Midnight Masquerade (6 page)

“You’re not suggesting Bessler had anything to do with it!” she gasped. “He was at my side when the thief entered.”

“Where were you standing, exactly?”

“Very close to the doorway. We had been in the hall before, taking a walk, for of course I do not dance at my age. We went to the ballroom for the midnight festivities. Your mama, the peagoose, had nothing organized.”

“Who suggested the walk?”

“I did. Bessler suggested we return to the ballroom for the striking of twelve. If you mean to infer that Bessler arranged the theft, he would not be likely to have reminded me it was nearly twelve, and time for us to return. The thief would have had easy work of robbing me at a dark end of the hall, with no witnesses but Bessler.”

“That’s true.”

“Of course it is true. I know your reputation of playing at solving crimes, my lad, and I do not approve. It is not work for a gentleman. Forget that nonsense, and let Bow Street handle it. You will send off for Townsend this morning, of course.”

“Much as I should like to, the snow has continued all night, making it impossible.”

“Bother. You mean we are snowed in?”

“Precisely, but we must not despair. It also means your diamond is snowed in. Whoever took it cannot leave the premises. We shall find it.”

While he spoke, she ate greedily. When he stopped, she swallowed, said, “Hmph,” and prepared to set him down a peg. “We” indeed, as though he were the king. “Finding it is all well and good. Repaying me its value if it is not found is, of course, the proper thing to do, and I shall not offend you by any reluctance to accept the full price—thirty thousand pounds. You must own, it still leaves an unpleasantness to the visit. However, I’m quite sure Deirdre will not allow me to continue long at odds with her husband,” she finished with a sharp look to Belami.

He smiled, swallowing all his anger. When he spoke, his voice was as dulcet as ever. “How is Deirdre this morning?” he asked.

“What, you mean you haven’t been to see her? Strange behavior from a suitor! Why, she’ll take the notion you are setting up a flirtation with me!” She laughed merrily at this idea, revealing a full complement of yellow teeth.

“It’s a temptation,” he replied with a small but extremely winsome smile.

Breeding: there was nothing like it, she approved silently. Belami would be an unfaithful husband, but he would at least take the time and bother to conceal it from his wife. “My niece was dreadfully upset last night,” she invented. “She is a sensitive girl, not the brassy sort of chit too often foisted upon a gentleman. She felt it, your not making a point of being here.” She took a bite of egg and chewed carefully, for her molars were no longer so firmly anchored as they had once been. Even a piece of soft bread or egg could cause a bothersome wobble.

At least she did not say “How could you?” “Did you notice anything striking or unusual about the man who took your diamond?” he asked.

“He was about the size of you,” she answered with no particular emphasis. “He moved lightly, quickly—certainly not an old man. His hair looked dark under the stocking. Every inch of his body was covered, even his hands. He wore black pantaloons and black patent slippers, as nearly everyone at the ball did. Actually, Herr Bessler wore silk stockings and breeches. He continues the old customs. The thief was a boor. He wrenched the thing from my neck, leaving a bruise as big as my fist. It’s fortunate I wear high necks to my gowns. I don’t know how the ladies can stand the winter winds across their necks and shoulders. I can tell you nothing more I was too shocked.”

“A most regrettable incident. Once more, I offer my sincere apologies. I must go now. I hope you will be able to join us belowstairs today.”

“As to that,” she said, lying back with a comfortable sigh, “I am not at all sure I shall. It has taken its toll on this wreck of a body, but you might send Bessler to me later, in about an hour. He will read to me. You are going to see Deirdre now?” she asked in an imperative way.

“I expect she will be at breakfast by now,” he prevaricated, and left with a graceful bow, to descend to the breakfast room.

Deirdre was indeed at the table, though the empty plate before her indicated she had not bothered to order any breakfast. A fairly sleepless night had left its calling card on her face, in the form of half moons under her eyes, in a hazy opal shade of blue. Looking at her with this trace of dissipation, Belami was struck anew at how attractive the woman could be, if only she were not so full of rectitude.

Belami ignored Pronto, who was also at the table. He bowed and mumbled the absurdity of, “Good morning, ma’am. I hope you enjoyed a good night’s sleep.”

“Yes, a wonderful sleep,” she answered ironically, suppressing a yawn behind her fingers. “All forty-five minutes of it. Quite delightful.”

