Now, glass in hand, he went to stand beside his beautiful blond wife, Felicity. She looked up at him adoringly, like a nymph to a god. They cut a handsome couple, with Felicity’s ethereal beauty and Walter’s darkly handsome face. Walter waited for the others to have their say.
“We will wait for the solicitor to explain what he can tomorrow,” Nicholas said. “I merely lay out the choices now, so that everyone understands that if even one of you issues a challenge, everyone will be affected.”
Walter stepped forward. “We will wait to hear what the solicitor has to say before any of us decide anything.”
Kevin smirked. “That is what Nicholas just said, Walter.”
“Now I am saying it.”
“How useful,” Agnes said, sardonically.
“Thank you for agreeing with me,” Nicholas said.
“I have concluded it is the right thing to do,” Walter said.
“I want the damned money,” Phillip said.
“Why? It is not likely to pay off your debts even by half,” Dolores said. “You will squander it before a single hatter gets his due.”
“At least I have the style to squander well, unlike the rest of you.”
“Like father like son,” Agnes said. “All style, no substance. Your father would be off in Naples during this crisis, spending money he does not have. He probably doesn’t even know his brother has died.”
“He knows, Aunt Agnes,” Nicholas said. “Even in Naples the word spreads when an English duke passes.”
“Then he should be here, doing his duty to the family. All of my brothers should be.”
“They knew there would be nothing for them in the will,” Nicholas said. “They may be angry for their sons, but not for themselves. This is not their battle.”
“You mean they should be here complaining like the rest?” Kevin asked Agnes.
“I don’t see you accepting the will as it stands,” Phillip said.
“I have a reason to be angry. My expectations were not built out of air and greed.”
“I insist everyone set this topic aside until tomorrow,” Nicholas said, loudly. “We will go down to dinner and not mention it there. Talk about the theater, or fashion, or gossip about your neighbors, but not one word at the table about the will.”
“These arguments will give us all indigestion,” Walter said, as if Nicholas had not spoken. “None of this down there. Do you hear me, Phillip? Kevin?”
They lined up in a parade of negligible hierarchy. Chase waited until all were in place, then stepped next to Phillip. He gripped Phillip’s arm, hard, and bent his head low to his ear. “If I learn that you again interfered with any woman in this house, in any way, I will thrash you within an inch of your life.”
Phillip colored, but recovered and smirked at him. Chase left and took his own spot, with Douglas behind him. He could see Aunt Agnes bending Nicholas’s ear as they began the march.
“So, do you know who did it?” Walter addressed him despite standing in front of him.
“At this point, I am not sure it was even done.”
“I thought you were good at this. If a man takes to trade, he should endeavor to be the best at it.”
“I am not conducting a formal inquiry, Walter. Do you want me to? I can discuss my fee with you after dinner.”
“Well, someone should do one of those inquiries. If one of them did it”—Walter gestured to the line ahead of him and behind—“that is one fewer of us, isn’t it?”
His wife gazed in awe as if he had just spoken words that should be memorialized forever.
Chase gritted his teeth. “Walter, I find Phillip childish in his demands, and Douglas stunning in his passivity, but you are intolerable. You have calculated that if one of your relatives hangs for murder, you will get more money out of the estate. Nor did you sound dismayed by the idea.” He tipped his head close to the back of Walter’s. “If your avarice runs that deeply, I think I will advise the magistrate in Sussex to take a very close look at your dealings with Uncle Frederick.”
Walter stopped dead in his tracks. His head snapped around and he glared at Chase. His wife’s expression fell.
“Move along,” Chase said. “The others are leaving you in the dust.”
Chapter Six
“The housekeeper had a private word with us, one by one.” Elise shared the information while she and Minerva walked back to Rupert Street. “She came up above to seek us out. Warned us about the gentlemen and male servants. That was good of her, not that I need warnings on such things.”
“I received the lesson in the kitchen,” Minerva said. “It was a general announcement there, since we were too busy for anything else.” Her feet ached and her back rebelled at the day’s labors. Her hands itched from being in soap too long. She yearned to arrive at her home, where she could rest and find the time to think about the day’s events. Since she had to return to Whiteford House by seven in the morning, such reflection would have to wait.
Tomorrow she would hire a coach to take Elise and her both ways. This was an inquiry, after all. She would have money soon to replenish the household account that would have to pay for such coaches now, so it wasn’t really an indulgence.
They trudged along, two women alone, moving from one pool of light cast by a streetlamp to another, like they experienced repeated dawns and dusks, days and nights. She could see Elise’s soft countenance clearly for a spell, and admire her delicate face and clear blue eyes, only to have a ghost beside her a few yards farther along.
Minerva had taken to Elise at once. Bright, animated, but also sensible, Elise had acquitted herself well when Minerva met her at Mrs. Drable’s house. The idea of doing work for Hepplewhite’s Office of Discreet Inquiries excited her. It would be occasional at first, but one day Minerva expected to be able to pay Elise regular wages.
Her first assignment had been easy to arrange. Minerva merely asked her to keep her ears and eyes open while she served Lady Agnes Radnor.
“It is the youngest gentleman you must watch out for in particular,” she said, thinking about pretty, young Elise alone in the chamber where she served as lady’s maid. “He is the sort to importune a woman, especially if he thinks she has no recourse against him. His name is Phillip.”
“I don’t think he would dare enter Lady Agnes’s chamber uninvited.”
“If he does enter, you are to leave immediately.” She spoke it as a command, which had Elise looking over at her with curiosity just as another dawn broke.
“Perhaps you should not go back,” Elise said.
“I am capable of dealing with such as he. You, however. . . Watch for him, do you hear?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Elise smiled. “Dolores visited Agnes after the dinner while I prepared her for bed. Dolores intends to quiz the solicitor sharply tomorrow. She also shared the opinion that of all of them, if anyone harmed the last duke, it was probably either Kevin or Chase Radnor, since both of them are of questionable character.”
“Did she say why she believed that?”
“Regarding Kevin, it had to do with his common interests. All that mechanical experimentation. Not even real science, she said. He might as well be a factory owner, she said.”