Chapter 21
The Consequences of Idle Chatter
All that sounded extravagant or irrational in the progress of the reconciliation might have no origin but in the language of the relators.
Jane Austen, Persuasion
Adam let Rosalind keep her silence on the ride home.
Rosalind was grateful for it. For one thing, the evening had turned rainy and so Laurel had decided that she did not wish to take her accustomed seat beside the driver.
Although the maid dutifully busied herself with a bit of mending from her work basket, Rosalind was not prepared to have any sort of delicate conversation in front of her.
But more than that, Rosalind was not prepared to talk yet. Despite the fact that she appeared to have achieved all the ends Clara and Devon had hoped for, she found she was still unsettled and dissatisfied.
Is there something I missed? Should we have stayed longer, and asked more questions?
But there was no way to tell. At least, not yet.
Mrs. Leigh was the only one still awake when they returned to the Green Briar. She’d sat up in the common room so there’d be someone to greet them, and to light candles for them all to take upstairs. She also brought up a pot of tea at Rosalind’s request.
Feeling tired and dull, Rosalind remained silent while Laurel helped her out of her evening gown and into her nightclothes.
“I’ll take this to my room and get it brushed and tidied,” said Laurel as she draped Rosalind’s gown across her arm.
“Thank you, and that will be all for tonight.”
Laurel was perfectly used to the various comings and goings in Rosalind’s Orchard Street home, so she didn’t bat an eye at this early dismissal. “Yes, miss.”
Her maid carried the gown away, and Rosalind sat down with a sigh and began the long business of brushing out her hair.
After a time, she heard a soft footstep outside the door. She turned just in time to see Adam slip inside.
“I hoped you’d still be awake,” he said, closing the door. “I had to be quick. I’m sure our landlady suspects me of something.” Of course Mrs. Leigh knew their real names, and their real relation to each other, or rather, their lack of real relation.
“You should hint at her we are genuinely engaged,” said Rosalind.
“I did, but I don’t think she believes me.”
“I’m sure Mrs. Kendricks told her.”
“Perhaps. Or perhaps she thinks you’re still in line for the duke.”
Rosalind fell silent.
“I’m sorry. That sounded like a better joke when I said it to myself.”
“Do you think I’m still in line for the duke?” asked Rosalind softly.
Adam bent down and took her face gently between his hands. The kiss was long and it was slow—as if there were no suspicious landlady, no anxious families, no worry over anything at all. There was only this moment of comfort, of intimate warmth, and the two of them together.
When breath finally demanded they part, Adam drew back, just a little, and smiled. “Do we need to talk about the party?” he asked, brushing her loosened hair back from her cheek.
Rosalind sighed and tilted her head, so she gently captured one of his hands between her cheek and shoulder. “I expect we’d better, before the details become … clouded. Come and sit down. I think there’s still some tea in the pot, but it’s quite cold.”
Adam laughed. “I’ve spent more nights surviving on cold tea than I can count. It will be a great improvement to drink some while I’m warm and in good company.” He kissed her again, then sat down in the chair by the room’s small table. Rosalind moved to sit across from him and pour out the tea.
“So, what happened between you and Mrs. Lynn?” asked Adam. “And the Kinsdale sisters?”
Rosalind told him about Mrs. Lynn engaging her in conversation just long enough for Elizabeth to slip away from the party and then waiting in the garden to see Elizabeth come back in after meeting a man who never showed his face.
She detailed her conversation with Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s story of having met Mrs. Lynn by disrupting a less-than-honest transaction over a horse.
Then, she talked about Cynthia, and her worries about Admiral Walsingham being evicted from his tenancy of Kinsdale House.
She told him how Mrs. Lynn disrupted that conversation as well, and then about the confidential talk she held with the widow in the upstairs corridor, which ended in Mrs. Lynn declaring she meant to retreat without fuss.
“Victory then,” said Adam mildly.
“So it would seem.”
“Are you wondering why it was so easy?”
“Yes,” said Rosalind. “I am also wondering if somehow Mrs. Lynn’s original design in taking up with the Kinsdales has already been achieved.”
“It’s possible that it has, at least in part.”
“What did you find out?”
Adam sighed and reached for the teapot to refill his cup.
“I thought at first those guests of Mrs. Lynn’s were just idle rich folk, come for an evening’s heavy play.
And some of them were. Perhaps most of them.
But the more I looked about, the more I realized there were also a number of hardened, professional gamblers among them—men and women both.
They’d been lured to the house on the promise of good pickings. ”
“Lured?”
Adam nodded. “I managed to have a little conversation with the men who were loaning out the money in return for the promissory notes. They may have mistaken me for one of their kind.”
“I can’t imagine how that might have happened,” said Rosalind.
Adam shrugged. “People see what they expect to see. But it seems that the loans they make carry interest, and it further seems that Mrs. Lynn is paid a percentage of that interest, in consideration for her work in arranging these parties and bringing in the pigeons—”
Rosalind raised her brows. “Cant language from you, Mr. Harkness?”
“It is a highly economical means of expressing oneself,” he answered, his tone filled with mock indignation.
Rosalind nodded solemnly and Adam grinned.
“I was also able to talk with Sir Anthony a little. He seemed entirely ignorant of the matter. Either that, or he was supremely unconcerned.” Adam frowned.
“It’s unusually difficult to tell which it is with that gentleman.
But I suspect Mrs. Lynn is using some of her profits to keep his Bath creditors at bay, and that, combined with her expert flattery, keeps Sir Anthony complacent. ”
“Cynthia said that she had seen tradesmen coming to the door, and heard Mrs. Lynn telling them that if they come back next week, they would be paid in full.”
