' She led the way to the door and out into the hall, practically falling over Gwenneth, who was balanced against the door with a tray in her hand. Emily ignored her and swept across to the stairs.
' 'I've got a dark red dress that would probably look better on , you than it does on me anyway. The color is too hard for me- makes me look sallow.'
Charlotte did not bother to argue, either over the dress or the
