Harriett (39 page)

“
I am alright,” Harriett whispered. In reality she was
anything but alright. Babette had returned to the house about an
hour after she had left, and had been distraught. Andrew had
strenuously objected to Babette ending their association, and had
done everything in his power to try to stop her. By the time she
had managed to get back to 29 Daventry Street, she was barely
coherent. Harriett had spent several hours listening to Babette
weep while she recounted Andrew’s many strengths and very few
weaknesses. By the time dawn had started to approach, Harriett had
wanted Mark’s arms around her with a desperation that had very
nearly sent her out into the middle of the night to knock on his
door. She wondered if it was a family trait.

Despite
having spent several hours crying with Babette, Harriett felt her
chin wobble. She didn’t say anything, but then didn’t need to. Mark
seemed to know what she wanted and swept her against him without a
word.

“
I am sorry,” she whispered in a voice that was soft and
filled with sadness.

“
I take it that you have spoken to her?” He was unsurprised
when Harriett nodded miserably.

“
She has broken things off, but is distraught. She really
loves him.”

“
Given how things have worked out with us, I can fully
sympathise.” He tipped her chin up and wondered if she understood
what he meant. “There is nothing worse than losing someone who
holds your heart.”

Harriett
nodded. “I know.” Her eyes met and held his. “He didn’t take it
very well,” she swallowed and tried to keep the tears at bay. She
had cried more in the last night than she had cried in all of her
life. “He warned her that she had a fight on her hands.”

“
We have to let them sort things out now. Babette is old
enough to make her own decisions.”

“
I know Mark, but I have never seen Babette cry as much as she
did last night. I have never seen her like that. I managed to
persuade her to go to bed at about four this morning, but she is
devastated. I don’t think she slept much.”

“
You didn’t either from the look of you.” He tenderly traced
the darkness beneath her eyes with his fingertip and rested his
head against hers. He couldn’t find the words to assure her that
everything was going to be alright. In reality, he had no idea if
they would be. “Why don’t you stop at home today? Do you have
someone who covers for you in the tea shop if you have to go
somewhere?”

Harriett
nodded. “Celeste, from two doors down comes in and helps. She is
the Calder’s eldest daughter.”

“
Let me see if she is available to help out today. Try to get
some sleep instead.”

Harriett
was torn. There was nothing she wanted more than to be able to
crawl back into bed and pull the covers up to her ears, but she
also wanted to stay exactly where she was, wrapped in Mark’s loving
arms. It was on the tip of her tongue to agree when loud thumps at
the kitchen door shattered the silence.

“
Andrew,” she whispered. She didn’t need to answer the door to
know it was him. The persistent force of the knocks would have
woken the dead. When Harriett made no move to answer, Mark slowly
eased away and disappeared into the kitchen.

“
Where is she? I want to speak to her.” From the look of him,
Andrew hadn’t slept at all either. His hair stood on end; his
clothes were crumpled and looked as though they had been worn the
day before too. A days’ growth of stubble lined his square jaw, but
all of that paled into insignificance against the fierceness in his
red-rimmed grey eyes.

“
She is here. I know she is here. Let me speak to her.” His
clipped tones were tinged with a weary desperation that made
Harriett’s heart flip. She moved to stand just behind
Mark.

“
Calm down, Andrew.” Mark turned to Harriett and lifted his
brows.

“
She didn’t sleep much last night. She is still in
bed.”

“
Let me see her,” the man’s eyes were desperate. “I just need
to talk to her.”

“
It’s alright,” Babette whispered from behind them. “Let him
in.” Calm resignation was written on her face and she took a seat,
from the look of her, before her legs gave in.

Andrew
burst into the house, his gaze locked on Babette. As soon as he was
inside, he stalked across the room in ground eating strides and
knelt beside her chair. Babette began to sob.

“
I am off to work, Babette.” Harriett grabbed Mark’s hand and
they left the house to the sound of quite murmuring.

They
remained silent as Mark escorted Harriett to the back of the tea
shop. He was glad that it wasn’t him and Harriett in that
situation. He could fully appreciate Andrew’s determination not to
lose the woman he loved.

“
Are you sure you are going to be alright? I am going to be
out at work all day. If you want somewhere where you can sit and
rest for a while, and get some sleep without being disturbed, you
can have my house keys and go and help yourself.” Personally, he
couldn’t think of anything nicer than Harriett being in his house
while he was at work. He wanted to be able to come home and find
her there, and couldn’t wait to turn his dreams into
reality.

“
Charles will wonder where I am,” Harriett sighed. Acceptance
of his offer was on the tip of her tongue but, at the last minute,
she sighed and reluctantly shook her head. “I would love to just
rest for a while, but I think it is best if Babette and Andrew are
able to resolve matters undisturbed. If I am at work, Charles won’t
think anything unusual is happening. If I stay at home, even your
home, he could go back to Daventry Street to see how I am. I don’t
really want him to turn up while Babette and Andrew are there.” She
kept her voice low for fear of Charles overhearing, but was
reassured but the almost continual clatter of pots and pans from
inside the kitchens.

Mark
nodded. When they were married, Harriett wouldn’t need to worry
about work. He earned enough to ensure that she could spend her
days running his house and raising their children. He tucked that
precious thought into a corner of his heart, and took advantage of
a darkened corner of the yard to draw her into his arms.

“
I have to interview our clairvoyants and Miss Smethwick.
After that, I will come back and pick you up so you can have the
afternoon off,” Mark persisted. He wished he could have the
afternoon off too, but that luxury was saved for Sundays; if he was
lucky and everyone behaved themselves.

