The Bloodied Cravat (31 page)

Freddie sat staring at nothing, dressed regally in a peacock colour gown with a high upstanding collar split open in front. Hero and Georgicus woofed a greeting. Ulga was twisting her hands together near a window.

“Why have you come, George?” Freddie asked in a faint voice.

“To say goodbye.”

“What do you mean? Where are you going?” she said, rising from the sofa.

“Surely you know the answer to that. I am going to Bow Street to see Mr. Lavender. I shall confess to the murders of the Marquess of Kendrick and Roger Cranworth on the condition that Mr. Lavender gives me your letter.”

She flew across the room to me. “Have you run mad?”

“What else am I to do?”

“I do not know. But something else, surely!”

“Freddie, Mr. Lavender has your letter. He is a man who will stop at nothing to see justice done. There will be no choice in his mind but to turn the letter over to the Bow Street magistrate. And you know what that means. Quicker than a pickpocket in Seven Dials, your letter will be in the hands of your husband or Prinny. The scandal will overtake London faster than the fire of 1666. Your name will be ruined. They will blame me for the deaths, speculating that first Lord Kendrick, then Roger was blackmailing us.”

“George! I shall not allow you to do this. You are not thinking rationally! If you confess to these murders, they will hang you!”

“What alternative do you suggest?” I said, watching her carefully. “Do you know who actually committed the murders?”

“How I wish I did!”

“There is nothing else I can do to protect you, Freddie, other than turn myself over to Bow Street. I shall give them the excuse that I had an argument with Lord Kendrick over the way he treated his cousin with whom I had formed an attachment. I killed him in a moment of passion. Then, Roger Cranworth found out and I had to kill him too.”

She grasped my arms and gave me a little shake, tears running down her cheeks. “That is nonsense! No, you will not do it. I shall send for Mr. Lavender. After all, I hired him at the start. I will tell him that he is to return the letter to me.”

“He will never do that, and you know it, Freddie. You told me yourself you hired him because of his integrity. Two lives have been taken. Mr. Lavender will hold someone accountable no matter what the cost to you or me.”

Her throat clogged with tears, Freddie pleaded with me. “My dearest George, I know I have not been myself since the day I found out you had kept the letter. I have been cold to you, I know. I placed all the blame on you when, in truth, I am just as responsible for I was the one who wrote the letter! I have been angry with myself and extended that anger to you. Can you forgive me?”

“There is nothing to forgive, Freddie. I have missed our friendship, true, missed it more than I can say. You must know what you mean to me,” I said, stroking her cheek with my fingertip.

She grasped my hand and held it tight. “You never really lost my friendship. Never. I have been overcome with anxiety throughout this entire ordeal. Now you must stop this talk of confessions and stay with me today for I have missed you and want your company.”

“No, Freddie. I cannot.”

“George!”

“Come now, I have lived a life that has far exceeded my expectations. Look outside, at how beautiful the day is. I shall walk over to the British Museum and gaze upon the beautiful objects there once more before going to Bow Street. You know how I appreciate beauty,” I said.

She tried to chuckle, but only began to weep.

At that moment, the sound of footsteps and a loud masculine voice could be heard from outside the door. I dropped Freddie’s hand and turned in time to see his Royal Highness, the Duke of York filling the doorway.

Ulga rose and dropped into a deep curtsey. I bowed low. Freddie was all formality. “Sir, I did not expect you today.”

The tall, cold man that is the Royal Duke, second in line for the Crown, gazed down at his wife in a mockery of surprise. “Well, it is your birthday, Frederica. I couldn’t miss your special day.”

“While I dislike contradicting you, my birthday was last Wednesday.”

“Was it? Well, well. Good afternoon, Brummell. Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“No, indeed,” I said, barely able to keep my composure. “And I was just on the point of leaving.”

“Don’t let me stop you,” the Royal Duke said.

Freddie looked panicked.

Once I was past her husband I turned back and looked at her. I held a finger over my lips, then exited the room without a word.

The British Museum in Bloomsbury—an area of London I once deemed a foreign country—held a fair-sized crowd of people that afternoon. I strolled through the first floor, gazing at old books and manuscripts, then made my way through the section on natural history, and finally climbed the stairs to the second floor, which housed Roman antiquities.

