Chapter 12
“This isn’t the first time Lord Ardmore has become involved with a married woman, or that that woman’s husband has ended up dead,” I replied in answer to Anderson’s and Sturgis’s unspoken query.
“You’re speaking of Lord Rockham,” Sturgis supplied before elaborating for Anderson’s benefit. “His second wife killed him.”
“Yes, and she was Lord Ardmore’s mistress at the time.
” I straightened the pale green cuffs of my blouse as I spoke guardedly about a time I preferred not to remember.
“Actually, we suspected Ardmore put her up to it, but we never had any proof and Lady Rockham refused to cooperate, either out of some sense of misguided loyalty or because he held some sort of blackmail over her. She died still refusing to talk.” Ada had been my friend, and the memory of her betrayal and death were both still tender.
Sidney straightened. “Lord Rockham was Ardmore’s associate in a number of business ventures.” He conveniently failed to mention that Max’s father had also been part of those ventures. “Were Ardmore and Lieutenant Harlow at all acquainted?”
“Acquainted, aye.” Anderson laced his fingers together around one knee. “While others describe it as even more amiable. That is, until Ardmore began sleeping with his wife.”
“That would tend to put a damper on one’s friendship,” Sidney quipped.
“Hmm, well, I’m sure you grasp the difficulty in suggesting any of this points to Ardmore.”
“It’s all tangential.” Sidney turned to me.
“In fact, if anything, it may point more firmly to Captain Willoughby. As Ardmore’s right-hand man, he was the one we suspected of silencing Delagrange.
Under Ardmore’s orders, to be sure, but Willoughby was likely the one who actually wielded the knife, all the same.
And the same holds true of this killing.
” He narrowed his eyes. “When did it occur?”
“About a week ago. The thirtieth of October.” Anderson turned to Sturgis for confirmation on the date, and he nodded.
Sidney lifted his hand as if to say, “there you go.” In late October, the phosgene plot had not yet been foiled, and Willoughby had not yet been cast as the fall guy. He had still been following Ardmore’s commands, while now he was presumably in hiding.
That is, if he wasn’t already dead, his body still unfound.
I shook my head angrily. Such a waste! “Ardmore never gets his hands dirty, if he can avoid it,” I told them.
Anderson and Sturgis exchanged another glance.
“Well, in this case, he might have,” Sturgis declared.
Sidney and I both perked up in interest, for clearly there was something they hadn’t yet told us.
Anderson dipped his head. “As Mr. Kent alluded to, the knifing did not kill Lieutenant Harlow instantly. A guard happened along while he was still struggling to stay alive, but he’d been stabbed in the throat and couldn’t speak.
Instead, he grasped hold of the guard’s hand and began to write a word in his palm. ”
I sat forward, nearly rising from my chair as I deduced where this was going. “Ardmore?”
“He only managed the letters ‘ARD’ before losing consciousness. But you understand why it caught my attention when I read the report.”
“Colonel Winter and General Macready didn’t find it of interest?” Sidney countered.
“They didn’t discount it entirely but pointed out the problem of the guard being certain of what letters Harlow had traced,” Sturgis cautioned. “Perhaps the ‘a’ was supposed to be a ‘d,’ and vice versa, or the ‘r’ an ‘n’.” He shrugged. “It would be difficult to convict anyone on such evidence.”
Especially a peer. Especially Lord Ardmore.
Sidney drummed his fingers against the arm of his chair. “But you think we can uncover the evidence to prove that he did do it? Or at the least, that he ordered it?”
“I think it’s a possibility,” Anderson countered, his expectations evidently muted.
“And in the meantime, I’ll be pursuing another angle.
” Though he didn’t share what that was. Perhaps he couldn’t.
But he made his purpose clear. “If Ardmore is as treacherous a fellow as you and some others believe, then I would like to know we’ve done everything possible to prove it.
His rank and associations shouldn’t grant him a free pass. ”
This was more cooperation than we’d gotten from any officials in the past, and I wasn’t about to dismiss it.
Particularly if it gave us a bit of a reprieve in gathering information on the rebels as previously ordered.
And Anderson was right. If we could convict Ardmore of any crime, it might bring down the whole house of cards, so to speak.
I grasped the ornamental locket draped around my neck, feeling the decorative edges bite into my skin as I fought against a rising surge of hope.
