nonsense. Good night, Donata. Give my love to your mother.'
Lady Breckenridge smiled and gave her a pleasant, 'Good night.' Lord Percy rose and bowed, looking bored.
I escorted Lady Aline downstairs, since Lord Percy did not seem inclined to bestir himself. I walked with her all the way to her carriage in King Street, her footman and maid trailing us. Lady Aline told me I had manners, unlike many a gentleman, a high compliment from her, and I shut her carriage door.
When I returned to Lady Breckenridge's box, Lord Percy had gone.
Lady Breckenridge was just coming into the little dining room as I entered it. She paused at the doors that led to the box, an odd look on her face. Then she shook her head and closed the double doors behind her. The noise from the second act of the opera faded somewhat.
'Your friend Percy has no manners,' I observed. 'He should not have left you alone.'
'He is ghastly.' The diamonds in her hair sparkled as she turned her head. 'He believes I should give up being the dowager Viscountess Breckenridge to become his wife.' She shuddered. 'I could not bear to be called Lady Percy.'
'You might be called Duchess of Waverly later,' I said.
'He is a younger son and unlikely to ever become the duke,' she said dismissively. 'Do you know, Lacey, that just for a moment, when you came in, you looked remarkably like Breckenridge.'
I blenched. Her late husband had been a brute of a man with little to redeem him. 'I am sorry to hear you say that.'
'I do not believe there has been a morning I have not awakened thanking heaven that he is dead.' Lady Breckenridge punctuated the callous remark by removing a cigarillo from a silver case. She lit it with one of the candles on the table and put it to her mouth. 'Do sit down, Lacey. Unless you would rather listen to that racket that is supposed to be opera.'
I did not, so I took one of the Louis Quinze chairs, waiting for her to sit before I did.
She leaned back as she looked me up and down, tendrils of acrid smoke weaving about her head. 'You seem in much better health, this evening, I must say.'
'Indeed. Your butler's cure worked wonders.'
'Barnstable is marvelous. But I see you have not recovered your walking stick. Although that is a fine one.'
'Grenville kindly lent it to me.'
'Pity about the other,' she said, taking a pull on the cigarillo. 'It must have been a wrench to lose something that close to you.'
I was surprised she understood that. 'It is, yes.'
'And I read in the newspaper this evening that Mrs. Chapman's husband, of all people, had been arrested for Inglethorpe's murder. Do you think he did it?'
'He confessed,' I said.
'Probably mistook Inglethorpe for having an affair with his wife,' Lady Breckenridge said with uncanny perception. 'Mrs. Chapman was a silly young woman, and I am not surprised she brought everyone around her to a bad end. She was quite common, as I told you.'
'Yes, so you said.' Her opinion coincided with Marianne's. Peaches had been a woman other women had little use for.
'Do not pity her too much,' Lady Breckenridge said, observing my expression. 'She brought many of her troubles upon herself.'
'I can't forget seeing her lying on the bank of the Thames,' I said softly. 'It was a brutal death.'
'I daresay it was. But do not let that cloud your judgment to what she was.'
'You are a bit brutal yourself tonight,' I said.
Her eyes took on an enigmatic light. 'I am honest. And not always polite, I am afraid.'
I smiled a little. 'I am surprised you speak with me at all. I am hardly in your class.'
She returned the smile. It was surprisingly warm, and her eyes twinkled almost as much as Lady's Aline's. 'Nonsense. You come from a fine lineage. I looked you up.'
'A rather overly pruned family tree,' I said dryly.
'And you have no sons?'
I shook my head.
'But you were married, weren't you?' she asked.
I regarded her in surprise. My marriage was not common knowledge, not because I wanted to hide it, but because I didn't like talking about it. Why cause myself more pain?
Her smile deepened. 'You have the look of a man who's had a wife, who has experienced the hell that can be marriage. A widower, you know, looks a different man from a bachelor.'
I only nodded, not correcting her that I was not a widower. My wife still lived, in France, possibly with the French officer for whom she had left me. She had changed her name, but I still knew her as Carlotta.
Lady Breckenridge smoked in silence for a few moments, letting smoke trail from her lips.
'My news is scarcely news any more,' she said at last. 'Now that you know who murdered Inglethorpe. But I thought you'd like to know just the same.'
My interest quickened. Lady Breckenridge, though acerbic, was also observant. 'Yes?'
'I know who took your walking stick.' She laid the cigarillo in a porcelain dish, where it continued to burn. 'I have no idea how Chapman got hold of it, but I know how it left the house that day.'
'Do you?' I stared. 'Why the devil did you not say so at the inquest?'
She shrugged a slim shoulder. 'Because I am not as callous as people believe I am. I do not truly think that the person who took the walking stick killed Inglethorpe, but Bow Street would have pounced on her at once, would they not have? Possibly dragged her off to the magistrate then and there. What a disgrace for her and her family. I did not wish that on poor Mrs. Danbury.'
'Mrs. Danbury?' I clearly pictured Mrs. Danbury smiling at me in Inglethorpe's drawing room while we danced, and then later, looking at me with innocent gray eyes when I'd questioned her at Sir Gideon's, declaring she had not seen what had become of the walking stick. 'Are you certain?'
Candlelight danced in the diamonds in Lady Breckenridge's hair as she nodded. 'Of course. I saw her.'
'Saw her? When?'
'As my carriage pulled away from Inglethorpe's. I looked out of the window and saw her walk out of Inglethorpe's front door with your walking stick in her hands, probably chasing after you to return it. Not seeing you, she went to her own coach and got in.'
'Bloody hell,' I said, with feeling. 'Why the devil didn't you say so at once? As I recall, I was in the coach with you at the time.'
'I assumed she'd send it back to you. You dine at the Derwents' and were likely to see her soon. But I happened to speak to Mr. Grenville yesterday afternoon, and he told me that you were still very puzzled about the walking stick. So I wrote and invited you here.'
I got to my feet. 'Oh, good God. Much trouble might have been saved if you'd told me right away.'
She rose to meet me. 'Well, I had no idea the bloody thing would end up in Inglethorpe, did I?'
We faced each other, both angry, her eyes glittering.
Mrs. Danbury had lied to me. She'd sat before me and lied and lied. 'Damn it to hell,' I muttered.
'I am sorry if I have distressed you, Captain. I thought it only a peculiarity at the time.'
I balled my hands. My gloves, cheap, stretched over my fingers until the stitching split. 'The next time you come across a peculiarity, for God's sake, tell me right away.'
'You have a foul temper,' Lady Breckenridge observed.
'I know that.'
'I hardly thought it your way to swear at a lady.'
I looked up at her, fire in my eyes. 'You seem to want me to tell you my true thoughts.'
'Yes, but you are rather straining the bonds of politeness.'
'To hell with politeness,' I growled. 'No doubt baiting me amuses you, but I grow tired of it.'
She breathed rapidly. 'I want friendship. I told you.'
'Your definition of friendship is decidedly odd.'
