Mr Wiseman shook his head in sympathetic pity.
“It did,” she went on. “And of course, once we were in, we quickly realised it was not a place we wished to be at all. We were asked to do things for him. We did not discover, until too late, that he was using us and our good reputations.”
“He has used a great many people in that way,” Mr Wiseman said. “From the top of society to the bottom. I am sorry to hear it.”
“We are sorry to say it. And it hampered the investigation.” She turned to Theodore and Adelia then. “I don’t think I have actually apologised properly. We concealed certain facts from you because we had made one mistake and did not want to make it twice, but now I see that I ought to have trusted you both rather than...”
Robert said, “Rather than listening to me.”
Charlotte shot him a rueful smile. “Oh, Robert, you know I don’t mean...”
“You do. And you’re right. I have been a proud fool and my prevarications have impeded much of the progress. I could not settle on one course of action or another. Much like the rest of my life, as it happens.”
A silence fell. It was awkward and Adelia was relieved when Mr Wiseman broke it, saying kindly, “It is over now. Whatever you have done, the knowledge of it has died with Mr Nettles.”
Theodore said, “But criminal gangs ebb and flow; their leaders come and go. Who has replaced him?”
Adelia thought she already knew. It was confirmed when Mr Wiseman said, “That is true. There is a new king – or should I say, a new queen – in the sordid side of the art underworld.”
“I thought so,” said Adelia. “Lady Purfleet! Was she not there at the top all along?”
“It is only a rumour,” Mr Wiseman said hastily. “Indeed, quiet rumours have dogged her for many years but nothing has ever stuck and nothing ever will. And you are quite correct – she has been growing in power over time. You know, I would swear that she is acting out of nothing more than sheer devilry. She’ll be impossible to catch. Something may go wrong for her but she will simply slide away and a new head will take her place, for she has nothing staked upon this game but the joy of it. This crime, this sort of crime, is like a hydra with many heads; it is unstoppable.”
“And Octavia Dymchurch? Did she think she could rival Lady Purfleet?” Theodore said.
Mr Wiseman said, “I doubt it. But she is a strange one and in hindsight, I misjudged her completely.”
Adelia said, “I feel awfully sad about everything for her. It is clear that she was acting out of love at the start – twisted, abandoned, rejected love. I do think it’s clear now that she had an affair with Mr Nettles and she killed her own husband so that she could marry her lover. She must have thought that her husband deserved to die, and that she deserved happiness with a man who loved her.”
Mr Wiseman nodded. “She did not know him very well. He would never marry a woman that he could have so easily. He did not love her at all.”
Charlotte knotted her fingers together. “Poor Octavia. We were friends, you know. I’ve denied it from time to time but I admit it now. We were friends at the start. She feels that I betrayed that friendship but I went to see her in prison, you know.”
Everyone gasped. Even Robert looked startled. “When?”
Charlotte looked steadily at her husband. “It was an impulse thing, while I was out shopping yesterday. I don’t ask for your forgiveness or your understanding. It was something that I needed to do.”
“I ... well. Goodness. And how did you find her?”
“Angry, sad, weeping, impassive, all emotions in one. And I asked her myself why she had done it. She said that she was so tired of being pushed around. She had been nothing but a tool used for men’s advancement all her life, just as Bamfylde had suggested. She said that Digby wanted nothing more from her than her husband had. He didn’t want her. He just wanted to use her. And he asked her to murder Mr Wiseman.”
Mr Wiseman cried out, “What? What do you mean? I was the intended victim all along?”
“Luckily, no. When Digby asked her to do that, she snapped and refused. It was the last straw of her being used. She knew that Digby loved gravy, indeed, he swam his meat in it like it was soup, so she paid a scullery maid a year’s wages to adulterate the gravy.” Charlotte looked a little apologetic as she said, “She didn’t know about your own tastes, sir, and said that she didn’t care one way or the other if you got ill or died; it was sheer luck that you did not take much of it.”
Mr Wiseman was still looking stunned. “Thank the Lord that I hate the stuff! The meat was so dry that night I had to have a little, but only enough to make it edible.”
Theodore said, “So she was acting out of revenge, not love.”
Charlotte gave a nervous laugh. “I suppose so, but there is more to it than that. She wanted to act for herself, do something only on her own terms.”
“Really? Other women take up needlepoint,” said Robert but there was a catch in his voice.
Adelia met Charlotte’s gaze, and something passed between them. She understood. She knew.
“I say,” Mr Wiseman said, changing the subject abruptly – and who could blame him, Adelia thought.
