Defend and Betray

Synopsis:
After a brilliant military career, esteemed General Thaddeus Carlyon finally meets his death, not in the frenzy of battle but at an elegant London dinner party. His demise appears to be the result of a freak accident, but the general's beautiful wife, Alexandra, readily confesses that she killed him¨Ca story she clings to even under the threat of the noose. Investigator William Monk, nurse Hester Latterly, and brilliant Oliver Rathbone, counsel for the defense, work feverishly to break down the wall of silence raised by the accused and her husband's proud family. With the trial only days away, these there sleuths inch toward the dark and appalling heart of the mystery.

Chapter 1
Hester Latterly alighted from the hansom cab. A two-seater vehicle for hire by the trip, it was a recent and most useful invention enabling one to travel much more cheaply than having to hire a large carriage for the day. Fishing in her reticule, she found the appropriate coin and paid the driver, then turned and walked briskly along Brunswick Place towards Regent's Park, where the daffodils were in full bloom in gold swaths against the dark earth. So they should be; this was April the twenty-first, a full month into the spring of 1857.

She looked ahead to see if she could discern the tall, rather angular figure of Edith Sobell, whom she had come to meet, but she was not yet visible among the courting couples walking side by side, the women's wide crinoline skirts almost touching the gravel of the paths, the men elegant and swaggering very slightly. Somewhere hi the distance a band was playing something brisk and martial, the notes of the brass carrying in the slight breeze.

She hoped Edith was not going to be late. It was she who had requested this meeting, and said that a walk in the open would be so much pleasanter than sitting inside in a chocolate shop, or strolling around a museum or a gallery where Edith at least might run into acquaintances and be obliged to interrupt her conversation with Hester to exchange polite nonsense.

Edith had all day in which to do more or less as she pleased; indeed, she had said time hung heavily on her hands. But Hester was obliged to earn her living. She was presently employed as a nurse to a retired military gentleman who had fallen and broken his thigh. Since being dismissed from the hospital where she had first found a position on returning from the Crimea - for taking matters into her own hands and treating a patient in the absence of the doctor - Hester had been fortunate to find private positions. It was only her experience in Scutari with Florence Nightingale, ended barely a year since, which had made any further employment possible at all.

The gentleman, Major Tiplady, was recovering well, and had been quite amenable to her taking an afternoon off. But she was loath to spend it waiting in Regent's Park for a companion who did not keep her appointments, even on so pleasant a day. Hester had seen so much incompetence and confusion during the war, deaths that could have been avoided had pride and inefficiency been set aside, that she had a short temper where she judged such failings to exist, and a rather hasty tongue. Her mind was quick, her tastes often unbecomingly intellectual for a woman; such qualities were not admired, and her views, whether right or wrong, were held with too much conviction. Edith would need a very fine reason indeed if she were to be excused her tardiness.

Hester waited a further fifteen minutes, pacing back and forth on the path beside the daffodils, growing more and more irritated and impatient. It was most inconsiderate behavior, particularly since this spot had been chosen for Edith's convenience; she lived in Clarence Gardens, a mere half mile away. Perhaps Hester was angry out of proportion to the offense, and even as her temper rose she was aware of it, and still unable to stop her gloved fists from clenching or her step from getting more rapid and her heels from clicking sharply on the ground.

She was about to abandon the meeting altogether when at last she saw the gawky, oddly pleasing figure of Edith. She was still dressed predominantly in black, still in mourning for her husband, although he had been dead nearly two years. She was hurrying along the path, her skirts swinging alarmingly and her bonnet so far on the back of her head as to be in danger of felling off altogether.

Hester started towards her, relieved that she had come at last, but still preparing in her mind a suitable reproach for the wasted time and the inconsideration. Then she saw Edith's countenance and realized something was wrong.

"What is it?" she said as soon as they met. Edith's intelligent, eccentric face, with its soft mouth and crooked, aquiline nose, was very pale. Her fair hair was poking out untidily from under her bonnet even more than would be accounted for by the breeze and her extremely hasty progress along the path. "What has happened?" Hester demanded anxiously. "Are you ill?"

"No. . ." Edith was breathless and she took Hester's arm impulsively and continued walking, pulling Hester around with her. "I think I am quite well, although I feel as if my stomach were full of little birds and I cannot collect my thoughts."

Hester stopped without disengaging her arm. "Why? Tell me, what is it?" All her irritation vanished. "Can I help?"

A rueful smile crossed Edith's mouth and disappeared.

"No - except by being a friend."

"You know I am that," Hester assured her. "What has happened?"

