“Obviously I am sure you appreciate that we may have skirted the edges of danger but I am, as you so rightly say, very aware of my role as protector,” said Theodore, adding a firmness to his voice. He was suddenly annoyed at this interrogation and no longer amused by the earl’s outrage. This fossilised judge had no right to pry into another’s life.
Actually, Theodore realised, that was the judge’s entire purpose. Sitting in judgement was what he did. Theodore was not going to win. He could only abstain.
Mareham was winding himself up for another rant. Theodore went to the door and opened it as if he was unaware that Mareham was not done speaking yet. “It’s awfully cold in here. My limbs are not what they were so I beg you to indulge me and step back into the parlour. I thank you for your concern, and I will of course take it into account.” As he spoke he backed into the corridor and Mareham followed, reluctant and grumbling.
“I know I’ve annoyed you, sir, but I cannot stay silent. We are family now, you understand...”
“I do understand and I welcome your support, as ever. Now you mentioned that you yourself had something to get off your chest. Might I ask what that might be?”
“Huh.” Mareham stopped as they reached the closed door of the parlour. They could hear muted chatter from within. “It is nothing. I shall have to take my son into hand; he’s been an idle gadabout for far too long. But it pales into insignificance alongside your problems. Ha! Let’s see if there are any cakes left for us. Get that door open, man. We can’t linger in passageways like garrotters.” Mareham waved his hands as if he were threatening to push past Theodore, and together they burst back into the warm room and were engulfed in a conversation about tennis.
ADELIA POUNCED ON THEODORE as soon as the Earl and his wife had left. She hauled him back into the parlour as he was leaving. Robert and Charlotte carried on, but Adelia wrestled Theodore back and nudged the door closed.
“Patrick Lassiter had apoplexy when he learned of what we’ve been doing,” she told him with glee.
Theodore smiled ruefully back at her. “He did indeed.”
“I imagine that’s why he dragged you off. Has he condemned me as a wayward woman?”
“He actually suggested you were delusional and had made it all up.”
“The rudeness of the man! I hope you set him right.”
“Oh, no, I thought that the best way to save your reputation was to agree entirely, nod sadly, and say that we were looking for a comfortable asylum for you. Better to be considered mad than bad, surely?”
Adelia let her mouth drop open. “How dare you...”
She stopped as he began to laugh uncontrollably. “Oh, Adelia...”
“You were joking, weren’t you?”
He took her hands and looked into her eyes, his shoulders still shaking with mirth. “Of course I was. I wish you could have seen your face. No, I told him that it was all true and more besides. He thinks you are quite beyond help now, and that I am a poor husband for allowing it to happen. He seems to believe I could prevent you from doing anything!”
“Ha! Who is delusional now?” she said scornfully. “If he thinks he has any real influence over his own wife, it’s because Constance is clever enough to allow him to think that.”
“That is how marriage is,” he said.
“Yes...”
“But what?” he asked her, noting her hesitancy.
She went back to the fireside and sat down. “I have not got any further with finding out what’s really going on with Robert and Charlotte. Now I am not saying that I want to encourage my daughters to manipulate their husbands in any real sense, but I do feel she’s going along with his mad schemes just a little too willingly instead of being a voice of steadying reason.”
“I think they encourage one another,” Theodore replied. “And we still don’t know the truth behind all this nonsense with Digby Nettles, but I wonder if Mareham suspects. Was anything mentioned while we were out of the room?”
“No, not a thing, but Robert and Charlotte were careful to keep the conversation well out of choppy waters. I think that was why it was all deflected onto me and my shocking behaviour.”
“Well, we shall get to the bottom of those choppy waters soon enough.”
“I hope not. Can we not sail through them instead?”
He grinned at her. “Ah, if one cannot have explosive and revelatory family storms at Christmas, when can one have them? We shall soon have this matter in hand, don’t you worry.”
“I am not worried,” she replied. Her smile was impish. “I am rather excited.”
Five
Theodore decided he would forcefully address the whole business directly but privately with Robert, and immediately too. That evening, after a very early dinner, they took a stroll around the nicer areas of London. Theodore told Robert that he wanted to visit his old haunts but in the company of someone who was familiar with present-day London, and Robert was perfectly happy to comply. They left Adelia and Charlotte in front of the fire, reading and sewing.
“Of course, I do know what you really mean by this,” Robert said as he strolled along. He was wearing a long, dark jacket that swung almost like a cloak, and had his hat pulled down hard on his head. It was chilly but not onerously so, as long as one kept moving. “You want to get the details of what we began to tell you earlier, and I understand.”
“Indeed I do. I am more than happy to look into the matter you spoke of and I am flattered that you have asked me to do so. But I cannot do that without knowing all the facts.”
“We
