Page 37 of Taken to the Grave
“Of course, milord.”
Hugh crossed a glance with Audrey. Comstock had returned from the Sanctuary. Bethany had not. And now, days later, Comstock was dead?
“Miss…?” Hugh waited for the maid to provide her name. It took a prolonged moment for her to catch on.
“Clark. Miss Lavinia Clark.” She curtseyed hastily again.
“Miss Clark, it’s imperative that you tell us everything you know about his outing with Miss Silas. Did he say anything about her when he returned that evening?”
The maid shook her head, the lace trim of her mob cap fluttering. “No, milord. He was in a terrible state. I thought for certain he was in a high dudgeon because the young lady had spurned him. I didn’t dare ask a thing.”
“And his death, Miss Clark. How did it occur?” Audrey asked.
The maid’s eyes welled again. Her chin quivered. “It doesn’t make any sense, milady. I’ve been tidying his bedchamber for a year, and I’ve never seen the pill box that I found next to him in bed.”
“Pill box? Do you mean to say he died of an opium overdose?” Audrey asked.
Miss Clark nodded. “They were painted gold,” she said, still shaking her head. “I never saw anything like it.”
Hugh had. The drug could be found in multiple forms. From the poppy seedpod itself, to powder, to liquid, to pills. The wealthy could afford gold-coated opium, while lower classes could spring for silver or uncoated.
“Did a physician come to determine if he’d overdosed?” Hugh asked.
“Just the constables, milord. They said they saw the gold on his tongue.”
“Bow Street?” If they learned Comstock was dead yesterday, why the devil had Sir Gabriel not yet alerted Hugh? “Do you recall the officers’ names?”
She shook her head. Hugh wasn’t surprised. She’d been through a shock, and what did the officers’ names matter to her?
“The body has been collected?” Audrey asked.
“Yes. Is Miss Silas asking after him? I swear, I meant no harm tricking her the way I did.”
It appeared Miss Clark did not know that Bethany was missing. Hugh decided to keep it that way. “Miss Silas mentioned a place that your employer may have gone. The Sanctuary.” Hugh watched for any alarm in her reaction, as Gwendolyn had showed. None came. “Do you know of it?”
“No, milord. Mr. Comstock never mentioned it.” She was being truthful; there were no facial twitches or pauses in her speech, no apprehension in her eyes.
“Could we speak to Mr. Comstock’s driver?” Audrey asked.
“There’s no driver,” she replied with a wince. “Mr. Comstock had to let Babson go a few months back.”
The advertisement for a parcel of land started to make sense. If he was in need of funds, releasing servants, and blackmailing a man to increase his daughter’s dowry, would be a way out of the River Tick.
“He took a hackney then,” Audrey said, and as Miss Clark nodded, she reached into her skirt pocket. “Did the carriage that delivered your employer home have this symbol on it?”
She unfolded a piece of paper and held it out to the maid. On it was a sketch of the inverted cross.
“I couldn’t know, milady. Mr. Comstock let himself in past midnight. I only heard him when he stumbled up the stairs.”
Audrey nodded and folded the paper. She started to slip it back into her pocket.
“May I see it again?” Miss Clark asked. Audrey gave it to her, and the maid chewed her bottom lip. “This looks like what’s on his favorite pair of sleeve buttons. He wore them often.”
Audrey brightened as she took back the paper. “These sleeve buttons…would you allow me to take a look at them?”
Hugh knew what she was up to. She had that eager, ravenous look in her eye while biting her lower lip in anticipation. She wanted to see something useful in them. Miss Clark grimaced, confused as to why the lady would want to look at a pair of cufflinks but nodded before going upstairs.
“Sir Oliver Pendleton also wore cufflinks with this symbol last night at the dinner I attended,” she said to him as soon as the maid was out of sight.
