Page 27 of Speculations in Sin

To their credit, they bore it well. Matthew, the oldest and a couple of years older than Grace, declared that his mother needn’t worry, he was perfectly capable of being the man of the house for a night or two. Jane, Grace’s age, said she was up to supervising the supper and closing up the house if Joanna wished to rest.

Joanna was in tears again, this time in gratitude for her family. The younger children were understandably anxious, but they held in their worries under the older ones’ gazes.

Grace stepped out the front door into the cold evening with me as I departed. “We’ll take care of Aunt Joanna, Mum,” she said. “You needn’t worry.”

“I will still try to return here tonight, even if I have to sleep on the sitting room sofa,” I promised. The bulky thing was rather uncomfortable, but there were no beds to spare in this tiny house. “It will be a pleasure to spend the night with you.”

Grace’s face lit, and I wished I could spend every night with her, and every day besides. However, I would not punishmyself for doing the best I could manage. That way led to despair, and despair never solved anything.

I pulled Grace into a tight embrace. We held each other on the doorstep, Grace clinging to me with a need she usually pretended to be too strong for.

At last, we released each other and said our good nights, me repeating that I’d try to be back. Grace slipped inside the house, surreptitiously wiping tears from her eyes.

I turned from the doorstep and found Inspector McGregor standing in the shadows a few yards from the house. His eyes glittered in the light of the lane’s single gas lamp, and his expression told me he’d been standing there for quite some time.

8

“Inspector,” I said when I found my breath. I tried to sound nonchalant, but my voice cracked. “What are you doing here? This is the City, not your patch.”

Inspector McGregor did not answer. I realized that standing and staring at him would accomplish nothing, and started off to Cheapside, as though his appearance hadn’t shaken me to the bone.

He fell into step with me, droplets of the icy rain shining on his greatcoat.

“City sometimes asks for the Met to help them, especially in a thorny case like this one,” Inspector McGregor said as he tramped along beside me, rain dripping from his hat. “Too many prominent men of business involved, too many connections to the titled and wealthy. I’m here to observe and assist, but the arrest and conviction is theirs.”

“And Scotland Yard sent you?” I could not hide my surprise. Inspector McGregor was a clever man, in spite of his surlydemeanor, but those at the Metropolitan Police office did not always see that.

“They did.” His answer was dry. “No other detective inspector wants to risk his job on this one.”

“You had no choice, then.”

“None whatsoever.” His hazel gaze cut through the darkness at me. “Your daughter lives with the family?”

I disguised my nervous start by adjusting my coat. He’d have deduced Grace was my daughter by the way I’d embraced her, even without her distinctGood night, Mumbefore she’d disappeared into the house. Inspector McGregor would not have to be a detective to understand the relationship.

“She does. Not much room for her in my kitchen.” I tried to keep my voice light. We’d reached Cheapside, and I halted at the corner, turning to him. “I would appreciate very much, Inspector, if you mentioned nothing of this to anyone at the Mount Street house.”

“They don’t know?” Inspector McGregor’s thick mustache moved, but I could not tell if with indignation, amusement, or commiseration.

“The fact that I have a child might cost me my post,” I said. “A post I can ill afford to lose.”

“You are lying to them, then?” His shrewd eyes pinned me.

I lifted my chin. “I am a widow.” This was more or less true. “But many mistresses prefer their servants to be unattached. I am not ashamed of Grace, but my employers might not be so understanding. So yes, I lied to them.”

“Mmph,” was his enlightening reply.

“If you must know all, Joanna Millburn is my greatest friend and looks after Grace as though she were her own. I assume you have come here to tell her about Sam?”

“Of Millburn’s arrest, yes.” Inspector McGregor glanced outinto the busy street of Cheapside, its lamps barely penetrating the rainy gloom. Coach lights sliced into the darkness, the carriages of the wealthy lit inside as well.

“And to question her about him, I am certain,” I said. “I will ask you, Inspector, to leave Joanna be tonight. This has been a great shock.”

“Learning that your husband is an embezzler and murderer?” The mustache moved again. “Yes, I imagine it must be.”

“Put that out of your head right now, please. Samuel Millburn never killed that clerk, nor did he steal from the bank. I know this.”

“That’s not what witnesses tell me.”

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