A Body in Berkeley Square (4 page)

"She seems a rather vague young woman,"
Louisa went on. "I have seen her perform and enjoyed it very much.
I remember remarking on the contrast, how brilliantly she plays a
part, to her blank stares when anyone 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. Men fill women's heads
with that nonsense so that they can do what they like. Don't you
think so, Lacey?"

"I agree," I said.

She gave me a look of surprise. "Well, well.
If that is the truth, then you are the most remarkable gentleman I
have ever known. Ring for the maid, please. We need more tea."

I crossed the room to tug a bell pull.

"I've given Louisa a drop of laudanum," Aline
said. "That and the brandy should ensure that she sleeps well into
the morning. I will stay with her until she's stronger. I do hope
you clear up this mess quickly, Lacey."

"I appreciate your faith in me."

Lady Aline folded the blanket Louisa had used
and drew it onto her lap. "You have impressed me so far. You
cleared up the murder at the Sudbury School in Berkshire,
discovered who killed Lydia Westin's husband and that barrister's
wife, not to mention put up with Lady Clifford and her blasted
missing necklace. I much prefer having you look into the matter
than Bow Street. So unsavory."

"It is unsavory no matter who looks into it,"
I said. I gathered up the tea things to give my hands something to
do.

"Perhaps, but this is Louisa's life. Her
husband. Their secrets. You can at least be gentle."

"I can be gentle with Louisa, true. I'm
certain I'll throttle Brandon when I see him. As far as I can
discern, he's been a complete idiot."

The maid entered with a fresh pot of tea on a
tray. She removed the dirty cups and saucers and departed. I noted
that the maid's eyes were red with tears.

Lady Aline poured tea in a businesslike
manner. She sloshed a dollop of brandy into mine without asking me
before handing me the cup.

"Now then," she said, lifting the teapot to
pour for herself. "I will tell you the entire nasty tale. I arrived
at the Gillises' ball not long after the Brandons did. I entered,
in fact, in time to see the damn fool colonel lead Imogene Harper
from her friends to a private alcove. Louisa watched them go with a
look of dismay. Tongues around me began to wag on the instant. Mr.
Bennington, the husband of the actress, drawled to me,
I say,
he's no model of discretion, is he?
He sounded delighted to be
entertained. Others speculated about who this Harper woman truly
was. She is a friend of Lady Gillis's, I gather, though Mrs. Harper
claimed to me that she'd known the Brandons during the war."

"And yet, Louisa says she does not remember
her."

"Precisely. At any rate, Louisa's friends
took her under their collective wing and went on as though nothing
had happened. Colonel Brandon and Mrs. Harper stayed in that alcove
for a very long time. They did not emerge, in fact, until the
dancing began. Brandon stood near Mrs. Harper after that, and
whenever I happened to glimpse him, he did not look best pleased. I
saw Mr. Turner approach Mrs. Harper, possibly to ask her to dance.
Colonel Brandon more or less shooed him away. Mr. Turner looked
unhappy, but he went. But later on, I happened to be standing near
when he approached again.

"Mr. Turner claimed that Mrs. Harper had
promised him the waltz. Mrs. Harper looked a little confused, then
she said,
Oh yes, of course.
Colonel Brandon turned bright
red. He said,
Mind your manners; the lady does not wish to
waltz.
Mr. Turner said,
You are mistaken, sir. She
promised.
Then Colonel Brandon said, rather loudly,
If you
do not cease pestering her, I will thrash you.
People began to
stare at that, I do not have to tell you. Mr. Turner smiled a bit
and said,
No, you won't.
He bowed to Mrs. Harper and
wandered away."

"Damn," I said, exasperated. "Brandon appears
the very picture of a jealous rival."

"Yes, it was not well done. Soon after that,
supper was called. Leland Derwent escorted me in, sweet boy.
Colonel Brandon immediately stuck out his arm to Imogene Harper.
Never mind that Louisa was standing near to them. I know it's not
the thing for a husband to always escort his wife, but the snub was
apparent. Brandon was red and uncomfortable. He knew what it looked
like."

"And Mrs. Harper? Was she uncomfortable as
well?"

"Not a bit of it." Lady Aline clicked her cup
to her saucer. "She smiled sweetly at him and took his arm. He led
her to the supper room and seated himself next to her, stayed glued
to her throughout the meal. Louisa was not far from him, trying not
to look mortified, poor lamb."

"What the devil was he thinking?"

"Precisely what Mr. Bennington asked me. He
was seated on my other side.
My wife runs about where she
pleases
, he said with a cynical smile.
But she pretends to
be the very picture of devotion. Of course, that is what makes her
a celebrated actress. Perhaps the colonel could take lessons from
her.
"

"Dear God," I said. "Brandon's made himself
and Louisa a laughingstock."

"I know," Lady Aline replied sadly. "That was
not the worst of it."

I drank down my tea, the bitter liquid
burning my tongue. "Go on," I said.

"After supper, Colonel Brandon led Mrs.
Harper out of the dining room again. He monopolized her in her
ballroom, kept her near him. They did not dance, but neither did
she dance with anyone else. When Mr. Turner approached again,
Brandon snarled at him. Mr. Turner laughed and walked away. I heard
Mr. Turner say,
Soon, sir. Very soon.
What that meant I have
no idea, but Mrs. Harper looked distressed, and Brandon grew even
redder."