Page 59 of Murder at Madame Chambon's
“And there’s something else, as I tried to tell you just now.”Blackheath gripped William’s wrist and glanced about in the fading afternoon.“I’ve gone over it a thousand times, thinking I must have misheard.But now I’m convinced that as I looked at that walking stick while passing by Madame’s partly open office door, I heard a gentleman say, “Ravenhall will never sanction it.”
Chapter 28
Highgate Cemetery certainly is a very … ghostly place,” Evelina remarked as the horses picked their way past freshly dug graves and vast family crypts.She could barely believe she was soon going to be reunited with what she’d felt was missing her entire life.
She hugged herself against a shiver that ran through her, despite the fact it was summer.
“And my father….?Please tell me about him.How fortuitous we met.As I truly going to see him again after all this time?”
Mr.Grimshaw smiled.He was not an ebullient gentleman, but it was kind of him to take the trouble to first help her out of her predicament and then to take her to her father.
Glancing at his intricately carved cane, she remarked, “Have you perhaps been to India, sir?My Papa visited India when I was twelve and he sent me a wooden box with a very fine carving of two entwined snakes similar to your cane.”
A shadow crossed Mr.Grimshaw’s hawkish face.“I was sent to India as a young man.”
“How very exciting,” Evelina said, trying to bolster his spirits.
“I did not think so.My father and then my brother had died unexpectedly in quick succession which meant I had to leave the estate where I’d been born and grown up—” his nostrils flared—“while the executors searched for the new heir.The family thought it was easier to send me away.”
“But weren’tyouthe new heir?”Evelina asked.
“But for a simple marriage certificate I would have been,” Mr.Grimshaw said in a soft bitter tone before adding with a forced smile, “Butyourfather is a fine gentleman who loves his children very much.”
Evelina was puzzled.“I have brothers and sisters?No, that cannot be.”
“Yes, indeed, Evelina.But your father has been especially considerate toyou.I have been responsible for ensuring a very generous monthly sum goes to your mother for the upkeep of both herself and you.I was responsible for the details of your dowry—”
Evelina interrupted him with a gasp.“So do you know… if my father disapproves of Lord Bellingham?”
Grimshaw considered this.“Your father strives for the peace and happiness of those he loves.He will make great sacrifices to protect those whom he regards as needing and deserving of his protection.”
Evelina clasped her hands and leaned forward.“Please, Mr.Grimshaw.I need to see my father, if only to reassure him that no one will look after me better than Lord Bellingham.Only he will make me happy!Perhaps Mama has said something that has set him against Lord Bellingham.”
“You mama and papa have not spoken for many years, Evelina.I act as the intermediary.”
“Then you know my mother, too?”She was astonished.
Mr.Grimshaw nodded.“I have known your mother since you were a child, Evelina.I remember when the decision was made to send you to school in Paris.”
“Yet I have never heard your name,” Evelina marveled.
“Your mama and papa did not wish their … estrangement to be made public.They are very private people,” said Mr.Grimshaw.“Now, here is the family crypt where all your family members have been interred over the centuries.It’s getting a little late and is perhaps a little cold, but if you would like, I do have the key with me, and can show you the resting places of those nearest and dearest to you.”
Evelina glanced through the window.The weather did look a little bleak, and the cemetery was a little ghostly, but she was afraid of squandering this incredible, fortuitous chance to know something of her origins.
If Mr.Grimshaw explained her relationship to some of these people, she wouldn’t feel quite so ignorant when she finally went to see her papa.
“It’s not too cold, Mr.Grimshaw,” she assured him, smoothing her skirts as the carriage came to a standstill.
She let him help her out of the equipage and waited, staring at the enormous lichen covered trees and stones that surrounded them, then at the magnificent family crypt.
“It is one of the largest and finest at Highgate Cemetery,” said Mr.Grimshaw, locating an iron key from a large set he had in the leather satchel he carried.
“It’s very dark inside,” Evelina said as he opened the iron door, stooping to enter and then realizing that Mr.Grimshaw was lighting a flint to illuminate a lantern he held up to illuminate the large space.
“This is my father’s family?”Evelina asked, disbelieving.“Myfamily?”The crypt was long and cavernous, the floor paved with slate, topped with a row of sarcophagi disappearing into the gloom.It clearly belonged to a very great personage.Why had her mother said nothing?
“This is the final resting place for members of your family, Evelina.You know, when you were born, your father did not know he was to be next in line when his cousin died, leaving him the title and the estate with, of all course, all the attendant responsibilities.”