“I have been to see the duchess,” he said, thinking this at least would please the woman. His thinking automatically shifted from girl to woman, when there were blue circles beneath a woman’s eyes.

“That would account for the mood you are in.”

“We had an interesting talk,” he said, ignoring her taunt.

“That is good news. I trust she conveyed to you that any notion of an alliance between us is now over.”

“That was not the tenor of our talk. I said interesting, not satisfying, not pleasing, not what you and I could wish for. No, she informed me that she would not abuse my sensitivities by refusing cash reimbursement for the stolen jewel, and that this regrettable incident in no way hampers her plan for our marriage. Neither, I might add, did she indicate you had shown any wish to call off.”

“I could hardly discuss it with her when she was in a state of shock!”

“Eh?” Pronto asked, setting his cup in his saucer without quite smashing either vessel. His companions looked at him, then at each other, in surprise. Pronto’s beady eyes were focused on the lady; they were brimming with the deepest suspicion. “Insured!” he declared.

“We hoped this might ensure an end to the engagement.” Belami said.

“Hear, hear,” Deirdre agreed heartily.

“Eh?” Pronto demanded again. “Not the deuced engagement. The necklace—it was insured.”

“How very strange your aunt neglected to mention it,” Belami said, his head turning to stare at Deirdre. The news so cheered him that he picked up a fork and ate a bite of gammon, without once removing his accusing eyes from the lady.

She was annoyed with herself for being unable to halt the flush that rose up from her neck to engulf her face. “It’s true the necklace was insured,” she admitted.

Pronto went on to pinpoint the transaction more closely. “Bidwell, it was, mentioned it last night.”

“How would Bidwell know?” Belami asked.

“His uncle Carswell has the policy. I fancy Bidwell wasn’t half sorry to see the thing nabbed, though he’d have thought better of it by now.”

“Carswell, the Lloyd’s agent?” Belami asked.

“The same,” Pronto told him. Deirdre nodded her head in agreement.

“He’s Bidwell’s uncle, you say? It’s Carswell who will have to pay it out of his own pocket. The Lloyd’s agents are all independent dealers.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Pronto,” Deirdre said. “Bidwell is Carswell’s heir. Carswell has no one else to leave his fortune to. Why should Bidwell be glad his uncle had the policy?”

“Just what I meant. Said he’d have thought better of it by now. He’s the one will be out the thirty thousand in the long haul. Daresay he’s in the sullens this morning. Chirping merry enough last night, but he’d be down to earth by now.”

Belami listened, arranging and rearranging these facts to look for a meaningful pattern. “But Carswell isn’t an old man. Bidwell couldn’t look for anything in the way of an inheritance for a couple of decades.”

“Very true,” Pronto agreed, “but eventually . . .”

“Eventually he may not lose a sou,” Deirdre announced blandly.

Belami looked surprised. “Why, thank you, ma’am. I didn’t realize you had such confidence in my powers of solving the case.”

“That was not my meaning, Belami. The fact is, the insurance policy expired at midnight. It will be for the courts to decide whether Carswell is liable for it.”

“Why did your aunt let it lapse?” he asked.

“It was prohibitively expensive.”

“I see. Pockets to let, eh? Ten or so pounds a year was too steep for her. Well, well, this puts a new light on the matter.” There was some insinuation in his tone that Pronto could not fathom. Whatever it meant, Deirdre had pokered up like a ramrod. Her eyes were shooting sparks at Belami. Soon she arose from her seat and stood rigid, staring at him.

“Are you daring to suggest that my aunt acted in collusion with someone to have her necklace stolen?” she demanded.

“What a shocking thing for you to say, my dear,” Belami replied, rising languidly to his feet. He had some strange admixture of courtesy and bad manners that permitted him to say or imply the most monstrous things, but do it with all outward show of politeness. When a lady stood, he would not retain his seat, even if he was calling her a scoundrel. “Really, that is a most dangerous notion for you to be bruiting about. We did not hear the lady, Pronto.”

“I heard her. Ain’t deaf,” Pronto countered. “Her aunt colluded to pinch the glass herself, for the insurance money, then tried to weasel payment out of you as well. Dashed clever scheme. Old Charney is up to all the rigs, but we still don’t know who was wrapped up in the sheet and stocking. Wasn’t Knag, and that I do know. You never wore gloves when you was scaring the servants.”

