The Phantom of Pemberley (45 page)

They spread out across the room, each of them taking the responsibility of thoroughly searching a portion of the space. No one spoke, each man intent on performing his duties.

Edward opened each of the jars on the dresser. “The lady has nearly ten jars of cosmetics; yet, Mrs. Williams wore only a bit of rogue when I saw her today. I wonder whether today was an aberration.” He showed them a small jar containing a blackened powder. “And what in God’s name is this?”

“Belladonna. For the eyes,” Stafford informed him. “The latest thing on the Continent. Gives the lady’s lids a smoky quality in the dim lighting of a soiree or a dinner party.”

“We should have known you would be an expert on a lady’s beauty regime,” Darcy smirked.

Adam made a courtly bow.“It is my lot in life—what I do best. Just ask my father, the earl. He will gladly extol my expertise in the area.”

Edward examined the table. “I see nothing such as what we found in my aunt’s quarters.”

“Maybe Mrs.Williams did not use the poison in the same way,” Sir Phillip remarked.

“I assume you mean that the lady did not consume the product; she used ointments and creams, probably because her face and skin have weathered from traveling with the admiral. But even if she did have the item, she could have disposed of the powder after Mrs. Jenkinson’s passing,” Stafford observed.

“I am sorry I did not think to search the bedrooms before now,” Darcy said, offering an apology to the entire room.

“It is of no consequence, Mr. Darcy.Your search would not have solved your mystery.” Sir Phillip gave his own form of absolution. “The lady is not your phantom, although I strongly suspect her of causing your cousin’s companion to meet an untimely death.”

Worth joined Darcy and the baronet. “There is nothing to directly connect the widow to Harwood,” he whispered. “How will we prove her guilt?”

“I am not ready to abandon our search,” the magistrate asserted. “There is something here; I feel it in my bones. Let us look closer. Does the lady have items in the bed chest? Take out the drawers of the desk. Look behind them.The same with the dressing table.”

The five men plus Darcy’s two footmen started to take things apart. Moving furniture and looking behind and under the room’s fixtures, they studied the minutest corners with a renewed interest.

“Nothing in the chest,” Worth announced as he let the lid to the storage at the foot of Mrs.Williams’s bed slam shut.

“I found nothing beneath the bed either, sir.” Jatson St. Denis scooted out from under the bed.

Darcy mused aloud, “If not
under
the bed, maybe
in
the bed. Possibly the lady literally slept with her secrets.”

Instantly, Darcy and Sir Phillip attacked the bed simultaneously, pulling back the coverings and flipping over the pillows. Reaching for the bottom brocade pillow, Darcy’s fingers brushed against something hard. “I have something.” He pulled the drawstring pouch from the folds of the pillow’s silken covering. “What have we here?” He loosened the golden string and dumped the contents of the bag upon the bed.

The other men now circled about.Worth expelled a low whistle when the gold coins tumbled from the black velvet bag. “Solid gold.”Worth turned one of the coins over in the palm of his hand. “A small fortune.”

“Where would a woman of Mrs.Williams’s station get so many gold coins?” Edward questioned as he ran his fingers through them and let them plunge to the mattress.

“A man’s ring,” Darcy said as he cupped a jeweled band in his outstretched hand.

Sir Phillip picked up the velvet bag and turned it inside out. A folded piece of paper drifted to the floor. Carefully, the magistrate retrieved it.“Let us see what the lady conceals.” Slowly, he unfolded the item, smoothing the edges as he spread it upon the bed. The men all craned their necks to understand the marriage document. Sir Phillip read the words aloud,“Robert Lewis Harwood to Evangeline Ruth Whitmore.”

“Evangeline? I thought Mrs.Williams’s Christian name was Evelyn,” Worth thought aloud.

“Well, apparently if her name was
Whitmore
and not
Williams
, the lady might purposely call herself
Evelyn
instead of
Evangeline
,” Stafford summarized.

