Page 23 of Triple Jeopardy (Daniel Pitt)

Bernadette looked at him with relief. “How kind of you, Sir John. If you wouldn’t mind waiting just a moment, I shall get my diary and see what engagements we have already.”

“Of course.” He made a small gesture, almost a bow. And when she turned to leave the room, he followed a pace or two behind her, as if she had expected him to.

Rebecca thanked Jemima again and excused herself to her room, apparently without feeling she had to offer an explanation.

As soon as she was gone, Tobias faced Jemima, speaking in a low voice. “I hope you are here merely to see Rebecca, and not to try to persuade her not to proceed with her accusation against Philip Sidney, now that the police have charged him with another crime? Forgive me, but I do not entirely trust your…kindness.”

Jemima felt heat burn up her cheeks. It was out of anger, but also guilt. That was exactly what she had done. How did he know? “It was my husband, if you remember, who was doing everything he could to prosecute Sidney. I would not go against his wishes, even if I felt differently.”

“I’m sorry, but I do not entirely believe you…”

She stiffened. “I beg your pardon?”

He looked uncomfortable. “I apologize. That was discourteous. I am worried about Rebecca, as I know you understand. And Sidney is English.” He took a deep breath. “You must feel—”

She cut him off. “Why on earth would I? I’ve never even met Sidney! That is a very unjust thing for you to say!” It was an accusation, and she meant it. She had liked Tobias before, even trusted him, but he was not the one who would have to face other people, hear the whispers, see the half smiles, and wonder what gossip his daughter had not quite heard. “I do not know Mr. Sidney, nor care what happens to him, and there is nothing to give you cause to think otherwise!”

“Except that you are English, and so is he. It is natural for you to think the best of your own, and wish to defend them. I saw him!” Tobias’s face was flushed. “Are you questioning me? Or does it not matter to you that he is guilty?”

Jemima could feel her temper flare until she was shaking and almost choked for words. She would soon return to Washington, where Tobias Thorwood was a force she would have to reckon with. More importantly, Patrick would, yet she would not be silent. “No, Mr. Thorwood, you are a guest in my country now, and you have just insulted me profoundly, and without cause. The fact that your daughter was the victim of an assault does not give you the right to blame anybody and everybody for it. You are far more eager for revenge upon Philip Sidney than I am, because I am more concerned for Rebecca and how she will feel long after this is over, how she will face a society in front of whom she has not a shred of privacy left! When she finds a good man and falls in love, all he will see is the victim of an assault, a woman guilty of having misjudged a man, trusted him, and perhaps let him into her bedroom at night.”

“How dare you!” he shouted so loudly that even Rebecca, through the closed door of her bedroom, must have heard him. “It is you she should be afraid of, and the other women like you, who are jealous of her position, her prospects.”

Jemima was really angry. “I don’t want her place in society! If I did, I would have stayed in England and not gone to America and married an Irish immigrant policeman! If you can’t see that, you are far blinder than I took you for! I want Rebecca to have the choice of what she does, not you.”

Tobias’s face was flushed red. “So, we let Sidney go? She should stay silent and put up with it? What about justice? What about making him pay for having—”

“What? Ruined her reputation? He hasn’t! No one else knows. But of course, they all will after you bring it up at his trial for embezzlement.”

His voice was like ice. “Does your husband know you are going against everything he is fighting for, Mrs. Flannery?”

That cut deeply. She felt the blood rush up her face.

Tobias grunted. “I thought not! You have strange loyalties.”

“So have you,” she snapped back. “You want revenge more than safety, more than giving Rebecca the right to decide,” she retorted.

“And these other things, important things, you appear to have overlooked,” he went on. “Or perhaps not bothered to think of? Your thought is shallow, intuitive rather than intelligent.”

For a moment, he robbed her of words. She would have said exactly the same of him! He was acting with the self-righteous protective rage of a father, treating Rebecca as his property, damaged, lessened in value. But she dared not say that, even though it was on the tip of her tongue.

“Do you imagine this is an isolated instance, entirely out of character for him? Did you think at all?” he accused.

“You have found other cases, in the past?” she asked incredulously. “Did the British Embassy know of them? Why was he there, where such things could do international damage?” Another even worse thought suddenly burst into her mind, drowning out all else. “You think they knew, don’t you? The embassy staff. Or you think they should have? That this is their fault? You’ll make a big incident of this, even bigger than it is. You want damages? Money? No, not money, you want the British to be disgraced.” Her mind raced. “An excuse for…” She gasped. “You’ll turn Rebecca’s embarrassment into an international incident. How awful for her! She’ll—”

“Silence!” he bellowed. “You…you stupid, wicked woman! Of course I don’t want any such thing! It isn’t the past I’m thinking about at all, you fool! It’s the future. Do you imagine he’ll never do it again? Either because he can’t help himself, or from sheer damned arrogance because he can get away with it? If we know what he is, and we do nothing, we will be at least in part responsible for the next victim, and the next…Never mind that I would suffer, what about Rebecca?” He jabbed his hand toward her. “You profess to be her friend, and yet you don’t know her well enough to imagine her guilt…when it is too late. It may be embarrassing to come forward and accuse him now, but what will it be when there is a second victim, or a third?”

Jemima stood frozen to the spot. What he was saying was true, all true. She had not even thought that far. Rebecca would blame herself if there was another attack. Her silence would hang around her neck like lead crushing her.

“I think you had better leave, Mrs. Flannery, and do not come back again. If you do, Rebecca will not see you. I shall explain to my wife that you had another urgent appointment. Sir John Armitage will not care either way. I daresay he will not even notice. If he does, he will understand that I am doing what is hard, but what I am quite certain is in Rebecca’s best interests in the end.”

Armitage’s voice broke in before Jemima could reply. He had come in behind her without her hearing. “Silence may be construed by many to be an admission of guilt, Mrs. Flannery. Miss Thorwood will never have to lie, or conceal the event, if she faces it now. You may or may not choose to understand Tobias’s fear for her, or his trust in his daughter’s courage, but I ask you to trust it anyway.” His voice was smooth and clipped, very English, eminently reasonable. “His desire is to protect her, not merely now, when she might well find it easier to be silent than to face her attacker. But in the future also, because there might be a dark shadow she is afraid of because she did not deny it when she had the chance. In brief, your defense of her privacy is shortsighted, if well meant.” He turned to Tobias. “But your charge of defending an Englishman, right or wrong, is unfair. I think you owe the young lady an apology, and I would think the more of you if you offered it.”

Tobias’s face flared red, but he offered it nonetheless. “I apologize, Mrs. Flannery,” he said stiffly. “Now would you please take your leave before my wife comes back into the room and is distressed? She has already suffered enough.”

“No,” Jemima said quietly. “It is I who should apologize. You raised a side of this that I had not considered. It is far deeper than I thought, and we cannot erase the past. But as you say, we will affect the future, whatever we do. I’m sorry.” She turned to Armitage. “Good day, Sir John.” She took a step toward the door.

“Mrs. Flannery,” Tobias said huskily.

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