A Place For Repentance (The Underwood Mysteries Book 6) (36 page)

              Once they were in the house though, it was a different story.

              A glance at his wife’s determined expression told Underwood that the time had come to make a full and frank confession. After what she had just heard, Verity was not going to stand for any more prevarication.

              Ginny brought them a tea tray without even being asked. She was assuming that they would have over-indulged at the party – she could not have been more wrong. Underwood suddenly recalled that he had not had a drink of any sort for several hours and fell on the tea like a man dying of thirst.

              Verity allowed him that concession before she fell upon him like an avenging angel.

              “What the devil is going on, Cadmus Horatio Underwood? You had better have an exceptional reason for having my family associating freely with a murderer and not at least warning me what you were about!”

              The use of his full name was ominous. Verity was not happy; a rare occurrence which boded ill for everyone.

              “My love …” he began.

              She held up her hand, “Don’t, Cadmus! Do not try and inveigle me into a conciliatory mood, for I am just about ready to murder you myself! I have been befriending that woman for days and now you tell me that she shot Pennyfather and Thickbroome and poisoned poor Martha. That sweet, innocent girl! You have either taken leave of your senses or I have.”

              “It is almost incredible, Verity, I know, but I do assure you that it is quite true. Lilith Sowerbutts is really Flora Colfax – not only that, she is also the Widow for whom I have been searching all these months.”

              “What?” Verity was dumbfounded. She had really suspected that Underwood was playing some kind of odd trick upon her. The very idea that Lilith could be a cold-blooded killer was ridiculous and she though she felt it was hardly the time to be hoaxing her, there was a part of her that was convinced there could be no other explanation for her husband’s peculiar behaviour.

              “It is true.”

              “Then why have you waited until now to speak out? You might have saved two or even three lives if you had told Sir George days ago that you knew her. What did the Widow do to make you think she was capable of murder? I knew there was something more to all this than you have confided.”

              “There is much more, my dear, and I apologise for keeping secrets from you.”

              She looked at him for a long time before breathing out deeply and though preparing herself for uncomfortable revelations.

              “I knew it,” she whispered, “I knew something odd happened on that stagecoach and that you were hiding it from me. Well, tell me now.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

‘Vincere Scis, Victoria Uti Nescis’ – You know how to win, but you do not know how to use your victory

              The very moment they reached Windward House, Verity turned to Toby, her eyes pleading with him to be kind, “Dearest Toby, I know you have been sent hither and thither tonight, and I am truly sorry to ask you to do more, but please, please could you drive to the apothecary shop and bring Prue and Minta back here? I would have collected them on the way home, but in the circumstances, I could hardly leave my own children undefended.”

              Toby patted her arm affectionately, “Don’t worry, Verity, I’ll go for them now. If Sabrina is still awake, let her know where I am, will you?”

              “Of course. Thank you.”

              He hoisted the reluctant pony’s head back in the direction of Hanbury.

              Once indoors, like a shame-faced little boy, Underwood finally told Verity the full story of how the Widow of West Wimpleford had shot and killed a highwayman in his defence and then melted into the crowds before he could discover any more about her.

              “Why did you not tell me all this?” said Verity coldly. “That fairy-tale about the woman ‘intriguing’ you had me in a rare spin, thinking you had been indulging in a little extra-marital amusement.”

              For the first time in what seemed like a very long time, he found something to amuse him and laughed heartily at this confession from his cross little wife, “Dear God, Verity, when have I ever given you cause to think I have the slightest interest in any woman but you?”

              In fairness she could not think of a single occasion when he had misbehaved in any way, but there were several instances of women behaving very badly around him, which he had seemed to enjoy rather than discourage – but that was hardly his fault, was it?

              She chose to move on from this topic rather than digress into a quarrel about who might take responsibility for what.

              “So, as soon as you read about those other shootings in the newspapers, you began to suspect your ‘widow’ was not who she claimed to be. That I can understand. But when the Sowerbutts arrived in Hanbury and the killings began, how could you not know it was her?”

              “In my defence, the widow was veiled when I met her and I was exceptionally unwell for a long time afterwards. I had admitted to you that I doubted my ability to recall her appearance once some months had passed. And of course her abigail was now dressed as a youth – albeit an effeminate one!”