"My brother Thaddeus - General Carlyon - met with an accident yesterday evening, at a dinner party at the Furnivals'."

"Oh dear, I am sorry. I hope it was not serious. Is he badly hurt?"

Incredulity and confusion fought in Edith's expression. She had a remarkable face, not in any imagination beautiful, yet mere was humor in the hazel eyes and sensuality in the mouth, and its lack of symmetry was more than made up for by the quickness of intelligence.

"He is dead, "she said as if the word surprised even herself.

Hester had been about to begin walking again, but now she stood rooted to the spot. "Oh my dear! How appalling. I am so sorry. However did it happen?"

Edith frowned." He fell down the stairs," she said slowly. "Or to be more accurate, he fell over the banister at the top and landed across a decorative suit of armor, and I gather the halberd it was holding stabbed him through the chest. ..."

There was nothing for Hester to say except to repeat her sympathy.

In silence Edith took her arm and they turned and continued again along the path between the flower beds.

"He died immediately, they say," Edith resumed. "It was an extraordinary chance that he should fall precisely upon the wretched tiling." She shook her head a little. "One would think it would be possible to fall a hundred times and simply knock it all over and be badly bruised, perhaps break a few bones, but not be speared by the halberd."

They were passed by a gentleman in military uniform, red coat, brilliant gold braid and buttons gleaming in the sun. He bowed to them and they smiled perfunctorily.

"Of course I have never been to the Furnivals' house," Edith went on. "I have no idea how high the balcony is above the hallway. I suppose it may be fifteen or twenty feet."

"People do have most fearful accidents on stairs," Hester agreed, hoping the remark was helpful and not sententious. "They can so easily be fatal. Were you very close?" She thought of her own brothers: James, the younger, the more spirited, killed in the Crimea; and Charles, now head of the family, serious, quiet and a trifle pompous.

"Not very," Edith replied with a pucker between her brows. "He was fifteen years older than I, so he had left home, as a junior cadet in the army, before I was born. I was only eight when he married. Damaris knew him better."

"Your elder sister?"

"Yes - she is only six years younger than he is." She stopped. "Was," she corrected.

Hester did a quick mental calculation. That would have made Thaddeus Carlyon forty-eight years old now, long before the beginning of old age, and yet still far in excess of the average span of life.

She held Edith's arm a little closer. "It was good of you to come this afternoon. If you had sent a footman with a message I would have understood completely."

"I would rather come myself," Edith answered with a slight shrug. "There is very little I can do to help, and I admit I was glad of an excuse to be out of the house. Mama is naturally terribly distressed. She shows her feelings very little. You don't know her, but I sometimes think she would have been a better soldier than either Papa or Thaddeus." She smiled to show the remark was only half meant, and even then obliquely and as an illustration of something she did not know how else to express. "She is very strong. One can only guess what emotions there are behind her dignity and her command of herself."

"And your father?" Hester asked. "Surely he will be a comfort to her."

The sun was warm and bright, and hardly a breeze stirred the dazzling flower heads. A small dog scampered between them, yapping with excitement, and chased along the path, grabbing a gentleman's cane in its teeth, much to his annoyance.

Edith drew breath to make the obvious answer to Hester's remark, then changed her mind.

"Not a lot, I should think," she said ruefully. "He is angry that the whole thing has such an element of the ridiculous. It is not exactly like falling in battle, is it?" Her mouth tightened in a sad little smile. "It lacks the heroic."

Hester had not thought of it before. She had been too aware of the reality of death and loss, having experienced the sudden and tragic deaths of her younger brother and both her parents within a year of each other. Now she visualized General Carlyon's accident and realized precisely what Edith meant. To fall over the banister at a dinner party and spear yourself on the halberd of an empty suit of armor was hardly a glorious military death. It might take a better man than his father, Colonel Carlyon, not to feel a certain resentment and sting to family pride. She said nothing of it, but she could not keep from her mind the thought that perhaps the general had been a great deal less than sober at the time.

"I imagine his wife is very shocked," she said aloud. "Had they family?"

"Oh yes, two daughters and a son. Actually, both daughters are older and married, and the younger was present at the party, which makes it so much worse." Edith sniffed sharply, and Hester could not tell if it was a sign of grief, anger, or merely the wind, which was decidedly cooler across the grass now they were out of the shelter of the trees.

"They had quarreled," Edith went on. "According to Peverell, Damaris's husband. In fact, he said it "was a perfectly ghastly party. Everyone seemed to be in a fearful temper and at each other's throats half the evening. Both Alexandra, Thaddeus's wife, and Sabella, his daughter, quarreled with him both before dinner and over the table. And with Louisa Furnival, the hostess."

