The Spider's Touch (25 page)

“This is not an occasion for foolish scruples! Your family needs you, and that should be enough. After all I have done for you
...
.”

Seething, for there was nothing she could say to stem her aunt’s angry flow, Hester remained silent while Mrs. Mayfield talked herself hoarse. There was no mistaking the hysteria beneath her words. She believed either that her son had murdered Sir Humphrey, or at the very least that he would be accused of it. The prospect was frightening even to Hester, who had no particular affection for her oafish cousin. If word of Dudley’s assault got out, who would not suspect him of attacking Sir Humphrey again? Hester was in no condition at the moment to conjecture whether Dudley had been drunk enough to turn violent. Certainly, he had returned to the box reeking of spirits.

But Mrs. Mayfield had finished her speech and was demanding an answer.

Hester repeated her refusal to perjure herself, following quickly with this advice, “Even if I were willing to lie, nothing good could possibly come of it. Everyone must have noticed that I stayed behind in the box. And everyone was present when Dudley returned alone.” She did not say,
returned drunk,
but ended, “It would look suspicious, indeed, were I to say otherwise. In all such cases, surely, telling the truth is best.”

“But what if they won’t believe the truth? Then, what?”

A cold, stony hardness formed in Hester’s breast. Her aunt was asking the question now, when she had refused even to consider St. Mars’s innocence. Faced with the truth, she had denied it in order to keep his wealth for her daughter and herself. Were Dudley guilty of murder, she would just as willingly deny the truth again.

Their arrival at Hawkhurst House spared Hester the need to respond. She handed Isabella to her maid and sought her own chamber in order to remove her gown. She asked one of the maids to put the hem on to soak, hoping that the stain could be removed, though she wondered how soon, if ever, she would be willing to wear the gown again.

Harrowby and Dudley returned more than two hours later. Harrowby was weary and upset, his brother-in-law red-faced and sullen. As Dudley stormed into the room, it did not take long for the ladies to discover the reason for his anger.

“He thinks I killed him!” he announced, as soon as the door to the withdrawing room was closed behind them. “As if I would stab a fellow in the back like a damned coward!”

As one, his female relatives turned their gazes upon Harrowby, still standing just inside the door, while he spluttered, “For the Lord’s sake, keep your voice down, Mayfield, unless you want the servants to carry the tale to every news-sheet in town!

“And I did not say I thought you had murdered poor Humphrey,” he added. “I only said you had caused enough trouble as it was.”

“Well, I am sure there is nothing in that,” Mrs. Mayfield said. “Not when we’ve all been so upset. Lud! but I’ve never suffered such palpitations in my life! To think that anyone would harm our dear Sir Humphrey! What kind of monster would do that?”

Even Harrowby, who was not often aware of Mrs. Mayfield’s ploys, seemed to feel that her speech savoured of something false. He threw her an offended look, and Hester found it in her heart to pity him, for in his own way, he had been very fond of his friend. The two had shared a childlike pleasure in simple distractions, as well as their gullibility.

Who could replace Sir Humphrey at Harrowby’s levees?

“You will have to excuse me,” he said coldly. “I am going to bed. The coroner will want to question us all soon enough.” Harrowby opened the door and called to a waiting footman to have Philippe attend him in his chambers. Then, with a frosty bow, he retired.

Mrs. Mayfield lost no time in rounding on Dudley. “Now, see what you have landed us in—you, with your temper? If Lord Hawkhurst doesn’t throw the lot of us out, it will not be because of you.

“Isabella—”  she threw over her shoulder— “I want you to go to your husband’s chamber and make him comfortable. We cannot have him angry with us now.”

“But Lord Lovett promised
...
”

“Forget Lord Lovett! This is no time to act the harlot! You can see him all you want another day. But you’ll never see him again if your husband sends us in disgrace to Rotherham Abbey and decides to keep you there.”

“I don’t think Harrowby is mad at
me
,” Isabella said, pouting. At the look on her mother’s face, however, she said, “Very well, I’ll go see if there’s anything Harrowby wants. But I doubt he’ll want me right now. Not when Philippe is there to fuss over him.”

