Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
As the Redmayne’s butler admitted them into the townhouse, Gideon reminded himself that this interview would be no different than any other he would conduct.
He must keep his focus where it was required.
On gathering facts. He couldn’t temper his questions or avoid any line of inquiry to make the Redmaynes more comfortable, despite how much he knew they meant to Electra.
Despite how much Electra meant to him.
He was going to have to tread a difficult line between respecting Electra's friends and remaining steadfast in his search for the truth.
She had told him only the bare details of the connection between Lady Cordelia Redmayne and Percival Pennington. Gideon suspected there was a great deal more to uncover.
Electra led him into the drawing room with pastel walls, pale mint-green furnishings, and vases of fresh flowers dotted on various surfaces, scenting the air.
She took a seat on the settee, but Gideon found he couldn’t sit.
Despite his admonitions to himself, the gravity of this meeting felt different than others he had conducted.
A few moments later, Lady Redmayne and her husband entered the room with their hands clasped. She looked terrified and he looked resolute. Electra stood as Gideon turned to face the couple.
“We understand you have questions for us, Inspector,” Sir Christopher said, his tone polite but cool. Not quite adversarial, but Gideon sensed that, depending on his questions, he may soon spark Redmayne’s ire.
“I do indeed, Sir Christopher, and I would like to question each of you individually.” Gideon gestured to Electra. “Though I have agreed that Miss Poole may remain in the room as well, if you prefer it.”
“I do. I requested it,” Lady Redmayne said in a fierce tone, already shaking with emotion. “And I would like to be the first to speak with you. Anxiety is gnawing at me, Inspector, and I would like to be done with your questions.”
Sir Christopher turned toward her, almost giving Gideon his back, as if he could shield her. He whispered something that Gideon could not hear, kissed her cheek, then faced Gideon again.
“May I trust your discretion, Inspector? What my wife and I divulge to you today are private matters, and I do not wish to see them turned into newspaper fodder.”
“I do not make a practice of speaking to journalists, Sir Christopher, and I understand the topics we will discuss are delicate ones.”
Sir Christopher gave him a long look, as if assessing the veracity of his statement just by studying Gideon’s expression. Whatever he saw seemed to satisfy him, and he dipped his head, then turned again to his wife once more.
“I’ll be in my study. You must not hesitate to send for me if you wish for me to take your place,” Sir Christopher told her, then placed a brief kiss against her temple before releasing her hand and leaving the room, pulling the door shut behind him.
“Shall we sit together?” Electra asked, and Lady Redmayne’s expression softened as soon as she looked Electra’s way.
“I am so grateful you can be with me.” She reached for Electra’s bare hand—at some point she’d removed the black gloves that she commonly wore both in and out of doors.
She had told him once that they helped to repress her abilities when she placed her hands on a person or object. Gideon tried not to think about what she might be sensing from Lady Redmayne.
He sat in a chair across from them and settled his notepad on his thigh.
Lady Cordelia Redmayne gave him a look of such fearful uncertainty that he felt a rush of sympathy for her. He’d sat with witnesses as they cried, shouted, prevaricated, and confessed their worst deeds. But Lady Redmayne looked suddenly young and vulnerable in a way that he hadn’t anticipated.
“I understand that you met Mr. Pennington last year,” Gideon began.
“Yes, about nine months ago, and we formed a friendship over the next several months, but…we were only truly close for two months before I realized it was all a dreadful mistake.”
“So when did you end your association with Mr. Pennington?”
“I attempted to do so in March.”
“But you continued your acquaintance up until yesterday?” he asked.
She licked her lips, glanced at Electra, and nodded. “I attempted to sever our connection in March, but he persisted in contacting me.”
“So, did you continue to see him, or did he simply make attempts that failed?”
“I did not continue to see him, Inspector. I refused his attempts to persuade me to meet with him, but I relented on two occasions.” Lady Redmayne lowered her head a moment. “The first time was about a month ago, and the last time was yesterday afternoon at half three.”
“How did the meeting come about?”
A shudder seemed to run through the lady at the recollection.
“I was visiting a friend and when I stepped out her door, a carriage was there on the street. I saw Percival inside.” For a moment, she seemed to ponder the memory, staring at the far wall before meeting his gaze again.
