A Gentleman of Fortune (24 page)

She shook her head helplessly and tried to come at the business in a different way entirely. She imagined how it would all look to the jurymen. Here was Mrs Lansdale dead and the apothecary saying she had died of too much opium mixture. And it would seem that there were but three people who had had opportunity to administer it. There were Mr Lansdale and Miss Neville who might have introduced the fatal dose to the evening’s chocolate; and there was Mr Vane himself who might have administered it under the guise of the ‘usual draught’. But Miss Neville and Mr Vane, far from having anything to gain from the terrible act, could only be made the poorer by it: she by the loss of a comfortable home and he by the loss of a wealthy patient. Only Henry Lansdale had any motive for wishing the poor lady dead.

She found herself so extremely discontent with this conclusion that she could not help but wonder whether Mr Lomax was right and she had, almost without knowing it, determined upon exonerating Mr Lansdale…

‘I shall not apologise for disturbing you, Miss Kent,’ said a merry voice beside her, ‘for, by the look upon your face, I see that your thoughts are so unpleasant you ought to be disturbed.’

She looked up and saw Mr Lansdale himself making his bow and asking if he might sit with her a moment.

‘I have,’ he said as he sat down, ‘been seeking you in order to ask a very great favour. I have been to Mrs Beaumont’s house but found you both from home. Mrs Beaumont has, I understand, driven out to Brooke Manor, but the maid said that you had walked out and I hope you will forgive me for coming after you.’

‘Of course. And I am sure that both Flora and I will be happy to help you in any way we can.’

‘Thank you.’ He then said nothing for a while, gazing out across the busy scene. He had begun in his usual laughing way with all his usual determination to be serious about nothing. But now he had changed and his handsome face was more solemn than she had ever seen it before. A frown had gathered on his brow. ‘I am hoping,’ he said at last, ‘that you and Mrs Beaumont will be so kind as to perform the office of true friends to Miss Bevan.’

‘In what way do you wish us to show our friendship?’

‘Will you be so good as to persuade her…or, at least, to represent to her the wisdom of complying with my wishes – and marrying me immediately.’

Dido could only look the astonishment which she felt, the application had taken her so completely by surprise. He held up a hand. ‘Please, Miss Kent, do not begin upon the dangers – the impolicy – of a hasty marriage. I have had it all from her.’

‘I shall make no such argument, then. I shall only say that I can see no reason for such a step being taken while matters are in their present unfortunate state of uncertainty.’

Something of his usual smile returned. ‘Matters,’ he said, ‘are perhaps not quite so uncertain as you suppose. There is at least the certainty that I am to be brought to court. I am summoned to appear at the Quarter Sessions in just five days’ time. The paper was delivered to me yesterday.’

‘I am extremely sorry to hear it. It grieves me beyond measure.’

‘I am innocent,’ he said quietly. ‘And in that and in the will and justice of God, I will put my trust. However…’ And, although he had been speaking with great solemnity and feeling, the irrepressible smile was returned now. ‘However, when it comes to the justice of men… Well, I hope I shall not shock you when I say that I have not quite so much faith in our English laws not to suspect that they have sometimes hanged an innocent man – and may do so again.’

‘I sincerely hope… It will be my most fervent prayer that, in this case, they will not.’

‘Thank you. And now, as to my marriage…’

‘Forgive me, but I cannot understand what possible reason there can be for hurrying it on. It had better not take place… Not until after you are released from this dreadful suspicion. For I cannot help but feel that your marriage – the apparent self-interest and heartlessness of such a measure so soon after your aunt’s death – would greatly prejudice a jury against you.’

‘Miss Kent,’ he said, instantly solemn and fixing his eyes upon her face, ‘you may not be aware – there is, of course, no reason why you should be – that a man condemned for murder forfeits his estate.’

‘No,’ she admitted, ‘I did not know it.’

‘Consider it now then. Consider that if…if the laws of England should fail me, I will lose not only my own life but also the power to provide for Miss Bevan’s future comfort. I would be able to make no will. I could bequeath nothing to her.’

‘I see.’

