Charlotte Pitt took the letter and looked at the errand boy in some surprise. He gazed back with round, intelligent eyes. Was he waiting for a financial reward? She hoped not. She and Thomas had only recently moved from their previous house into this larger, airier one, with its extra bedroom and tiny garden, and it had taken all their resources.
"Will there be a reply, ma'am?" the boy said cheerfully, a trifle amused by her slowness. He was generally employed in a wealthier part of the city; people in these streets ran their own errands. But this was the sort of place he aspired to one day in the dim, adult future: a terraced house of his own with a clean step, curtains at the windows, a flower box or two, and a handsome woman to open the door and welcome him in at the end of the day.
"Oh," Charlotte breathed out in relief. "Just a moment." She tore the envelope, pulled out the single sheet of paper, and read:
12 Rutland Place, London. 23rd March, 1886.
My dear Charlotte,
A curious and most disturbing thing has happened here lately, and I would value your advice upon it. In fact, knowing your past skill and experience with things of tragic or criminal nature, perhaps even your help? Of course this is nothing like the unspeakable affairs you have unfortunately been drawn into before, in Paragon Walk, or that appalling business near Resurrection Row, thank heavens-simply a small theft.
But since the article I have lost is of great sentimental value to me, I am more than a little distressed over it, and most anxious to have it returned.
My dear, would you help me in this, at least with your advice? I know you have a maid now who can look after Jemima for you in your absence. If I send the carriage for you tomorrow about eleven o'clock, will you come and take luncheon with me, and we can talk over this wretched business? I do so look forward to seeing you.
Your loving mother, Caroline Ellison.
Charlotte folded the letter and looked back at the boy.
"If you wait just a moment I shall write a reply," she said with a little smile, and then, after a small interval, returned to hand him her acceptance.
"Thank you, ma'am." The boy nodded and scampered off. Apparently he had not expected more; his reward no doubt customarily came from the sender. Anyway, he was far too worldly wise not to know precisely who was worth how much, and who would or would not part with it.
Charlotte closed the door and went back along the corridor to the kitchen where her eighteen-month-old daughter Jemima was sitting in her crib chewing a pencil. Charlotte took it from her absentmindedly and handed her a colored brick instead.
"I've asked you not to give her pencils, Grade," she said to the little maid, who was peeling potatoes. "She doesn't know what they're for. She only eats them."
"Didn't know she had it, ma'am. She can reach ever so far between those bars. Leastways, it keeps her from getting into the coal scuttle or the stove."
There was an abacus of bright wooden beads set into the
railings of the crib, and Charlotte knelt down and rattled them lightly. Jemima was immediately attracted and stood up. Char shy;lotte began to count them out for her, and Jemima repeated the words, concentrating hard, her eyes going from the beads to Charlotte's face, waiting after each word for approval.
Charlotte was only half alert to Jemima. Most of her concentra shy;tion was on her mother. Her parents had accepted it extremely well when she had told them she was going to marry, of all things, a policeman! Edward had prevaricated a little and asked her very soberly if she was perfectly sure she knew what she was doing. But right from the start Caroline had understood that her most awkward daughter had found someone whom she loved, and the trials of such a radical drop in both social and financial status would be far less difficult for her than a politely arranged marriage to someone she did not love and who could not hold her interest or respect.
But in spite of their continued affection, it was most unlike Caroline to send for Charlotte over something as trivial as a petty theft. After all, such things did occur every so often. If it was a trinket, it was probably one of the servant girls borrowing it to wear for an evening out. It might well turn up again, if a few judicious hints were dropped. Caroline had had servants all her life; she ought to Be able to cope with such a matter without recourse to advice from anyone.
Still, Charlotte would go; it would be a pleasant day, and she had been through a time of hard work getting the house into the order she wished.
"I'm going out tomorrow, Grade," she said casually. "My mother has invited me to take luncheon with her. We can leave doing the landing curtains until the day after. You can look after Jemima and scrub this floor and the wooden cupboard in the corner. Get some good soap into it. It still smells odd to me."
"Yes, ma'am, and there'll be some laundry. And shall I take Jemima for a walk if it's fine?"
