Page 30 of The Missing Maid
She’d appraised her original opinion of Percy’s age as they’d been talking and now estimated him to be older than she’d thought – nearer her age than her youngest brother’s. But perhaps they had attended the same school, although Percy must have been several years above. ‘Acquaintances more than friends, I’d say,’ Percy explained. ‘He was quite the character at school. Never a dull moment when Rufus was around.’
‘The boy needs a purpose,’ Lord Finchem rumbled. ‘Like Fortescue here. No chance of him scandalising the neighbourhood with brawls and other damnable behaviour.’
Harry stiffened at his evident disapproval. ‘I know Rufus is a little wayward but I hardly think?—’
‘Wayward,’ Lord Finchem repeated incredulously. ‘He was arrested for being drunk and disorderly in Piccadilly last week. Fortescue had to smooth things out.’ He rounded on Oliver. ‘Didn’t you? Come on, man, speak up.’
It was news to Harry. She gazed at Oliver in consternation. ‘Did you?’
‘It was all a misunderstanding,’ he said soothingly. ‘Youthful high spirits. No charges were brought.’
‘All the same—’ Harry began, wondering why no one had thought to mention it to her. Being arrested was no small thing.
‘It was nothing,’ Oliver reassured her. ‘He’d got in with an excitable crowd – that’s all. No harm done.’
Not this time, Harry wanted to say, but she was aware that Lady Finchem once again seemed to be radiating ice. ‘I’m glad you were on hand to help,’ she said to Oliver. ‘Thank you.’
‘Indeed,’ Lady Finchem observed, eyeing Oliver as though he was somehow mixed up in Rufus’s disgrace. ‘So useful to have friends in the legal business to call upon in times of need.’
Harry had heard enough. ‘Will you excuse me?’ she said, summoning up a smile that she hoped was less brittle than she felt. ‘I’ve just remembered something I need to discuss with Mama.’
Without waiting for a reply, she went to stand near her mother, who was regaling Mrs Goldsworthy with an apparently hilarious story about a mutual acquaintance. For the sake of form, Harry loitered for five minutes, nodding and smiling in the right places while Lord Finchem’s accusations whirled round and round her head. The moment she felt she could slip unnoticed from the room, she made good her escape. Briefly, she contemplated hurrying from the hall and running all the way to the woods, the way she had as a child, but the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon. Perhaps a lie-down in the silence of her bedroom would help.
She was halfway up the stairs when she heard Oliver call her name from below. Glancing down, she saw with mild exasperation that he was following her. ‘What is it?’ she asked as he started up the stairs. ‘I’ve got a headache.’
‘I wanted to make sure you weren’t upset by that rubbish about Rufus,’ Oliver said once he was nearer. ‘He was never in any danger of being charged, you know.’
Harry rubbed her temples wearily. It hadn’t been a lie – she did have the start of a headache and she suspected it was about to get worse. ‘But he was drunk?’
Oliver pursed his lips as he considered the question. ‘He’d probably had more than he should. But it was the others he was with who were the instigators. They tried to climb up the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus but ran for it when a policeman caught them. Rufus didn’t run fast enough, unfortunately.’
She couldn’t deny it sounded very much like her little brother. ‘He’s lucky you were able to sort everything out.’
He shook his head. ‘They knew they didn’t have enough to show the magistrate. At worst, they’d have let him sleep it off in a cell overnight.’
‘A cell!’ The thought made Harry’s stomach clench. ‘I didn’t even know he was in London. Where had he been?’
‘One of the new nightclubs in Soho,’ Oliver said. ‘But don’t beat yourself up – your brothers had no idea he was in town, either, until I turned up at Lawrence’s apartment with a very chastened Rufus in tow.’
‘That doesn’t make me feel any better,’ she said, sighing. ‘How did Lord Finchem find out? I don’t imagine he was one of the revellers.’
‘No, but Percy Finchem was in the crowd – he saw everything.’ Oliver shook his head. ‘Watch yourself around those two. They’re not quite what they pretend to be.’
If Harry’s head hadn’t been thumping, she might have asked what he meant by that but all she wanted now was the quiet of her room. ‘Well, I hope the experience scared him into behaving better. I bet Mama was livid when she found out.’
Oliver grimaced. ‘So I believe. That’s why he’s not here this weekend; she’s packed him off to your great-uncle in Scotland to contemplate his actions.’
The thought almost made Harry smile. Great-Uncle Douglas lived in a ramshackle castle in the heart of the Highlands. There was no danger of Rufus running afoul of the law there, unless he took up poaching. ‘Rather him than me,’ she said.
‘Absolutely,’ Oliver agreed, then fixed her with a direct look. ‘So what was all that about Lady Finchem’s household staff? I hope you haven’t been digging around.’
‘Of course not,’ Harry said, raising her chin. ‘Well, maybe a bit but it was worth it.’ She glanced at the empty hall below and lowered her voice. ‘Polly doesn’t work there any more. Don’t you think that’s odd?’
He frowned. ‘Maids move on all the time. I expect there’s a perfectly good explanation.’
‘Or perhaps she’s done what she went there to do,’ Harry suggested. ‘Which was to set Mildred up for the considerably more substantial Lord Robertson job.’
‘We cannot know that,’ Oliver said flatly. ‘Anyone could have planted the bracelet.’
