A moment of silence

angry.

Dido was glad that the appearance of the gentlemen and Sir Edgar’s approach to his lady with his usual questions about her health and her medicine gave her an excuse to move away to the other side of the room. There was no staying within range of those furious eyes.

She walked away very thoughtfully and took up her post on a distant sofa. She laid the pack of cards down on a table at her side – and she waited.

She did not doubt that the colonel would walk into her trap.

…And I was right. He soon came. My looks in the dining room had of course alerted him to the terrible peril that I had foreseen for him.

And I had foreseen a terrible peril for him, Eliza. I did not attempt to conceal it from him. Though, I confessed, I might have withheld the awful knowledge from a lesser man. A lesser man might have been too much frightened. But to a military hero like himself I was willing to own that I had received the most direful presage of doom.

What kind of doom? he asked immediately.

Well, to own the truth, the society of someone within this house was of the greatest danger to him. There was someone within this house who he should sedulously avoid. I did not, of course, know who it might be that was so dangerous to him.

Could I not discover the identity of this individual?

No, no, I did not think I could. It would be too great a test of my abilities.

Was there no way of discovering more?

Well, sometimes a careful reading of the cards might…

And then, since we discovered that, quite by chance, there was a pack of cards on the table beside us, and since he pressed me so very urgently, I reluctantly consented to try what might be done. I was not pleased, however, with my own performance and regretted very much that it seemed to help him not at all. For twice when I dealt the cards there appeared – quite unaccountably – in the very centre of my pattern, a black jack. Which could only suggest to me a dark-haired fellow in a lowly walk of life – and how such a person could be an associate of the colonel I was quite at a loss to understand…

He, however, much to my surprise, nodded vigorously and thanked me again and again for my warning.

How strange!

It is as well, I think, that I am not inclined to turn spy, Eliza. For it would, no doubt, be of the utmost advantage to the French to know that they might lay aside their muskets and cannons because the doughty leaders of our armies can be routed with a mere pack of cards.

It is late now and I am in my chamber celebrating my victory with a very wonderful luxury indeed – a delicious hot jug of chocolate. Jack has just brought it to me with a great many smiles and thanks. So it seems that he is already enjoying the good effects of my warning. How he came by the stuff I do not know. In all probability he raided Sir Edgar’s private store. But I find myself liking Sir Edgar less and less so I do not care about stealing from him; and, besides, I learnt long ago that in these great houses it is as well to accept such kindnesses gratefully and hold one’s tongue.

I am becoming quite accustomed to Belsfield’s luxurious manner of living and you will, no doubt, find me completely spoilt when I come home.

I must go to bed now, for tomorrow I shall be very busy. I intend to put some of those questions to Jack which I was too weary to begin upon tonight. And, emboldened by my success this evening, I have determined that tomorrow I will set about defeating Mr Tom Lomax. You see, Eliza, I have concocted a plan. It is made partly from the things that he said to me once when he found me writing to you, and partly from that extraordinary conversation which I had with Lady Montague in the gallery. It is a bold scheme and I hardly think that you will approve it, but I think that it might just succeed…

Chapter Seventeen

‘Thank you.’ Sophia Harris put a shaking hand to her throat as if talking was a very great effort. ‘Thank you, Miss Kent, for telling me this.’

‘I hope,’ said Dido rather fearfully, ‘that I have done right in speaking to you. Mr Tom Lomax did not expect me to take such a measure, I am sure. And if I could have thought of any other means of defeating him, I should have spared you the pain of hearing his plans – and his accusations.’

‘Please,’ said Sophia exerting herself to sound calm. ‘Do not distress yourself on that account. I was already acquainted with the circumstances of my sister’s birth – and of all the cruel things that could be said about Mama were they known. Once or twice over these last days I have wondered whether Mr Lomax meant mischief by the things he was saying – those remarks about his wide circle of friends in India. My father, too, I know has been uneasy about it almost since we came to Belsfield, and I am sure it is only my mother’s good nature which has allowed her to remain ignorant of the danger.’

She paused, her face burning red in the cold, gloomy afternoon and her gloved hands pounding together in evidence of her inward agitation. They had walked out into the gardens for privacy and were now seated upon a wooden bench against a high, clipped yew hedge that formed a kind of alcove in which was placed a statue of a plump little boy that was so worn and moss-grown that it was impossible to determine whether he was pagan cupid or Christian cherub.

Sophia had listened to the news just as Dido had hoped she would: with strong emotion – but with good sense too. She was pleased to find that her assessment of the girl had been sound. The silly manner was, after all, not an essential part of her character. There was no trace of it to be seen now. There was instead a strange self- possession and, certainly, no lack of intelligence.

‘Something must be done about this,’ Miss Sophia was saying now. A strand of hair, damp from the misty air, fell down across her face and she pushed it back impatiently. She tapped a finger against her lip. ‘But what can we do?’ She shook her head. ‘Tell me, Miss Kent, what do you know of Mr Tom Lomax?’

‘Very little – but I know that there are few young men that I like less. His father seems to be a very respectable man.’

‘Yes. I wonder whether an appeal to Mr William Lomax might help us.’

‘I think not. I considered it; for I am sure he would be mortified by the way his son is behaving. But, from what Catherine tells me, I collect that Mr Tom is quite in the habit of defying his father.’

‘I have heard he has very heavy debts,’ said Sophia with a sigh.

‘Yes, his circumstances are, I believe, becoming desperate. He is holding his creditors off with promises and I think he is determined to make his fortune by marrying well, for he is too indolent to take up any profession.’

‘Ah! And that must make matters worse. For I do believe, from everything I have read, Miss Kent, that there are few things more dangerous than a desperate man.’

‘Quite so,’ said Dido. ‘And yet, perhaps we may be able to use his desperation – and his own plans – against him.’

‘You have an idea?’

‘Maybe – yes, I think I do.’

‘What is it?’

Dido hesitated. She could not quite say that in return for her help she wished to have her curiosity satisfied. Though that was the truth of the matter. ‘I wonder,’ she began cautiously, ‘whether, before I explain myself to you, you might explain yourself to me.’

Sophia folded her hands in her lap and stared down at the gravel. ‘I am sure I don’t know what you mean, Miss Kent,’ she said stubbornly.

There was silence between them for several minutes and the little sounds of the garden crept into their alcove: a little desultory birdsong; the rattle and scrape of a gardener’s rake working somewhere in the gravel; the splashing of the great fountain on the lower terrace.