"Yes, please, that would be excellent." Charlotte stood up. If she was going to be out for most of tomorrow, then she had better get on with the bread this afternoon, and see what her best day dress looked like after hanging up in a wardrobe over the winter. Gracie was only fifteen, but she was a competent little thing and liked nothing better than caring for Jemima. Charlotte had al shy;ready told her that in six months' time there would be another baby to care for. And it was part of the terms of Gracie's employment that she should do the heavy laundry that another child would entail as well as the usual kitchen and household chores. Far from being daunted by the prospect, Gracie appeared to be positively excited. She came from a large family herself, and she missed the constant demanding and noisy companionship of children.
Pitt was tired when he came in from work a little before six. He had spent most of the day in the profitless pursuit of a couple of dragsmen, thieves who stole especially from carriages, and had ended up with nothing more for his exercise than half a dozen descriptions that did not match. An inspector of his experi shy;ence would not have been called to deal with the affair at all had not one of the victims been a gentleman of title who was loath to have anything to do with the police. The man had lost a gold pocket watch inherited from his father-in-law, and did not care to have to explain its absence.
Charlotte welcomed him with the same strange mixture of excitement and comfort she always felt at the sight of his untidy, skew-collared, rumple-coated figure. She hugged him for several long, close minutes, then presented him with hot soup and his dinner. She did not disturb him with so trivial a matter as her mother's mislaid item.
The following morning she stood in front of the cheval glass in her bedroom and adjusted the lace fichu at her neck to hide the place where she had taken off last year's collar. Then she put on her best cameo brooch. The effect was entirely satisfactory; she was three months with child, but there was not yet any observ shy;able change in her figure, and with the customary whalebone corseting that laced even the most recalcitrant waist into elegant curves-uncomfortable though it was for the more generously made and almost crippling for the plump-she looked as slender as ever. The dark green wool was becoming to the warmth of her complexion and the richness of her hair, and the fichu took away from the severeness of the dress, making it a little more feminine.
She did not wish Caroline, of all people, to think she had become dowdy.
The carriage came at eleven, and before half past it had crossed the city, trotted along the sedate length of Lincolnshire Road, and turned into the quiet, tree-lined elegance of Rutland Place. It stopped in front of the white portico of number 12, and the footman opened the door and handed Charlotte out onto the damp pavement.
"Thank you," she said without looking around, as if she were perfectly accustomed to it, as indeed she had been until only a few years ago.
The door opened before she reached it, and the butler appeared.
"Good morning, Miss Charlotte," he said, inclining his head a little.
"Good morning, Maddock." She smiled at him. Shp had known him since she was sixteen and he had first come as butler when her family lived in Cater Street, before the murders there during which she had met and married Pitt.
"Mrs. Ellison is in the withdrawing room, Miss Charlotte." Maddock moved easily just before her to push the door.
Inside, Caroline was standing in the middle of the room, a bright fire burning behind her against the chill spring, a bowl of daffodils spilling gold reflections all over the polished table. She was wearing a gown of pink peach, as soft as an evening sky, which must have cost her a month's dress allowance. There were not more than a dozen threads of gray in her dark hair. She stepped forward immediately.
"My dear, I'm so glad to see you* You look extremely well. Do come in and warm yourself. I don't know why spring is so cold. Everything looks marvelous, bursting with life, but the wind is like a blade. Thank you, Maddock. We'll take luncheon in about an hour."
"Yes, ma'am." He closed the door behind him, and Caroline put her arms round Charlotte and hugged her hard.
"You should come more often, Charlotte. I really do miss you. Emily is so busy these days with all her social circle, I hardly see her."
Charlotte tightened her arms round her for a moment, then stood back. Her younger sister Emily had married into the aristocracy and was enjoying every opportunity it afforded. Nei shy;ther of them spoke of her other sister, Sarah, who had died so dreadfully in Cater Street.
"Well, sit down, my dear." Caroline arranged herself.ele shy;gantly on the sofa and Charlotte sat opposite in the big chair. "How is Thomas?" Caroline asked.
"Very well, thank you. And Jemima." Charlotte dealt with all the expected questions. "And the house is very comfortable and my new maid is working out most satisfactorily." Caroline sighed with faint amusement. "You don't change, do you, Charlotte? You still speak your mind the minute you think it. You are about as subtle as a railway engine! I don't know what I would have done with you if you had not married Thomas Pitt!" Charlotte smiled broadly.
"You would still be shuffling me round endless polite and disgusting parties hoping to persuade some unfortunate young man's mother that I am really better than I sound!" "Charlotte! Please!" "What have you had stolen, Mama?"
