Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Henry Austen rose from behind his desk when the maid showed Dora and Jacob into his study. The room was gloomy after the street. Afternoon sunlight slanted through the bow window so he’d pulled the curtains to reduce the glare. Dust motes danced in the gap.
‘Thank you for coming. I take it this means you’ve accepted the case?’ He shook Jacob’s hand and insisted on bowing over Dora’s.
‘We have,’ said Jacob, placing the contract on the desk. ‘Would you care to review our terms?’
Waving them to a chair, Henry read through the document with laudable care, which Dora found reassuring in a man who was responsible for other people’s money. He raised a brow when he came to the amount and looked over at Jacob.
‘I owe your brother a debt,’ said Jacob.
‘Thank you.’ Henry nodded and signed the bottom with a flourish. ‘Frank will appreciate the gesture, though he has always said he was doing no more than his duty.’
‘Few captains would wade into the surf to haul a bleeding man off a beach.’
Dora was liking the sound of this naval Austen and hoped she would get a chance to meet him.
Their client grimaced as he blotted his signature.
‘Please don’t tell my mother and sisters about that.
He has them convinced his duties are nothing more than nannying trading vessels along the coast, with rarely a shot fired in anger.
’ He passed the contract back. ‘Has Miss Fitz-Pennington explained the case?’
‘She has,’ confirmed Jacob.
Henry drew a sheet from the top drawer in his desk. ‘In preparation for your visit, I made a note of what we learned at the inquest. There were witnesses who may know more. The coroner rather hurried through it, thinking there was no one alive to prosecute.’
Jacob took the paper, glanced at it, then passed it to Dora.
‘Mr Austen, what are you hoping we can achieve by looking into this? You told my partner you wanted to know what drove the servant to the killing, but would it not be better, as she suggested, to let the matter drop? Your bank could do without more bad publicity, particularly should we find out things that do no credit to the victims, and by extension to yourself.’
The lines around Henry’s mouth deepened, frown lines on his brow aging him beyond his forty-odd years.
‘Then you’ve heard the rumours? I’m not sure more damage could be done, Dr Sandys, but I’m hopeful some good can be salvaged if we find out the truth.
The comte and comtesse were fine people.
I for one don’t believe the bad things being said about them and they do not deserve to have their reputation smeared by the speculation that has been swirling since they are no longer here to defend themselves. ’
‘What speculation would that be?’ asked Dora.
Anger flushed Henry’s cheeks. ‘That they were feeding information to Napoleon’s ministers and using their connections to find out secrets about the relations between the Prince Regent and the government.
’ Henry wiped a hand over his mouth as if the words were leaving a bitter taste. ‘There are rumours of bribes.’
‘Ah. Now I think I understand. They would need a source of funds for bribes. Were they clients of yours?’ asked Jacob.
Henry nodded. ‘Not exclusively, but yes, we had dealings.’
‘Are you prepared to show us the books?’
Anger turned into doubt. ‘I… I would have to ask their son, but in principle I would be happy to do so, if he agrees.’ A bell rang in the room next door, and Henry looked relieved at the reprieve.
Dora wondered if indeed he had something to hide.
‘That’s my wife ringing for tea … and to remind me to introduce you.
She doesn’t want to be left out of this – the D’Antraigues were her friends even more than they were mine.
In view of the sensitivities, we wish to be very closely involved in this investigation, as we will explain.
We’d like a convincing counter-story in place for the return to the Autumn Season. Shall we go through?’
Dora had to admit to a certain excitement at meeting the famous Mrs Austen, the one Alex considered the most interesting personage in the family that already included a heroic naval captain.
She was therefore taken aback to find two ladies in the drawing room, rather than one.
She hesitated for a moment, trying to decide which was Henry’s wife and realised she could tell by dress alone.
Mrs Austen, a mature beauty with sparkling dark eyes, was in an exquisite morning gown of striped cambric muslin, elaborate pintucks, needle lace and white-work embroidery – the kind of gown that would suffer if the wearer did anything as practical as cook or clean a fireplace.
The other lady, comely rather than pretty, fresh-faced with curly light brown hair and hazel eyes, was wearing a round gown similar to ones Dora owned.
You could don these without assistance from a maid, thanks to the drawstring neckline.
The cloth was finer than Dora could afford – grey leaves printed on a blue background – but it was of a colour and thickness that meant it would not suffer from a little housework or a walk in the country.
Was the second woman a companion to Eliza Austen?
Many fine ladies had dependent relatives to keep them company while their husbands were at work or at their club.
‘Dr Sandys, Miss Fitz-Pennington, may I present my wife,’ said Henry as the white-bedecked lady greeted them from beside the tea tray, ‘and my younger sister Jane?’ The other lady rose, revealing her to be taller and thinner than Eliza.
She gave them a wry smile, and Dora got the distinct impression that Miss Austen had noticed her survey of their clothes and the conclusions Dora had drawn upon entry and was vastly amused by her.
So much for Alex’s description of the Austen sisters as dull spinsters; this one was as sharp as one of Jacob’s scalpels.
Having shaken hands and taken a seat, Eliza poured the tea while her sister-in-law handed the cups around.
Dora wondered how much they could discuss before the visitor from the country.
Henry had already said that the details of his brother’s exploits should be kept from his mother and sisters and a murder investigation was far worse.
‘Are you staying in the city for long?’ she asked Miss Austen politely when the initial pleasantries on the weather and state of the roads were over.
‘For as long as I am needed,’ the lady said enigmatically.
Henry smiled at his sister with what looked like real affection. ‘Jane has come up from Chawton to assist us in our time of need.’
