home.
'I will stay with Louisa tonight, poor lamb,' she said. 'I will call on you tomorrow, Donata, dear.'
'Thank you, my lady,' Louisa said to Lady Breckenridge from the divan. 'It was kind of you.'
Lady Breckenridge raised her brows. 'Not at all. Good night, Aline, Captain.' She made a graceful exit from the room.
I could not leave it at that. I excused myself from Louisa and Lady Aline and followed her out.
When I caught up to Lady Breckenridge at the head of the stairs, she gave me a faint smile. 'I am capable of finding the front door, Captain. Mrs. Brandon's servants are most obliging.'
She began to descend, not waiting for me. She'd dressed her hair tonight in tightly wound curls looped through a diamond headdress. The coiffure bared her long neck, which I studied as I followed her down the stairs.
At the door, one of the maids helped her don a mantle, a heavy velvet cloak with a hood.
'Thank you,' I told Lady Breckenridge. 'For helping Louisa. It was kind of you.'
'You are wondering why I did,' she said as she settled the hood. 'I am not known for my helpfulness.'
'I know that you can be kind, when you wish to be.'
A smile hovered about her mouth. 'High praise, Captain. I helped her, because I knew she was your friend. And Lady Aline's.' Her eyes were a mystery. 'Good night.'
I touched her velvet-clad arm. 'May I call on you tomorrow? I would like to hear your version of events, if you do not mind discussing them. You were there and likely much less agitated than Mrs. Brandon.'
'Of course.' She inclined her head. 'I will tell you all I can. Call at four o'clock. I intend to laze about tomorrow and be home to very few. Good night.'
I released her arm and bowed. Lady Breckenridge acknowledged the bow with a nod, then swept out into the strengthening rain under the canopy that the obliging footmen held over her.
By the time I returned to the sitting room, Louisa had regained some color. The blanket was tucked around her again, and pillows cradled her back. Lady Aline sipped a full glass of whiskey, her rouged face now bright pink.
'I should have been more gracious,' Louisa was saying.
'Nonsense,' Lady Aline said. 'Donata Breckenridge is a woman of sense, despite her ways. She enjoys playing the shrew, and who can blame her? Her husband was appalling to her from beginning to his very nasty end. She has a good heart, but she hides it well.'
'All the same,' Louisa murmured. I realized that she was embarrassed. A viscountess, a member of the aristocracy, had witnessed her husband's humiliating arrest and confessions.
'She will say nothing, Louisa,' Lady Aline assured her.
Louisa sank into silence.
I pulled a chair close to the divan. 'Louisa, I will have to ask you questions about tonight,' I said. 'Can you bear to answer now? Or would you rather wait?'
'She needs her rest, Lacey,' Aline said.
I looked at Louisa's drawn face, and my heart bled. I'd spent most of my adult life wanting to make things better for her, and I never had been quite able to do so.
'I would rather tell you at once,' Louisa said. 'I want to put it behind me.'
I glanced at Aline, who gave me an almost imperceptible nod.
'Let us start from the very beginning, then. Why did you attend Lord Gillis's ball?'
'We were invited. I received the invitation a week ago. I decided to accept because we could fit it into our night.' Louisa paused. 'No, that is not entirely true. I was flattered to be asked. Aloysius had met Lord Gillis during the war. I was pleased that Lord Gillis remembered us.'
'And he was willing to attend?' Colonel Brandon went to social occasions because of a sense of duty, not pleasure. When he reached the gatherings, he immediately sought the card room or his circle of friends and left Louisa to enjoy the event on her own.
'As willing as he usually is,' Louisa said with the ghost of a smile.
'Tell me every detail you can remember,' I urged. 'Begin with leaving your house tonight. What was Brandon like? Did he behave in any way out of the ordinary?'
'Much as usual, I think.' Louisa sighed. 'I admit that I was not paying attention. I was much more worried that my gown would be not quite right, and what would Lady Gillis think of me? It seems so silly now.'
I could not imagine Louisa looking anything but radiant, but I did not say so. The way ladies viewed other ladies, I had come to learn, was much different from the manner in which gentlemen viewed them. A woman would notice that the braid on another woman's bodice was two years out of date; a man would note how the color of the braid brought out the blue of her eyes.
'You looked splendid, Louisa,' Lady Aline said. 'I told you so, I believe.'
Louisa gave her a wan smile. 'You were very kind, I remember.'
'What time did you reach the Gillises' home?' I asked.
'About ten o'clock, I think. Many others arrived at that time, as well. I remember that the square was packed with carriages.'
'When you walked into the house, did you note who was around you? Who went in before and after you did?'
Louisa's brow furrowed. 'I am not certain. I cannot remember, Gabriel. It seems as though it took place in another lifetime.'
'Why is it important, anyway, Lacey?' Lady Aline interrupted. 'Surely it's only important whether Brandon went near the Turner fellow.'
'I am thinking along the lines of the knife. Brandon said he did not even know he had it with him. Perhaps he is lying, perhaps not. In either case, what if someone picked his pocket and obtained the knife that way? In the crush at the front door, with people milling about trying to enter the house all at once, a hand could easily slip into Brandon's pocket and purloin the knife.'
Aline gave me an incredulous look. 'Do you mean to say that a guest of Lord Gillis was an accomplished pickpocket? All of Mayfair would swoon.'
'Not necessarily a guest. Footmen and maids surround their masters and mistresses. Lord Gillis's own servants usher in the guests and take their wraps.'
'Well, good Lord,' Lady Aline said. 'Then everyone in the house, from the master to the scullery maid and everyone in between, could have murdered Mr. Turner.'
'Yes,' I said, feeling gloomy. 'They all could have. We need to pare down the number to the ones most likely, and from there we will find the culprit.'
'You make it sound alarmingly simple,' Aline said, a wry twist to her lips. 'How can we?'
'By asking rude and impertinent questions. Something I excel at.'
Lady Aline looked amused. I was not known for my patience, especially in situations with dire consequences, like this one.
I returned to the question. 'Do you remember, Louisa? To whom did you speak when you first entered the house?'
She sat in silent thought for a moment. I knew it would be a difficult task for anyone to remember what they did every minute of one particular evening. The events that followed would make it doubly difficult for her, but I had to try.
'Mrs. Bennington, the actress,' Louisa said at last, naming a young woman who had recently taken the crowned heads of Europe by storm.
From what I'd heard, Claire Bennington had an English father but had been raised on the Continent, taking the stage in Italy about five years ago. She had become a success there, and recently returned to London, where she had quickly won over audiences. She was still quite young, only in her early twenties, and married to an Englishman whom she'd met on the Continent. This season, it was quite popular for hostesses to have Mrs. Bennington attend one of their events and give a short performance for the guests.
'She seems a rather vague young woman,' Louisa went on. 'I have seen her perform and enjoyed it very much. I remember remarking on the contrast, how brilliantly she plays a part, to her blank stares when anyone
