“I think not. Unless, perhaps, I know how your mind works better than you do. You have the delightful habit, my dear, of making a man feel as though he were terribly important to you — even when you have to tell small lies to do it.”
She smiled. “You are important to me, darling. Furthermore, small lies are necessary to good manners and to diplomacy; there is no harm in them. And what, pray, does that have to do with your pretended deduction?”
“That was unworthy of you, my dear. You know I never pretend to mental abilities other than those I actually possess.” His voice had an edge.
She smiled contritely and put out a hand to touch his arm. “I know. I apologize. Please explain.”
Lord Darcy’s smile returned. He put his hand on hers. “Apology accepted. Explanation — a simple one — as follows:
“You claimed that you had come to fetch me at the Tower. Now, I know that, aside from myself, the Warders at the Tower, Master Sean, and two other people, no one in London knew of my whereabouts or could have learned it by other than thaumaturgical means. No one but those even knew I was in London. You are a sorceress, true, but only journeyman, and we both know you are not prescient to any degree above normal. You might have deduced that I would come immediately when I heard of Master Sean’s arrest, but you could not possibly have known at exactly what time I would leave the Tower. Ergo, your arrival was a coincidence.
“However, as your coach approached the gate, you heard the Warder whistling for a cab. You would not have stopped for that; you stopped to identify yourself to the Warder so that you could enter the courtyard. Therefore, your destination must have been the Tower itself; if it were not, you would have gone on by, ignoring the whistle.
“Then you came on in and saw me. The very tone of your voice when you hailed me showed that you had not expected to see me there.
“Your reasoning powers are well above average; it was hardly the work of a mental giant, however, to deduce from the whistle and my presence in the courtyard that it was I who desired a cab. Knowing, as you do, that I am not careless by habit, you further deduced that, having but recently arrived in London, I had failed to notice the fog prediction in the Courier, and had dismissed the cab that brought me. Thereupon, you spoke your flattering and entirely mendacious little piece about having come to get me.”
Her laugh was soft and throaty. “It wasn’t a lie intended to deceive you, my dear.”
“I know. You wanted me to gasp in amazement and say: ‘Goodness me! However did you know I was going to be here? Have you become a seer, then?’ And you would have smiled and looked wise and said: ‘Oh, I have my ways.’ ”
She laughed again. “You know me too well, my lord. But what has all that to do with your knowing I had information about the death of Master Sir James?”
“We return to the coincidence of your arrival at the Tower,” Lord Darcy said. “If you had not come for me, then what was your purpose? It must have been important, else you would not have come out on so foggy a night. And yet, the moment you see me, you ask me to get in, and off we go. Whatever business you had at the Tower can be conducted with me, eh? Obviously, you went to tell Master Sean something, but not something strictly personal. Ergo—” He smiled, letting the conclusion go unsaid.
“One day,” said the Dowager Duchess of Cumberland, “I shall learn not to try to beat you at your own game.”
“But not, I pray, too soon,” said Lord Darcy. “Few people of either sex bother to exercise their intellect; it is refreshing to know a woman who does.”
“Alas!” Her voice was heavy with mock tragedy. “He loves me only for my mind!”
“Mens sana in corpore sano, my dear. Now let’s get back to this information you have.”
“Very well,” she said, looking suddenly thoughtful. “I don’t know whether it means anything or not; I’ll give it to you for what it’s worth and let you decide whether to follow it up.”
Lord Darcy nodded. “Go ahead.”
“It was something I saw — and heard,” said Mary de Cumberland. “At seven minutes of eight this morning — I noticed the time particularly because I had an appointment for breakfast at eight-fifteen — I left my room at the hotel.” She stopped and looked directly into his eyes. “I have the room directly across the hall from Master Sir James’. Did you know that?”
“Yes.”
“Very well, then. I opened the door. I heard a voice coming through the door of the room opposite. As you know, the doors at the Royal Steward are quite thick; normal conversation won’t carry through. But this was a woman’s voice, not high in pitch, but quite strong and quite penetrating. Her words were very clear. She said—”
“Wait.” Lord Darcy lifted a hand, interrupting her. “Can you repeat the words exactly, Mary?”
“I can; yes,” the Duchess said firmly. “She said: ‘By God, Sir James! You condemn him to death! I warn you! If he dies, you die!’ ”
There was a pause, a silence broken only by the clatter of hooves and the soft sussuration of pneumatic tires on the street.
“And the intonation that you have just reproduced,” Lord Darcy said, “is that accurate? She sounded both angry and frightened?”
“More anger than fright, but there was certainly a touch of fear.”
“Very good. Then what?”
“Then there was a very faint sound — as of someone speaking in a more normal tone of voice. It was hardly audible, much less recognizable or understandable.”
“It could have been Sir James speaking?”
“It could have. It could have been anyone. I assumed, of course, at the time, that it was Sir James — but actually it could have been anyone.”
“Or even no one?”
She thought for a second. “No. No, there was someone else in that room besides her.”
“How do you know?”
“Because just then the door flew open and the girl came flouncing out. She slammed it shut behind her and went on down the hall without even noticing me — or, at least, not indicating it if she had. Then whoever was still in the room put a key in the lock and locked the door. Naturally, I had not intended to be a witness to such a scene; I ignored it and went on down to breakfast.”
“Who was the girl?” Lord Darcy asked.
“To my knowledge, I had never seen her before,” the Duchess said, “and she was certainly the kind of girl one would not easily forget. She is a tiny creature — not five feet tall, but perfectly formed, a truly beautiful figure. Her hair is jet black and quite long, and was bound with a silver circlet in back, giving it a sort of horsetail appearance. Her face was as beautiful as the rest of her, with pixieish eyes and a rather sensuous mouth. She was wearing the costume of an apprentice — blue, with a white band at the sleeve — and that’s odd, because, as you know, apprentices are allowed at the Convention only by special invitation, and such invitations are quite rare.”
“It is even odder,” Lord Darcy said musingly, “that an apprentice should use such speech toward a Master of the Art.”
“Yes, it is,” Her Grace agreed. “But, as I said, I really thought little of it at the time. After Master Sean was arrested, however, the incident came to mind again. I spent the rest of the morning and all afternoon trying to find out what I could about her.”
“And yet you did not think it important enough to mention it either to Lord Bontriomphe or to the Chief Master-at-Arms?” Lord Darcy asked quietly.
“Important? Of course I thought it was important! I still do. But — mention it to the Armsmen? To what purpose, my dear? In the first place, I had no real information; at the time, I didn’t even know her name. In the second place, that was an hour and a half before the murder actually took place. In the third place, if I had told either Bontriomphe or Chief Master Hennely about it, they would simply have bungled the whole thing by arresting her, too, and they would have had no more case against her than they do against Master Sean.”