“Why don’t we sit down and finish our breakfast?” Belami suggested pleasantly. How obliging of Pronto to say all those things civility prevented him from saying himself.

Deirdre thumped angrily back into her chair, while Belami resumed his in a more graceful fashion, gliding gently into it, as though wafted by a zephyr.

“This is utterly ridiculous. Preposterous!” Deirdre declared, her white hand thumping the table to reinforce her position. “My aunt would not wait till the very last minute to have done it, if it were her intention to claim insurance money. And why would she have arranged it to occur at a ball? To have it burgled from the London house, or while traveling in the carriage, or from her bedroom here would be much easier.”

“I see you have canvassed the options open to her,” Belami mentioned casually. “I expect the insurance companies are reluctant to insure jewels—so easy to lose or have stolen, in any of the ways you mentioned. I have heard of their refusing to honor claims, due to those suspicious circumstances. A jewel stolen, and seen to have been stolen by a roomful of witnesses, of course, is quite a different matter. It would be impossible to renege, I should think, without being hauled into court.”

“It would not be reneging if the policy had lapsed,” Deirdre fired back. “And it very likely had. The clock was striking twelve at the precise moment, the ugly old long-case clock in the hallway. It may have been a few minutes slow.”

“You mean fast, surely. And can you
possibly
be referring to my exquisite green lacquered clock with the painted panels, by Edward Moore, of Norwich?” Belami inquired, amazed at her description of this priceless objet d’art.

“I mean that
ugly
piece of merchandise with the balls and fins on top of it, like a Chinese pagoda!” she snapped back.

“The Edward Moore! She actually calls my Moore an ugly piece of merchandise,” he told Pronto, who sniffled and poured another cup of coffee.

“Was never fond if it myself,” Pronto admitted.

“You never claimed to have any taste. I expected better of Miss Gower. It keeps perfect time, by the by. I tend to the regulation of it myself, the balancing of the pendula—there are more than one—the oiling, and so on. It is a very precise clock. If it was chiming, then it was past midnight.”

“In that case you can hardly claim my aunt arranged the theft to profit from the insurance.”

“But I didn’t suggest it, my dear. It was you who first cast such a wicked aspersion on Her Grace. Downright ungrateful, I call it, after all she has done for you. And will do still upon her demise. You are her heiress,
n’est-ce pas
?”

“Now you’re saying
I
did it!”

“Not in the least. How you do jump about, from accusation to accusation, with no basis. I am merely pointing out that Her Grace would not live to enjoy much of the thirty thousand pounds, whereas you will have the benefit of it. You did not care for the necklace, if memory serves. A gaudy lump, I seem to remember hearing you call it.”

“
Ac
-tually I was in the ballroom when it was stolen,” she reminded him.

“I did not mean to suggest you worked alone. An accomplice of more or less my own size and height was required. You don’t suppose folks will take the notion we contrived it together, do you?” he asked, smiling at this whimsical idea. “No, impossible. No one would think me foolish enough to steal it when the policy had elapsed.”

“I doubt very much it would occur to anyone but you that
I
was involved,” she said. “It is known well enough, however, that
you
have suffered severe losses recently at the gaming tables.

“True. Very true.”

Pronto snorted into his collar. “Rubbish. Won a monkey at Whites t’other night. Never lost a guinea. Luckiest gambler I ever saw. Only put about he lost to sour old Char—Heh, heh.” He subsided into silence as he became aware he was being glared at.

“Pronto, dear boy,” Belami said, “would you be so terribly kind as to—ah, see if Mama is, ah, up yet?”

“Yes, Pronto, do see if Lady Belami is up yet, before you blurt out that His Lordship only pretended he was dipped, to prevent my aunt from forcing me to marry him,” Deirdre said, directing her speech over Pronto’s head to Belami.

“Well, I will see if Bertie’s up yet if you like,” Pronto answered amiably, “but it ain’t likely she is. Never does get up before noon.” He picked up a piece of toast and wandered from the room, muttering to himself. “Believe I put my foot in it. Didn’t mean any harm.”

As soon as he was gone, Belami directed a fierce, white-lipped look at Deirdre. “What do you mean, forcing you to marry me!”