Fallen Women (34 page)

The judge reached for the note, but Beret intercepted it, afraid her uncle would throw it into the fire.

“John?” Varina asked, but the man turned away from his wife, his shoulders slumped, and suddenly he looked very old.

“You didn’t know, then?” Beret asked her aunt.

Varina stared at Beret, bitterness in her eyes, and put her hands over her face and bowed her head. But she didn’t cry. She trailed her fingers across her cheeks and then removed her hands. “Of course I knew. I knew your uncle had a dalliance with her but not that there was more. She was a despicable young woman, not at all like you, Beret. I believe she even set her cap for your uncle, flattering him, touching him. I thought it was all innocence, but I came to know it was not. She was devoid of all moral fiber. I think you know that yourself now, Beret. Lillie had not one ounce of human decency. She seduced your uncle.”

Yes, Beret did know that. Had Lillie been the aggressor, or had it been their uncle? And did it matter? Beret wondered.

“It’s true, just as she seduced
your
husband,” Varina continued. “She bragged to me that she had enticed Teddy, had made him fall in love with her, just to spite you. She must have hated the women in our family to have betrayed us in such a manner.”

Beret trembled. “But why?”

Varina shook her head. “It was Lillie’s character.”

The judge put his hand on his wife’s shoulder, and she winced. “Please don’t touch me,” she said, her voice hard.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he pleaded. “I didn’t want to throw away everything we’d worked for, Varina, but there was the baby—”

“Don’t,” his wife said. “Don’t shame me in front of Beret.”

“I will make it up to you. I’ve already tried. I gave you the ring—”

“You think I can be bought?” Varina was indignant.

“No, of course not.” John sat down on a footstool and put his head in his hands. “You should not have brought this up, Beret. You should have kept your discovery to yourself.”

“The sin is not mine. I merely exposed it.” But oh, Beret thought, she wished she hadn’t discovered it. She closed her hand around the earrings, feeling the diamonds press into her flesh, and said, “We have got off the subject of the earrings. I would like to know how they came to be in this house.”

John and Varina exchanged a long look, and he said, “I would like to speak to my wife alone.”

“No, I won’t allow it,” Beret told him.

“
You
won’t
allow
it!” The judge stood then, fire in his voice. “
You
won’t allow me to speak to my wife in
my
house! Who do you think you are, young woman? Does it not occur to you that you are alone in this house with us? You threaten to expose me, to destroy everything your aunt and I have worked for now that we are on the threshold of our goal. You are the one who should be threatened.” Grasping the poker in his fist, he shook it at Beret as he rose and took a step toward her. “You will not stand in my way any more than your sister did. Be very careful, Beret, or you will end up like her. She deserved it.” The old man was enraged, his face red, as he raised the poker.

Beret took a step backward as her uncle advanced. “You can’t mean that?” she said. Then she remembered his telling Mick and her that sometimes killing couldn’t be helped, that death in a cause was justified. The blood drained from her face.

“Oh, I can.” He took another step toward her.

“John,” Varina said, reaching out a hand, although she did not stop him.

Beret stepped backward. She would not turn away from the judge. She had been unwise to confront her aunt and uncle in that silent house, but it had never occurred to her that she might be in danger. Now her uncle would smash the poker into her head and claim she had fallen down the stairs.

“You killed Lillie, then?” Beret took a step back, then another, until she was at the door to the library. “Do you deny it?”

The judge looked to his wife and sighed.

Beret glanced at her aunt, who stared, motionless, as if she could not interfere in what was happening. She did nothing to stop her husband. If the judge had killed Lillie, whom he loved, he would not hesitate to take Beret’s life. As soon as she was through the door, she would slam it and then run to her room and lock herself in. But then what would she do? She would have to figure it out then, maybe crawl out the window. Perhaps Nellie would come to her aid. Beret took a final step and reached for the door as the judge raised the poker higher, ready to strike. Then Beret felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned suddenly and found herself facing Mick. He pushed her behind him.

“I’ll take that, Judge Stanton,” Mick said evenly.

The judge was startled. He continued to move forward, but he loosened his grip on the poker, and it fell to the floor. He stared at the poker as if he didn’t recognize it. He looked at his hand, then at Beret, and he crumpled onto a chair.