As soon as she was gone, Mrs. Mayfield pressed Dudley to tell her what had happened after they had left. His feelings were so wounded that several minutes passed before she was able to pull the story out of him.

* * * *

After taking charge, Lord Lovett had insisted that all the gentlemen remain, and only then did they notice that Mr. Blackwell had not returned to the box. His absense suggested the possibility of a second murder, but neither he nor his body was found. Lord Lovett sent a footman to alert the Watch—who came, but not until the opera was letting out, so they had to fight their way in against the crowd leaving the theatre.

On regarding the body, the knife, and the illustrious personages involved, the Watch, which consisted of two decrepit old men, insisted on calling the Coroner. When the Coroner finally appeared, he proved to be scarcely fitter than the Watch, being not of that estate from which a subordinate magistrate should legally have been appointed. He principally wanted to know how a knife, bearing the Hawkhurst arms, had come to be at the opera house.

That was a question which no one could answer. No one except the murderer, of course, who naturally chose to remain silent. But the knife pointed a finger at someone in Sir Humphrey’s own box, where Lord and Lady Hawkhurst, members of their family, friends who had dined at their table, and gentlemen who had attended Harrowby’s levees had been the victim’s guests. The Coroner had been distressingly unconcerned about Mr. Blackwell’s departure, especially once it was established that the gentleman had never set foot inside Hawkhurst House, but he did agree that Blackwell’s testimony should be sought. But so should everyone’s, he had emphasized. And to that end, he told them they would all be notified when the date of the inquest had been set and required to appear.

* * * *

By the time Mrs. Mayfield had extracted this much from her son, even Dudley had sobered. No quicker than his sister, still he had managed to surmise that his recent attack on Sir Humphrey would make him a suspect in his death. Unfortunately—or so he insisted—he had absolutely no memory of the first incident, which unsettled him in the extreme.

“Well, I’m sure that nobody would accuse
you
of anything so horrible,” his fond mother averred. “Not when your sister is a countess and her husband an earl! I hope this will teach you to be properly grateful to our dear Lord Hawkhurst, and to Isabella for catching him, too.”

This was not precisely the expression of confidence Dudley had looked for. That his mother based her conviction of his not being accused, not on his certain innocence, but on the reluctance of the legal authorities to prosecute an earl’s brother-in-law, seemed to speak to her own doubts. The nervous manner with which she picked at her necklace failed to inspire him with any belief in her faith.

“You don’t think I had anything to do with it, do you?” he inquired, on a rising note.

Mrs. Mayfield snapped, “What your mother thinks will mean nothing to a Grand Jury, I assure you! The justices will want to know why you came back so late to the box!”

Dudley’s heavy face flushed. “I had to piss! There’s no crime in pissing, is there?”

“Don’t ask me to believe it took you that long to relieve yourself! You had no business drinking, or this never would have happened!”

He went pale. “You think I did it, don’t you? You think your son’s a fucking murderer.”

Her slap rang against his face so fast that neither Dudley nor Hester had a moment’s warning. “How dare you speak to your mama that way! I should have left you at home to run to waste! But it’s too late now.”

While Dudley cradled his scarlet cheek, her outrage changed into determined spite. “I will do what I can to get you out of this mess, but if I can’t, do not think that your sister and I will suffer with you. I have already given you much more care than you deserve.”

She turned on her heel and left the room, slamming the door behind her. Hester felt as if her body had been filled with a painful poison. She would have given anything not to have been present at that scene, but she doubted her aunt would care either way.

Dudley sat staring after his mother with a mixture of fury and despair. He seemed unaware that his cousin had witnessed his disgrace and did not speak until Hester stirred. Then he started and scowled.

“I’ll wager you think I did it, too, eh?”

Beneath his surliness, Hester detected a strong need for reassurance.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened so I can form an opinion? I promise, I haven’t the slightest notion what to think.”

Her offer of a fair hearing made him wary. Dudley had never paid her even the courtesy of his attention, but at the moment he was too desperate for friends to be very particular. After mulling over her statement, he smoothed his ruffled feathers a bit.

“Nobody has the nerve to accuse me aloud, but I could see it in their eyes. They think I stabbed the old fool!”

