Chapter 29 #2
“Thomas was coming to Shanghai, taking the train to Seattle,” Mason said, “and he cabled me after the railway disaster to say he was safe, and that obviously his travel plans were now delayed. Of course, I had read all the news articles I could find about the disaster, and when I looked through the list of survivors, I saw the name ‘Caroline Vessey.’ Who was now bereft of her prudent guardians.”
Mason cabled Thomas back and urged him to marry Caroline. “I mean, why spend our own money on a railway venture when he could
get his hands on someone else’s inheritance?”
He peeked at her slyly as he poured cream into his coffee but Caroline said nothing.
“But you know that in the end, Thomas married for love,” Mason said.
“He did,” she said, “Thomas loved me.”
“Indeed. He refused to spend your inheritance on the business. In fact, he dug into his own pockets. But it’s still not quite
enough. Nor is the amount he’s left to the business. I’ll need more, Caroline, to hire someone to take Thomas’s place, to
put in more capital and attract other investors.”
“It doesn’t change my decision, Mason,” Caroline said. “When Thomas was alive, I wasn’t comfortable about this venture. Now
that he’s gone, that puts you in charge and I’m even less confident. Take what’s coming to you from his will, but I won’t
be putting any more money into this venture.”
“But you will, oh, you will,” Mason said, leaning across the table. “And you’ll give me authorization to manage your personal
finances. Because I know who you really are.”
And there it was. The reason behind his changed conduct, why he’d been looking at her so covetously. She poured another cup
of coffee. “Who am I, if not Caroline Stanton?”
“An impostor,” Mason said, “and how do I know? Again, Grey.”
A few nights after the party at Lennox Manor, Mason had gone to his club and played cards with Grey.
By midnight, they were the only two left at the table, still drinking and playing.
Grey lost and couldn’t pay, but claimed he would come into a fortune very soon.
A certain lady would be giving him a great deal of money to preserve her reputation, he’d said, slurring his words.
He was giving her a couple of weeks and then she’d pay him. Fifteen thousand dollars.
“You must be a very persuasive man, Grey,” Mason had said, raising a glass.
“No, just that her indiscretions are worth a lot to keep secret,” Grey replied, “especially after the evidence arrives. I’ve
hired a detective to collect proof, and I expect it to arrive soon. Come see me at the end of the month for your money. It’s
all too delicious, Mason, it really is.”
But then Grey was killed, murdered for unpaid debts.
Then Thomas died, leaving Mason uncertain where he stood financially. Suddenly he remembered Grey’s blackmail scheme and wondered
whether there was any truth to it. Perhaps he could take advantage of such information. Information worth a fortune, Grey
had claimed. It was worth a try. It was an easy walk from Mason’s club to Les Trois Lanternes.
“The police had already searched Grey’s room,” Mason said, “and taken away his mail as part of their investigations. But the
concierge mentioned that some pieces of correspondence had come in for Grey since then and he’d been holding it in case the
police came back. A small bribe and he gave them to me. Imagine my astonishment when I read the contents of a fat envelope
from a New York detective.”
She could only look at him, lips tightly pressed.
“Indeed, it’s all too delicious, it really is.” Mason stood up, pushing his chair back from the table. “So you’ll do as I
say. You’ll give me the authority to manage your finances or I’ll expose you as a fraud.”
“If you do that,” she said, “we will both suffer. If I can’t access the money, you can’t get anything from me.”
“Oh, my dear girl,” he said, “don’t worry.
I don’t want to expose you. If I did, what would happen to all that lovely money that doesn’t actually belong to you?
Let me tell you something, dear girl. You’re everything I could hope for in a woman.
I only wish my son could’ve found someone like you.
You’re a clever one, just what he needed. Devious.”
“How flattering.” She had to get away from this man. “And you’ve just admitted you can’t expose me.”
“I said I didn’t want to expose you. But if you force me, I will, and the difference, my dear,” Mason said, his smile wide and affable, “is that
I will be poor but a free man and you’ll go to jail.”
He stumbled a little on his way to the door, opened it, and turned around to look at her. “Poor old Grey, whatever he was
extorting from you, he wasn’t asking enough.” Still chuckling, he lumbered down the hall toward the staircase, humming loudly
“Land of Hope and Glory,” his voice richly melodious.
She took a glass from the sideboard and poured herself a whiskey. Damn that Grey. A good thing he was dead; he would never
have managed to keep a secret. Grey, then that false princess, and now Mason. Mason, who now possessed whatever evidence Grey
had obtained.
What would her life have been like if she’d remained as Caroline Vessey’s maid-companion? What if Caroline Vessey had lived?
A girl who was shy and difficult around people. A pale ghost of a young woman who hated dinner parties and going outside.
She’d fought so relentlessly against Mrs. Dominic’s plans for a coming out ball that in the end her aunt had given up in despair,
and made it known that Caroline suffered from a delicate constitution. Caroline had agreed to travel cross-country with her
aunt and uncle only if she could bring her maid, her classmate.
Near the end, Caroline had become demanding to live with.
She had made some oblique comments about gratitude and charity.
Their former relationship began disintegrating as Caroline began treating her more and more as a servant.
Then Caroline dangled the prospect of an inheritance.
“I’ve written you into my will,” she said, a smirk on her pallid features, “a nice sum of twenty-five thousand when I die. For being a true and loyal friend, the only one who understands me.”
It was a bribe, and they both knew it. So that no matter how badly Caroline Vessey treated her, she could never protest, never
disobey, never leave or she’d jeopardize that twenty-five thousand dollars. And in the end, both the Vessey and Dominic fortunes
had been handed to her, along with a new identity. A fur coat and a body found in the wrong compartment. That was all it took
for her fortunes to change.
And now, there was Mason as well as Masako Kyo. She considered each of her would-be blackmailers. Kyo was not as much of a
threat as Mason, because Mason was the one with the evidence. She had very little time.