              “Even so,” countered Verity, quite sure that she would not have been taken in by so obvious a masquerade, quite overlooking the fact that she had been quite as oblivious of the true gender of Gervais Sowerbutts as Underwood.

              “I would also remind you that the pair of them were at pains to avoid meeting me. Cast your mind back and you will recall that every time I arrived at the Pump Rooms or the Assembly Rooms, they had just left. It seems they were contracted to kill Pennyfather and Thickbroome, but on arriving in Hanbury, they recognized me and assumed I would be similarly cognisant. Fortunately for them I was not. Once they satisfied themselves that they were not in immediate danger of being unmasked by me, they went on with their plot, but a safety net was put in place just in case I should have a sudden epiphany. Which, of course, I eventually did, but sadly too late to save the soldiers or Martha Jebson.”

              “Why did they force poor Martha to drink the poison? If they wanted her dead, it would have been kinder to shoot her as they had the others.”

              “Ah, but that would not have implicated Will and Violette.”

              “But why should they want to do so?”

              He lifted a weary hand to his forehead and ran his fingers through his hair in a gesture of frustration, “Do you still not see the dilemma in which they have placed me? Why do you think I allowed them to leave the party tonight and why they are calling here as they abscond?”

              She shook her head in genuine puzzlement and he suddenly understood that in her naiveté, in her sweet kindliness, she was quite unable to fathom the depths of depravity to which a wicked mind could plummet. She could not begin to understand the machinations of a sick brain.

              “My dear, they have me in a cleft stick. I can save Will and Violette only by letting them go free. Flora Colfax has promised me a signed confession exonerating our friends, but only if I do nothing to try and have them arrested for the murders of Pennyfather and Thickbroome.”

              She looked at him for a long time, as though trying to assimilate the words he had spoken, as though she were having to mentally translate them from a foreign language.

              “They would be willing to let Will and Violette hang for a crime they did not commit?”

              “They will certainly do so, unless I agree to their terms.”

              “Is there nothing you can do to prove their guilt and Will and Violette’s innocence? You cannot contemplate agreeing to this monstrous pact.”

              He reached out for her and drew her onto his knee, putting his arms about her waist and burying his head in the curve of her neck.

              “What choice do I have?” he murmured. “I could try to investigate and find evidence to refute Sir George’s assertions, but what if I fail? Or if I take too long to find the clues and it is too late to save our friends?”

              They remained in each other’s arms until the rapping of the door knocker alerted them to the fact that their unwanted visitors had arrived.

              They both stood as Ginny, in Toby’s absence, showed the pair Verity still thought of as Lilith and Gervase into the parlour. She recalled afterwards how very odd the meeting was for they found it impossible to shake off some of the civility owed to visitors, even though they felt that they were hosting a party attended by the devil himself.

              Flora smiled kindly at them both, “Believe me, I do know how difficult this is for you. I too have had to fight against my natural inclinations in the pursuit of a higher principle.”

              It was Verity who replied, though Underwood would have preferred her to retire to her room and have no part in this debacle.

              “Please do not try to justify what you have done, Miss Sowerbutts. Simply give us the confession and be on your way.”

              “So hasty, Mrs Underwood. How fickle you are. Just a few hours ago I was considered a friend.”

              “That friendship was an illusion, a cruel deception and I will forever regret my own gullibility in not seeing beneath the façade to the rotten corruption beneath.” Verity’s tone was mild enough, considering the fear churning in her stomach.

              Flora laughed, “Dear me, you and Underwood have much to learn about humility. When you are begging a favour, Mrs Underwood, it is hardly customary to insult your benefactor.”

              “If the lives of two innocents were not at stake, I would not allow you under my roof, Miss. Now hand over the paper and get out!” Manners were finally cast aside, despite her best and courageous effort to be the better person.

              “Not just yet, my dear,” said Flora, entirely unmoved by Verity’s outrage. “I have questions for your husband which I feel sure he will be happy to answer, since I was so obliging as to have been fully frank with him.”

              “What do you want to know?” asked Underwood wearily.

              “Only this – what really gave me away? It has been obvious from the first that you did not recognize either Bella or myself when we finally met, for all our fears that you could not possibly fail to know us from the stagecoach.”

              “Why do you want to know? What does it matter now? You have achieved your aim in escaping justice yet again, in spite of my best efforts.”

