Page 3 of A Measure of Menace

In my dim understanding of our justice system, a lord wasn’t tried at the Old Bailey like the rest of us. He was expected to stand before his peers in the House of Lords and hope he hadn’t made enough enemies among them to be condemned.

Even if he weren’t convicted, the shame of the earl standing trial would be a blow for his wife and daughter, yet another scandal Lady Cynthia would carry for the rest of her life. The Shires family had been through several terrible ones already.

Lord Clifford regarded me piteously. He must be desperate if he’d decided the best help he could find was his daughter’s cook and that cook’s beau.

I told myself to approach the problem in the calm and sensible way I would any troubles below stairs.

“Did you actually see this dead man?” I asked trying to keep my voice steady. “I believe not, as you have no idea how he was killed.”

“It is not that simple.” Lord Clifford regained some of his arrogant impatience. “I did visit Mobley earlier that day—this past Sunday, it was. I’d arranged the meeting with him, even though his shop is shut on Sundays, as though he’s a pious man.” He scoffed. “As I say, I owed him quite a sum, and I asked him to give me longer to fetch it for him. We argued—loudly. I stormed away, and I am afraid a number of people saw me. Hiram Mobley’s place of business is in the Strand. The road is quite busy, even on a Sunday, and the appearance of an earl in his carriage with his coat of arms is noticed.”

“You took your own carriage to meet with this insalubrious person?” I blurted before I could stop myself.

Lord Clifford blinked. “Of course. How else was I to move about Town? My coachman drove me here all the way from St. Albans. I saw no reason for him to put his feet up while I charged about in a hansom.”

“A hansom might have been more discreet, your lordship.”

“I was not trying to hide from anyone.” Lord Clifford shrugged. “I borrowed the money, fair and square, and I meant to pay it back. I thought I’d have plenty to give Mobley, well within the allotted time, but I’ve had rotten luck, is all.”

Lord Clifford often had rotten luck. “Did you lose it on a horse?” I asked.

His eyes widened. “On the gee-gees? No, no. Horses are notoriously unreliable unless one has an informant in the stables or can somehow have a sure winner nobbled. But that’s cruel to the beasts, so I stay away from it.”

My hands tightened in my lap. “Perhaps you should tell me exactly why you borrowed the money, your lordship.”

“I had to prove that I could put up my half, didn’t I?” Lord Clifford’s gaze willed me to tell him he’d been in the right. “He’d never have agreed if I hadn’t shown him the money. Let the dog see the rabbit, eh?”

“Who wouldn’t have agreed?” I asked in perplexity. “The bookmaker?”

“What bookmaker?” Lord Clifford was as bewildered as I was. “I never saw a bookmaker. I told you, this wasn’t about horses. Or any other sort of wager.”

“Then what on earth was it about?” I commanded in exasperation.

“Steamships, of course,” Lord Clifford answered, as though this was reasonable. “Investing in a company of them, specifically. One a friend owns. It was an excellent dodge, and I could not resist. But it went wrong when old Dougherty refused to commit to the full share. We had him on the hook—oh, so beautifully—and then he said he didn’t think steamships were a good investment after all. We’d doubled his first, smaller stake, but he refused to give us a larger one. He’d decided to put all his money in railroads through the wilds of Canada. Idiot. Someone is fleecing him good and proper.”

My hands tightened further as I sorted through his convoluted tale. “You are saying you borrowed money to convince this Mr. Dougherty to invest in a steamship company?”

Lord Clifford tapped the table with the flat of his fingers. “You have it, Mrs. Holloway. I met old Dougherty at one of my clubs. He is rolling in riches, is the man. A nabob. I wish I could have been a nabob rather than an earl. I’d quite enjoy all that money, and I don’t care much for what people think of me. I truly thought gaining a title would make me filthy rich and give my wife a bit of a lark, but it has not turned out the way I thought at all.” He ended on a sorrowful note.

“Why was it important for you to have cash?” I steered him back to the point. “If Mr. Dougherty was the one investing in the company, why did you need money?”

“Well, he didn’t know my friend Jacoby had set up the scheme, did he?” Lord Clifford’s expression softened into a self-satisfied one. “I didn’t let on I knew Jacoby at all. I suggested that both Dougherty and I begin with a small investment, as it was a good venture I’d heard about. An equal amount from both of us. I had to produce my share and show it to Dougherty, or he wouldn’t have gone through with the preliminary investment.”

I steeled myself. “What was the amount?”

“Ten thousand guineas.” Lord Clifford winced. “I owed fifteen on it by the time Mobley turned up his toes. Would have been even more, had he lived.”

“Fifteen thousand … ”

My dismay returned. The dead Mr. Mobley must have been an unscrupulous moneylender who charged exorbitant rates of interest. These sorts of men would lend to anyone, but they expected to be paid back on time and turned dangerous if they were not.

When I was a girl, a moneylender had set up shop around the corner from Bow Lane where I’d grown up. My mother had never let me walk past his place, as various ruffians the moneylender employed would lurk outside it. I reasoned that they’d not be interested in a skinny lass rushing by, as I could never possibly owe them money, but I’d heeded my mother’s warning.

“It would have been worth it and easy to repay,” Lord Clifford said mournfully. “If Dougherty hadn’t pulled out. He cheated us out of that money, blast the man.”

Or, Dougherty had tumbled to the fact that Lord Clifford and his friend were trying to swindle him and had prudently walked away.

“You said you’d doubled Mr. Dougherty’s investment,” I continued. “Which means your stake would have doubled as well, would it not? Couldn’t you have used that to pay back the moneylender?”

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