"Oh dear! I simply can't imagine how you ever detect anything. You couldn't trick a policeman into telling you the time!"
"I shouldn't need to, Mama. Policemen are always perfectly willing to tell you the time, in the unlikely event they know it. I can be devious if I wish."
"Then you have changed since I ever knew you!" "What did you lose, Mama?"
Caroline's face changed, the laughter dying out of it. She hesitated as if trying to choose exactly the right words for something that was surely simple enough.
"A piece of jewelry," she began. "A small locket on a gold bow. It is not of especial value, of course. It's not very large, and I don't imagine it is solid gold for a moment! But it was very pretty. It had a little pearl set in the front, and of course it opened."
Charlotte voiced her first thoughts. "Do you not think one of the maids could have borrowed it, meaning to return it immediately, and forgotten?"
"My dear, don't you imagine I've thought of that?" Caroline's tone was more anxious than irritated. "But none of them had an evening off between the time I last saw it and when I missed it. And quite apart from that, I really don't believe any of them would. The kitchenmaid would have no opportunity-and she's only fourteen. I really don't think it would occur to her. The parlormaid"-she smiled a little bleakly-"is as handsome as most parlormaids are. I did not realize Maddock had such excellent taste in employing our staff! Nature has endowed her quite well enough not to need the assistance of stolen jewelry, with all its risks. And my own maid I trust absolutely. I've had Mary since we moved here, and she came from Lady Buxton, who'd known her since she was a child. She's the daughter of their cook. No." Her face creased in distress again. "I'm afraid it is some shy;one outside this house."
Charlotte tried the next avenue. "Are any of your maids courting? Do they have followers?"
Caroline's eyebrows rose. "Not so far as I know. Maddock is very strict. And certainly not inside the house, with access to my dressing room!"
"I suppose you've asked Maddock?"
"Of course I have! Charlotte, I'm perfectly capable of doing the obvious myself! If it were so simple, I should not have troubled you." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, shaking her head a little. "I'm sorry. It's just-the whole affair is so wretched! I can't bear to think one of my friends could have taken it, or someone in their households, and yet what else is there to think?"
Charlotte looked at her unhappy mother, her fingers knotted together in her lap, twisting her handkerchief until the lace threatened to tear. She understood the dilemma now. To institute inquiries, even to allow the loss to be known, would sow doubt among all her acquaintances. The whole of Rutland Place would imagine Caroline suspected them of theft. Old friendships would be ruined. Perhaps perfectly innocent servants would lose their jobs, or even their reputations. The rebounding unpleasantness would be like ripples in a pool, troubling and distorting everything.
"I would forget it, Mama," she said quickly, reaching to touch Caroline's hand. "The regaining of a locket would be far less valuable than avoiding all the pain inquiry would cause. If anyone asks, say the pin was loose and it must have fallen out. What did you wear it on?"
"The coat to my plum-colored outfit." "Then that's easy. It could have fallen anywhere-even in the street."
Caroline shook her head.
"The pin was excellent, and it had a chain with a small extra safety catch, which I always fastened as well!"
"For goodness' sake, you don't need to mention that-if anyone should ask, which they probably won't. Who gave it to you? Papa?"
Caroline's eyes moved slightly to look over Charlotte's shoul shy;der out the window at the spring sun dappling the laurel bush.
"No, I would explain it to him easily enough. It was your grandmama, for last Christmas, and you know what a precise memory she has when she chooses to!"
Charlotte had a peculiar feeling that some essence had eluded her, that she had heard something important and had failed to understand it.
"But Grandmama must have lost things herself," she said reasonably. "Explain to her before she misses it. She'll probably be a bit self-righteous, but that's not unbearable. She'll be that sometime or another anyway." She smiled. "This will only give her an excuse."
"Yes," Caroline said, blinking, but a certain tone in her voice belied any conviction.
Charlotte looked around the room, at the pale green curtains and soft carpet, the warm bowl of daffodils, the pictures on the walls, the piano in the corner that Sarah used to play, with the family photographs on it. Caroline was sitting on the edge of the sofa, as if she were in a strange place and were keeping herself ready to leave.
"What is it, Mama?" Charlotte asked a little sharply. "Why does this locket matter so much?"
Caroline looked down at her hands, avoiding Charlotte's eyes.