‘Indeed, no one is aware I am from home,’ said the lady with a complaisant smile. ‘These summer colds can keep you indoors for weeks, do you not find?’ She addressed the question to Dora.
Having to earn her own living, Dora rarely spent a day in bed ill, let alone with something as trifling as a cold. ‘I suppose it might.’
‘There is no one better than Jane in a crisis,’ said Henry, crunching on a biscuit and chewing it with resolution.
Eliza offered Dora a plate of shortbread. ‘Jane is quite the most intelligent of the Austens – we all agree on that.’
‘While you are the most charming,’ Jane replied.
Eliza laughed. ‘Oh, Jane, I’m so glad you are here.’
‘But Jane also has the advantage that she is not as well known in town as either my wife or I.’
‘I am entirely unremarkable,’ said Jane acerbically.
Henry smiled indulgently. ‘Hardly, but if she is seen with you, no one will make the connection to us.’
Now it was beginning to make sense. Henry was delegating to his sister the job of keeping abreast of what she and Jacob discovered, rather than coming to and fro from their office himself and risking someone asking questions as to what business he had with them.
Spinster sisters were frequently employed on the tasks the married ladies and gentlemen considered they did not have time to do, it being a truth generally acknowledged that sisters and aunts were at everyone’s disposal.
‘We will certainly write reports when there is anything to learn and send them to Miss Austen,’ said Jacob, evidently thinking along the same lines as Dora. ‘There’s no need for her to come all the way into the West End to Bruton Mews.’
‘No, no,’ said Eliza. ‘Dear Jane has our complete confidence and will prove an invaluable helpmate – she will be going with you as you investigate.’
‘Indeed, she has as much at stake in this as we do and her powers of observation are unsurpassed,’ said Henry firmly.
‘Only because most of the world goes around with their eyes closed,’ said Miss Austen.
‘Indubitably an asset,’ said Eliza. ‘Would anyone like a second cup?’
Dora and Jacob emerged onto Sloane Street and turned back towards the city. By common consent, they did not discuss the case until they had left Knightsbridge and were unlikely to be overheard by anyone from the Austen household.
‘What just happened?’ asked Dora, unable to suppress her indignation any longer. ‘Did Mr and Mrs Austen just foist on us their country mouse sister to help in a case of double murder with a seasoning of espionage, or am I in some fever dream?’
‘They did,’ said Jacob gruffly.
‘Why? I mean to say, I know they don’t know us like Captain Austen knows you, so they may not trust us, but don’t they realise how foolish this is?
I’m all for valuing my fellow women, but in this case, she will only get in the way.
It’s not fair on her to throw her into a situation for which she is not equipped.
’ That was what really had lit the fuse on Dora’s temper – the fact that Henry and Eliza were risking their sister while staying safe themselves.
‘Tell me, Jacob, what would she do if we came across a dangerous situation – and you have to admit we’ve faced too many of those recently to discount the possibility?
What will Miss Jane Austen from Chawton do?
Throw her bonnet at the villains? Give them a good telling off? ’
Jacob allowed her to pace off some of her fury.
He had to be sharing it. Unfortunately, the contract had been signed before this was sprung on them, so he was left trying to make the best of it.
‘Is it really so foolish? Remember, the villain of this piece is already dead. We are charged to find the motive, not find more ne’er-do-wells. ’
Dora snorted. ‘Balderdash! If we do dig up scandal on a French count and countess, what’s the betting it is going to be a very dirty business, tarnishing everyone who gets close?
’ Her confusion cleared. ‘You know what? I think Miss Jane Austen is being sent as their man – by which I mean woman – in our investigation.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘When I met him in the office, I warned Henry Austen we wouldn’t make anything up, and he said he had a sister who would do that for him.
I didn’t understand what he meant then, but now I do.
Jacob, we can’t let her into our investigation: she’ll twist everything we learn to make it into the pretty fiction her brother wants! ’
Jacob frowned, not liking that one bit. He was even more of a stickler for the truth than she was. ‘But the client demands her participation.’
‘Can’t we tell the client to go hang?’ Dora was more than ready to throw over this investigation, no matter how interesting it had sounded at first. The conditions had become unacceptable and, besides, they didn’t stand to earn very much. ‘Really, it would be no sacrifice to let it drop.’
‘But I owe Frank. My honour is involved. I will understand if you wish to keep out of it.’
Dora briefly glimpsed the exit from her predicament, then groaned. ‘I can’t, can I? Miss Austen will be expecting another female to chaperone her when out and about with you.’
‘She’s hardly of an age…’ He let it hang delicately, but he meant that Miss Austen was long past her last prayers in the ridiculous husband hunt of the ton.
‘Quite, but appearance will matter to a family like that. They engaged both of us on this case, assuming I’d be there. Dammit!’
Jacob pulled a sympathetic face. ‘I’m afraid you won’t be able to swear in front of her either, my love.’
‘Bloody hell!’
‘He did say she had an eye for detail.’
‘We’re the damned investigators, not her!
’ Dora knew she had to get her temper in check.
It had to be the heat getting to her, the onset of her monthlies, and the prospect of a long dusty walk back to Bruton Mews from Knightsbridge village.
Rather than give in to the impulse to growl, she said: ‘Shall we hail a cab, spare ourselves the walk?’
His blue eyes twinkled at her. ‘How about a cab and then an ice cream at Gunter’s?’
The promise of sweet delight swiftly cooled her anger. Dora grinned up at him. ‘An excellent notion.’ She tucked her arm through his and squeezed fondly. ‘That is exactly what the doctor ordered.’