I glanced at my pocketwatch, noting it was almost three, when finally I saw her. Oddly enough, I felt not a flicker of unease in the presence of this murderess.

“I knew you would come,” I told her.

“There vas nothing else I could do after vhat you said to her Royal Highness today. The strain has been unbearable, but your saying you vould confess to the murders was vhat broke me. Vould you really have gone to Bow Street and confessed?”

“I would have gone to Bow Street, yes, Ulga.”

“You love her too. Vhy did you scare her like that, telling her you vould sacrifice yourself for her?”

“Because I could think of no other way to make you come and tell me that you had killed Lord Kendrick and Roger Cranworth. Besides, I was not absolutely certain, and I have been known to be wrong before.”

“You vere not mistaken. I killed both of them. They had to die. They threatened my mistress. Do you realise how long I have known her Royal Highness?”

I offered her my arm, and we began to walk towards a display of Roman coins. “Tell me.”

“Since the day her mother gave birth to her. I vas her Majesty’s personal maidservant. Only vhen the princess vas to ved the Royal Duke from England did I become her maid.”

“Over fourteen years ago, then.”

She nodded. “Before I left Prussia, the old King made me promise to alvays take care of his daughter, to see that no harm came to her.”

“And you did your duty well for a long time. Then Lord Kendrick got hold of that letter. I am sorry I kept it, Ulga.”

“You should be!” she exclaimed, then lowered her voice. “I have been happy that her Royal Highness has had you for companionship. She is married to a man who does not love her. But sometimes I feared that she vould give in to the feelings she has for you and act imprudently.”

“That has never been the case. The one kiss you saw was the only time, and it was not supposed to happen. But why, Ulga, why did you feel you had to
kill
Lord Kendrick?”

“He vas an evil man! I heard in the neighbourhood that he had killed his own father. Once that man had her letter to you, I knew he vould never leave my little Duchess alone. I vas vorried that night and could not sleep. I looked out my vindow and saw him staggering near the dogs’ cemetery. He had been up all night drinking. Celebrating my mistress’s sorrow and planning how to use her.” Ulga’s eyes glittered. “I dressed, I don’t know vhat I thought I vould do. I vent outside and tried to talk to him, but he laughed at me. He said he had no use of another maid that night and that I vas too old anyway, as if I had offered myself to him.”

“He had forced himself on Cook’s niece.”

She nodded. “An evil man, I tell you. I hated him so much in that moment. I thrust my hands into the pocket of my dress and discovered the hair ornaments that Signor Tallarico had given the Royal Duchess. She had left them in the drawing room. I had picked them up and meant to put them away, but forgot.”

The Prussian maid was growing more agitated. I guided her over to a display of Herculanean armour. “I wager it happened very fast.”

“I hardly remember doing it. My hand grasped the sharp length of jet. I struck out at him. He made a terrible sound in his throat, then fell to the ground.”

I offered her my handkerchief. She efficiently dried her eyes. “The sun vas coming up. I tried to dig a grave. I had the thought in my mind that no one vould find him. I vent inside and put the other hair ornament back in the drawing room.”

“But then Phanor died and Old Dawe went out to the dogs’ cemetery.”

“Yes. I never meant to give Mr. Dawe such a shock.”

“No.” I drew a deep breath. God help me but I felt sorry for Ulga.

“I thought it vould all be over. But, the Royal Duchess hired Mr. Lavender, and you could not find the letter. Instead, that other evil man, Roger Cranworth, sends my mistress a message telling her he has something that belonged to her. He vas going to take up vhere the marquess left off!” Ulga’s face was the picture of outrage.

“So down in the servants’ hall at Syon House, you prepared a special drink for him. You waited outside the passageway for him to come by, looking for Freddie. When he passed you, you stepped forward and offered him a glass of wine.”

She cried silent tears. “Yes. I told him I vould take a message to the Royal Duchess about vhere to meet him. He said he had already sent a footman. But he took the glass and drank the contents in front of me. Stupid man. Only I turned out to be the stupid one. I thought he vould die immediately, but the poison did not vork right avay.” Ulga’s face twisted with horror. “My poor little lady, having that man die in front of her. I failed to protect her, Mr. Brummell. Even after everything I did, the vhispers had started. I have not kept my promise to the old King. How can I keep my lady from ruin now?”