"It sounds very grim," Hester agreed. "But sometimes family differences can seem a great deal more serious than they really are. I know, it can make the grief afterwards much sharper, because quite naturally it is added to by guilt. Although I am sure the dead know perfectly well that we do not mean many of the things we say, and that under the surface there is a love far deeper than any momentary temper."

Edith tightened her grip in gratitude.

"I know what you are trying to say, my dear, and it is not unappreciated. One of these days I must have you meet Alexandra. I believe you would like her, and she you. She married young and had children straightaway, so she has not experienced being single, nor had any of the adventures you have. But she is of as independent a mind as her circumstances allow, and certainly not without courage or imagination."

"When it is suitable I shall be delighted," Hester agreed, although she was not in truth looking forward to spending any of her very precious free time in the company of a recent widow, however courageous. She saw more than sufficient pain and grief in the course of her profession. But it would be gratuitously unkind to say so now, and she was genuinely fond of Edith and would have done much to please her.

"Thank you." Edith looked sideways at her. "Would you think me unforgivably callous if I spoke of other things?"

"Of course not! Had you something special in mind?"

"My reason for making an appointment to meet you where we could speak without interruption, and instead of inviting you to my home," Edith explained, "is that you are the only person I can think of who will understand, and who might even be able to help. Of course in a little while I will be needed at home for the present, now this terrible thing has happened. But afterwards..."

"Yes?"

"Hester, Oswald has been dead for close to two years now. I have no children." A flicker of pain crossed her features, showing her vulnerable in the hard spring light, and younger than her thirty-three years. Then it was gone again, and resolve replaced it. "I am bored to distraction," she said with a firm voice, unconsciously increasing her pace as they turned on the path that led down to a small bridge over ornamental water and on towards the Royal Botanical Society Gardens. A small girl was throwing bread to the ducks.

"And I have very little money of my own," Edith went on. "Oswald left me too little to live on, in anything like the way I am accustomed, and I am dependent upon my parents - which is the only reason I still live at Carlyon House."

"I assume you have no particular thoughts on marrying again?"

Edith shot her a look of black humor, not without self-mockery.

"I think it is unlikely," she said frankly. "The marriage market is drenched with girls far younger and prettier than I, and with respectable dowries. My parents are quite content that I should remain at home, a companion for my mother. They have done their duty by me in finding one suitable husband. That he was killed in the Crimea is my misfortune, and it is not incumbent upon them to find me another - for which I do not hold them in the least to blame. I think it would be an extremely difficult task, and in all probability a thankless one. I would not wish to be married again, unless I formed a profound affection for someone."

They were side by side on the bridge. The water lay cool and cloudy green below them.

"You mean fell in love?" Hester said.

Edith laughed. "What a romantic you are! I would never have suspected it of you."

Hester ignored the personal reference. "I am relieved. For a fearful moment I thought you were going to ask me if I could introduce you to anyone."

"Hardly! I imagine if you knew anyone you could wholeheartedly recommend, you would marry him yourself."

"Do you indeed?" Hester said a trifle sharply.

Edith smiled. "And why not? If he were good enough for me, would he not also be good enough for you?"

Hester relaxed, realizing she was being very gently teased.

"If I find two such gentlemen, I shall tell you," she conceded generously.

"I am delighted."

"Then what is it I may do for you?"

They started up the gentle incline of the farther bank.

"I should like to find an occupation that would keep my interest and provide a small income so that I may have some financial independence. I realize," Edith put in quickly, "that I may not be able to earn sufficient to support myself, but even an increment to my present allowance would give me a great deal more freedom. But the main thing is, I cannot bear sitting at home stitching embroidery no one needs, painting pictures I have neither room nor inclination to hang, and making endless idiotic conversation with Mama's callers. It is a waste of my life."

Hester did not reply straightaway. She understood the emotion and the situation profoundly. She had gone to the Crimea because she wanted to contribute to the effort towards the war, and to relieve the appalling conditions of the men freezing, starving, and dying of wounds and disease in Sebastopol. She had returned home in haste on hearing of the deaths of both her parents in the most tragic circumstances. Very soon after, she had learned that there was no money, and although she had accepted the hospitality of her surviving brother and his wife for a short time, it could not be a permanent arrangement. They would have agreed, but Hester would have found it intolerable. She must find her own way and not be an added burden upon their strained circumstances.

She had come home on fire to reform nursing in England, as Miss Nightingale had in the Crimea. Indeed most of the women who had served with her had espoused the same cause, and with similar fervor.