“I should have walked away. Ignored him as Kit asked me to do, but I was foolish. I thought I could reason with him, though why…” A bitter breath of laughter escaped.
“He had run roughshod over my wishes for months. But I got into the carriage as he bid me to, and he immediately rapped at the wall for the driver to move on.”
“Where did he take you?”
“Not far. He left the square where my friend resides, and I demanded he stop the carriage soon after. Once I’d climbed inside, he’d begun pleading. But he heeded my wish and signaled for the driver to stop.”
“You say he was pleading. Can you describe more of his demeanor and state of mind yesterday afternoon?”
She looked at Electra again, who merely offered an encouraging nod.
“He was quite cross. Angry and pleading. I told him it was the final time I would ever speak to him. I told him…” Her voice had begun to crack, and she drew in a long breath before continuing. “I told him that if cared for me at all, or ever had, that he would respect my decision.”
“And how did he respond?”
“He reached for me, but I pulled away and got out of the carriage. I walked away.”
It was, more or less, what Electra had described to him.
“I take it you did not hear from him again in the hours after that meeting. He did not try to seek you out again?”
She shook her head. “No, he made no further attempt.” When she looked up and held his gaze, she didn’t look sad or grief-stricken by that admission, and in the next moment, she released a shuddery breath that sounded a great deal like relief.
“In your dealings with Mr. Pennington, did you have occasion to give him one of Miss Poole’s calling cards?”
Lady Redmayne blinked, seemingly surprised by the change in topic. “Electra asked me that yesterday, and the answer is no. I have given out her card, but never to Percival.”
“To anyone Pennington was acquainted with?”
“No, not that I’m aware of.”
“Do you know anyone who might have borne any ill will toward Mr. Pennington?”
She’d released Electra’s hand and clutched a handkerchief that he hadn’t noticed. Folding and unfolding the square of fabric, she seemed to give due consideration to the question.
“Percival was a quarrelsome man. Perhaps it came from his profession. But he seemed to have…foes, whether real or imagined, in all aspects of his life. Other barristers who he saw as competitors. Clients he viewed as pests. His niece’s suitor, who he loathed for half a dozen inane reasons.
He even cast his best friend as his enemy on occasion.
” She sighed. “Percival even saw me as troublesome when I would not bend to his wishes. As I said, he saw himself as beleaguered and surrounded by foes.”
Gideon's fingers tightened on the pencil he held, eager for a detailed list of those foes. At least those who were true adversaries and not imagined ones.
“Can you name those who truly opposed him?”
“I don’t know all the details, Inspector.
But Percival mentioned a conflict with his brother that seemed to be, at least in part, over their niece.
They argued about it frequently. Though it seemed they were never truly amicable.
He spoke of Lancelot with derision most often.
And, of course, there was the breach-of-promise matter with Roderick Beecham.
He had broken his engagement to the man’s daughter, which was folly. Utter folly.”
“And you were the reason he broke the engagement?”
“He claimed it was for me, which was absurd, as I had already broken things off with him. And Miss Beecham seemed a lovely, respectable match for him. I urged him to reconsider such a rash decision.” She chafed a hand along her arm as if she was chilled, though the room was, if anything, overly warm.
“I know there was another woman as well.”
Gideon frowned. “Beyond you and Miss Beecham?”
“Yes. Perhaps more than one. Percival frequented a house of assignations, and I know that he was quite taken with at least one woman there.”
“Do you know her name?”
Lady Redmayne shook her head. “He confessed it to me accidentally, I think. One evening when I visited him, he was in his cups and mentioned a lady at a certain house in Bloomsbury. Mentioned that he and Gordon Callister were rivals for some lady there. When I asked him about it later, he was dismissive, claiming it was simply another gentleman’s club that he attended with Mr. Callister, but ladies aren’t admitted to any respectable gentleman’s club. ”
Gideon had already planned to seek “Dahlia” at the Regent Square address in Pennington’s diary, but now it felt even more urgent.
“Was there anyone else he mentioned a conflict with?”
“No.”
“Did he mention anything about his plans for after he met with you yesterday afternoon? Anyone he intended to meet later in the day?”
She lifted her shoulders. “No, Inspector. Our conversation was fraught and then over rather quickly.”
“Thank you, Lady Redmayne, for being forthright and answering my questions.”