‘Consider too her present poverty, her friendless state, and I am sure you will agree that a marriage – which would enable me to settle money upon her – is the best possible course of action. Jem is drawing up the settlement now. We could be married tomorrow and my mind would be at ease. Miss Kent,’ he said, turning pleading eyes upon her, ‘I hope I can face my own fate with fortitude; but to leave her alone and unprovided for is more than I can bear.’

Dido was so affected by this appeal that it was several minutes before she could speak; but when she was able to make a reply she could not do other than to promise her assistance in persuading the lady to an immediate marriage. ‘Though I rather doubt my arguments will have any effect. She is a very…determined young woman.’

‘She is indeed!’ he cried, his lively air immediately restored by her promise. ‘But I will be extremely grateful if you will make the attempt.’

‘And are you sure that a marriage can be accomplished within four days?’

 ‘Oh yes. It can certainly be accomplished.’

‘But what about the calling of banns?’

‘There need be no banns, Miss Kent.’ He stood up and made his bow. ‘For it just so happens that I have about me a special marriage licence!’

And, before Dido could consider all the meaning of this reply, he had made his final thanks and adieus and was walking away. She almost called him back, but then changed her mind and sat instead watching his retreating figure and thinking very hard indeed. It was one of those rare moments when human thought seems to transcend the limit of words and move with all the rapidity of a higher power.

As she watched him stride across the green – and throw a sixpence to the ragged little boy who was holding horses outside the inn – she was considering this special licence and everything that his possession of it might mean…

By the time he was hurrying past the bright
bow-window
of the trinket shop, she had come to an understanding of exactly what it meant…

And, before she lost sight of him in the crowd beyond the haberdasher’s, she was very busily reckoning up exactly the part he had played in his aunt’s death.

At last some of the tangled knots of this mystery were beginning to unravel.

‘It is all a matter of Trump Loy, Flora. It is nothing more.’

‘I beg your pardon?’ said Flora, though she had very little hope of understanding her cousin. When Dido was in such a mood as this, it was advisable not to attempt too much understanding – for it was liable to occasion headaches. And, just now, she would gladly forgo comprehension for the sake of only getting the french doors closed before the drawing room was quite filled with evening air. Henry Lansdale and Clara Neville were engaged to drink tea with them and she did not wish to receive them in a damp room.

But Dido was too restless to remain within doors and was gone out to pace about on the veranda while they awaited their guests. ‘It is Trump Loy,’ she repeated. ‘Or, if you will insist upon the French being spoken correctly, “trompe l’oeil” – an appearance of reality that is entirely false. You see, Flora, for the last few weeks I have been supposing that what I saw at Knaresborough House was either murder or accident. But, the fact is, it was neither.’

Flora decided that she must, after all, expose herself to the risk of headache and her drawing room to the risk of damp. She went to stand beside the door and watched the figure of her cousin moving ceaselessly in the slanting light of the setting sun. ‘Do you mean that Mr Vane is lying?’ she asked hopefully. ‘That it was not by taking too much medicine that Mrs Lansdale died?’

‘Oh no. I am sure he is telling the truth – as far as he knows it. But he too has been deceived – deceived into seeing something which is not there.’

‘Deceived by whom? Who has been lying?’

‘No one has been lying. That is the remarkable thing. There have certainly been truths left unsaid, but, since Miss Neville has confessed that she left the house on the night of her cousin’s death, I do not think I have detected lies in anyone. I have had before me all the details of the case – but the picture they have made has been false. False through and through! It is all a matter of perspective. A change of perspective can make those details form an entirely different picture. Do you understand?’

‘No! I am sure I do not!’

Dido sighed. ‘Well, I have told you about the marriage licence, have I not?’

‘Yes.’

‘That, you see, is what changed my perspective. Mr Lansdale made a joke of it – he laughed about just happening to have such a convenient document to hand. But I could not help but wonder why he should have it. Such a thing can only be obtained with some difficulty – and expense. He cannot have got it in a day. And only a day had passed since he was summoned to the court – and decided that he must marry Miss Bevan immediately.’

‘Why then, when did he get it?’

‘That is the great question! It is extremely unlikely that he would have risked getting it in the last few weeks while he has been under such suspicion. In short, I am sure that he has had it “to hand” since before his aunt’s death. It was, in fact, the document which Mr Morgan wished him to destroy.’

‘But why had he got it?’

