Page 13 of The Hazardous Measure of Love
‘It is the way we deal with all the elements of an investigation,’ I explained to Kit. ‘If you can help me move the ornaments off that console table, we can prop them up there.’ Then I remembered that we weren’t in Luc’s old rooms in Albany and looked across to Lady Radcliffe. ‘If that is all right? We can move them into the study before dinner, but there is more room in here.’
‘Yes, of course. I am not certain there is a great deal I can contribute at the moment, so I will go and speak to the staff and discover what they know about Lord Tillingham’s household.’
She went out leaving Kit, who was still regarding me in a somewhat bemused manner. I went and moved a pair of silver candelabra and he pulled himself together and came to shift the marble statue of a lion from the middle of the narrow table set against the wall.
‘James said you come from America,’ he remarked, making it half a question.
‘Yes, Boston, although I have been over here for some time. The evidence boards are an idea I read about over there.’
‘And he said that you and Lord Radcliffe have solved several murders.’
‘One kidnapping, three murders, yes. With assistance from Garrick and James, of course.’
‘You do not find it distressing?’
‘Of course I do. But it is even more distressing to leave a murderer at large. Besides, I enjoy working with Luc.’
I could see that he knew we were lovers but was struggling with how not to show he knew. I expected that James had also told him that I was aware that the two of them were together. My lack of reaction to that would have gone against everything he expected from a lady.
‘I will go and find some paper from the study,’ I said, leaving him to come to terms with things.
As well as paper, some tacks and writing implements, I brought thePeerageand plonked it down with a thump on the table. ‘I need to sort out the Prescott clan,’ I told him. ‘There seem to be a great number of adult males involved and several who would have a motive.’
‘I’ll do that,’ Carola offered as Garrick came in with his arms full of boards.
After half an hour we had a timeline (vague), a list of what we knew about the crime (not much) and a board full of People Who Might Be Involved (too many).
Carola’s summary of the Prescott families made it rather clearer who stood to gain the title, at least. She read it out to us.
‘The fourth Viscount fathered five sons, one of whom, the second, Archibald, was a soldier. He does not appear to have married and was killed in India. The eldest, Clarence, the father of our murder victim, inherited from the fourth Viscount, only to die of a stoke aged fifty-six in 1806, which meanthisson Henry, “our” Viscount, had only held the title for a year.
‘The new Viscount will be the third son, Doctor Frederick, only fifty-two, but, from what you report, not likely to last the year. That leaves Adrien’s father Alexander as the heir apparent.’
‘No,’ Luc interjected. ‘Heir presumptive. If Frederick were to marry, he might father a son.’
‘But he is a sick man,’ James protested.
‘I am not aware that consumption results in impotence,’ Luc said wryly.
‘But who is going to marry a dying man – and an infectious one, at that?’ I asked.
Carola grimaced. ‘Many women would like to be a viscountess and would be prepared to overlook that. Assuming that he doesn’t marry, or does, but fathers no son, then Alexander is the heir and, after him, his eldest son Marcus.’ She peered closely at the tiny print of thePeerage. ‘Ah. He already has two infant sons. After Marcus there are three more sons, of whom Adrien is the youngest.’
‘And if there is some disaster that wipes them all out?’ I asked.
‘Horace, the youngest brother, aged forty-five, inherits. And he has three sons.’
‘Good grief,’ I said faintly. ‘No daughters anywhere?’
‘Apparently not,’ Carola said. ‘Henry VIII would have been green with envy.’
‘So, that gives the heirs likely to have a motive as Doctor Frederick, Mr Alexander and his eldest son, Marcus,’ I said. I pinned up Carola’s chart and then wrote out “Suspect” slips for the three men.
‘All Alexander’s sons would benefit, I imagine,’ James said. ‘Their father will control a vastly increased property and probably various manors which can be divided up amongst them, even if only on life tenancies.’
‘With his cousin’s death Adrien has lost his position,’ I said, chewing the end of my pencil. ‘He needs income and he wanted to make contacts and find influential sponsors for his own political career. His marriage to Miss McNeil depends upon it.’
‘If I were his father, knowing I would inherit in the near future, I would employ him as my secretary – he knows his way around all the business of the viscounty – and I would make sure Adrien had a good enough estate to ensure his marriage. He would be a fool not to want an alliance with a man as wealthy as McNeil for his son. And McNeil will view Adrien’s prospects very differently now.’
