Chapter 10 #4
As a consequence of these thoughts, as soon as Amy had left Eleanor took a drastic step. Accompanied by Jenny, she walked around to Lord Middlethorpe’s rooms. It was most improper, but she knew she could trust Jenny’s discretion. She only hoped she was not seen.
Francis’s man was amazed to see her, but she gave him no time to object and simply walked in. “Please tell Lord Middlethorpe Mrs. Delaney is here to see him.”
Francis had heard her voice, however, and came to her. “For heaven’s sake, Eleanor, you should not be here. Is anything wrong?”
She waited until she was settled in privacy, leaving Jenny to sit nervously in the hall. “Francis, I have to ask you some questions,” Eleanor said. “But you must promise me you will not tell Nicholas of this visit or of what we are to discuss.”
If he had looked concerned before, now Lord Middlethorpe looked worried. “Eleanor, you know I would not normally discuss you with Nicholas, but if you’re asking such a promise then you must know I will think I should.”
Eleanor refused to be daunted. “Yes, but I know better. I need your help Francis, but without your word I cannot ask it.”
“If you need help, believe me, Nicholas is the one to turn to, not I. He would not fail you.”
“Perhaps not,” said Eleanor, unbending. “I will decide that. I have certain decisions to make and I need more information. I may well tell Nicholas the whole, but as things stand now, I cannot.”
There was a tense silence, “This is a kind of blackmail,” he said angrily.
“Is it? How unpleasant. But we are all being driven to rather unpleasant measures, are we not?”
He looked at her, startled. “Do I understand you know something of what is in hand?”
“I must have your promise,” said Eleanor.
There was a further implacable silence that amounted to a battle of wills. In the end he surrendered and gave his word. “Though I should probably just tell Nicholas what you have said so far and let him deal with it,” he sighed.
Eleanor chose her words carefully. If Francis knew nothing, she did not want to reveal the treason to him. “I have been given to understand,” she said, “that Nicholas is involved with Madame Bellaire not merely amorously but in certain matters of international significance.”
She watched his reaction. He was shocked.
“How did you know about that woman?” he demanded angrily.
“Really, Francis. All London knows, and that is the least of our problems.” As she said it, Eleanor realized it was true. At the moment she was not concerned by her husband’s attachment to the other woman except insofar as it endangered his life.
“Very well,” Lord Middlethorpe admitted uneasily. “What you say is true. But how did you find out? It is vital that I know and tell Nicholas.”
“But I have your word,” she said.
He groaned. “Eleanor! If you know what is involved, then you know it extremely important. This is no time for girlish whims.”
“That is unfair, Francis,” she protested sharply.
“It would be very easy to shelve my responsibilities, but I will not do it. Give me the facts and I will make my decision. But,” she added desperately, “I can’t understand how he can have been so mad as to have involved himself. Are you too entangled?”
“No, no. I’m not,” he assured her. “Or not directly. Nicholas said it was too risky for me, as I am the sole reliance of my mother and sisters.”
“And is he not my sole reliance?”
He placed a comforting hand on hers. “He became involved before your marriage, Eleanor. And he knows you could always turn to his brother.”
Eleanor abandoned an unprofitable side issue. “So it is true.” She frowned up at him. “Francis, are you saying you approve of what he is doing?”
“Approve is too strong a word,” he said. “But I understand his motives, yes. I also admire his resolution.”
Eleanor sighed and shook her head. She would never understand men. “And I thought I knew you both. I think you’re both mad, but Nicholas is my husband and I suppose it is my duty to support him, no matter how foolish the matter.”
She rose and pulled on her gloves. “I must go. You may tell him, if you wish, that my brother plots mischief toward him. It would be best, of course, if he came to his senses and abandoned this business before it ruins him, but otherwise he may want to watch Lionel carefully. Do not, under any circumstances, tell Nicholas I know anything. I have your word.”
She was aware when she left him that he looked worried to death. It only seemed fair that the world share her anxiety.
Strangely, Eleanor found that this new, terrible burden relieved the other stresses that had oppressed her.
That her husband should be a dreamer, chasing a mad ideal to the exclusion of other normal interests, seemed in many ways a change for the better.
At least he was not just a lust-sodden libertine.
The need to make the right decision, however, was overwhelming, and he could not be applied to for advice.
With these thoughts swirling in her mind it was very disconcerting to find Nicholas in the house when she returned, and to hear he wished to see her in the study as soon as possible. Had Francis told him? Impossible so soon.
She found him at his desk busy with a pile of papers. He hardly glanced at her. It was, perhaps, a blessing, for she would not know how to handle a moment of tenderness just now.
“It suddenly occurred to me, Eleanor,” he said casually, “that it would be convenient for you to have your own key to the safe. You may require the jewels when I am not available.” He handed her a key. “Just look after it, my dear.”
This was so unexpected, and so pat to her problem of taking the pearls, that Eleanor was thrown into confusion. “Why, I don’t … You know I rarely wear jewels … Thank you.” She gathered her wits. “I had meant to ask, Nicholas. The pearls must be very valuable. I fear to lose them, I must confess.”
He looked up in faint surprise. “They are, of course. More to the point, they would be hard to replace. But they are intended to be worn. It’s said pearls lose their luster if they’re left in the box too long.
” He shrugged with genuine indifference.
“If they’re lost, they’re lost. It would be no blighting tragedy. ”
It put the matter in perspective. What were the pearls compared to a man’s life? “You put my mind at rest,” she said. “I will try to wear them now and then.”
She hesitated. She would like to say something to bring some warmth to the moment, but he had returned to his papers and she felt she had no choice but to leave him in peace.
He must have left the house again for she dined alone, which finally gave her ample time to think. She decided she would give the pearls to her brother. It was a paltry price to pay for her husband’s life.
Her only alternative was to tell Nicholas the whole.
He would inform his fellow conspirators and they would kill Lionel.
If Lionel had truly left letters of evidence then all would be lost. But even if he had not, Eleanor balked at signing her brother’s death warrant, especially to rescue a cause she found despicable.
Pushing her half-eaten food away, she raged at Nicholas for having embroiled them all in such a fiasco.