greeted her tonight.'
'I noted that, myself,' Lady Aline said. 'Probably she plays others so well because she has no thoughts of her own.'
'I can hardly imagine her picking my husband's pocket, however,' Louisa said.
'Who else was nearby?'
Louisa closed her eyes, as though shutting out the room to remember the streams of guests entering Lord Gillis's house. 'I suppose I remember Mrs. Bennington because she is so famous. Oh, yes, Mr. Stokes was behind us. He is rather loud. I could not mistake him.'
I glanced at Lady Aline. 'I do not know Mr. Stokes.'
'Basil Stokes,' Aline answered. 'Knew him since I was seventeen. Always tried to look up my skirts then-said he only wanted to see my ankles. I boxed his ears. Still likes to look up a lady's skirt, the devil.'
'Would he have a motive for murdering Mr. Turner?' I wondered.
'I have no idea. Don't see why. I could ask him, I suppose.'
Lady Aline's idea of investigation might be more like interrogation by enemy soldiers. 'That might not be necessary,' I said quickly. I turned back to Louisa. 'What happened when you entered the house?'
Louisa plucked at the blanket's edge. 'The usual sort of thing. The footman took my wrap. My maid and I went to a retiring room, where she brought my slippers from their box and helped me put them on. Then she re- pinned my hair. Lady Breckenridge was in the retiring room with her maid, as well. We greeted each other.'
'Where did you rejoin Colonel Brandon?'
'Near the entrance to the ballroom. He was speaking to Mr. Grenville and looking impatient. Aloysius so dislikes the ceremony of balls. I have no idea who else spoke to him while I was in the retiring room.'
And Brandon was not the sort of husband to say breezily to his wife, Oh, my dear, I've just been talking to Mr. Godwin and Lord Humphreys about our ride in the park the other day. Brandon kept his mouth closed unless asked a direct question. Louisa had by this time mastered the technique for prying information from him when she needed to, but she'd have had no reason to on that occasion, unfortunately.
'No,' I agreed. 'Go on.'
'I entered the ballroom with him. We were announced, though no one took much notice. Not of an obscure colonel and his wife.'
Lady Aline patted her hand. 'But we know your true worth, Louisa.'
Louisa tried to look grateful, but I could see her struggling with exhaustion.
'I dislike to ask you about everyone you and Brandon talked to after that,' I said, 'but I am afraid I will have to. Did Brandon stay with you or flee as soon as the formalities were over?'
'Fled, of course,' she said with a tired smile.
'To the card room? Or the billiards room?'
'Neither. I had stopped to speak to ladies of my acquaintance, and when I turned around again, Aloysius was approaching Mrs. Harper.' Louisa faltered. 'I did not know who she was. I remember feeling surprised because he began speaking to her as though he knew her and did not have to be introduced.'
'They stood alone?'
'No.' Louisa's lips tightened. 'Mrs. Harper appeared to be with Mr. Derwent and Lady Gillis. Mr. Turner was also nearby, and he joined them.'
'What did you think?' I asked as gently as I could.
'I did not think anything, not then. I did not know that the lady was Mrs. Harper-I'd never seen her before. But when Aloysius turned and walked away with her, I wondered if she might be the woman called Imogene Harper. You see, Mrs. Harper had been sending Aloysius letters.'
My brows rose. 'Had she? Did he tell you that?'
'Goodness, no. One morning at breakfast, I'd finished and started to leave the table while Aloysius was still reading his correspondence. I paused to kiss his cheek, and I happened to see the signature on the letter he was reading. Imogene Harper. I knew no one of that name. I must have startled him, because he immediately turned the paper facedown. He looked relieved when I merely wished him good morning and continued on my way.'
What sort of man read letters from his mistress at breakfast with his wife? Knowing Brandon, I would assume that the woman had simply written him a letter about some business interest-except that Brandon had admitted to being Mrs. Harper's lover.
'She wrote more?' I asked.
'Yes. Several days after that, I saw a letter by his plate at breakfast, written in a woman's hand. Aloysius had not yet entered the room, so I picked it up.' Louisa flushed, as though ashamed of herself. 'It smelled of a woman's perfume. It was then that I began to suspect.'
Tears swam in her eyes. I rested my hand on hers. 'Louisa, I am sorry.'
'If the connection were innocent,' she said, 'why should Aloysius not mention it? Mrs. Harper's husband, it seems, was a major who died at Vitoria. Why not tell me, or ask whether I remembered her?'
Why not, indeed? The evidence and admission were there. And yet, it still seemed unbelievable for Brandon. His sense of moral exactness had always been strong. Or had he simply been moral because he'd never been tempted? It is easy to reject sin when one has no interest in it.
'When he walked away with Mrs. Harper tonight, where did he go?' I asked.
'To an alcove. There were several such niches that opened around the ballroom where the guests could adjourn to talk.'
'So he walked into a private alcove alone with Mrs. Harper for everyone in the ballroom to see? The bloody idiot.'
'Yes.' Lady Aline nodded. 'He does not seem to be gifted in the ways of discretion.'
Louisa put her hand to her mouth. 'Forgive me. Gabriel, I cannot speak of this any longer.'
Lady Aline's grim look softened. 'You poor darling. You must be put to bed. Captain Lacey can ask his questions in the morning.'
Tears slid down Louisa's face and pooled on her lips. I itched to know everything immediately, to run through the streets of London putting everything aright, but I knew that Lady Aline was correct. Louisa was exhausted and upset and needed to rest. I had rarely seen her this wretched.
I silently vowed that when I saw Colonel Brandon, I would make him pay for every one of Louisa's tears.
Chapter Three
Aline signaled me to wait for her as she led Louisa into her bedchamber, so I paced Louisa's feminine sitting room while she and a maid tucked Louisa into bed.
The room reminded me of Louisa. She liked yellow, because she said it brought the sunshine to her and made her feel cheerful even on the gloomiest days. Tonight, the cheerfulness did nothing for me. The cream and yellow striped wallpaper, the white drapes with gold tassels, and the matching gilt and yellow silk chairs and sofa could not chase away the darkness.
I had known Louisa Brandon for twenty years. She'd been a fresh young woman of twenty-two when Brandon had proudly introduced her. I, already married at twenty, had marveled at her forthrightness and good sense, as well as her prettiness. My own wife, Carlotta, had been an ethereal beauty, all gold ringlets and soft white skin. Louisa had a wide smile, a crooked nose, and shrewd gray eyes that noted everything.
I hadn't understood that Carlotta, shy as a mouse, had been intimidated by her, and I had not helped by holding up Louisa as a model for Carlotta to follow. Carlotta, after we'd been married six years, had left me, deserting me for a French officer. I had been furious and blamed her entirely at first, but then I'd shifted the blame to myself. I'd been an appalling husband.
Lady Aline returned through the white and gold door that led to Louisa's bedchamber and closed it behind her. She was shaking her head. A pure white curl came loose from her coiffure and fell to her shoulder.
'She's overset.' Aline wiped a tear from her eye, smearing the kohl she'd applied liberally around it. 'I am not certain what has horrified her more, the fact that her husband has been arrested for murder or the fact that he betrayed her with another. All gentlemen take mistresses, she said to me, a wife must learn to bear it. What rot.