‘Well, when I turned to that question, I remembered something which has been puzzling me ever since I recalled it in Mrs Midgely’s garden this morning. Do you remember, on the first occasion of our visiting Miss Prentice, she spoke of Mary going away to be a governess – and she said that she had had her gowns packed and her travelling dress prepared for a week.’

‘Yes, yes, I do remember it! That she should be so very… resigned! I was so moved by it!’

‘Yes,’ said Dido, ‘and so was I. But, you see, I was also moved a few days later when I heard her talking to you about going away. It was in the garden at Brooke, do you remember? “I knew that it must happen,” she said, “but I have been trying not to think about it and I find that it takes me quite by surprise.” And those – I think you will agree – do not sound at all like the words of a woman so resigned that she had already packed her boxes.’

‘Oh, well… How very strange! I had not thought to put the two things together.’

‘No, no more had I. But I have been remarkably stupid! There have been so many things which I have not put together – or simply not noticed at all.’ Dido’s restlessness was returned now and she must take another short turn upon the veranda before she could continue. ‘There were things that you told me, Flora, which I failed to see the importance of: things about Mrs Lansdale’s character. You told me that she enjoyed dramatic scenes and arguments, but that she also enjoyed forgiving her nephew; do you remember telling me that?’

‘Yes, but…’

‘And then there were the books she chose from the library,’ Dido hurried on, too impatient, too full of her own thoughts to listen long. ‘Or rather the books which her nephew chose for her. Novels and poems about love. And, do you remember what it was that he chose for her just before she died?
Romeo and Juliet
. He meant, you see, to wring her heart with that tale of unhappy lovers cruelly used by their friends.’

‘But why?’

‘Because, my dear cousin, at that time he was, in Mary’s words “working upon her”. He had a plan by which he meant to marry the woman he loved and secure his inheritance.’

‘A plan? Dido, you are not, I hope, going to say that he harmed his aunt. For I give you warning: I will not listen to you if you do.’

‘No, no, Henry Lansdale is not a murderer! The plan he had hit upon was entirely in keeping with his character: a merry, daring plan. Just such a plan as a man who can laugh even at his own danger might be expected to devise.’

‘And what was it that he meant to do?’

Dido came to the end of the terrace and seized her cousin’s hands. ‘Flora, we know that Miss Bevan was not prepared to go out as a governess. And yet, about two weeks ago, she had begun to make preparations for a journey. Miss Prentice had noticed those preparations – and entirely misunderstood their purpose. So what was this journey she was preparing for? Well, can you not guess?’

Flora only stared.

‘My dear cousin,’ cried Dido giving their joined hands a little shake, ‘she was preparing to elope!’

‘Elope?’ echoed Flora in bewilderment. ‘But I do not understand. Mrs Lansdale would have been so angry…’

‘Yes, but Mr Lansdale had decided that he must take the chance of her anger being followed by reconciliation. He had prepared her mind by reading to her the most heart-rending love story in literature. And I don’t doubt that he planned to make his own marriage appear as romantic as he could, and to throw himself upon his aunt’s mercy with a great many fine speeches and heroic words. He meant, in short, to make of it such a story, such an event, as she could not help but enjoy. This was his plan; and if it seems a desperate one, then we must remember that his situation was desperate too, for Mary’s guardian had determined upon her humiliation and what else could he do to save her?’

Flora smiled. ‘Yes,’ she cried, ‘I can imagine Mr Lansdale forming such a plan! And I believe it might well have succeeded. For of course he knew his aunt better than anyone else did. And so it is folly to suggest that he wished the poor lady dead, is it not? You must agree?’ She paused as she saw the look on her cousin’s face. ‘It is folly is it not, Dido? You do agree?’

Dido thought for a moment, then looked down at her hands which were still holding Flora’s. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I am quite sure that he did not wish her dead. I cannot help but have the highest regard for Mr Lansdale after our conversation of this afternoon. A man who is willing to further endanger his own life – as he must do by marrying before he faces the magistrate – a man who is prepared to run such a risk in order to provide for the woman he loves, deserves the highest respect. And such a man, I believe, may be excused for having made…an error of judgement. Even though that error has had dreadful consequences. At least he should not have to forfeit his life for it…’