However, Hester's first and only hospital appointment had ended in dismissal. The medical establishment was not eager to be reformed, least of all by opinionated young women, or indeed by women at all. And considering that no women had ever studied medicine, and such an idea was unthinkable, that was not to be wondered at. Nurses were largely unskilled, employed to wind bandages, fetch and carry, dust, sweep, stoke fires, empty slops and keep spirits high and morality above question.

"Well?" Edith interrupted. "Surely it is not a hopeless cause." There was a lightness in her voice but her eyes were earnest, full of both hope and fear, and Hester could see she cared deeply.

"Of course not," she said soberly. "But it is not easy. Too many occupations, of the forms that are open to women, are of a nature where you would be subject to a kind of discipline and condescension which would be intolerable to you."

"You managed," Edith pointed out.

"Not indefinitely," Hester corrected. "And the feet that you are not dependent upon it to survive will take a certain curb from your tongue which was on mine."

"Then what is left?"

They were standing on the gravel path between the flowers, a child with a hoop a dozen yards to the left, two little girls in white pinafores to the right.

"I am not sure, but I shall endeavor to find out," Hester promised. She stopped and turned to look at Edith's pale face and troubled eyes. "There will be something. You have a good hand, and you said you speak French. Yes, I remember mat. I will search and enquire and let you know in a few days' time. Say a week or so. No, better make it a little longer, I would like to have as complete an answer as I can."

"A week on Saturday?" Edith suggested. "That will be May the second. Come to tea."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes of course. We shall not be entertaining socially, but you are coming as a friend. It will be quite acceptable."

"Then I shall. Thank you."

Edith's eyes widened for a moment, giving her face a brightness, then she clasped Hester's hand quickly and let it go, turning on her heel and striding along the path between the daffodils and down towards the lodge without looking back.

* * * * *

Hester walked for another half hour, enjoying the air before returning to the street and finding another hansom to take her back to Major Tiplady and her duties.

The major was sitting on a chaise longue, which he did under protest, considering it an effeminate piece of furniture, but he enjoyed being able to stare out of the window at passersby, and at the same time keep his injured leg supported.

"Well?" he asked as soon as she was in. "Did you have a pleasant walk? How was your friend?"

Automatically she straightened the blanket around him.

"Don't fuss!" he said sharply. "You didn't answer me.

How was your friend? You did go out to meet a friend, didn't you?"

"Yes I did." She gave the cushion an extra punch to plump it up, in spite of his catching her eye deliberately. It was a gentle banter they had with each other, and both enjoyed it. Provoking her had been his best entertainment since he had been restricted to either his bed or a chair, and he had developed a considerable liking for her. He was normally somewhat nervous of women, having spent most of his life in the company of men and having been taught that the gentle sex was different in every respect, requiring treatment incomprehensible to any but the most sensitive of men. He was delighted to find Hester intelligent, not given to fainting or taking offense where it was not intended, not seeking compliments at every fit and turn, never giggling, and best of all, quite interested in military tactics, a blessing he could still hardly believe.

"And how is she?" he demanded, glaring at her out of brilliant pale blue eyes, his white mustache bristling.

"In some shock," Hester replied. "Would you like tea?"

'Why?"

"Because it is teatime. And crumpets?"

"Yes I would. Why was she shocked? What did you say to her?"

"That I was very sorry," Hester smiled with her back to him, as she was about to ring the bell. It was not part of her duty to cook - fortunately, because she had little skill at it.

"Don't prevaricate with me!" he said hotly.

Hester rang the bell, then turned back to him and changed her expression to one of sobriety. "Her brother met with a fatal accident last evening," she told him. "He fell over the banister and died immediately."

"Good gracious! Are you sure?" His face was instantly grave, his pink-and-white skin as usual looking freshly scrubbed and innocent.

"Perfectly, I am afraid."

"Was he a drinking man?"

"I don't believe so. At least not to that extent."

The maid answered the summons and Hester requested tea and hot crumpets with butter. When the girl had gone, she continued with the story. "He fell onto a suit of armor, and tragically the halberd struck his chest."

Tiplady stared at her, still not totally sure whether she was exercising some bizarre female sense of humor at his expense. Then he realized the gravity in her face was quite real.

"Oh dear. I am very sorry." He frowned. "But you cannot blame me for not being sure you were entirely serious. It is a preposterous accident!" He hitched himself a little higher on the chaise longue. "Have you any idea how difficult it is to spear a man with a halberd? He must have fallen with tremendous force. Was he a very large man?"