The past had taught me to be cautious when it came to this subject, and that focusing on the details would be a better use of my time.
“If Ardmore killed Lieutenant Harlow, do you have any idea of his motive behind it?”
“I take it you don’t think his relationship with his wife is sufficient enough reason,” Sturgis replied. “She is quite the looker.”
I shook my head. “It’s never about the women.
” I wasn’t sure he’d truly cared about any of his string of mistresses, though I was judging from the few I’d known.
It was more about power—over the women, over the husbands they cuckolded.
“With Ardmore, nothing is obvious. And nothing is as it first seems.”
Which was what made me doubt the notion that Harlow’s death had something to do with the phosgene cylinders, even though he’d been killed just two days before the gas was intended to be deployed.
It also made me question whether Willoughby would have had time for such an assignment.
Perhaps Ardmore had committed the murder himself?
Or dictated the task to someone less experienced.
Someone who had slipped up by not ensuring his target was dead.
“Is Mrs. Harlow still in Ireland?” Sidney asked. A week had passed. She might have already traveled back to England with her husband’s remains.
“She’s staying with a friend here in Dublin, for the time being,” Anderson replied as he glanced at his watch.
He pushed to his feet, buttoning his coat, and Sturgis followed suit.
“I’ll have Sturgis send over a list of all the particulars, including the name of the guard who found Harlow, his fellow officers, et cetera.
If we neglect to supply you with anything, simply ask. ”
“I’ll have something sent over as soon as possible,” Sturgis assured us. “I’m off to the Viceregal Lodge later today, but I’ll be back on Monday.” He clapped Sidney on the shoulder. “Kent, you’re always welcome to join us for a ride should you decide you’re up for it.”
Over the past few months, Sidney had frequently been invited to enjoy the Lord Lieutenant’s extensive stables at the parkland surrounding his residence in Phoenix Park on the outskirts of Dublin.
However, this time he merely nodded in acknowledgment.
I knew better than to think I’d be able to convince him to bestir that far from my side for the foreseeable future.
To be honest, I felt a bit panicked at the prospect, especially given Ardmore’s threats.
Even his visit to Capel Street the previous day had given me flutters of anxiety that were only mitigated by its necessity and brevity.
Nimble had hovered nearby and appeared to show our guests to the door, allowing me the chance to ask Sidney about his errand. “What happened at the sweets shop yesterday?” I murmured in a low voice.
Sidney turned to me stoically. “There’s a bag of lemon drops on the sideboard in the parlor if—” He broke off with a smirk as I swatted his arm.
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
“I didn’t speak with Xavier, but that lanky fellow who led us from Devlin’s pub to Vaughan’s Hotel to confer with Collins, he trotted over from the library to speak to me.”
He was talking about Joe O’Reilly, Collins’s assistant, messenger, and all-around dogsbody.
Sidney’s smirk turned more sardonic. “As I suspected, they were watching for us. I gave him the message, trusting he would get it to Xavier.”
And Collins. But that was to be expected.
I nodded, then we’d done all we safely could.
They knew I’d been released, and I’d warned them they should temporarily avoid anywhere I might have been followed to.
Hopefully that would convey that I’d kept my promise to conceal as much sensitive information as I knew about them as possible.
If they chose to doubt that, I wasn’t sure there was anything we could do to convince them otherwise.
But with any luck, our efforts to warn them would at least persuade them not to target us for assassination.
My shoulders slumped wearily.
“Not worried about him, are you?”
I turned to Sidney in confusion. “Who? Alec?” I smiled grimly.
“No. He can take care of himself. After all, he got himself into this mess.” I frowned.
“And us, to a certain extent. Though I’m not about to start blaming others for my choices.
” I scrutinized Sidney’s features. “No, I’m more worried about us. ”
“Collins isn’t going to assassinate us.”
I scoffed. “You think not?” The man hadn’t become Britain’s public enemy number one for no reason. He was ruthless when he needed to be.
“Well, not you.”
I scowled.
“It would mean risking losing Xavier.” He tilted his head, hesitating before continuing. “And he knows you’ve been swayed by the republicans’ cause.”
“I don’t know what I think,” I protested, panic rising up within me.
“Yes, you do,” he stated.