"I had a memento in it-of-of a quite personal nature. I
should feel most-embarrassed if it should fall into anyone else's
hands. A sentimental thing. I'm sure you can understand. It is not knowing who has it! Like having someone else read your letters."
Charlotte breathed out in relief. She did not know now what she had been afraid of, but suddenly her muscles relaxed and she felt a wave of warmth ripple through her. It was all so easy, now that she understood.
"For goodness' sake, why didn't you say so to begin with?" There was no point in suggesting the thief might not open it. The first thing any woman would do on finding a locket would be to look inside. "Perhaps that day you forgot to do up the safety clasp, and it really did fall off? I suppose you've looked thor shy;oughly in the carriage?"
"Oh yes, I did that immediately."
"When do you last remember it?"
"I went to an afternoon party at Ambrosine's-Ambrosine Charrington. She lives at number eighteen, a most charming person." Caroline smiled fleetingly. "You would like her. She is quite markedly eccentric."
Charlotte ignored the implication. At the moment the locket was more important.
"Indeed!" she said dryly. "In what way?"
Caroline looked up in surprise.
"Oh, she's perfectly respectable-in fact, more than respectable. Her grandfather was an earl, and her husband, Lovell Charrington, is a most notable man. Ambrosine herself was presented at Court when she came out. Of course, that was a long time ago, but she still has many connections."
"That doesn't sound very eccentric," Charlotte said skeptically, thinking that Caroline's view of eccentricity was probably quite different from her own.
"She likes to sing," Caroline explained. "And some of the oddest songs. I cannot imagine where she learned them. And she is extremely forgetful, even of things one would have thought any woman in Society would remember-such as who called in the last week or so, and who is related to whom. She sometimes makes quite startling mistakes."
Charlotte warmed to her immediately.
"Good for her. That must be most entertaining." She remem shy;bered endless afternoons before she was married when Caroline had taken her three daughters to meet the mothers of suitable young men, and they had all sat in overstuffed chairs drinking lukewarm tea, sizing each other up with regard to income, dress sense, complexion, and agreeability, while the girls wondered which callow young man they would be introduced to next, and which iron-eyed prospective mother-in-law would inspect them. She shivered at the recollection and thought of Pitt in his linoleum-floor office with its brown desk and files of papers; Pitt stalking in and out of alleys and tenements after forgers and dealers in stolen goods, and just occasionally walking the smarter streets after a safebreaker, or embezzler, or even a killer.
"Charlotte?" Caroline's voice recalled her to Rutland Place and the warm withdrawing room.
"Yes, Mama. Perhaps it would be better if you said nothing at all. After all, if it was stolen, the thief is hardly going to admit it, and anyone decent enough to return it to you would not have looked at what they would know is personal. And even if they did, they would not find it remarkable. After all, we all have private matters."
Caroline forced a smile, overlooking the fact that the thief would not even know it was hers without some natural investi shy;gation, which would be bound to include opening it to see the inscription.
"No, of course not." She stood up. "Now I'm sure it must be nearly time to eat. You look very well, my dear, but you mustn't neglect your health. Remember, you are eating not only for yourself!"
The meal was delicious and far more delicate than Charlotte would have had at home, where she tended to skimp on midday meals. She ate with enjoyment. Afterward they repaired to the garden for a short breath of air, and in the shelter of the walls it was very pleasant. A little before three o'clock they went back to the withdrawing room, and within half an hour received the first caller of the afternoon.
"Mrs. Spencer-Brown, ma'am," the parlormaid said formally. "Shall I tell her you are at home?"
"Yes, by all means," Caroline agreed quickly, then waited a moment until the girl left before she turned to Charlotte. "She lives opposite, at number eleven. Her husband is a terrible bore, but she is very lively. Pretty creature, in her.own way-"
The door opened again and the parlormaid ushered in the visitor. She was perhaps thirty-three or thirty-four, very slender with fine features, the longest, most graceful neck Charlotte had ever seen, and fair hair that was swept to the back of her head and piled in the latest fashion. She was dressed in ecru-colored lace.
"My dear Mina, how delightful to see you," Caroline said as easily as if no thought had troubled her all day. "How opportune you should call."
Mina turned immediately to Charlotte, her eyes bright.
"I don't believe you have met my daughter Mrs. Thomas Pitt." Caroline performed the awaited introductions. "Charlotte, my dear, this is my most excellent neighbor, Mrs. Spencer-Brown."
