‘Do you blame me?’ said Henry, pompously. ‘Where assignations are concerned, I have the highest standards. She met none of them.’
‘But she lay in bed all night awaiting you. That’s a brutal way to treat any woman,’ Christopher admonished. ‘No wonder Matilda looked so crestfallen when I saw her earlier. You not only raised false hopes in her breast, you made her an unwitting accessory to a crime.’
‘I had to get into the house somehow.’
‘Yes — by cunning and duplicity.’
‘It was no more than a means to an end.’
‘A reprehensible means to an ignoble end. Really, Henry,’ said the other with consternation. ‘Each new revelation makes me wonder what kind of monster I have as a brother. Do you have no moral sense at all? The only honest course of action for me is to have you placed under arrest.’
‘On what charge?’
‘I can think of three or four at least.’
‘I did not break into that house — the window was left open for me. And I stole nothing from that studio. I could not have done so. I felt the sharp prick of my conscience.’
‘I rejoice to hear that you have one,’ said Christopher. ‘Until now you’ve been governed by a sharp prick of another kind — the one you dangled in front of that gullible maid by way of enticement. I’ve heard enough,’ he added, moving to the door. ‘Tell the rest of the revolting story to a magistrate.’
‘No!’ yelled Henry, jumping to his feet and rushing to stop his brother. ‘Don’t do that, I beg you. I acknowledge that I did wrong and I’ve been haunted by guilt ever since. I want to repair my fault. Teach me how I can make amends.’
‘A ten-year penance would not be enough.’
‘I implore you, Christopher. Hold off out of brotherly love. Do you really want to see me branded as a criminal?’
‘That’s what you are, Henry.’
‘Could you write the letter that would tell our father so? Think how much sorrow it would bring him. The old gentlemen would be distraught. Spare him that agony.’
It was a telling argument and it made Christopher pause. Unlike his brother, he kept up a regular correspondence with their father and he spent much of his letters trying to present any news about Henry in a favourable light. He did not want the venerable dean of Gloucester Cathedral to know just how wayward and unchristian an existence his elder son led. To confront him with the full horror of what Henry had done would cause him immense pain.
‘Give me a chance,’ pleaded Henry. ‘I’ll do absolutely anything to make up for my misdemeanours.’
‘Anything?’
‘Nominate it and it shall be done.’
‘The first thing you must do is offer recompense to Matilda.’
Henry blanched. ‘Sleep with that plain-faced tub of flesh?’
‘No,’ said Christopher. ‘I’d not inflict that ordeal on any woman but an apology would not come amiss. And a gift of some sort might help to take away the bitter taste of your callous betrayal.’
‘Matilda shall have both with some honey-tongued flattery to make her feel like the Queen of the May.’
‘An apology and a gift will suffice.’
‘What else?’
‘Resolve to help Lady Culthorpe instead of hurting her. Send no more of your unwelcome poetry to her.’
‘But I slaved over those verses.’
‘To ill effect from what I hear,’ said Christopher. ‘Your poems offend her, Henry. She did not even read the last one you sent.’
‘I refuse to believe that.’
‘I had it from an impeccable source — her maid, Eleanor Ryle.’
Henry’s face ignited. ‘You know her maid?’
‘She came to see me.’
‘How is Araminta? Is she bearing up? Has she mentioned me?’
‘Only with distaste,’ said Christopher. ‘Everything you’ve done so far has incurred her displeasure. If you want to win her approval, there are two simple ways.’
‘Tell me what they are and I’ll do both instantly.’
‘The chief one is to leave her alone, Henry — no more letters, no more verses, no more communication from you of any kind.’
‘But I want to express my condolences.’
‘I’ve just told you the most effective way to do it. The second thing you must do is to assist me. If we can prove that Monsieur Villemot is innocent, we’ll remove a whole dimension of Lady Culthorpe’s grief.’
‘What if he’s guilty?’
‘Then he’ll pay the penalty for his crime. But I’m convinced that he was not the killer and I’m not alone in that belief. Lady Lingoe also has complete faith in his innocence.’
Henry laughed. ‘It’s the first time that Hester has been troubled by the concept of innocence,’ he said. ‘You should have seen the portrait for which she sat.’
‘I did see it, Henry. I thought it tastefully done.’
‘It was — I could taste her as soon as I looked at it.’
‘Even though you claim you’ve dedicated yourself elsewhere?’
‘Hester and Araminta cannot be mentioned in the same breath,’ said Henry, reprovingly. ‘One arouses carnal desire while the other attracts only the purest love.’
‘I don’t recall any mention of the purest love in the title of the infamous society of which you were a member.’ Henry was cowed. ‘But let’s not dwell on that. The person we must think of now is the one who’s wrongly imprisoned in Newgate. You know better than anyone how that feels. You were once wrongly accused of murder.’
‘It was a ghastly experience. The place is a common sewer.’
‘Then help to get Monsieur Villemot out of it.’
‘How?’
‘You are acquainted with more people than anyone else in London,’ said Christopher, ‘and those you’ve never met you somehow seem to know about.’
‘Only if they belong to the aristocracy or the gentry,’ said Henry with a lordly tilt of his chin. ‘I deal with the elite of society. I have no truck with the lower orders.’
‘Does the name of Foxwell mean anything to you?’
‘Partner it with another and it might. I could list half-a-dozen Foxwells and still not give you the fellow you want.’
‘This gentlemen is called Cuthbert Foxwell.’
‘Living in Chelsea?’
‘Yes, Henry — do you know him?’
‘Not in person but Sir Willard Grail knows him very well.’
‘Does he?’
‘He ought to — Cuthbert Foxwell is his brother-in-law.’
Sir Willard Grail sipped his wine and gave a smile of satisfaction. He was seated at a table in the corner of a tavern. Elkannah Prout was beside him. He tasted his own wine before returning to the argument.
‘You must join us in this pact,’ he said.
‘I’ll not be dictated to by anybody, Elkannah.’
‘Keep away from that funeral.’
‘I’d intended to until you tried to make it mandatory. My instinct now is to go. In a congregation of that size, I’d hardly be noticed.’
‘That’s not the point, Sir Willard.’
‘What is?’
‘You should stay away as a mark of respect.’
‘Araminta will not know if I’m there or not,’ said Sir Willard, ‘so she will be quite unaware of any supposed respect I’m showing.’
‘I didn’t expect you to be so obstinate,’ said Prout, irritably. ‘When I put the idea of a pact to him, Henry agreed to it immediately.’
‘What of Jocelyn?’
Prout scowled. ‘He was less forthcoming.’
‘I’ll wager that he dismissed the notion out of hand. Jocelyn Kidbrooke and I are cut from the same cloth. We are free agents. We do not like being told what to do.’
‘You both subscribed willingly enough the articles of the Society and they imposed certain restrictions on you.’
‘We were united by a common purpose — to court Araminta and win the ultimate favour from her. Her marriage made that aim more ambiguous,’ said Sir Willard, drinking his wine. ‘The murder of her husband removed what might have proved a fatal handicap.’
‘It left me with no stomach for the contest,’ said Prout.
‘Then stop trying to influence those of us still engaged in it.’
‘Attending that funeral would be wrong, Sir Willard.’
‘That’s a judgement each of us must make for himself.’