“You are both missing the most obvious connection.” Edward took the marriage certificate from where it lay on the bed. “
Angel Harwood
, as the lieutenant identified his wife, is really
Evangeline Whitmore
.The lieutenant called the lady
Angel
, short for
Evangeline
.”

“If what we suspect is true,” Sir Phillip started to place the items back in the bag, “the lady
is
an angel—an angel of death.”

“ELIZABETH,” GEORGIANA pulled her sister into the music room, “might we talk?”

Elizabeth anticipated the nature of the ‘talk,’ but she readily agreed. “I am all ears, Georgiana,” she responded as they took up residence before the fireplace.

Then a nervous silence followed. Elizabeth watched with amusement as Darcy’s sister fidgeted.“Why do you not just tell me what is on your mind, Georgiana? I will not judge you.”

The girl swallowed hard and flushed. “Could-Could you,” she stammered, “could you t-tell me when you knew you loved my brother?”

Elizabeth smiled kindly. “I suspected as much.” She rolled her eyes upward, trying to visualize the moment. “It would be prudent to say from the first moment he walked into the Meryton Assembly Hall, but Fitzwilliam managed to insult me with his refusal to ask me to dance, and I set myself against anything he could offer. So, from the beginning we verbally tussled for supremacy, but I suppose, in many way that was love. I hated that Fitzwilliam might find me wanting—that he might think poorly of me—might think I was lacking in some essential. Therefore, I pretended, even to myself, to despise him. I once told Jane that I knew I loved him when I realized how many depended upon him for their existence, and I realized he needed someone upon whom
he
could depend. I cannot say the exact moment; we were connected from the beginning. Your
brother brought sunlight to my heart.” Elizabeth nudged Georgiana’s foot with her own.“Is there someone you affect, Georgiana?”

“Would it disappoint Fitzwilliam if I did not want a Season?” The girl blushed thoroughly.“I would be so out of place in a room full of strangers.”

“Do you not wish to meet a young lord? Once you became familiar with Viscount Stafford, there was no awkwardness.”

Georgiana looked off to the side. “Then Fitzwilliam would object? I thought as much.” Her gaze fell to her hands resting in her lap. “I had simply hoped—.”

“Hoped for someone more familiar?” Elizabeth understood perfectly. “Perhaps with my encroaching confinement, we should seek entertainment in Derbyshire—give you time to build a rapport with some of the local young people—give you a chance to meet someone new.”

Georgiana looked devastated, but she said, “Yes, maybe that is what I need.”

Elizabeth knew better—knew what stirred Georgiana’s heart—what the girl truly wanted. She would see how things developed before she spoke to her husband in that regard. “Lydia loves a social gathering,” she began. “Why do we not show her some of Derbyshire? Bakewell’s celebration is next week. What do you say, Georgiana? Might I send for Lydia, and we can plan an excursion?”

“Why not?” Georgiana’s lack of enthusiasm rang clear to her sister.

��

Silence filled the room as the men froze in a horrified tableau. “Can it be?” Darcy breathed the question.

Sir Phillip turned slowly toward Pemberley’s master, a grim frown furrowing his forehead.“I fear we must speak to the lady immediately.” He returned the coins and ring to the bag and refolded the paper. “Colonel, might you and Lord Stafford take Mr. Darcy’s men and examine Mrs.Wickham’s room?”

The colonel nodded.

“Mr. Darcy and I must question Mrs. Williams or Mrs. Harwood or whatever we are to call her. Worth, I want you there to ensure that the lady’s rights are protected.”

“As you wish, Sir Phillip,” Mr.Worth said automatically.A poker face hid his complicated feelings.

“Come, gentlemen, we have a mystery to unravel.”