"How do you do, Mrs. Spencer-Brown." Charlotte inclined her head a little in something like half a curtsy, and Mina made the same gesture of recognition.
"I have been so interested to meet you," she said, looking Charlotte up and down, mentally taking note of everything she wore, from her slightly scuffed boots to the sleek styling of her hair, in order to assess the skill or otherwise of her maid, and thus the standard of her whole household. Charlotte was used to such judgments, and she met this one with unflickering coolness.
"How kind of you," she said, her eyes amused and frank. "I'm sure had I known of you a little more, I should have looked forward to our meeting just as much." She knew Caroline was regarding her anxiously, trying to get close enough to kick her under her skirts without being observed. Charlotte smiled even more candidly. "How fortunate Mama is to have such an agree shy;able neighbor. I hope you will stay and take tea with us?"
Mina had had every intention of staying, but was momentarily disconcerted to have the subject mentioned when she was hardly through the door.
"Why-why, thank you, that would be delightful, Mrs. Pitt." They all sat down, Mina opposite Charlotte where she could face her without appearing to stare. "I haven't seen you in Rutland Place before. Do you live far away?"
Charlotte was careful not to make Jemima an excuse. People in Mina's position were not obliged to care for their children themselves; there would be first a wet-nurse, then a child's nurse, then at five or six a nanny, and finally a governess or a tutor, and thus every possible need would be tended to.
"A little distance," she said composedly. "But one gets involved with one's own circle, you know?"
Caroline shut her eyes, and Charlotte heard her give the faintest of sighs.
Mina was temporarily at a loss. The reply had not elicited the information she had expected, nor yet led to another avenue of exploration.
"Yes," she said. "Naturally." She took a deep breath, — smoothed her skirts, and began again. "Of course we have had the pleasure of meeting your sister Lady Ashworth-a most charming person."
The implication was being made, very delicately, that if some shy;one of Emily's social distinction could find the time, then Char shy;lotte certainly ought to.
"I'm sure she must have enjoyed it." Charlotte knew quite well that Emily would have been bored to tears, but Emily had always been skilled at hiding her feelings; in fact, she seemed to have the entire family's share of tactfulness.
"I do hope so," Mina replied. "Does Mr. Pitt have interests in the city?"
"Yes," Charlotte said quite truthfully. "I imagine he is there at this moment."
Caroline slid a little down in her chair, as if she were pretend shy;ing she was absent.
Mina brightened. "Indeed! How sensible. An idle man can so quickly fall into unfortunate company, and end up wasting both his time and his substance, don't you think?"
"I have no doubt of it," Charlotte said, wondering what had prompted the remark.
"Although naturally the city has its pitfalls as well," Mina continued. "Indeed, some of our own neighbors here in the Place have the oddest of habits, with comings and goings in the city! But then, of course, young men are prone to do such things, and I suppose one must expect it of a certain sort. Family background always tells, you know-sooner or later!"
Charlotte had no idea what she was talking about.
Caroline sat up. "If you mean Inigo Charrington," she said with only the barest edge to her voice, although Charlotte no shy;ticed her ankles cross and her knees tighten as she deliberately kept her face smooth, "I believe he has friends in the city, and no doubt he cares to dine with them on occasion, or possibly go to the theater, or a concert."
Mina's eyebrows went up.
"Of course! One only hopes he has chosen wisely, and his friends are worthy of him. You didn't know poor Ottilie, did you?"
"No." Caroline shook her head.
Mina made a little face of sympathy. "The poor creature died the summer before you arrived, as I recall. She was so young, not more than twenty-two or twenty-three.",
Charlotte looked from one to the other of them, waiting for an explanation.
"Oh, you wouldn't know her," Mina said, seizing the chance. "She was Ambrosine Charrington's daughter-Inigo's sister. Really a most tragic affair altogether. They were away for a few weeks during the summer. Ottilie was in perfect health when they left-at least she seemed so. And then within a mere fortnight she was dead! Quite dreadful! We were all completely at a loss!"
"I'm so sorry." Charlotte meant it; the story of life cut short was suddenly sobering in the midst of all the silly chatter and games of social superiority. "How very painful-for her family, I mean."
Mina's slender fingers roamed over her skirt again, laying it even more smoothly over her knees.
