The Dark Enquiry (10 page)

“Perhaps one of Lady Mortlake’s?” Brisbane suggested.

Plum gave a nod. “I suppose Lady Mortlake herself might have done the deed. She came to the marriage with nothing, and if he is ruined, their sons’ inheritance will be lost. I suspect his losses must have been greater than he let on.” I quirked a brow at him and he explained. “Gaming tables. Mortlake favours large bets on losing hands. He’s an exceptionally poor player, but he does love to gamble.”

I sniffed some satisfaction in his demeanour. “You played with him, and won, I would wager.”

He gave me a slow, lazy smile that I would have sworn he learnt from Brisbane. “Rather a lot, as it happens. I suppose it was the insurance company’s money.”

“Which they will want back as soon as they discover the emeralds are returned, unless Lord Mortlake means to keep it secret,” I surmised.

“Not a chance,” Plum related proudly. “I handed them back to him in the middle of the ballroom. Lady Mortlake even presented me with a token of her gratitude in the form of a kiss upon the cheek.”

I seized the opportunity to needle him a little. “And Lady Felicity? Was she suitably impressed?”

He curled a lip. “She missed it entirely. I saw her for five minutes when I first arrived and then she took to her bed with a sick headache. She never made it down to the ball at all, although she did thank me quite handsomely this morning.”

“You kissed her!” I crowed.

The blush deepened to almost apoplectic levels. “I am a gentleman,” he reminded me with some heat. “I would never impugn a lady’s reputation by speaking of such things.”

I waved a hand. “Nevertheless, you kissed her. And enjoyed it, unless I am mistaken.”

“Julia Desdemona, shut your mouth,” he said through gritted teeth.

Brisbane knew better than to interfere in our family quarrels. He occupied himself with his penknife whilst we squabbled.

“If you had such a lovely time with the lady, why are you so put out with me?” I enquired. “I was not even present.”

“Precisely. And your absence was extremely difficult to explain—difficult to the point of awkwardness. The Mortlakes think we are quite uncivil.”

“But surely you must have struck a point in our favour with the return of the emeralds.”

Plum’s hands were fisted at his sides. “Not enough to undo the damage of your appalling rudeness in not showing up for the house party.”

“Except with Lady Felicity. She must not have minded,” I said sweetly. Plum started forward until Brisbane rose smoothly to his feet. He said nothing, but the mere fact that he had seen fit to rise stopped Plum in his tracks.

“How you can endure her is beyond me.” Plum pointed a finger at me. He could turn nasty more quickly than any of my brothers, but I was genuinely happy for him. He had suffered too long at the hands of an unrequited passion. He deserved a little happiness, although it seemed to me he would have his hands full, convincing the Mortlakes to accept him as a suitor to Lady Felicity.

“She has her redeeming qualities,” Brisbane assured him.

I bristled. “Redeeming qualities indeed! Back to the matter at hand. What will become of the Mortlakes now?”

“Ruination,” Brisbane guessed, resuming his chair. “Mortlake will have to return the funds to the insurance company or be charged with fraud.”

“But he does not have the money, not if he used it to settle his gaming debts,” I argued. “And he cannot sell the estate. It is entailed with the title.”

“He has properties in town. He will see nothing like their true worth if he means to sell quickly, but he has enough to cover his losses,” Brisbane explained.

“They will be ruined socially,” Plum said, sinking into the chair next to mine. He clutched at his hair. “I did not think. When I gave those jewels back to him, I did not imagine I would be the instrument of ruin for his entire family. They will be driven from society.”

“There, there,” I soothed, patting his arm. “We will think of something.”

Brisbane slanted me a curious look. “What precisely will we think of?”

“Some way to restore the Mortlake reputation.”

“Julia, there is no way to recover it,” Plum argued. “I handed back the jewels in the most public way. The insurers will hear of it, and Lord Mortlake will be forced to put his town properties up for sale to cover the payment. Society will speculate and put the worst possible construction upon the matter. They will whisper and gossip and chatter about Lord Mortlake, and his family will be disgraced.”

Before I could respond, there came a tap at the door and Mrs. Lawson entered, brimming with disapproval. She ignored me and went straight to Brisbane.

