Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Under most circumstances, Electra would never consider seeking Gideon out at his home unannounced or without prior agreement.
But she had gone to Vine Street station after leaving Kit and Cordelia, and he’d not been in.
She’d left a note with the desk sergeant and then placed one on his front door shortly thereafter, conveying her need to speak to him.
She also mentioned that he should not call at Russell Square and stated her intention to visit his home address in the early evening.
Now, many hours later, as her hired carriage rolled down his street, a wash of nervousness had her fiddling with the buttons at the edge of her glove, straightening the folds of her skirt, and trying not to think about how Gideon might react when she revealed Cordelia and Kit’s involvement with Mr. Percival Pennington.
She and Gideon had grown close again since reuniting the previous year during her involvement in the case of Lady Helen Becknell.
That increasing closeness had been a balm at times, and yet unsettling at other times.
He knew her as no one else did, and despite how she’d hidden her psychic gifts from him, he trusted her in a singular way.
Even when she did not desire his protective impulses, his strength reassured her.
They had been friends and allies as children, but now she struggled to define what was between them.
Their friendship endured, of course, but there was more. A yearning she sometimes saw in his eyes, and then told herself she might have been mistaken. That uncertainty unsettled her, and it was one of the reasons she had only visited his home on three previous occasions.
Her hired cab drew up to his terraced house, and she released a relieved breath to see the note she’d slipped inside the door frame earlier was no longer there. Gideon was home.
She paid the driver and approached, noting the light on in the front room. Before she could lift a hand to knock, the door slid open.
Gideon stood on the other side in his shirtsleeves and suspenders, without any necktie or coat or waistcoat.
He looked tired, a bit disheveled, and yet undeniably handsome.
It had been a long while since she'd seen him in such a state of undress. Not since they lived in the same home as children, when the need for formal dress didn’t matter to either of them. Now, it jarred her to see him this way.
“Electra?” His voice emerged in a questioning tone because she’d stood before him too long saying nothing. “Would you like to come inside?”
“Yes, of course.” She stepped in, allowed him to help her remove her coat, and then followed him down his narrow hallway into the front parlor.
“Are you all right?” he asked as soon as they’d crossed the threshold. “I received your notes and they had me a bit worried.”
“I myself am fine.” She had expected this to be difficult, fearing his reaction when he learned of Cordelia’s involvement with Percival Pennington.
At her hesitation, he gestured toward a steaming cup on a side table near the chair she knew he favored.
“I’ve just made myself a cup of tea, and the kettle is still warm. May I pour you one?”
“Yes, that would be lovely.”
While he went to the kitchen, Electra clasped her gloved hands together and considered how to tell him what she’d discovered.
He didn't know Cordelia and Kit the way she did.
And once he knew of Cordelia's involvement with Pennington and, worse, the fact that she had spoken to him on the day of his death…
“Here we are,” he said as he entered with a teacup and saucer on a small tray for her. “A spot of milk, no sugar.”
Gideon placed the tray on a side table and sat down. Electra sat in the cushioned chair across from him. He waited until she’d taken her first sip, took a drink of his own tea, and then tipped his head as he looked at her.
“Something is troubling you.” He leaned forward in his chair, elbows braced on his thighs, hands together. “May I help in some way?”
Electra found, to her very great frustration, that her hands were trembling. “I have information about the Pennington case that will be of interest to you.”
He blinked in confusion. “You know something about Percival Pennington after all? Did he come to one of your sessions?”
“No.” Her voice emerged too sharp. She closed her eyes, reminding herself that the man across from her was someone she had known most of her life.
“I did not lie to you last night. I did not know the man. I even looked back through the diary I keep, in which I note everyone who’s come to me. There was nothing.”
“Then what information have you learned about him?”
Electra met his gaze squarely. “I know what you must do when I say this. I know the steps you must take and everything that will be required of you as a Metropolitan Police detective.”
He said nothing, merely gazed at her expectantly.
“It's Cordelia.”
“Lady Redmayne?”
“She was acquainted with Percival Pennington.”
