way over to Charlotte.
“How are you?” she said quietly. “I haven’t even had time to ask you how everything went with the move. Is the new house comfortable? I know it’s beautiful.” She gave Charlotte’s deep green gown an admiring glance. It had the new accented shoulders with a very fine sweep of feathers and was highly becoming. “Have you got everything sorted out and in its right place yet?” And before Charlotte could answer, her expression changed. “What about the Headsman? Is it true Thomas arrested someone and then had to let him go again? Or is that nonsense?”
“No, it’s true,” Charlotte replied, equally softly, moving a little to keep her back to a group of excited celebrants near her. “After the butler’s murder he arrested Carvell, but one of his men found that Carvell could account for where he was when the omnibus conductor was killed, so he had to let him go.”
Emily looked surprised. “What made him think it was Carvell? I mean, enough to arrest him this time? That butler was a swine.” She said the word with uncharacteristic viciousness. “He could have had any number of enemies. If I had had to have anything to do with him I should have been sorely tempted myself.”
“Don’t exaggerate,” Charlotte said dismissively. “He was rather bossy, and had a sneer built into his face.”
“He dismissed that girl for singing,” Emily protested with genuine anger. “That was brutal. He used his authority to humiliate other people, which is inexcusable. He was a bully. I wouldn’t have wished beheading on him, but since it has happened, I cannot say I grieve for him in the slightest.”
Pitt had joined them, carrying a plate of pastries and savories for Charlotte. He had obviously overheard the last remark. His face lit with a dry amusement.
“You are one person I had not suspected,” he said quietly. Then his expression changed to one of seriousness. “Congratulations, Emily. I am delighted for you both. I hope it is the beginning of a fine career.”
A burst of laughter drifted across the room, and someone called out with a loud cheer.
“Oh it will be,” Emily said with not so much conviction as determination. “Whom do you suspect?” she went on without hesitating. “Do you suppose the omnibus conductor could have nothing to do with it after all?”
“And someone else killed him?” Pitt raised his eyebrows. “Why?”
Emily shrugged her slender shoulders. “I don’t know.”
Charlotte took the plate from Pitt. “Perhaps he was an offensive little swine, like the one who put me off the omnibus the other day,” she said with sudden venom. “If someone had taken his head off I should not have grieved overmuch.”
Emily looked at her curiously, her expression one of complete bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh!” Charlotte pulled a face, hesitated whether to tell Emily or not, and realized the only way to deal with it was lightly. “The miserable little …” She could not think of a word sufficiently damning. The rage still boiled inside her, her memory scalding hot for its sheer humiliation.
Emily was waiting, even Pitt was looking at her with a sudden interest in his eyes, as if the story had taken on a new importance.
“Slug,” Charlotte said with tight lips. “He wouldn’t let me onto the omnibus because I had a bundle of cushions tied up in a sheet. He thought it was laundry!”
Emily burst into giggles. “I’m so sorry,” she apologized happily. “But I really …” The rest was lost as she chortled with delight, picturing it in her mind.
Charlotte could not let it go. “He was so self-important,” she said, still filled with indignation. “I would have given a great deal to have been able to squash him in some way or other.” She shook herself. “He was so beastly to the man who stood up and came to the back to try to assist me. Can you imagine that?” She glanced at Pitt, and saw from his face that he was lost in thought. “You aren’t listening, are you! You think it was ridiculous of me!”
A footman with a tray offered them savories and they each took one.
“No,” Pitt said slowly. “I think it is probably the sort of reaction most people would have. And you did what most people do….”
“I didn’t do anything,” she protested. “I wish now I had, but I couldn’t think of anything.”
“Exactly.” He agreed. “You came home fuming, but you did nothing.”
Emily was regarding him curiously.
“The omnibus conductor …” Charlotte said slowly, comprehension beginning to dawn. “Oh no—that’s absurd! Nobody chops—” She stopped.
A large lady brushed past them, her sleeves barely missing the pastries. Someone else laughed exuberantly.
“Maybe not.” Pitt frowned. “No, perhaps it is a foolish idea. I’m reaching after anything. There must be a better reason, something personal.” He turned to Emily. “But this is your celebration. Let’s talk about you and your victory. When does Jack take his seat? What is his maiden speech to be about, has he decided? I hope it is not for some time, if it is still about the police!”
Emily pulled a face, but she laughed, and the conversation moved to politics, the future, and Jack’s beliefs and hopes.
It was over an hour later when Charlotte was alone with Pitt for a few moments that she broached the subject of the Headsman again. In spite of her very real pleasure for Jack and Emily, she was beginning to realize just how serious the situation was for Pitt, and his new and now gravely threatened promotion.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked quietly, so the thin woman with the checked skirt and the enthusiastic voice a yard away could not hear her. Then as Pitt looked blank, she continued. “If it can’t be Carvell, who can it be?”
“I don’t know. Possibly Bart Mitchell. He certainly had every reason to kill Winthrop, and possibly Arledge, if he misunderstood his attention to Mina. But I can’t think of any reason for the bus conductor or Scarborough, unless
