Page 62 of Murder at Madame Chambon's
Mr.Grimshaw hovered near the doorway.
“I have.Please, bring the lantern so I can quickly look and then I will be ready to leave.Then you said you’d take me to my father?Does that mean he doesn’t live far?”
“No, he doesn’t live far away at all, Evelina.In fact, he lives at Ravenhall Manor just ten minutes away by carriage.”Mr.Grimshaw raised the lantern high and for a moment, the light illuminated far more than just where he stood.
“Ravenhall Manor?”Evelina repeated in confusion as she bent close and saw that the girl had only lived to the age of five though she couldn’t quite see the year she’d been born.
“Then why has Mama hidden the truth from me?I’ve been trying to locate him ever since I came to London.”
A strange, gnawing unease churned in her breast.Ravenhall Manor?The estate of the 5th Earl of Ravenhall?It didn’t make sense.Her father lived so close?And now the child named Evelina.So many questions, she didn’t know which to ask first.
Agitated, she ran her hand over the gold-chiseled letters in the aged marble.“Mr.Grimshaw, I think there must be a repeat of family names unless two daughters named Evelina were born to my father.”
“Only one, Evelina,” came Mr.Grimshaw’s distant reply.
Evelina glanced up, frowning as she puzzled over the wording.
“Mr Grimshaw—” She drew her hand away and ran towards the sliver of light, quickly snuffed out.
But not before his final words resonated throughout the silent, empty chamber as she heard the sound of the iron key turning.“And you are that one.”
Chapter 30
“Archie, these are wonderful!”Lily exclaimed as she looked at each photograph on her desk.There were five of them showing the little flower seller in various poses or at different times of the day.“I do like the one where she’s standing in the doorway selling her violets.Her expression is most appealing and goes well juxtaposed with the one where she’s in the field picking the flowers where we can see the spire of St.Pauls in the distance.It highlights how far she has to travel each day to sell her wares for such a pittance.Hamish, just look at these!”she said as her husband put his head through the door on his way to his office.
Hamish came to the table and stood by her side, his admiration clearly echoing his wife’s.“It’s been a week of good works,” he said, standing up.“Not only have you found another position for a young girl who’d been dismissed with no character for breaking her mistress’s teapot—”
“But Lord Bellingham has eloped with Miss Tarot,” Archie broke in with a grin.He gave a nod to emphasize the claim.“Yes, Maisie said Kitty was all a-fluster at finding her mistress’s bed empty last night but then she found a letter from his lordship tellin’ her to be ready at an instant’s notice cos he didn’t care about the money and if that were the problem then he’d whisk ’em away from all o’ that.”
Archie began to gather up the photographs but Hamish stopped him, hesitation in his voice.“Bellingham, you say?Why, I saw Bellingham at my club last night.I stopped for a chat, but I did not gain the impression he was a man about to stage an elopement that very night.”
Lily glanced between him and Archie, who frowned, saying, “Well, apparently that were what Kitty said must have ‘appened for there weren’t no uvver way to explain why her mistress had scarpered in the night.”
After a moment of clear concern, Hamish’s expression lightened as he clarified, “No doubt this was backed up by finding Miss Tarot’s essentials were missing.”
Archie shook his head slowly.“No, they weren’t missing, which was, at first, why Kitty thought it odd.And so did Lady Perry, who made enquiries with the young ladies who had taken Miss Tarot to Lord Dunstable’s funeral yesterday.‘Parently the Madam had forbidden Miss Tarot to go but Lady Perry had given the say-so.Lady Victoria and Miss Clara fetched her, secret-like, in their carriage, yesterday afternoon.”
“And?”asked Lily.“What light did the young ladies throw on all this?”
“Miss Victoria said she and her sister had seen Miss Tarot talkin’ to Lord Bellingham during the funeral and when they went to fetch her to return home, they couldn’t find her but then they saw her in the far distance steppin’ into a carriage so they reckoned she was goin’ with Lord Bellingham, after all.”
Lily saw her husband frowning as he repeated, “I really didn’t gain the impression from Bellingham last night that he had Miss Tarot secreted away somewhere preparing for a dash to the border or, however, they were planning to elope.”
Lily tried to puzzle it out.“Lord Dunstable’s funeral would have seen Miss Tarot back at Lord Bellingham’s or on the road by late afternoon.Lord Bellingham was at his club at—what time did you say?”
“It was close to midnight,” said Hamish, putting his hand on Lily’s wrist and adding, with a sigh, “I’m sure we shouldn’t interfere.Not again.I’m sure there must be some perfectly good explanation, for I hardly think Miss Tarot has mysteriously gone missing or been kidnapped.”
Lily nodded.“Of course, you’re right.There has to be a good reason.But, I do feel a little concerned.Especially in view of what’s happened lately.I mean, Lord Dunstable’s murder—”
“Which was perfectly adequately explained by the apprehension of that young woman—”
“Hamish!She’s not guilty,” Lily exclaimed, while Archie nodded fiercely.
“But this young woman admitted that she’d been unkindly treated by Dunstable.She has the motive,” Hamish defended himself.
“She had the motive, but not the strength or the opportunity.The police have got it wrong,” Lily declared.“But we’re not talking about that right now.We’re talking about Miss Tarot, and I’m worried about her.Please, will you see if you can find Lord Bellingham, just to put my mind at rest?”
Hamish nodded.“I have a meeting with my father in an hour.I promise I will go afterwards.”