Hester bit back the words she wanted to say—that perhaps no one would suspect him, if he showed a proper respect for his family’s dead friend. Instead, forgiving him for his obvious panic, she encouraged him to sit and drew him out by sharing the only information she possessed.

“I was in the box when Mr. Blackwell left it. He seemed to catch sight of someone in the pit he wished to avoid and took himself off very suddenly. I do not know where.”

Dudley seized on this. “I know that blackguard did it! If the Watch did their job, they could have caught him straight away. Now, only God knows where he can have got to!”

Seeing he was about to fall into the dismals again, Hester quickly asked, “You did not see Sir Humphrey after you left the box?”

“No. Colonel Potter and I went for a drink, but we didn’t drink that much.”

“I will take your word, but, to be honest, you smelled very strongly of spirits when you returned. Everyone must have noticed.”

His eyebrows snapped into an angry frown. “Some oaf jostled my glass of wine all over me. I would have had to pay for another if the Colonel hadn’t treated me to it.”

“He returned with Lord Lovett, several minutes before you did.”

Dudley’s suddenly hooded eyes made her wonder what he was trying to hide. “I didn’t want him looking over my shoulder while I pissed, did I? I don’t know why they can’t build a bigger privy for that many gents. Had a devil of a time making my way in to it.”

Hester wanted to shake him for being so stubbornly foolish, but she could not force him to confide in her.

“Did you see where Colonel Potter went after you two parted?”

Dudley was thrown off balance by her change of direction. Eventually, though, he understood the purpose of her question. “You mean he could have done it, don’t you? Why that—!”

Hester halted him with a raised hand before she could be subjected to more of his vulgarities. “We know nothing at all. But surely everyone must be considered a suspect at this point. I would imagine the magistrate in charge will want to know if any of us was ever alone.”

“Not all of us.” He gave a bitter grimace. “No woman could have driven that knife into Sir Humphrey’s ribs. A female wouldn’t have had the strength. Or, at least, that’s what Lord Lovett said when I asked him why he let you and Bella and Mama go.”

A wry smile tugged at Hester’s lips. There was certainly nothing of the hero about Dudley, but still she felt obliged to help him. If he
was
innocent, as he claimed.

“There’s no need for you to assume that you are the only suspect. If they had any evidence against you, either the Watch, the Coroner, or even one of the other gentlemen would have been within their rights to arrest you on the spot. Mere suspicions do not add up to a conviction. So, if I were you, I should not worry myself excessively over what others might think.”

Dudley’s face brightened. He cheered so quickly, in fact, that Hester felt compelled to add a few cautious words. “All the same, I should be very careful what you say about Sir Humphrey. It wouldn’t hurt for you to express a little sorrow at his death. And I should consider limiting my consumption of spirits to thwart any unfavourable impressions that others might have formed.” She could have gone on, but decided that two pieces of advice were already more than Dudley was likely to accept.

She could tell this last was not to his liking, but in phrasing it as she had, she had removed most of its sting. Certainly he took it in greater part than he had his mother’s cruel jabs.

Hester would have liked to ask him more about his movements, but they were interrupted by the sound of an arrival downstairs.

Still nervous, Dudley had no wish to encounter anyone. He instructed Hester to say that he was not at home and ducked out of the withdrawing room through the back door. In the next minute, Hester was very much disconcerted to find herself greeting Lord Lovett alone.

She made her apologies for the rest of the family, saying that the evening’s events had driven them all to their beds. In a hurry to leave the room, she offered to go in search of Isabella, who had particularly wished for him to come.

Lord Lovett stopped her with a gentle grasp of her wrist. “Please stay. I would not have you disturb either her or Lord Hawkhurst. I have just come from seeing Sir Humphrey’s sister, and in all honesty I doubt that I am up to their
chatter
just yet.”

A bitter tone accompanied these words, which Hester might have found unpardonable if not for the weariness she read in his face. She found his touch disturbing, though, if not downright improper, so she tactfully removed herself from his reach. She invited Lord Lovett to rest himself, then summoned a servant to have refreshments brought up for him. Then she seated herself in a single chair safely across the carpet.