“Listen to me, Ulga,” I said urgently, my eyes intent on hers. “This is what we are going to do. You must return to Prussia. I have money and will book you passage on the next ship. I have already written a letter for you to carry to Freddie’s brother, the new King of Prussia. I have told him what you have done, and that you acted in extraordinary circumstances to protect his sister. He will have to decide your fate. I have begged for his leniency.”

“But vhat vill you tell that Mr. Lavender?”

“I have written another letter. I copied Roger Cranworth’s handwriting. When Roger’s body was found, Victor Tallarico raised the question of suicide, giving me the idea. In the letter I wrote in Roger’s handwriting, Roger confesses to killing Lord Kendrick, then taking poison himself. He says he intends to enjoy one last evening of revelry then the poison will act and he will die. Everyone will assume he misjudged the timing of the drug.  Roger Cranworth is guilty of another murder, his accomplice, Neal, so I do not feel it wrong of me to make him take the blame for Lord Kendrick’s death.”

Ulga thought hard. “Vhat about the letter the Royal Duchess vrote you?”

“I obtained it after I left the Palace,” I lied, wanting to get her out of England without delay. I would have it soon enough.

Ulga breathed a sigh of intense relief. “So my Royal Duchess vill not have the scandal.”

“No.”

“Except from vhat I have done.”

“No, because you will go to Prussia and allow the King to decide your fate there. That is our best chance of keeping what you have done from being made public here in England. Now, I have brought paper and pen so you can write Freddie a letter. Tell her you have been dreadfully homesick and must return to Prussia. Tell her you could not bear to part with her in person.  Afterwards, I shall escort you straight to the docks.” I opened my coat to extract the needed items. My fingers were shaking, though, for despite my sympathy for Ulga, she was guilty of murder. I hoped I was doing the right thing by sending her back to Prussia where she would have to accept responsibility for her actions.

The paper and pen finally in hand, I looked up.

Ulga was no longer at my side.

Instead, she stood by one of the tall, open windows by a statue of Caesar.

Her eyes met mine. In a flash I knew her intentions.

“No!” I yelled, bumping a museum guard in my haste to get to Ulga, and bolting across the room.

Too late. Pretending to slip, Ulga let her body fall from the open window to the stone pavement below.

People screamed. I ran through the horrified museum-goers, down the stairs and outside where a crowd had already gathered around the older woman’s body. I pushed through to where she laid, a miniature of Freddie as a young girl clasped in one fist, my handkerchief in the other.

Slowly, with great regret, I removed the items from her hands.

The constables came in due course, along with a wagon to remove Ulga’s body. The museum guard told the constables how I had dashed across the room and tried to save the woman. When I identified Ulga as maid to the Royal Duchess, one of the constables said that, in that case, Mr. Lavender must be notified.

That would make my task of getting the letter easier, but how I wished it had not turned out this way.

* * * *

Standing at the back, private entrance to Mr. Lavender’s lodgings above Kint’s Chop House, I used my dog’s head stick to knock on the door. As I suspected and, indeed, hoped for, no one answered. Miss Lavender would be at her shelter at this time of day. I had thought Mr. Lavender would be somewhere going about Bow Street work. Now I knew he was most likely at the British Museum asking questions. He would seek me out soon enough.

You may be wondering why I was so sure that Mr. Lavender would have Freddie’s letter at his house. Well, my reasoning went like this: By now, the Scotsman had most likely discerned that Freddie’s letter had been the cause of two deaths. A wise man would not carry such a deadly piece of paper on his person. That left him with two choices, either Bow Street or his residence. Because of the depth of scandal that letter could cause, I was banking on the latter.

For someone who worked against criminals, Mr. Lavender had a remarkably flimsy lock on his door. Either that, or I was getting better at breaking into people’s rooms. Unfortunately I was not that good and ended up breaking off a bit of wood and a tiny piece of metal. Mr. Lavender would have to have the lock replaced.