"Actually, they have borne it with the greatest fortitude." Her fine eyebrows rose as if she were still surprised by it. "One cannot but admire them, most especially Ambrosine herself- that is, Mrs. Charrington-she has risen above it so magnificently. If one did not know of it for oneself, one would almost believe it had not happened at all. They never speak of her, you know!"
"No doubt the wound is still there," Charlotte answered. "One never forgets, no matter how brave one's face."
"Oh dear!" Mina crumpled. "I do hope I have not inadvertently said something distressing, my dear Mrs. Pitt? Nothing was further from my mind than to cause you some painful memory."
Charlotte smiled at her, pushing Sarah from her thoughts and hoping Caroline could do so too.
"I would never imagine that you might," she said quietly. "I expect everyone has suffered some loss or another. There cannot be a family in the land that has never had death rob them of someone."
Before Mina could.search for a courteous acceptance of this, the withdrawing-room door opened and a very elderly lady came in, her face creased with irritation, a fine lace shawl drawn round her shoulders, and her black boots polished like glass.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Spencer-Brown," she said curtly.
"Didn't know you were entertaining this afternoon, Caroline.
Cook said nothing at luncheon!" She looked at Charlotte, then took a step closer. "Good gracious! It's Charlotte!" She snorted
slightly. "Decided to come back into decent Society, have you?"
"Good afternoon, Grandmama." Charlotte stood up and offered her the most comfortable chair, which she herself had been occupying until that moment.
The old lady accepted it after rearranging the cushions and dusting the seat. She sat down, and Charlotte found herself a hard-backed chair.
"Better for you anyway." The old lady nodded. "Get a round back sitting in one of these at your age. Girls always sat up properly when I was young. Knew how to conduct ourselves then. None of this gadding about without chaperones, going to the theater, and the like! And electricity all over the place! It must be unhealthy. Goodness only knows what's in the air! Gas lamps are quite bad enough. If the good Lord had intended it to be light all night, He would have made the moon as bright as the sun."
Mina ignored her and turned to Charlotte with excitement. "Do you go to the theater alone, Mrs. Pitt? How thrilling! Do tell us, do you have adventures?"
Grandmama pulled out a handkerchief and blew her nose loudly. Charlotte hovered on the edge of pretending that she did do such a thing, to annoy her grandmother, then decided the embar shy;rassment it would cause Caroline was too great to balance the pleasure.
"No, no, I never have," she said with a touch of regret. "Is it adventurous?"
"Good gracious!" Mina looked startled. "I have no idea! One hears stories, of course, but-" Suddenly she giggled. "I should ask Mrs. Denbigh! She is just the sort of person who would have the courage to do it, if she wished."
"I daresay," Grandmama glowered at her. "But I have often thought that for all that she is a widow and ought to know her place better, Amaryllis Denbigh is no better than she should be! Caroline! Are we going to have tea this afternoon or sit here till dusk chattering dry?"
Caroline reached out and rang the bell.
"Of course we are, Mama. We were merely waiting until ybu joined us." Over the years she had grown accustomed to calling the woman "Mama," although she was in fact Edward's mother.
"Indeed," Grandmama said skeptically. "I hope there is some cake. I can't bear all that bread cook sends up. The woman has a mania for bread. They used to know how to make a decent cake when I kept servants. Trained them properly-that's what it all comes down to. Don't let them get away with so much-then you'll get cake when you want it!"
"I do get cake when I want it, Mama!" Caroline's temper was wearing thin. "And keeping a good staff these days is a lot harder than it used to be. Times change!"
"Not for the better!" Grandmama glared at Charlotte. She refrained from saying anything about respectable women who married into the police, of all things! But only because there was an outsider present, who, please God, knew nothing about it. If she did, next thing it would be all over the neighborhood! And then heaven knew what people would say, let alone what they would think!
"Not for the better," she said again. "Women working in offices like clerks when they ought to be in good domestic service. Whoever heard of such a thing? Who looks after their morals, I should like to know? There aren't any butlers in
offices. Not that there are many women, thank heaven! Women's place is in a house-either their own or, if they haven't one, somebody else's!"
Charlotte thought of several answers and held her tongue on all of them. The conversation degenerated into pleasantries about fashion and the weather, with only occasional references to other residents of Rutland Place, and Grandmama's dour comments upon them. They were almost finished when Edward came in, rubbing his hands a little from the cold.