“What are you doing here?” Beret whispered to Mick.

“We had an engagement, remember? When no one answered my knock, I let myself in. I heard you arguing and decided to listen.”

“Then you heard.”

“Enough.” Mick turned away from Beret and approached the judge. “It appears you murdered your niece, then took her earrings and put them in with your wife’s jewels. Is that not right, Judge Stanton?”

The judge looked up, not at Mick but at his wife, staring at her for a long time. He was silent a moment, as if considering the detective’s words. At last, he said, “I’m sorry, Varina. Forgive me.” He slowly turned to Mick. “I put the earrings into my wife’s jewelry box. You are right. I am the one who killed Lillie.”

Chapter 22

Varina sat stonelike in the chair in the library. She had not risen when Mick came into the room nor when he led Judge Stanton away but had only watched, mute, as she and her husband exchanged long looks, and then he was taken out of the room. The judge had not been placed in handcuffs. At least Mick had shown him that courtesy. Varina raised her hand in a useless gesture at the two men, who had already turned their backs and were leaving the room. Then she let her hand fall into her lap.

Beret, her arms wrapped around herself, for her blood had seemed to stop its coursing through her body, accompanied Mick and her uncle to the door. “I am sorry, Uncle John,” she began, but the judge held up his hand, and she was silent, knowing anything she could say was meaningless.

“I will stop to see you later,” Mick whispered as he led the judge down the steps. “Under the circumstances … you understand, of course, that the concert is off.”

“Of course.”

“Perhaps another time.”

Beret nodded. “I would like that.”

The men climbed into Mick’s buggy. Beret, who had followed them outside, saw a bouquet of tulips lying near the door. Mick must have brought them for her and dropped them when he heard loud voices in the house. It was hardly appropriate for him to present them to her now. She watched from the sidewalk as Mick picked up the reins, and flicked them on the horse’s back, then followed the buggy with her eyes until it disappeared. Returning to the house, she retrieved the bouquet and took it inside, setting it on the hall table.

Beret returned to the library, where her aunt appeared not to have moved, although the fire had been replenished. William must have done it. He would have returned, or perhaps he had been in the house all the time. Did he know what had occurred in that room? But of course he did. As Nellie had said, William knew everything. Beret sat down on the footstool next to her aunt and took the older woman’s cold hand in her own warmer ones. Her aunt did not look up. “I’m sorry I came here,” Beret said at last.

“Yes, I was afraid it would mean trouble. You never could let well enough alone. But I’m sorrier yet that your sister came. I should not have allowed it.”

“What else could you have done?”

Varina shook her head. “You threw her out. I had no other choice.”

“The fault is mine.”

Varina didn’t respond but gave a nod.

“I have had to accept that Lillie was not what I thought.”

Her aunt looked up at Beret then. “I have told you she was never as you thought.”

“Is that my fault, too? Did I pamper her too much? I never held her responsible for what she did. I always thought ‘poor motherless girl.’”

“She was always willful. I knew it the first time I saw her when she was not yet a year old. It was her lack of character. But you did not help her, Beret.” When Beret started to interrupt, Varina held up her hand. “I don’t blame you.”

“You are forgiving.”

Varina shook her head but said nothing, so Beret changed the subject. “May I fetch you something—a glass of sherry, tea? Nellie is here. She will fix it. A little tea would do us both good.”

“Yes,” Varina said without enthusiasm.

Relieved to have something to do if only for a moment, Beret rose and went into the kitchen. Nellie was there and Beret wondered where she had been when Mick arrested the judge, perhaps listening at that very kitchen door.

“Is it true?” Nellie asked.

“Is what true, Nellie?”

The servant looked around, anxious, and then she lowered her voice. “Mr. William said Judge Stanton had only gone out with Mr. McCauley, but I heard what happened. I was listening.” She looked away, abashed. “I didn’t mean to, but you was all talking loud. I would have had to plug my ears not to hear what Judge Stanton said.”

“Then you know as well as I do what transpired.” Beret thought a moment. “Did William hear it, too?”

