Page 65 of Murder at Madame Chambon's
Shocked, Clara and Elizabeth exchanged looks, Clara saying, “Evelina has gone missing?My goodness, what a terrible thing!But a carriage?”She frowned, trying to recall.“I’m sure my sister could describe what she saw better than I.Victoria notices that sort of thing.All I can tell you is that it looked like any other dark, nondescript carriage.”
“And you didn’t see who was in it?Why would she get into a stranger’s carriage?Why did you not convey her home if she’d come with you?”
Clara put her hands to her mouth and gave a sob while Elizabeth and her mother looked on, concern etched into their smooth, lovely faces.“Lord Bellingham, I’m so sorry,” Clara said on a hiccup.“We were both so sure it was you who was conveying her away.”
“What’s this now?”came a genial voice as a tall, fine featured youth with light curling hair entered the room in company with a man whom he greatly resembled in terms of charm and mobility of expression.
“Oh, Rupert!You’ll never believe what’s happened!”Elizabeth twisted in her seat, her face a picture of distress as she gestured for the young man to join her.“Miss Tarot has gone missing.”
Lady Craddock waved her arm towards the newcomers whom she introduced as her husband and son, frowning at everyone while, to Lily’s surprise, Lord Craddock gave nothing away as he took a seat beside Elizabeth and Rupert settled on the arm of his mother’s sofa.
Madame Chambon, still veiled, remained silent, but Lily could see the tenseness of her clasped hands, the knuckles white.As Lily had pre-arranged, she’d been introduced as Mrs.Tennant, a visiting friend of Lily’s, and little attention had been paid her.Clearly, she was too overcome to interrupt.
“And who is this young lady…this Miss Tarot of whom you speak?”Lord Craddock finally asked.“You mentioned your friend earlier, Elizabeth.You said you’d seen her—Miss Tarot, did you say?- at the opera that night we took you with Mr.Grimshaw.I saw her vaguely out of the corner of my eye.And now you say she has gone missing?”
Lord Bellingham rested his elbows on his knees, hunched forward, his voice shaking as his eyes bored into Lord Ravenswood.“I wish to marry the young lady.”
Lord Craddock’s smile was a little blank, Lily thought; a little uncomprehending.As if he truly didn’t know whom they were discussing.Or perhaps he was very adept at subterfuge.She wondered suddenly if Madame Chambon had been hallucinating earlier and had now lost her nerve.
Carefully, Lord Ravenswood said, “Congratulations, Bellingham.”Then, with a frown, “But the reason you are here is not for my congratulations but because you say the young lady has gone missing?”
“We are all very worried about her,” Lily said, twisting the fabric of her skirts between trembling fingers.Madame Chambon had sent them all here asserting that Lord Craddock had been paying her hundreds a month to support her and Evelina, and yet he didn’t seem to know his own daughter.
“Miss Tarot was at Lord Dunstable’s funeral yesterday?”clarified the youth.“Bad business that.I was sorry to hear it.And to think that a woman did it.”
“Rupert!”cried his mother.“You ought to know nothing of all this.I told you not to say it in Elizabeth’s hearing.”
“I read the papers, Mama.”Rupert rolled his eyes before his father ruffled his hair and said fondly, “I told you, my dear, the boy is too young to be wrapped up in cotton wool.”Then the frown returned as he turned to Lily and Lord Bellingham.“I’m sorry we can’t help.I daresay you had to pay us a call if only to discount the fact that we are, in this instance, unable to render assistance.I do hope you find the answers you are looking for.Or, hopefully, that Miss Tarot is found, safe and sound, by the time you return home.”
They all rose, having earlier declined tea.
Lily felt her desperation rise as Lord and Lady Craddock prepared to quit the room.“My lord, I wonder if I might ask you a question—in confidence—on behalf of my father, Lord Lambton,” she said.Then, when he sent a questioning look at his wife, she added, “It would take only a moment of your time.And Lord Bellingham might also benefit.”She smiled, trying to dress up her request in the guise of something light-hearted.
Nodding approbation, Lady Craddock departed with their two children, and Clara, while Lily and Lord Bellingham trailed behind.
At the door, he waited obligingly for whatever Lily might have to say, but as there was a parlormaid hovering nearby, Lily nodded into the garden.“In fact, it is about your roses, my lord.Yours are particularly fine specimens and my father is most fond of roses.”
“But I am not the horticulturist in the family, Lady Bradden.I think you would be better served asking my wife,” he said with a smile and a look that suggested he might call after her.
But Lily took his arm and ushered him through the open doors to the front portico.
Putting up no resistance, but his surprise evident, Lord Craddock strolled into the garden with Lily.Lord Bellingham and Madame followed a few feet behind, leaving Lily feeling foolish and with a growing anger towards Madame who had clearly fabricated this entire debacle.
What had Lord Craddock to do with this?Madame had simply sucked a name out of her thumb.
It was mid-afternoon now, nearly a full 24-hours since Lord Dunstable’s funeral and the last time Evelina had been seen.
“What is it you wished to ask me, Lady Bradden?”
To her surprise, Lord Craddock hid his understandable irritation.He was smiling at her as if he had all the time in the world, although he did glance at his timepiece and murmur that his wife would be waiting for him for their afternoon drinks.
Lily got the impression he was uncommonly fond of his wife.She’d noted the easy way they’d smiled at one another, and his companionableness with his son and daughter.She hesitated.“The truth is, Lord Ravenswood, we really had hoped to find some clue to the disappearance of Lord Bellingham’s fiancée– or rather, soon-to-be fiancée—Evelina Tarot.Are you sure you’ve heard nothing?”
For the first time, his brow furrowed.“Evelina,” he repeated, as if thinking.“It is an unusual name.I’m sorry she’s missing, and I hope you find her.”His smile was now tinged with sadness.“I once had a daughter called Evelina.”He hesitated.“She died when she was an infant… and then I married my dear wife, Elsie, and was blessed with the twins.”
“You lie!”Madame Chambon spoke for the first time, stepping forward and raising her veil, almost ripping it from her hat.“How can you stand there and claim that Evelina is dead?When you’ve been paying for her upkeep for more than twenty years?”
Lord Craddock looked as if he’d been struck.Drawing back his shoulders, he raked Madame with a scornful gaze, dismissing her as if she truly were a madwoman.“With all due respect, I have no idea who you are, Mrs.Tennant, but I find your claim absurd in the extreme.”He looked at Lily as if she might usher the clearly raving acquaintance back to their carriage, which was waiting a short distance away.But then, glancing once more at Madame, a flicker of recognition gave him away.