"Why, Charlotte, my dear!" His face lit up with pleasure and surprise. "I had no idea you were calling or I would have come home sooner.'' She stood up and he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "You look extremely well."
"I am, thank you, Papa." She stepped back and he noticed Mina for the first time, her pale lace almost blending into the brocade of the sofa and its cushions.
"Mrs. Spencer-Brown, how pleasant to see you." He bowed. "Good afternoon, Mr. Ellison," she answered brightly, her eyes moving from Edward back to Charlotte, interested that he had not been expecting her. "You seem cold," she observed. "Do you care to sit next to the fire?" She moved her skirt to allow him more room on the sofa beside her.
He could not decline without discourtesy, and anyway he considered the spot nearest the fire to be his right. He sat down gingerly.
"Thank you. It does appear that the weather has changed. In fact, I fear it might rain."
"We can hardly expect better at this time of the year," Mina replied.
Caroline met Charlotte's eyes over the low table in a glance of helplessness, then reached for the bell to send for a fresh pot of tea for Edward, and some more cakes.
Edward received them with obvious appetite, and they all engaged in only the barest conversation for several minutes.
"Did you find that brooch you lost, my dear?" he said presently, head toward Caroline but his attention still on the cake.
Caroline colored very slightly. "Not yet, but I daresay it will turn up."
"Didn't know you'd lost anything!" Grandmama exclaimed. "You didn't tell me!"
"No reason why I should, Mama," Caroline replied, avoiding her eyes. "I'm quite sure if you had found it you would have mentioned it to me without my asking."
"What was it?" Grandmama was not going to let go so easily.
"How unfortunate!" Mina joined in. "I hope it was not valuable?"
"I've no doubt it will turn up!" Caroline replied with a note of increasing sharpness in her voice. Charlotte, glancing down, saw her hands twined in the handkerchief again, white where the tightness of the linen bit into her flesh.
"I expect you have mislaid it," she said with a smile she hoped did not look as artificial as it was. "It may be pinned to some garment you had forgotten you had worn."
"I do hope so," Mina said, shaking her head. Her dark blue eyes were enormous in her fragile face. "It is most distressing to have to say so, but, my dear, there have been a number of things-taken-in the Place recently!" She stopped and looked from one to another of them.
"Taken?" Edward said incredulously. "What on earth do you mean?"
"Taken," Mina repeated. "I hate to use a worse word."
"You mean stolen?" Grandmama demanded. "I told you! If you don't train your servants properly and run a house as it ought to be run, then this is the sort of thing you can expect! Sow a wind, and reap a whirlwind! I've always said so."
"It wasn't you who said that, Grandmama," Charlotte said tartly. "It's from the Book of Hosea, in the Bible."
"Don't be impertinent!" Grandmama snapped.
Edward seemed quite unaware of Caroline's distress or of Charlotte's attempt to close the subject.
"Did you say there have been other thefts?" he asked Mina.
"I'm afraid so. It's perfectly dreadful! Poor Ambrosine lost a most excellent gold chain, from her very own dressing table."
"Servants!" Grandmama snorted. "Whole class of servants is going down. I've said so for years! Nothing's been the same since Prince Albert died in '61. He was a man with standards! No wonder the poor Queen is in perpetual mourning-so should I be if my son behaved like the Prince of Wales." She snorted in outrage. "The whole country's heard of his goings-on!"
"And my husband lost an ornamental snuffbox with a crystal lid from our mantelshelf," Mina continued, ignoring her completely. "And poor Eloise Lagarde lost a silver buttonhook from her reticule, unfortunate child." She looked at the old lady candidly. "I cannot imagine any servant who had opportunity to take all those articles. I mean, how would someone else's ser shy;vant be in my house?"
Grandmama's eyebrows went up and her nostrils flared. "Then obviously we must have more than one dishonest servant in Rutland Place! The whole world is degenerating at a disastrous speed. Heaven only knows where it will all end."
"It will probably end with everyone finding what they have misplaced!" Charlotte said, standing up. "It has been most delightful meeting you, Mrs. Spencer-Brown. I do hope we shall have the opportunity to speak again, but since the afternoon is turning somewhat unpleasant, and it does indeed look like rain, I'm sure you will excuse me if I seek to return to my home before I am drenched."
Without waiting for a reply, she bent and gave her grandmother a peck on the cheek, her father a swift touch, and extended her arm to Caroline as if inviting her to accompany her at least as far as the door.