“I don’t know. You see—” She stopped abruptly as the butler entered the kitchen and spoke her name.

“Hello, William,” Beret said quickly. “I have just asked Nellie if she would be kind enough to make tea for Mrs. Stanton. She was telling me it would not take long, because she had already built a fire to heat water. I would like her to bring it to us in the library, when it’s finished.”

“Very good,” William replied.

“And Nellie, I know it is your day off, but if you would be kind enough, I need your help in my room. I shall be leaving soon.”

Nellie stared at Beret, a question on her face, but it was William who replied, “Of course, madam.”

Without another look at Nellie, Beret left the kitchen and returned to the library.

Varina had lifted her feet onto the footstool and was leaning back with her eyes closed, and for a moment, Beret thought her aunt was sleeping. She picked up a throw, the very blanket Jonas had put over her, and started to cover her aunt, but Varina said, “I don’t want that.”

“You are awake, then. William will bring your tea. Nellie is making it. I’ve asked her to help me pack after she is finished in the kitchen. She can make arrangements for the train, or perhaps William will do it for me.”

“You’re leaving me?” Varina sat up and opened her eyes.

“I—”

“You’d leave me here alone to face this?” Varina asked.

“I thought that was what you wanted. You said—”

“That was before your uncle’s arrest. It is a horrid thing that’s happened. What would people think if you, too, deserted me before it is all sorted out? I cannot face this alone,” Varina pleaded. “You do want to do this for me, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Beret replied, hoping her reluctance did not show. The truth was she had been relieved at the idea of returning to New York. She did not want any more of the sordid business. She would be glad to get away from it, although she would be sorry to leave Mick, because she had enjoyed his company. She had even hoped that the outing they had planned for today might lead to a closer association, but that was impossible now that he had taken her uncle away. Beret held herself responsible for the judge’s arrest, so she had no choice but to stay if her aunt wished it. She was all her aunt had.

“You have come this far with your investigation, I would expect you to stay on to exonerate your uncle,” Varina said.

Beret stared at her aunt, wondering if the woman were in shock. Or perhaps she had heard incorrectly.

“You have a duty to clear him,” Varina said.

“But you heard him. He confessed. And he admitted he put the earrings into your jewel casket. We knew they were taken by whoever killed my sister.”

“He is my husband. I have lived with him for nearly twenty-five years. Don’t you think I’d know if he was capable of murder?”

“But the note—”

“It is a schoolboy note telling of a crush on a girl. It is not a note confessing a murder. You know yourself that what was between them was nothing more than an infatuation.”

Beret looked at her aunt incredulously. Did the woman believe what she was saying? Had her mind tricked her into thinking that her husband had had nothing more than a dalliance with Lillie? “He said he was the father of Lillie’s baby, a baby we know was conceived while Lillie lived in this house.”

Varina dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand. “Who can say whose child it was? There were other men in Lillie’s life. Why, your uncle and I have never had a child, and the fault could well be your uncle’s—an illness he had when he was a young man.”

Beret was dumbfounded at her aunt’s departure from common sense. “But why would he confess?”

“We know—the police know—that Jonas murdered Lillie. You must find out why John thought it necessary to protect Jonas. That is what the confession is about, of course.”

Beret raised her hands, palms upward, in a show of helplessness. “He confessed to save Jonas?”

“Now you understand.”

“But why? We know Jonas murdered the crib girl and attacked another.”

“I’m sure you will find it out, Beret. Now we must dress. I have a dinner engagement this evening. I’ll send William to say Judge Stanton was unexpectedly called away and that he will be unable to attend, but that you will come in his place. I’m afraid all this jockeying for the Senate seat is getting rather tiresome for you, but it must be done.”

Beret thought her aunt had taken leave of her senses. She cringed at the idea of accepting the social engagement.

Nellie knocked on the door then, carrying the tea tray and setting it on a table next to Varina. She poured the tea into the cups, adding cream and a lump of sugar to Varina’s cup, then handing it to her. Beret picked up her own cup and rose, kissing her aunt on the forehead and saying, “If you’ll excuse me, I want to lie down a moment, Aunt Varina. Nellie, would you come with me, please.”