Page 111 of A Devilish Element
He’d temporarily forgotten Lady Linfield. “Only into a faint. I’m sure she’s roused by now. We can go to her.” They were back at the top of the stairs he’d forced his way up earlier. They would take them down to the tower base, and from there wherever they wished. “You don’t need to worry about summoning the magistrate either. I saw to it. I sent Linfield’s man. Hopefully, Sir Cyril should be on his way.”
She sighed as if a great weight had lifted to hear that was the case. “Then let us collect Jane and get our stories straight before they arrive, for there’s a deal of explaining to do, and I expect some of the details—”
“—ought to be lost,” Jem finished for her. For definite the precise details of Linfield’s relationship with Ada Honeyfield’s husband ought to be side-stepped, and nor would there be any suggestion of misconduct on Lady Linfield’s part.
“Also, the Cluetts will need to be handled…”
Ah, yes. George’s blackmailing scam.
Supporting one another, they hobbled their way into the house.
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Eliza
After Bell had been dispatched to retrieve Jane and a suspicious pot of marmalade, and Edith, then Betsy, and finally Gordy to deal with Mrs Honeyfield’s body, and various wounds had been dressed, and the matter of Jem’s pocket fire and the earlier spontaneous ignition of Jane’s bed-curtains been thoroughly discussed and pontificated on, and sensible conclusions drawn was Eliza free to go with Jane to address the Cluetts.
The mayhem of the evening seemed to have entirely passed them by, for neither mother nor son had left their rooms.
Henrietta, not George, opened the door to their shared sitting room when Eliza knocked. It struck Eliza how much more comfortable these rooms were compared to the ones Linfield had given his wife. Beast! She was finding it difficult to mourn his passing. At root, all the woe they’d suffered was down to him.
George sprang out of an armchair at their arrival. He was in his shirtsleeves. His sandy hair damp at the front and curling, while his lips were port stained. “What is it? I hope you’re not here to haggle over terms, for I made my part of this bargain entirely plain, and I won’t move on it.”
“Now, George,” Henrietta chastened. “Don’t be disagreeable. We are still Lady Linfield’s guests, and she has suffered the appalling loss of her husband this evening. I think we’d do well to be civil.”
“I’m not here to negotiate.” Jane ignored the chair Henrietta offered in favour of remaining on her feet, though she clung to the back of it. Eliza could see the tremble of nervousness running through her. “I simply see no reason to delay matters. Tonight has been entirely too trying…. Well, never mind that.”
“You have it?” George’s eyes bulged in a greedy way, reminding Eliza of a moneylender on payday. It saddened her that her first perceptions of him were so lacking. She’d thought him a wastrel, but at least a good-natured one. In truth, he was as mean as the next man, and willing to do any awful thing imaginable if he believed it to his benefit. He was preying on Jane, when he ought to have been providing comfort and support as her husband’s alleged best friend. “If you haven’t, then we have nothing to say.”
She heartily wished they were not so pressed for time, for then she might have counselled Jane against this exchange. Bell had laughed at the very notion that Linfield was already wed. Had flat out said it was impossible, as well as preposterous.
“I have it,” Jane confirmed, her tone weary. “But you’ll forgive me if I don’t altogether trust you. What assurance do I have that you won’t spread your horrid tales, anyway?”
George gave her a studiously lazy shrug. “What would be the point in that? I’d have no evidence, for you will have that, and I imagine you’ll destroy it. Nor do I wish to earn the wrath of the earl. I simply want what is mine.”
Henrietta gave a cough.
“What is mine and my mother’s returned to us. Once that’s settled, there need not be any animosity between us. We’ll be happy to leave as soon as the day breaks.” At least he did not offer to stay and fake regard for Jane’s welfare during her time of loss.
“You may wish to make it sooner,” Eliza advised. “If you want to avoid dealings with the magistrate. I imagine he’ll want to hear testimonies from everyone present.”
She rather hoped that matter might be resolved with a simple presentation of the bodies. Victim, culprit,et voilà. The Cluetts need not feature in the narrative. Only the earl needed to hear the full details of his son’s death. Bell would no doubt report them, hopefully minus the parts about Jane’s cuckoo.
“Eliza? How should we manage this?” her friend asked.
“Give both papers to me.” She extended her uninjured hand. “I will confirm they are what you each claim them to be, and then I shall pass them over simultaneously. Is that agreeable?”
George huffed and shook his head. “You are her friend. What’s to say you haven’t concocted a plan to swindle me?”
“George,” Henrietta chastened again. “I think you’re forgetting who you are dealing with. They’re two honest, god-fearing young ladies of decent upbringing, not the sharps you usually associate with.”
Actually, two young ladies of dubious morality who had just dealt with a murderess, and now intended to white-lie to a magistrate.
“However, I will examine the papers too, as Miss Wakefield does. That will make things all fair and equal, will it not?”
Fair, perhaps, but it meant yet another person was privy to the knowledge that Linfield was already wed when he took Jane to wife. Although, likely enough George had already shared that gossip with his mother. “Jane?”
“I suppose.”