After rather startled murmurs of goodbye, Caroline took advan shy;tage of the opportunity. She was almost on Charlotte's heels as they came into the hall, and she shut the withdrawing room door behind them.
"Maddock!" Caroline called sharply. "Maddock!" He appeared. "Yes, ma'am. Shall I call the carriage for Miss Charlotte?"
"Yes, please. And, Maddock, have Polly close the curtains, please."
"It is still two hours at least until dark, ma'am," he said with slight surprise.
"Don't argue with me, Maddock!" Caroline took a breath and steadied herself. "The wind is rising and it will rain quite shortly. I prefer not to watch it. Please do as you are asked!"
"Yes, ma'am." He withdrew obediently, stiff-shouldered in correct and spotless black.
Charlotte turned to her. "Mama, why does this locket matter so much? And why do you want the curtains drawn at four o'clock in the afternoon?"
Caroline stared at her as if frozen.
Charlotte put out her hands and touched her mother gently. Caroline's body was stiff under the fine material of her dress.
She let out her breath slowly and stared past Charlotte toward the light coming through the hall windows,
"I'm not really sure-it sounds so hysterical-but I feel as if there were someone watching me-and-waiting!"
Charlotte did not know what to say. Caroline was right; it did sound hysterical.
"I know it's foolish," Caroline went on, hunching her shoul shy;ders and shivering a little although the hall was perfectly warm, "but I can't get rid of the sensation. I've told myself not to be so fanciful, that everyone else has far too much to do to be inter shy;ested in my comings and goings. But it's still there-the feeling that there are eyes, and a mind-a mind that knows-and waits!"
The idea was horrible.
"Waits for what?" Charlotte asked, trying to bring some rationality into it.
"I don't know! A mistake? Waits for me to make a mistake."
Charlotte felt a chill of real fear. This was unhealthy, even morbid. It carried a faint whiff of madness. If her mother was as overwrought as this, why on earth had Edward not noticed and called both her and Emily to do something? Even called a doctor! Certainly Grandmama was always watching and criticizing, but then she had done that for as long as Charlotte could remember, and no one had ever really minded before. She did it to everyone: to know better than anybody else was part of her satisfaction in living on when so many of her friends were dead.
Caroline shook herself. "I believe you'll get home before the rain. In fact, I don't think it's going to rain after all."
It was of total indifference to Charlotte whether it rained or even snowed.
"Do you know who took the locket and the other things, Mama?"
"No, of course not! What on earth makes you ask such a thing? I should hardly have asked you to help me in the matter if I already knew!"
"Why not? You might have wished to get it back without bringing in the police if it were a friend, or even a good servant of someone else."
"Well, I told you, Charlotte, I have no idea!" Suddenly Charlotte had a glimpse of the obvious, and wondered why she had been so blind as not to have seen it before.
"What is in the locket, Mama?" "In"-Caroline swallowed-"in the locket?" "Yes, Mama, what is in it?" She almost wished she had not asked. Caroline's face was white, and she stood perfectly still for several seconds. Outside, the carriage wheels rattled on the road and a horse snorted.
"A photograph," Caroline said at last. Charlotte looked at her. She heard her own voice almost against her will, sounding disembodied and remote. "Of whom?"
"A-friend. Just a friend. But I would rather it was not found by anyone else. They might misunderstand my feelings and cause me embarrassment, and even-" She stopped, and her eyes came up to meet Charlotte's at last.
"Even what, Mama?" Charlotte asked very softly. Maddock was back in the hall, standing with her cloak, and the footman was at the door.
"Even perhaps-a little pressure," Caroline whispered. Charlotte was used to ugly words, and ugly thoughts. Crime was part of Pitt's life, and she was too close to him not to share much of his pain, confusion, or pity. "You mean blackmail?" she asked. Caroline winced. "I suppose I do."
Charlotte put her arms around her and held her tightly for a moment. To Maddock and the footman it must have looked like an affectionate goodbye.
"Then we must find out where it is," she said almost under her breath. "And see that it does no harm. Don't worry! We'll manage." Then she raised her tone to normal and stepped back.
"Thank you for a most pleasant afternoon, Mama. I hope I shall come again sooner next time."
Caroline blinked and sniffed in a manner she would have abhorred, had she been aware of it.
"Thank you, my dear," she said. "Thank you so much."