“A lady to see you, sir. Here is her card.”

She handed over the calling card and Brisbane’s brows rose at the sight of it. “Indeed? Send her up, please. And I think the lady might like tea.”

Mrs. Lawson bustled out, pursing her lips, but as soon as Brisbane passed me the calling card I understood her displeasure. Mrs. Lawson never liked it when unmarried ladies called upon Brisbane without an escort. She thought it indecent.

I handed the card to Plum. “It seems you will have a chance to apologise to the lady herself,” I observed.

His colour rose. “Lady Felicity is here?” Unconsciously he smoothed his turquoise striped waistcoat and shot his cuffs.

A moment later, Felicity entered wearing a pale blue costume of last year’s mode. It might have made a charming effect were it not for the furrow upon her white brow. She looked distracted, and at the sight of Plum her colour rose.

“Mr. March! I did not know for certain that you would be here. I am so glad,” she burst out. Then, recovering herself, she bit her lip prettily. “I mean, Mr. Brisbane, thank you for seeing me without prior arrangement. Lady Julia, how nice to see you again. It has been quite a long time, I think.”

Brisbane, who had risen from behind his desk, bowed from the neck, and I went to shake her hand. “Lady Felicity, what an unexpected pleasure. Do sit. Brisbane has ordered tea, and we can have a nice chat whilst we wait.”

Plum had started forward to shake hands, but then thought better of it, and resumed his chair with a little less than his usual grace.

Felicity took the chair next to his and perched on the edge, twisting a handkerchief in her gloved hands. On a good day, Felicity’s looks might have been described as arresting. This was not a good day. She was blonde, but darkly so, with sooty lashes and brows framing startling blue eyes. Her skin was good, but she had the sort of pale complexion that could look sickly if she were tired or worried, both of which appeared to be the case at present. There were soft violet shadows under her eyes, but the blue gaze was steady and unflinching as she looked from my husband to my brother.

“I have come to thank you,” she said simply.

Brisbane quirked a brow. “Indeed?”

If Plum was thinking of the rather more intimate demonstration of her gratitude she had given him, he was gentleman enough not to betray it.

“Yes,” she went on earnestly, collecting me with her gaze. “You see, I have been very worried about Father. It is no secret that we have not got along very well since Mama died,” she said, her expression touched with wistfulness. “The new Lady Mortlake was my governess when Mama was alive. He married her within the year, and I am afraid I was not as understanding as I ought to have been. And then when the boys came along,” she broke off, giving a hard sniff, and I felt my heart go out to her. To have lost her mother would have been difficult enough; to be thrust into the heart of her father’s new family would have been unendurable.

She touched her nose with her handkerchief and went on. “The match has not always been a happy one. They put up a good front in public, and Father is very glad to have an heir at last,” she added with a self-deprecating little smile, “but he is unhappy. I can see it. And it breaks my heart. I wish that he could confide in me, but it is too much to ask. So we seldom speak, and when we do, it always seems to end in cross words.”

I could not imagine such a thing. My own father was the most maddening man I had ever met, but I could not imagine any quarrel so great it would divide us.

Lady Felicity went on. “The unhappiness in his marriage causes him to gamble—with disastrous results. There is very little money left, and Father is always haring off on schemes to restore the family fortunes. The trouble is that his hands are tied by the entailment. He cannot sell the house or the jewels or the paintings, nothing of real value. I fear he struck upon this latest bit of foolishness out of desperation, and I am so very grateful to you, to you both,” she said, darting a glance from Brisbane to Plum, “that the scandal of it will not become public.”

Doubt shaded her voice, and I realised the real reason for her visit. She might have intended to thank Brisbane and Plum, but she also craved reassurance that her father would not be made a laughingstock. She wanted to secure our discretion, and on this point, I hastened to reassure her.

“Be at ease, Lady Felicity. No one will know of what transpired. I presume the other guests merely thought the emeralds mislaid?”

“Yes,” she said. “They were very happy the emeralds had been found. I do not think they guessed for a moment that Father had been so foolish.”

“Then all will soon be forgot,” I promised her.

“Not entirely,” Brisbane put in softly.

Lady Felicity’s head jerked up as if he had struck her. “What do you mean?”

