Page 45 of Murder at Madame Chambon's
Later, as he tried to devise how he might secure the information he needed, William was plunged into greater distress.
“Miss LuluBelle Croft?”William repeated the name with even greater disbelief after his valet had relayed it to him while dressing his master for an evening out.No, not with disbelief, but with patent horror.
“Aye, m’lord,” replied Sanders.Please raise your arms, so I can put on your shirt.You are expected at Ravenhall Manor within the hour.”
William did as he was bid, while he wondered what else he’d missed during the time he’d allowed himself some rest.Exhausted, following the exploits of the previous day, he’d thought he’d never sleep again.“Is that the word around town?That this young woman, Miss LuluBelle Croft, has just been charged with Lord Dunstable’s murder?Good Lord, are you sure, Sanders?I’ve read nothing about it in the newspapers.Where did you hear such a thing?”
Sanders, who had accompanied William during his travel on the Continent, nodded.“News travels fast, my lord.Apparently she were apprehended this afternoon.I heard it from Lord Newsome’s valet, who watched her being marched out of that wicked house with her hands behind her back.Now, your cufflinks, my lord.”
Raging at the clear travesty of justice, William submitted to what was necessary to dress him for a dull evening out with some dull gentlemen discussing some dull parliamentary matters.
LuluBelle had been charged with Lord Dunstable’s murder?
He recalled the few minutes’ he’d spent listening to her and to Madame and knew it couldn’t be true.
Meanwhile, his heart pounded with all the other information he was still finding hard to digest.
Chief among this was the confirmation that Evelina was Madame Chambon’s daughter.Dear God, how would his poor darling bear up to learning such a thing?William would willingly shoulder whatever burden was required if it meant protecting her from the truth.
But who else knew the truth?
And was willing to kill to expose it?
With a shudder, he thought of pale, delicate LuluBelle, abused and exploited by Dunstable and others like him.Men who thought of nothing but their own pleasure.
Not for a second did he believe she’d murdered Lord Dunstable but it was clear she harbored suspicions who might have, which Madame was reluctant to have aired.
LuluBelle had alluded to a sixth gentlemen present at Madame Chambon’s on the night in question, and Madame had immediately named Captain Blackheath whom LuluBelle had been quick to defend.
Granted, Blackheath was a cad.William had never liked him.He’d been a swaggart in the army, and his liking of drink and loose women was legendary.But it seemed LuluBelle had a soft spot for Blackheath.
While Blackheath had shown a distinct interest in Evelina.
William closed his eyes.Was Blackheath such a blackguard as to murder a man in cold blood so he instead could marry his victim’s intended bride?For her money?
During the carriage ride to the dinner to which he was committed, William ran through his options.The police had already apprehended LuluBelle.Hopefully there’d not be enough evidence to convict.
But the police might find a speedy conviction convenient, given the agitation of Lord Dunstable’s family; and time was running out.Knowing what he now knew, it was William’s moral duty to find something that would exonerate LuluBelle’s conviction.
Which meant finding the real murderer.
A murderer who had likely killed over what he knew about Evelina’s origins.
William could barely attend to his dinner companions as the six of them dined in Lord Craddock’s lofty dining room at Ravenhall Manor.He had to feign the same relief the other men showed when Lord Craddock—also familiarly referred to by his title, Ravenhall— declared it was fitting that Lord Dunstable’s murderer was finally facing justice before poor Dunstable would be laid to rest at Highgate Cemetery that Thursday.And he had to bite his tongue when lovely Lady Craddock, whom he’d always known to be an empathetic woman who ran a school that taught reading and arithmetic to the children of the nearby workhouse, said, “This woman should be locked up forever for the terrible thing she did to poor, blameless Lord Dunstable.And they should throw away the key!”
At which her husband remonstrated, mildly, “She’s innocent until proved guilty, my love.Are you not the first to preach that vice and crime is more the result of poverty than of an inherently criminal nature?Fortunately, today’s justice system will allow her to protest her innocence in court rather than seeing her rot in some windowless dungeon.”
It was counterproductive for William to show his outrage when Lord Craddock’s lawyer, Mr.Grimshaw, muttered darkly, “No doubt an airless crypt is where she belongs.How often does it prove to be awomanwho is the root of such evil in what seems now to be nothing more than crime of passion?”
But Grimshaw, having been passed over for an earldom due to his illegitimate birth, was well known for his hatred of women.
The man’s words just increased William’s determination to discover the identity of Evelina’s father.
Aristocrats were more likely to acknowledge their male bastards than their illegitimate daughters, but if William could learn the identity of Evelina’s father, it was one layer of protection that might smooth her path.
That’s if Dunstable’s real murderer did not strike first and reveal Evelina’s terrible secret to the whole world.
With a great sense of relief, he finally excused himself, following port and cigars.