“It would also explain why Mrs. Lynn has been so diligent in reinforcing Sir Anthony’s faith in Kinsdale’s Pride.
If Sir Anthony is certain his fortunes will be restored after the race, he’ll be able to convince himself that any money Mrs. Lynn lays out on his behalf is just a loan.
This will soothe his pride and make it easier to convince himself that all is right. ”
“Yes.” Rosalind swirled the remnants of the cold, bitter tea in her cup. “That is very possible.”
“But you are not satisfied?”
“No. I keep wondering about what part Miss Smith back in London plays in all of this. Not to mention the horse,” she added dryly.
“Poor Kinsdale’s Pride has been mentioned so often since we came to Bath, I am having difficulty believing she is an innocent bystander.
And then there’s the matter of the head groom. ”
“The groom?” said Adam. “Has he returned to the story?”
Rosalind nodded. “His name is Nathanial Spence. Cynthia told me he did good work for the Kinsdales, and that when he was dismissed, he had not been paid for some time. She also said that the accusation of him poisoning the horses for a rival breeder was entirely without foundation.”
Adam considered this. “Was there any mention of him going to court to try to claim his wages?”
“It would be an incredible risk for him, wouldn’t it?
When there is this accusation that he was a poisoner hanging over his head?
” It was unfortunately true that a man who possessed rank and land was likely to be believed over a man who worked for his living.
Even if that man was such an object as Sir Anthony Kinsdale.
“Perhaps,” said Adam. “But being a head groom is a skilled, and a potentially lucrative occupation. I would think he might at least try his chances, especially against someone known to be so delinquent with his creditors as Sir Anthony.”
Rosalind frowned. “I wonder whether Mr. Spence was dismissed before or after Mrs. Lynn made her appearance. I should have asked that, and did not.”
“It would be good to know,” agreed Adam. “That would tell us if Spence is part of this, or if he is another victim of Mrs. Lynn’s plans.”
“Do you think there’s a connection between Mrs. Lynn and the dismissal?”
“I don’t know. It’s possible that the only thing Mrs. Lynn is doing is skimming off proceeds from illegal gaming parties. On the other hand, some of the most elaborate frauds I’ve ever seen have involved horse racing.”
Rosalind fell silent. “What is it?” asked Adam.
“The … meeting Elizabeth had in the garden, with the man from the stables. The one Mrs. Lynn tried to prevent me from seeing.”
“Are you thinking Caleb might be Nathanial Spence?”
“I’m thinking that it might be possible. If we think that Mrs. Lynn, and Elizabeth, have both been playing a long game.”
“We also have Elizabeth’s story of meeting Mrs. Lynn around a scheme to sell an old horse to add to the disgraced groom,” said Adam. “And poor Kinsdale’s Pride being forced into a race that we have it on good authority she cannot win.”
“Not to mention some professional gambling men who know more about that horse and the race than they are willing to tell.” Rosalind frowned.
“But it does not make sense. If Mrs. Lynn came to the Kinsdales because she already had a horse racing scheme in mind, a dedicated head groom might be a detriment to her plans. She would not assist in making sure a meeting between him and Elizabeth went off smoothly.”
“Unless Mrs. Lynn, or Elizabeth, found Spence and enlisted him in the scheme.”
“Or unless Elizabeth did not tell her who she was really meeting,” suggested Rosalind.
“Or unless we were wrong, and this Caleb is not in fact Nathanial Spence.” Adam drained his teacup. “I think that after I’ve spoken with the admiral, I had best get myself out to the Lansdown stables and talk to the men there.”
“A very good idea,” said Rosalind. “If I haven’t heard from Alice tomorrow morning, I will write to let her know what has happened and say that she should step up efforts to find Miss Smith.
After that, I’ll call on the Kinsdales and make sure Mrs. Lynn is keeping her promise to leave.
” She paused. “I may also see if I can find out anything more about Elizabeth’s meeting last night.
It is more than we have been asked to do, but if there is a wider scheme unfolding around the Kinsdales, we need to understand what part, if any, Elizabeth is playing. ”
“I agree,” said Adam. He also reached out and drew his fingertips lightly down her cheek. “But that is for daylight.” He cupped her chin with his calloused hand. “What shall we do in the meantime?”
Rosalind met his gaze, and felt her heart begin to pound. “Blow out the candle.”
It was sometime later that Rosalind awoke, fuzzy headed, and aching as much from exertion and thirst as from the awkwardness of being part of a couple sleeping in a bed meant for one person. Slowly, she realized what had woken her was a soft, insistent knocking on the door.
“Miss Thorne! Miss Thorne!” hissed the person on the other side.
“What is it?” Rosalind struggled out from under the blankets. Adam, clad only in his shirt and smalls, got to his feet with her. Rosalind opened the door.
On the other side was one of the Leighs’ scullery maids. She held a lit candle in one hand and a folded note in the other.
“There’s a messenger downstairs. He brought you this. He says it is most urgent.” The maid looked up and saw Adam behind Rosalind. Her jaw clamped shut.
Rosalind declined to worry about the maid’s scruples. She took the note and peered at it in the flickering candlelight. Her name had been scrawled hastily across the front, but in the dim light, she did not recognize the hand.
Adam stood at her shoulder as Rosalind unfolded the paper. She read, and felt the blood drain from her cheeks.
Come at once. Sir Anthony is dead.
Devon