Page 29 of Murder at Madame Chambon's
“Lady Victoria Lord Dunstable?”Lily was surprised.
“There was talk they were to be affianced, but nothing came of it.Lady Victoria turned her attention to taking the place of their poor mama after she died, looking after her young sister, and Lord Dunstable turned to pursuits less noble than looking for the perfect wife.That is, until there were whispers he was about to pledge his troth to an unknown.In fact, to that young lady over there.”Lady Dalrymple stabbed her finger in the direction of the dance floor and Lily saw with a start that she was referring to Evelina Tarot.
This turned to surprise when she saw Miss Tarot in the arms of Lord Bellingham.
“That’s the gel.An unknown from Paris, but no doubt with a very large dowry if Dunstable was sniffing around.He needed funds, don’t you know?”
“Where do you get your information, Lady Dalrymple?”Lily tried to appear as if she knew nothing and was genuinely curious.
“Nobody notices an old woman, especially when their tongues are loosened.I pick up a tidbit here and there and put things together.”Lady Dalrymple looked pleased with herself.Lily had wondered at her motivations in telling her all this and now suspected it was for the fact she had the satisfaction of telling the newspaper mogul’s wife what even her husband did not know.
“Goodness, what else have you gleaned—or suspect — about what might have happened to Lord Dunstable?It sounds like the metropolitan police should be talking to you.”
“I’m sure I wouldn’t tell them how to do their jobs.”Lady Dalrymple sniffed, though there was a satisfied gleam in her eye.“But I do know he died at a notorious house of assignation because I heard the gentlemen talk about who else was there that night.”After another suspenseful pause, she added, “And that included a gentleman who was mightily out of charity with our poor late lordship.”
“And which gentleman might that be?”Lily asked in as measured a tone as possible.
“I’m not sure the epithet gentleman necessarily applies.Captain Blackheath.A dark fellow indeed.Always scrounging a penny if he can’t borrow a pound.Mostly so he can spend it on the low pleasures he enjoys at Madame’s, though that’s as explicit as I’m prepared to be.”
Lily gazed at the dance floor while her thoughts ran in circles.Miss Tarot was now partnering Lord Miles.She’d set her sights high, then, and why not?If Lord Dunstable had been prepared to wed her, then she would naturally consider herself acceptable to any other equally highborn gentleman here.
She had the grace and beauty, together with a very large dowry, to ensure a successful season, but what would happen when investigations into her background were conducted as they surely would be?Lord Dunstable had discovered the truth, but her money had been more important.
With growing dismay, Lily registered the hope and innocence on the young girl’s face.What future did Miss Tarot have?Lily doubted her lineage would bear up to scrutiny a second time.
Yet, the poor girl had no idea.
Lady Dalrymple was still eyeing Miss Tarot with singular interest.“It is curious that so little is known of Miss Tarot’s family,” she said as if she’d been reading Lily’s thoughts.Her gaze had returned to the dance floor where Evelina Tarot was once again being partnered by Lord Bellingham.
Lady Dalrymple sniffed.“Mrs.Everard Fairfield believes her daughter, Cassandra, has caught the eye of Lord Bellingham on account of their unity of thought during a house party they attended some months ago.She plans on making enquiries and I suspect that, lovely though Miss Tarot is, her background may not bear up to scrutiny.The Tarots of Norfolk?Never heard of them!”she scoffed.“And Lord Bellingham?Why, he doesn’t need blunt.He needs a wife with impeccable credentials.Cassandra Fairfield has both.”
Lily’s concern increased.Scanning the room, her eye lit upon Mr.John Farnley, the eldest son of Sir Walter Farnley, a baronet from Norfolk with a crumbling manor house and five daughters.The old gentleman was more interested in ensuring his offspring were comfortably placed than illustriously connected, and his son, Mr.John Farnley, was mild-mannered and not too displeasing of face, though he did have a tendency towards monologues regarding his potato growing experiments.Perhaps that was due to shyness.The main criteria was that he was perfectly presentable and perhaps Lily should engineer an introduction.The sight of Miss Tarot in the arms of someone as patently unsuitable as Lord Bellingham made her feel ill with dismay.
Lady Dalrymple was right.Neither William, Lord Bellingham, nor Lord Miles, were gentlemen whose families would countenance a bride such as Miss Tarot when the truth came out.
She straightened, prepared to do battle on Miss Tarot’s account—not to facilitate a union with Lord Bellingham, which was unworkable.Speed was of the essence.She really had to avert a disaster before Evelina Tarot fell in love with either gentlemen.A series of judicious conversations with Sir Walter Farnley, who knew her husband quite well, might be a means of ensuring Miss Tarot’s past remained where it should be: in the past.
“What do I get for solving the mystery, Lady Bradden?”
Lily’s head snapped up as it always did when she was addressed by the name she had before she married Hamish.She far preferred people call her Mrs.McTavish however a lady who married ‘down’ retained her title after marriage in circles such as these.
“I am impressed, Lady Dalrymple,” she said, not willing to confess her mind had wandered after she’d dismissed Lord Blackheath as a likely suspect in Lord Dunstable’s murder.What did Lady Dalrymple know, after all?She was not there and everything she’d repeated was pure hearsay or had already been reported by some newspapers.
“So, you are accusing Captain Blackheath?”Lily to appear listening when she was more interested in watching Evelina.“What else have you heard?”
Lady Dalrymple sounded sly.“Ah, so you want to glean from me what your newspaper husband needs to sell his news sheet?It’s not just for the homilies and Christian advice that his subscribers snatch up their copies ofManners and Morals, is it?Why would we want to read about poor Daisy Cooper and Liza Frith when we can learn what really happened to Lord Dunstable before the police send Madame Chambon to the gallows?For she is the woman I’d wager who did it.The pair of them were heard to be arguing.”She hesitated, as if weighing up whether to continue before she added, “And my information is that Lord Dunstable had become a visitor several years before when his roving eye had alighted upon the charming Celeste who also met her maker at the notorious Madame Chambon’s.”
Lily jerked her head round to stare at the old dowager duchess.After a quick glance about her, she took a half step closer.Lady Dalrymple truly did have a grasp on the background of the case.More than Lily, in fact.
But was she inferring that she knew Lily had once shared a room with Celeste in the months before the young woman had been murdered by the Russian diplomat convicted of the crime?Was this why she’d mentioned Celeste?
It was information that Lily most definitely did not want made public.That and her brief association with Madame Chambon for while she’s skated clear of outright opprobrium for her work as a spiritualist, spiritualism had taken society by storm at all levels of society.
None of the elite here tonight, however, would think the same of her if they knew she’d spent three months in a brothel.
“You believe they will hang Madame?”she asked, her tone more skeptical as she added, “On the basis of an argument and when he was a regular at her premises?When there were many others that night who had equal opportunity—and greater motive?”She had no love of Madame Chambon, but the woman had not been unkind, and she was Miss Tarot’s mother.
Furthermore, when all was said and done, Lily believed Madame Chambon when she claimed innocence.
