She stopped walking and folded her arms and looked out over the park. He folded his too and looked with her. What to do now? That question hung heavily between them.
“I would have gone forward and admitted it, if Minerva were ever taken to gaol. I want you to know that. I would never have let her hang. I was preparing myself for it, settling matters as best I could, when they said it was an accident. It was a gift, really.”
“I believe you would have come forward if you had to. I don’t doubt that.”
She turned to look at him, her eyes filmy with tears and memories, but not repentance. “Are you going to tell Minerva about this?”
He doubted he had to. Minerva was good at inquiries. She knew she had not used that pistol, so who had? There were only two likely possibilities. “I don’t see any reason to tell her. You may want to eventually, in case she has wondered about Jeremy.”
“I’ll still come forward if need be. If all of this comes alive again, and there’s those trying to harm her.”
“It was ruled an accident, and may just lie there as that. If anyone starts asking questions, I will try to turn their eyes on the poachers known to frequent private hunting grounds like those woods. It would be like Finley to confront one of them. It is my hope it doesn’t even get that far. But if necessary—it is good to know you would do the right thing.”
She nodded. “I’ll be hoping it goes the way you say.”
“Come. I will take you home so you don’t have to walk or hire a carriage. I have mine here.”
She brightened. “I’ve been wanting to ride in it.”
“We will have to make a stop first, if you don’t mind. Minerva will be wondering where you have been all this time. We’ll tell her I took you to buy a new dress. That means a dress must arrive, so we will stop to have one made.”
She walked faster. “I tell you I killed a man and you buy me a dress? Doesn’t seem right somehow, but I’ll not complain about it.”
He would buy her a whole wardrobe for easing his worry about Minerva.
* * *
“I have been thinking,” she said, to divert them both.
“That is often dangerous.”
“My thoughts were about this legacy, and the others.”
That captured his attention.
“If he knew me in such a slight way, perhaps that was how he knew the other two women whom you now must find. Perhaps like me they are not even aware that he previously touched on their lives.”
“Our minds are much alike when conducting inquiries. I trod my path and you walk yours, but we tend to arrive at the same destination. If we are right, they will be harder to find.”
“One of his habits brought him into contact with me. Perhaps that same one, or a different one, made him aware of them.”
“I have been pondering what I know of him, and what his habits were, to find new directions to investigate.”
“Are you going to tell me those habits?”
“No.”
“I may be able to help, walking my way.”
“Soon you are going to be a wealthy heiress. You will no longer need to conduct inquiries, Minerva.”
Not conduct inquiries? She wasn’t sure she wanted to stop. She enjoyed it.
“What do you plan to do with it?” he asked.
“Some I’ll put aside to help the new enterprise. Then, I will buy new wardrobes for all of us. Jeremy should have private chambers, such as you have.” She warmed to the topic. “A carriage, perhaps. A modest one. I might also have inquiries conducted in America, to see if I can find my cousins. It would be nice to know what became of them and my uncle. Mostly I would like to find a way to help women who need to find sanctuary from their situations, who need a place of safety.”
“If there is no charity doing that, you can start one. Do not deny yourself the wardrobe and carriage, though. Indulging yourself a bit will only use a tiny amount of what you will receive, and you should celebrate your good fortune.” He opened the carriage door. “We are here.”
She looked at the door of the Bank of England. Minerva Hepplewhite would withdraw fifty pounds today, from the account that held the income from her trust.
Wealth waited. A new life would start.
He cocked his head, his hand still holding hers, waiting for her to step down. She wished they did not wear gloves so she could feel his warmth on her palm. She gazed in his blue eyes, so warm and kind within that harshly handsome face.
“Will you stay with me through this?”
He coaxed her out with a gentle tug. “I will come in with you. And I will stay with you as long as you want me to.”
It sounded as if he did not understand what she had meant. Then again, maybe he had.
Together they entered that door. Side by side they found the man Mr. Sanders had referred her to.
A half hour later, she walked out an heiress.
* * *
Chase welcomed Nicholas’s message when it arrived. Call at one o’clock, if you can.
He had spent a restless evening and night. He had left Minerva with her “family” to celebrate that money she had taken home. He had not told her to come to him when she wanted to. She would know she was welcomed. However, he also did not make arrangements to see her on his own initiative.
In one half hour, much had changed. He could not pretend it had not. He had known it would, but experiencing the implications soured his mood. Beneath his rumbling frustration, nostalgia put down roots.
She had taken the first step to enjoying the fruits of her good fortune. She had no need of inquiries, or his protection. That inheritance, now in hand, would change things. Change her. He pictured her receiving calls from ladies, and attending parties and balls. He saw her in silks that would make that dinner dress pale in comparison.
He imagined men flirting with her. Not only fortune hunters. She would spot those immediately. Other men, however, would be drawn to her flame. Lords and industrialists and men of greater wealth than she possessed. The day would come, perhaps quickly, when he was only one of her friends, and not a special one at that.
He couldn’t stop any of it. He didn’t want to, yet he did. He did not want to see other men considering her as a prospective wife of good fortune, or as an inappropriate woman with whom to dally for a while. Even if she rejected them all, it would drive him mad.
He arrived at Whiteford House a quarter hour before one o’clock. He had rehearsed the words with which he would inform Nicholas that he had been conducting an inquiry for the Home Office even while he conducted one for Nicholas. It was time to do that, since Peel’s request for a report could not be put off any longer. He did not expect his cousin to take the revelation calmly.
Nicholas waited in the library. “There you are. Come in, and prepare yourself,” Nicholas said.
“Prepare myself for what?”
“Family doings. Walter and his wife are coming soon.”
“To ask for money?”
“Undoubtedly. However, from Walter’s note, I think there is more to it than that. He referred to information of the utmost importance.”
“Before they come, I need to tell you something, also of the utmost importance.”
Nicholas made a waving gesture with his hand. “We will talk after they have left. I can only take one utmost importance at a time.”