Chapter 14 #3
“Maybe, Thorndike. But there are men who are simply not fit for marriage.” His eyebrows arched, seeming to communicate something specific.
“Just as there are men who are not fit for fatherhood, and it is their wives, just as it is their children, who are the ones who suffer for it.” He shook his head sadly.
“You cannot blame a wise woman for thinking twice.”
My ire at Lord Gage for interrupting turned to astonishment.
For I couldn’t help but think that he was speaking of Sir Anthony when he mentioned men unfit for marriage.
It left me feeling a bit like I’d been punched in the stomach, albeit not with malicious intent.
Still, I struggled to draw my next breath.
Gage obviously sensed this, for he glanced at me in concern, though he did not reach out and risk exposing something so personal to Mr. Thorndike’s prying eyes.
Though I was also certain Lord Gage had just revealed something equally personal about his secretary.
For the remark about fathers and children had plainly been aimed at him.
Thorndike’s response was to glower at the rug.
He was clearly battling strong emotions, one of which was undoubtedly shame similar to what I still struggled to shed about my own failed marriage.
Whether he would have conceded his employer’s point, I didn’t know, but there was more behind his mindset about the issue than the typical ignorance and almost willful denial that left so many women and children vulnerable.
“Why did you depart the dining room early on the evening you were invited to dine with us?” Gage asked, both rescuing the man from any unpleasant memories that had been raised by Lord Gage’s remark and also returning to a point on which we still needed clarification. “Why didn’t you remain for port?”
Thorndike’s gaze sharpened briefly at my husband in dislike before shifting to his employer.
Lord Gage cleared his throat. “I asked him to leave. I didn’t think it…advisable for him to remain.”
Then Gage’s earlier speculations about the matter were correct. It was his father’s fault that Thorndike had departed early, not the secretary’s own behest. But that didn’t mean something useful still couldn’t be gleaned from it.
“Did you notice anything unusual?” I queried. “Which way did you go?”
Thorndike didn’t hide the fact that he found these questions odd.
“Through the blue room and across the great hall to here. I collected my things from my office and left through the side door.” For when in Warwickshire, he lived in a cottage a few hundred yards north of the stable block—one of half a dozen such homes utilized by a select number of staff members.
“And no. I didn’t see anything…unusual.”
I couldn’t tell if he was mocking me, but regardless, Gage took offense on my behalf.
“It’s a perfectly legitimate question, Thorndike. Or do you have something to hide?”
The secretary straightened, smoothing away any trace of disrespect from his expression. “No, sir. Apologies, my lady.”
I decided it was best to carry on as if his insolence had never occurred. “So you didn’t notice anyone in the great hall or up on the pass-through balcony?”
This query seemed to give him pause. “Not in the great hall, no. But I don’t think I took any time to note the balcony.”
This sounded like an honest answer. The length of the great hall was immense, and as he was passing along the end farthest from the balcony and the place where Miss Whitlock and I had stopped to confer, it was feasible that he’d seen nothing.
He might have even passed through before we entered.
Because of this, I didn’t press him further.
Lord Gage waited as if to confirm neither his son nor I had any more questions before addressing his secretary.
“Understand this, Mr. Thorndike. You are on thin ice. I expect you to be obliging and respectful from this moment forward, and I shall let you know at the end of the week whether I shall still require your services. Is that understood?”
“Yes, my lord.”
He was dismissed by a wave of Lord Gage’s hand and hurried back to his office.
Gage waited until the door shut and his footsteps were heard receding before turning to ask me, “Do you believe him?”
I considered my response. “Yes. But only because I find it difficult to believe he would resort to such drastic measures. It would also seem out of character for him to throw actual oil of vitriol in a woman’s face simply to teach her a lesson.”
“He does seem more the type to use the vitriol of his words.” Gage’s voice sharpened with censure. “Or barring that, petty bullying.”
“Agreed.” Lord Gage’s gaze was still trained on the door through which Thorndike had fled. I didn’t like the man’s chances of keeping his position. Not that there was anyone else to blame but himself.
“Now then,” Lord Gage declared, turning to his son. “What was it you were saying about Birnam’s manservant?”
This must have been the conversation I’d interrupted when I’d found them earlier standing next to the sideboard in the dining room.
“Anderley and I wish to question him,” Gage informed his father. “But it will need to be done while Birnam is otherwise occupied. Can you manage that?”
Lord Gage rubbed his chin as a smile crossed his lips of which I was instinctively wary. “Leave it to me.”