“
I can’t. I have to arrange flowers in the church for Hugo’s
funeral at four o’clock today.” Harriett sighed deeply and looked
up at him. “Hugo doesn’t have any other family, so various people
in the village are involved in the arrangements for his funeral.”
She gave him a rueful smile, went on to her tiptoes and placed a
kiss on his lips.

His
smile quickly vanished. The immediate surge of anticipation that
swept through him made him groan and he immediately deepened the
kiss for several long moments before he reluctantly leaned back to
look down at her. “What time are you leaving here?”

“
Around two o’clock. I am going to do the flowers while others
are going to get the food for the wake sorted out.” Harriett
struggled to keep her mind on his question. Everything felt
strangely fuzzy and she wasn’t sure whether it was lack of sleep or
Mark’s kiss.

“
Then you are off to the funeral,” Mark sighed. “Will Charles
and Babette be there?”

Harriett
scrunched her nose up. “Charles definitely won’t be going. He is
making the cakes, but that is about as much input as anyone can
expect from him. Babette, and myself, will represent the
family.”

“
Where is the wake?” If there are no relatives to organise the
funeral, what were they going to do? He frowned at the thought of
half the village crammed into the tea shop.

“
In the village hall.”

Mark
nodded and looked down at her sternly. “Just make sure that you
don’t leave the wake until I get there.”

“
Babette will be with me, and we can make our own way home
together. With all of the policemen in the village at the moment, I
am sure that even we can manage a few hundred yards all by
ourselves,” Harriett argued. “You have your interviews to conduct
and the rest of the investigation to sort out. You don’t need to
traipse all the way over here to walk me such a short distance.
Really, I will be fine, but thank you for offering. It is lovely to
know that you are prepared to go to such great lengths to ensure
that I am safe.”

“
This is nothing to do with my duty as a Detective, Harriett.”
Mark warned as he stared down at her. “This is purely personal. You
are more important to me than any investigation. I want to keep you
safe on an entirely personal level. My eagerness to catch the
person, or persons, responsible for Minerva and Hugo’s deaths is
partly because it is my job, but mainly because I am not going to
have you, of all people, threatened by anyone. You are precious to
me, Harriett. From the first moment I walked into your sitting room
and saw you seated before the fire, my heart has been yours. I
cannot deny it. You are what is important in this investigation.
Not Madame Humphries, missing vases or strange spinsters. You.
There is nothing I won’t do; no lengths I won’t go to, in order to
keep you safe.”

“
Oh, Mark,” Harriett was lost for words. He had just laid a
golden pathway before her that led to a future that was so bright
with happiness she wasn’t sure whether it could possibly be real.
The memory of Babette’s angst last night was enough to prompt her
not to waste one precious moment with him.

“
I want this investigation finished, Mark. Catch the people
responsible for what is going on around here. I know you will. Then
we can set about our own future together. I want that more than
anything.” Her voice trailed off to a whisper.

Aware
that they were outside, in the cold, where anyone could overhear
them, Mark had to bite his lip to stop more declarations from
tumbling out. She had just handed him a gift; a very special,
precious gift. He opened his mouth to speak but whatever else he
was about to say was interrupted by the gate being swung open. If
Isaac was shocked at the sight of his boss wrapped around the
beautiful tea-shop lady, he didn’t show it. However, he did take
three times longer than was necessary to close the gate and coughed
loudly before he turned around.

“
Sorry,” he mumbled awkwardly, but made no attempt to approach
or leave them alone.

Harriett
smiled at him and then Mark. Their few precious moments were over
but, rather than having lost the moment, Harriett knew that their
discussion was merely postponed. His intent was written in the
slightly rueful smile he gave her. In full view of Isaac, Mark
dropped a kiss on her lips and held the kitchen door
open.

“
I will see you later.”

Harriett
smiled at him, her heart bursting with happiness. “You most
definitely will.”

Mark’s
grin was still there when he sauntered casually over to Isaac.
Nothing was going to spoil his happiness today, not even the
investigation. He clapped his colleague companionably on the
shoulder and steered him out of the small yard.

“
What do you have for me then?”

“
The file has come in on the missing clairvoyants Scotland
Yard have been after.”

“
And?” Mark’s voice suddenly turned cold and hard.

“
One and the same.”

“
Both of them?”

Isaac
nodded. “Madame Humphries is really Charlotte Fotheringill.
Humphries was her mother’s maiden name. Gertrude Hepplethwaite is
really Gertrude Hegedus. Now, she is Hungarian, although, her
father was when he was alive. Both of them hail from London and
both are wanted for fraud for claiming to be spiritual mediums,
clairvoyants, whatever. In London, it was Hegedus who took the
driving seat with Fotheringill, aka Humphries, acting as assistant.
The descriptions and drawings match the women in the cells. They
are wanted on two counts of fraudulently obtaining money by
deception, theft and attempted blackmail. One of the cases involved
a city banker who started to get ransom notes about his secret
affair after a séance that went wrong. It was eventually linked to
the two clairvoyants. Needless to say, both women are wanted
criminals. Scotland Yard have asked for them to be sent to them for
trial.”

“
They can have them.” Mark sighed with relief. Although he had
a lot of paperwork to do now, the urgency to identify the
fraudsters was removed. All he had to do now was identify which
thefts they were responsible for, and what Alan Bentwhistle was
involved in. For the time being at least, it meant that he didn’t
need to rush back to Great Tipton to interview them.

“
Any sign of either of them having any dead bodies linked to
their séances?” He was only half joking.

Isaac
sighed. “Nope. I am afraid not. They are fraudsters and thieves. In
London, Hegedus was caught in an upstairs room of a customer’s
house with her hand in the jewellery box. She escaped out of the
window and, while everyone was giving chase, Fotheringill, aka
Humphries, slipped away.”