Gideon leaned back in his chair. “Is that how your card came into his possession?”
“I don’t know. She says she did not give him my card.”
“And how is she acquainted with him?”
Electra felt suddenly overheated and reached up to tug at the high neck of her gown. “I am about to confide facts about my friend that feel very private and will be quite damaging when they become public.”
Gideon bent toward her again. “I can see how this disturbs you, but I’m listening. What was the nature of her relationship with Pennington?”
“They were more than acquaintances.”
“Is he…the reason that Sir Christopher doesn't live at Russell Square?”
He’d lowered his voice, and it did have what she suspected was the desired effect. It soothed her nerves a bit.
“No, as I understand it from Cordelia, Kit himself had engaged in a liaison that damaged the trust in their marriage. At that point, last year, they agreed to live separately for a time.”
“When did he take lodgings elsewhere?”
“Not quite a year ago. I don’t recall the month.”
“So, Sir Christopher moved out, and how did Cordelia meet Pennington?”
Electra took a sip of her tea, savoring the warmth and comfort of it. “She says that she met him at a solicitor's office. She'd gone to discuss the possibility of divorce proceedings.”
Gideon’s brows winged high. “Good God.”
“Yes, apparently the breach in their marriage was quite serious.”
Divorce would have irreparably damaged the reputation of both of them. Electra found it hard to believe that Cordelia, who’d seemed to love Kit despite the rift between them, would have truly considered such a difficult path.
“She formed a quick rapport with Pennington, and he became very attached. I suppose she did as well. But she told me yesterday that Kit would be coming back to Russell Square. She had ended things with Mr. Pennington months ago.”
Gideon took a swig from his teacup, set it aside, then rubbed his hands together, as if considering what she’d told him.
“When did Lady Redmayne break things off with Pennington?”
“Two months ago, she says she had planned to do so earlier, that she had intended to reconcile with Kit for a long while. But Pennington…persisted in pursuing her.”
The embers in the fireplace grate had dimmed to occasional flickers and Gideon stood to stoke it back into flame.
“Did Sir Christopher have any dealings with Mr. Pennington?” he asked with his back to her.
“He went to speak to him. Cordelia says it was only once. Kit advised him to cease contacting her.”
“And this was when?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“And when did Lady Redmayne last speak to Mr. Pennington?”
Electra clenched her hands into fists. It was the detail she dreaded the most. “Yesterday,” she said quietly.
Gideon turned toward her, a stunned look in his eyes, and she found herself desperate to make him understand.
“Kit couldn’t have done this, Gideon. Nor Cordelia. I must also say that she did not send me to speak with you. I'm here because she is my friend, who has been most generous to me, and yet I knew that you needed to know these details too.”
He crossed to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I understand your desire to protect your friend, and I know how loyal you are.”
Electra turned in her chair, looking up at him. “It is not merely loyalty. And it’s not clouding my judgement. I know both of them. I live with Cordelia. Would I not have sensed if she had murdered a man last evening?”
Gideon crossed to his chair and sat down again. “I know that you can sense a great deal, and I cannot begin to explain how—”
“I touched her, Gideon. She asked me to take her hand, and I did.”
His eyes widened and he wore a look she knew too well. The prospect of new details about a case always put a spark in his eyes. “And what did you see?”
Electra thought back to the images. “That she spent time with Pennington walking through Hyde Park. That she was in a carriage with him, and he was pleading with her. She climbed out and left him.”
“When was the carriage incident? Did she tell you?”
“I believe it happened yesterday. And I saw that she did leave him well and alive.”
“At what time?”
“She was away from Russell Square between three and five. I saw her before she departed and when she returned. Earlier in the day, she’d invited me to dine at home with her and Kit.
I declined because of our planned dinner, but later we did dine together at Russell Square.
However, Kit was detained elsewhere, so it was just the two of us. ”
Gideon pressed a hand to his mouth, pensive and quiet. “Any idea where Sir Christopher was last evening?”
“He said he attended debates in the House of Commons.” Electra drew in a deep breath. “What happens next?”
