“Theodore! Are you listening?” Adelia snapped.
“No, my darling. I was admiring you and it took up all of my attention.”
She giggled and went pink and nodded towards Lady Agnes who was pretending that she wasn’t there. “Theodore, let us be sensible,” she said, with a facial expression that did not match her stern words at all. She was excited about the ball, and though Theodore was not, he was happy that she was happy. So he listened to her instructions about who to greet and who were their friends and who was to be “politely ignored – not snubbed, of course, but we cannot be associated with the Jacksons since ... that incident with the cheese, you know” and so on.
“Come along,” he said at last, letting the barest hint of a grumble tinge his words. “Let’s get going and get this over with.”
HE WAS WORRIED ABOUT leaving Felicia due to her illness, but Doctor Netherfield was a capable man. He was also worried about leaving Percy due to the fact he was sure a killer was after him, but Percy was protected by a policeman. He was annoyed that he was not able to use this chance to search the gatehouse, however, and drew Adelia off to one side when they had been at the ball for an hour.
She was revelling in it. Her face was alight and she was constantly pointing decorations, food or people out to him.
“Yes, yes, but what about Oscar Brodie?” he muttered as they pressed under some low-hanging bulkhead at one end of the deck. Now that the rain had cleared slightly, it was pleasant to be out in the open air. The sea was relatively calm and there was little movement on the ship. Music swelled around them.
“What about Oscar? I’m talking about the lanterns, the way they light up the masts so beautifully! You don’t understand, do you?” she said.
He could tell she was annoyed and he tried to apologise. “I do understand. It’s all very pretty, I am sure.”
“Pretty? Ha! I knew it. You don’t understand my position at all. It’s not about the beauty of it – though Doctor Netherfield would surely approve – my joy is because I did this. Not me alone, of course. But along with Mrs Carstairs and the others, we put all of this together! We wrote letters and raised funds and decided to have salmon rolled up on little crackers and we found the very best band and we cut all that bunting by ourselves – do you see it? All of it, Theodore! We made this happen and that is what I find so magnificent. Oh, you, in your own little world of control with the power of life and death over people because you understand medicine and chemicals, and your wider world of control in boardrooms and clubhouses and after-dinner-gatherings with influential men, you will never see what something like this means to me.” She had started her speech with passion but it ended with a flat tailing-away of pure disappointment in her voice.
There was no one looking their way. He grabbed her hands and leaned in close to her, letting his breath tickle her neck as he spoke into her ear. “If I am not looking at the magnificence of the work you have done, it is because it still fades into insignificance next to you; it is you I cannot take my eyes from, and all else is just background to me.”
“Have you been taking lessons in seduction?” she said, pushing him away slightly, but smiling to let him know that he had not quite overstepped the boundaries of acceptable public affection.
“I have been watching Captain Everard,” he replied.
They both turned to scan the crowds but there was no sight of him. “I last saw him escorting Lady Agnes towards the food,” Adelia said.
“Your matchmaking skills are unparalleled. Now, to return to Oscar Brodie. I wanted to get into the gatehouse and while Lady Katharine is at the castle with The Countess, this is a chance – if we can only get Brodie out.”
“How is that possible? We are here in Plymouth.”
“I have been speaking to various people as I had hoped to learn more about the history of Tavy Castle and the Earls of Buckshaw but I have not been successful. So I thought that I might claim to be unwell, and return early – you will be well looked after here, I am sure. I could then create a diversion, perhaps with Percy’s help, to gain access to the gatehouse.”
Adelia stared at him.
“What?” he said at last, wondering what part of the plan was causing her the most difficulty.
“No,” she said, flatly. “How can you even imagine such an idea could work?”
“I don’t see why not. I read a detective story in the Illustrated News the other day and it had a rather clever little trick to get someone out of a house involving coconuts and a bed sheet.”
“Absolutely not! Do not even waste your time describing any of that to me in detail.”
He felt a little punctured but she was right. “Yet I ought to go back just in case...”
“In case of?”
“An opportunity?”
She glared at him.
He gave up.
“Grant me one concession, then,” he said at last.
“Yes?”
“Let us leave early.”
“Not too early. I have a duty here.”
“Before midnight?”
“On the dot of midnight.”
He had lost, and he knew it.
Twenty-one
For one glorious night, Adelia had managed to put aside all her cares and worries. She trusted that Felicia would be safe at Tavy
