'Abigail Winters said that the tutor, Jerome, had taken Arthur to her. He was a voyeur as well! Arthur contracted the disease from her-she does have it.'
'How singularly unpleasant.' Aunt Vespasia wrinkled her long nose very slightly. 'Still, an occupational risk, I imagine.
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But if the boy has it, and this Jerome person was meddling with him-why did he not also have it? You say he did not?'
Emily sat upright suddenly, her face alight.
'Charlotte?' she said with a sharp lift of her voice.
'No,' Charlotte said slowly. 'No-and that doesn't make sense, does it! If the affair was still going on, he should have. Or are some people immune to it?'
'My dear girl!' Vespasia stared, rumbling for her pince-nez to observe Charlotte more closely. 'How on earth should I know? I imagine so, or a great deal of society would have it who apparently do not-from what one is told. But it would bear thinking on! What else? So far, we have the words of two youths of a most unreliable age-and a woman of the streets. There must be more?'
'Yes-a-a male prostitute, aged seventeen.' Her anger about Albie came stinging through her voice. 'He began when he was thirteen-he was doubtless more or less sold into it. He swore Jerome had been a regular customer of his. That was the chief way we know that he is . . .' She avoided the word ' 'homosexual' and left its meaning hanging in the air.
Aunt Vespasia was happy to allow her the liberty. Her face was somber.
'Thirteen,' she repeated, frowning. 'That is truly one of the most obscene offenses of our society, that we permit such things to happen. And the youth-he too has a name, presumably? He says that this wretched tutor was his customer? What about the boy, Arthur-was he also?'
'Apparently not, but then he would not be likely to admit it if he could avoid doing so,' Charlotte reasoned, 'since Arthur was murdered. No one admits to knowing a person who has been murdered, if they can avoid it-not if they would be suspected.'
'Quite. What an extremely distasteful affair. I presume you have told me all this because you believe the tutor, what's-his-name, to be innocent?'
Now that it came to the point, it was impossible even to prevaricate.
'I don't know,' Charlotte said bluntly. 'But it's so convenient, it closes it up so tidily that I think we haven't both-
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ered to prove it properly. And if we hang him, it's too late after that!'
Aunt Vespasia sighed very gently. 'I imagine Thomas is not able to prove the matter any further, since the trial will be considered to have ended all questions.' It was an observation rather than a request for information. 'What alternative solutions do you have in mind? That this miserable child Arthur may have had other lovers-possibly even have set up in business in a mild way for himself?' Her fine mouth turned down delicately at the corners. 'An undertaking fraught with all manner of dangers, one would have thought. One wonders for a start whether he procured his own custom, or whether he had a business partner, a protector, who did it for him. He can hardly have used his own home for such a concern! What order of money was involved, and what happened to it? Was money at the root of it, after all, for whatever reason? Yes, I see that there are a number of avenues to explore, none of which would be pleasing to the families.
'Emily said you were a social disaster. I fear she was being somewhat generous to you-you are a catastrophe! Where do you wish to begin?'
In fact, they began with an exceedingly formal call upon Callantha Swynford, since she was the only person connected with the affair whom Vespasia had any personal acquaintance with. And even then, it took them some mind-searching to concoct an adequate excuse, including two conversations upon that marvelous new instrument, the telephone, which Aunt Vespasia had had installed and used with the greatest enjoyment.
They drove in her carriage as soon after luncheon as was considered acceptable to visit. They presented calling cards to the parlormaid, who was duly impressed by the presence of not merely one but two titled ladies. She showed them in almost immediately.