              “Simply in order that I do not make the same error again. The reason why we are so very successful at evading the law is careful planning and meticulous execution. I would not have us stray into peril again.”

              “I prefer not to divulge my devices,” said Underwood, determined to salvage some small shred of dignity from the whole sorry mess.

              “Then I prefer not to pass over my signed confession,” she said calmly and holding out her hand towards Bella, still garbed as Gervase, who promptly placed a sheet of parchment in it. She held it sideways and prepared to rend the document in two.

              Underwood automatically stepped forward to prevent the destruction and found himself facing the barrel of a pistol held by the woman he still thought of as a stripling.

              “Careful, my dear sir, Gervase has a trigger-quick temper,” said Flora, then laughed gaily at her own joke. “Now, perhaps you can be a little more accommodating?”

              “Very well, I will respond to your request, with the utmost reluctance and regret. It was the buttons. I also was capable of subterfuge and the day I handed you the pelisse, which I knew full well belonged to my wife, I did so deliberately to observe your reaction to the buttons. Those odd little items always troubled me. I conjectured that they must have some deep significance for the killer.” He shrugged as though to illustrate his disinterest. “Take my word upon it, I am not a man who takes much notice of fashion, but even I could not help but wonder why none of your clothing bore a button of any sort. Everything is fastened by laces, ribbons, pins and brooches. When I compared your outfits to the current trends worn by other ladies, I saw how very unusual it was. Buttons of all kinds adorn every sleeve, collar, and coat, not merely as fastenings, but also as a form of decoration.”

              “Very clever, but rather obscure,” she said lightly, trying to hide the fact that she was wincing even at the word as he repeated it. “Many people have such aversions.”

              “Hardly,” he commented. “They have aversions to such things as spiders, snakes, vertical drops, but very rarely to something as innocuous as a button.”

              “Umm,” she mused, “What a pity. I thought I was being rather subtle, but if this quirk of mine was so obvious to you, perhaps I need to think of another calling card.”

              “Or you could, perhaps, simply stop killing people?” suggested Underwood wryly.   

              “If only I could,” she sighed with genuine sounding remorse, “But there are so very many bad people in the world.”

              “Would you like to confide why you think it is your duty to rid the world of them?” asked Underwood.

              “Not here and now,” she said, “Bella and I must be on our way, but I promise that one day, all will become clear.”

              “Enough of this, Flora,” said Bella, speaking for the first time in her own female voice and Verity looked askance at her. She had been told that the person before her was in reality a young woman, but so convincing was the performance that she was quite shocked by the revelation.

              Flora turned and smiled at her companion, “Quite right, my darling girl, it is time we were leaving.” She returned her gaze to Underwood, “It has been a pleasure crossing swords with you, my dear Mr Underwood, but I trust we will not meet again.”

              “Oh, I think we will, Miss Colfax, on the day I see you standing in the dock and answering for your crimes.”

              “Still intent on pursuing me? I’m disappointed, sir. I would have thought you might show a little gratitude to the woman who saved your life.”

              “Unfortunately for you, Will Jebson also saved my life, so I owe him an even greater debt. But do not think me ungrateful, madam.”

              Verity suddenly spoke up, surprising them all, including, it would seem, herself, “I am grateful, Miss Sowerbutts,” she said. “I cannot condone your actions in anything else, but I do thank you for my husband’s life.”

              Flora smiled and lowered her head in acknowledgement.

              Bella offered the paper which Underwood took and glanced over it to be sure of its contents before he nodded to accept that it was what he wanted and then they were gone.

*

              Toby came in shortly after their departure bearing in his strong arms two sobbing little bundles, wrapped in blankets, having been lifted from their beds once their father was safely in the custody of the Constable of Hanbury, quietly jubilant that he had finally beaten Underwood to the prize.

              The big black man not only brought the Jebson twins, but also news of an even more sobering kind. Once he had been acquainted of the facts; that his wife was dead and his lover arrested for murder, Will had immediately confessed to all the killings, his wife included, and begged Sir George to release Violette at once, for she was, he swore, entirely innocent.

              Underwood was tired, drained and inclined to be unsympathetic, “Those two fools! Each thinks the other has committed the crime and seeks to protect their loved one. I wish they would both close their mouths and keep them closed. It is going to be hard enough to convince Sir George that this confession from Flora Colfax is genuine without their well-meaning declarations of guilt.”