Gideon lowered his hands to brace them on his hips. “Lady Redmayne will be called to testify at the inquest.”
Electra’s eyes fluttered shut, but she forced them open. “Then there will be a scandal. An MP’s wife and a Queen’s Counsel barrister.”
“If what you saw was the last meeting between Percival Pennington and Lady Redmayne, then she may very well be the last person who saw him alive. The coroner will wish for her to testify to his demeanor and state of mind, at the very least.”
To her surprise, Gideon reached up and buttoned the top buttons of his shirt, then stood and retrieved his waistcoat and suit coat, which she hadn’t noticed resting on the back of a chair.
“I need to speak to them. Separately,” he told her. “Preferably tonight.”
Electra sat her teacup aside and stood too. “I want to be there when you speak to her.”
He ground his teeth. “I cannot allow it, Electra.”
“You have allowed me to be in the room with others while you've spoken to them. Even someone I was acquainted with.” Months ago, a school friend had invited her to Oxfordshire, and she had found herself caught up in a murder investigation with which Gideon had assisted.
“Not someone you reside with.”
“I would not interfere. I simply wish to be there so that Cordelia might feel less frightened.”
Gideon turned away to don the clothes he’d apparently removed when he’d come home. She knew he was pondering her request, and she prayed he would relent.
“Will you take her hand again?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder.
Electra frowned. “Are you asking me to, Gideon?” He had come to believe in her abilities, or at least express less doubt than when he first learned of them. “Or are you asking me not to?”
When he faced her, his expression was inscrutable. It was the look of unruffled control that he employed during a case. “If you do, I ask you to tell me what you’ve seen, even if it were a truth you would wish to protect Lady Redmayne from.”
“So you do suspect her?” Even saying the words shot a chill down her spine.
“I cannot make presumptions, Electra, about anyone’s guilt or innocence. You must know that. An investigation requires as much objectivity as I can muster.”
Electra nodded. “I know.”
And if she did touch Cordelia and saw something damning, she could never keep the truth from Gideon, not even to protect Cordelia.
“Are they both at Russell Square now?” he asked.
“Yes, they were when I departed. Kit had seen the newspapers and came to comfort Cordelia.”
That caused one of Gideon’s brows to lift. “So he was entirely aware of the relationship, and she was aware of his entanglement?”
“Yes, and according to Cordelia, they’d set those liaisons aside in order to reconcile.”
“But Pennington refused to let her go.”
“He persisted in contacting her, or so I understand.” But why, Electra couldn’t help but wonder, did Cordelia agree to meet him in a carriage if she had cut ties with the man?
“I’d prefer to speak to them this evening, prior to the inquest. Shall we go?”
It was all of a matter of minutes until they’d secured a hansom and were on their way to Russell Square. Electra sensed the tension in Gideon, in the way he held himself stiffly, giving her ample space within the cramped confines of the cab.
They said nothing to each other, so it surprised her when he turned to her and spoke quietly. “Please understand what I am about to say is not intended to offend you.” He side-eyed her a moment and added, “You must not interfere while I’m speaking to the Redmaynes.”
Electra turned to look at him. “So, you will allow me to sit in when you question Kit too?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He gave a nod in reply.
“Have you identified a suspect in the case?” She knew it was bold to ask and that he may refuse to tell her anything, yet she could not resist the inquiry.
“I have no evidence that points definitively to his killer,” he said, while keeping his gaze fixed out the carriage window. “But it was someone he knew. Probably someone he trusted. An individual who could get close without Pennington suspecting their intentions.”
“And when was he attacked? The papers only mentioned that it happened last evening.”
“The police surgeon suggests around half five in the early evening.”
Electra’s heart thudded fiercely behind her ribs. She laid a hand on his coat sleeve, feeling the need to repeat a key fact. “I was with Cordelia at that time, Gideon. She could not have done this.”
Gideon lifted his hand, placing it gently against her gloved one where it lay against his arm.
“Then you are her alibi, Electra, but does Sir Christopher Redmayne have one?”