 

Peter searched the antechamber for his belongings. Consumed by his frustration, he did not try to hide his anger. “I am personally exhausted by your need to control every situation. I do not know why we must take our leave so soon. I love Pemberley; it could be my home again if I could simply find a way to please my father. He wanted me here—wanted me to have the lessons of a gentleman—to take my place alongside Darcy—to have a superior life. Now, you say we must abandon the place we have established here.” He slammed a stolen Pemberley book against the wall.“And do not place the blame solely upon my shoulders. I told you the woman would not allow me to leave the room. She would have sent up an alarm for the whole household. It is just as much the fault of both of you as it is mine.
You
killed the footman and
you
the lieutenant.Tell me how it is my fault! You do not own me, you know. I do not have to do what you tell me!” Peter stormed away to sulk. “I will show them,” he grumbled. “They want to get Darcy’s attention—make the man sorry for his former snubs—well, I know how to do that better than anyone!”

 

Sir Phillip led Darcy and Worth to the room holding Mrs. Harwood. “Allow me to do the talking,” the magistrate warned before they entered. When the door swung open, the woman rose slowly to stand defiantly before them. “Your shoes, Mrs. Harwood.” Sir Phillip extended his arm and offered her the footwear.

The lady took her slippers and stepped into them before returning to her previous stance. “So, now you know my secret,” she whispered.

Darcy and Worth circled slowly to stand behind the widow. “Would you care to explain your part in the lieutenant’s scheme?” Sir Phillip motioned for her to return to her chair.

A slight shake of her head said she refused his kindness.“Robert…Robert,” she faltered, “was the love of my life. I married Samuel Whitmore when I was seventeen, but ours was a troubled joining. My parents thought it a brilliant match, and as they had a household of daughters, they readily gave me to the first man who offered.” With her description, Darcy could not help but think of Mrs. Bennet trying to pawn Elizabeth off on Mr. Collins. “Admiral Whitmore, some twenty years my senior, wielded power aboard his ship and within his quarters. He tolerated no question of his authority. When the admiral lost his life at San Domingo, I rejoiced at being free. I spent a little over a year in mourning for a man I truly despised, and then I met Robert Harwood.”The lady swayed in place, and Darcy moved forward instinctively to catch her. He gently lowered her to the seat before moving away.

“I knew Robert’s failings—women always know. Society accuses us of wanting to reform a rake, but that is never our intention. We simply want to give them the love they have never known, no matter what it costs us. One night in the arms of such a man is worth all the nights of loneliness.” The lady’s voice trailed off in memory. She sat in silence, unmoving for several long moments. Sir Phillip took the seat beside her and quietly took Mrs. Harwood’s hand in his own. He said nothing, but the gesture caused the lady to regain her confidence.

“Robert joined the Regulars in order to escape a trail of gambling debts in his home country.” Darcy instantly thought of George Wickham. On three different occasions he had taken it upon himself to pay his former friend’s debts. Darcy had done so around Lambton and in Cheshire prior to the costly escapade involving the man’s ruination of Lydia Bennet. Mr. Wickham, at the time, was in debt to every tradesman in Meryton, and it took more than a thousand pounds to clear his expenses in Brighton.
The British military, Darcy mused, seemed the place to hide a gamester.

“My poor darling could never quit a card table while he was ahead.” Mrs. Harwood shook her head in sad memory. “Then he stumbled across an opportunity two years ago, and everything changed.A gentleman’s daughter outside Stratford found my Robert most attractive. My husband convinced me to remain quiet, and our first profit became a reality. The baron paid two thousand pounds for Robert to disappear from the lady’s life and to secure his silence.

“Robert tasted success twice more: in Berwick and in Hull. Yet, neither was enough. The amount he won from the scam—and more—was the amount my dear husband lost at the tables. Then Colonel Fitzwilliam introduced Robert to Anne de Bourgh. When we considered the possibility, we thought ten thousand pounds was assured.”

Sir Phillip asked quietly, “And your role in the lieutenant’s perfidy?”

“I was to discover Miss de Bourgh in Robert’s company—the outraged wife—a role I could play easily. I hated every minute Robert spent with another. Unfortunately, Mother Nature played a hand neither of us had expected.When I joined Mr.Worth on the public coach outside Nottingham, I planned to go to Liverpool. Robert had sent word that Miss de Bourgh had arrived and that he would move her to the Salty Sailor, but the storm waylaid me at Pemberley. How was I to know that Anne de Bourgh would be here also?”