His voice was deliberately gentle, but there was no soft way to deliver the blow. “We were discussing this very point when you arrived, Lady Felicity. It will soon become apparent that your father has lost his fortune. It simply will not be possible for him to conceal it.”

She looked from him to me, to Plum, and back again, the colour ebbing slowly from her face. “Ruin,” she murmured. “There can be no hope for any of us. The boys will have no education and I will have no dowry.”

“Something must be done,” Plum said with surprising fierceness.

“What?” she demanded, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “How will the boys manage if they are never properly educated? And what man will have me with no money?”

The demand hovered sharply in the air between them, and I thought of our youngest brother’s impetuous proposal of marriage to a girl he barely knew. It had been rejected, mercifully, but if Plum proved equally irrational, Lady Felicity might well accept him. I held my breath as Plum spoke.

“Something must be done,” he murmured again.

Lady Felicity looked away quickly, embarrassed, I think, and we fell silent for a moment as she collected herself.

“We were talking earlier of the London properties,” I began. “Lord Mortlake does own rather a lot of real estate in town.”

“A public sale would expose the loss of his fortune,” Brisbane reminded me.

“Not if the properties are sold privately,” I corrected.

Brisbane canted his head at me. “Come again?”

I folded my hands in my lap. “It is very simple, my love. You are responsible for Lord Mortlake’s ruin.”

“I?” He fairly choked upon the word, and Felicity gasped aloud.

“You,” I repeated with some firmness. “Plum is in your employ and was acting as your agent when he discovered the emeralds and presented them publicly to Lord Mortlake.”

“That is entirely beside the point,” Brisbane began, but I carried on as if I had not heard him.

“What Lord Mortlake did was very wrong. But his entire family should not be made to pay for it. Lady Mortlake has a pack of young sons, whose inheritance must not be stripped away from them. And Lady Felicity must have her marriage portion. Surely you do not wish to be responsible for the ruination of an entire family of quite innocent and very nice people?”

Felicity put up her hands. “No, really, Lady Julia! They were simply acting for the best, and I am grateful. How much worse would this affair be if Father were prosecuted for defrauding the insurers? You must not lay the blame at their feet.”

I smiled at her. “Do not trouble yourself, my dear. They must accept that there are consequences to their actions.”

Brisbane was shaking his head, dazed. “This cannot possibly be made to be my fault.”

“Yours and Plum’s,” I corrected. “He ought to have had more discretion than to hand over the jewels so indiscreetly.” I shot my brother a repressive look. “Really, Plum. What were you thinking?”

He gaped at me, then at Brisbane. “She cannot be serious.”

“You have known her longer than I,” Brisbane returned bitterly. “You ought to be accustomed to it by now.”

“Gentlemen,” I recalled them, “we were speaking of the Mortlakes. Now, Lord Mortlake has been very foolish indeed, but I think we all agree his family must not be made to pay the price for his silliness.”

“Silliness? Julia, the man has committed a serious crime,” Plum put in. He darted a look at Felicity and flushed painfully. She looked at the handkerchief in her hands and would not meet his gaze.

I waved a hand again. “We have all done stupid things from time to time,” I reminded him. “But luckily for Lord Mortlake, he has us to retrieve the situation.”

Brisbane levelled his gaze at me. “I know I will regret this, very likely for the rest of my life, but precisely
how
do you intend we should retrieve the situation?”

“We will buy Lord Mortlake’s London properties.”

Felicity jumped like a scalded cat and Plum choked, but Brisbane merely sat in perfect stillness.

Felicity recovered her wits first. “Lady Julia, you cannot mean it,” she said, just as Plum spluttered, “Julia, you are jesting.”

“Not a bit of it. The three of us will contribute the funds and we will purchase his properties privately. It is not a bad investment,” I added. “Most of them could be let for income with the exception of the Belgravia house. The family will have to remain there to avoid gossip. We might expect a peppercorn rent for it, just until Lord Mortlake manages to retrench his finances. The other properties we could sell at a tidy profit. Although,” I put in, frowning, “it occurs to me that Plum might like to keep the property in Golden Square. It is a very fine house and would suit him well should he choose to take a wife in due course.”