"I have no idea." She had not thought about it, but now that she did, she appreciated his view. To have fallen so hard and so accurately upon the point of a halberd held by an inanimate suit of armor, in such a way that it penetrated through clothes into the flesh, and between the ribs into the body, was an extraordinary chance. The angle must have been absolutely precise, the halberd wedged very firmly in the gauntlet, and as Major Tiplady said, the force very great indeed. "Perhaps he was. I had never met him, but his sister is tall, although she is very slight. Maybe he was of a bigger build. He was a soldier."

Major Tiplady's eyebrows shot up. "Was he?"

"Yes. A general, I believe."

The major's face twitched with an amusement he found extreme difficulty in concealing, although he was perfectly aware of its unsuitability. He had recently developed a sense of the absurd which alarmed him. He thought it was a result of lying in bed with little to do but read, and too much company of a woman.

"How very unfortunate," he said, staring at the ceiling. "I hope they do not put on his epitaph that he was finally killed by impaling himself upon a weapon held by an empty suit of armor. It does seem an anticlimax to an outstanding military career, and to smack of the ridiculous. And a general too!"

"Seems not at all unlikely for a general to me," Hester said tartly, remembering some of the fiascoes of the Crimean War, such as the Battle of the Alma, where men were ordered first one way and then the other, and were finally caught in the river, hundreds dying unnecessarily; not to mention Balaclava, where the Light Brigade, the flower of the English cavalry, had charged into the mouths of the Russian guns and been mown down like grass. That was a nightmare of blood and slaughter she would never forget, nor the succeeding days and nights of sleepless labor, helplessness and pain.

Suddenly Thaddeus Carlyon's death seemed sadder, more real, and at the same time far less important.

She turned back to Major Tiplady and began straightening the blanket over his legs. He was about to protest, then he recognized the quite different quality in her expression and submitted wordlessly. She had changed from a pleasant and efficient young woman, whom he liked, into the army nurse she used to be such a short time since, seeing death every day and hideously aware of the magnitude and the futility of it.

"You said he was a general." He watched her with a pucker between his brows. "What was his name?"

"Carlyon," she replied, tucking in the ends of the blanket firmly. "Thaddeus Carlyon."

"Indian Army?" he asked, then before she could reply, "Heard of a Carlyon out there, stiff sort of fellow, but very much admired by his men. Fine reputation, never backed down in the face of the enemy. Not all that fond of generals myself, but pity he should die like that."

"It was quick," she said with a grimace. Then for several moments she busied herself around the room, doing largely unnecessary things, but the movement was automatic, as if remaining still would have been an imprisonment.

Finally the tea and crumpets came. Biting into the crisp, hot dough and trying to stop the butter from running down her chin, she relaxed and returned to the present.

She smiled at him.

"Would you like a game of chess?" she offered. She was exactly skilled enough to give him a good game without beating him.

"Oh I would," he said happily. "Indeed I would."

* * * * *

Hester spent her free time for the next several days in pursuing possible opportunities for Edith Sobell, as she had promised. She did not think nursing offered any openings Edith would find either satisfying or indeed available to her. It was regarded as a trade rather than a profession, and most of the men and women employed in it were of a social class and an education, or lack of it, which resulted in their being regarded with scant respect, and paid accordingly. Those who had been with Miss Nightingale, now a national heroine only a little less admired than the Queen, were viewed differently, but it was too late for Edith to qualify for that distinction. And even though Hester herself most definitely did qualify, she was finding employment hard enough, and her opinions little valued.

But there were other fields, especially for someone like Edith, who was intelligent and well-read, not only in English literature but also in French. There might well be some gentleman who required a librarian or an assistant to research for him whatever subject held his interest. People were always writing treatises or monographs, and many needed an assistant who would perform the labor necessary to translate their ideas into a literary form.

Most women who wished a lady companion were intolerably difficult and really only wanted a dependent whom they could order around - and who could not afford to disagree with them. However, there were exceptions, people who liked to travel but did not find it pleasurable to do so alone. Some of these redoubtable women would be excellent employers, full of interest and character.

There was also the possibility of teaching; if the pupils were eager and intelligent enough it might be highly rewarding.

Hester explored all these areas, at least sufficiently to have something definite to tell Edith when she accepted the invitation to go to Carlyon House for afternoon tea on May the second.

* * * * *

Major Tiplady's apartments were at the southern end of Great Titchfield Street, and therefore some distance from Clarence Gardens, where Carlyon House was situated. Although she could have walked, it would have taken her the better part of half an hour, and she would have arrived tired and overheated and untidy for such an engagement. And she admitted with a wry humor that the thought of afternoon tea with the elder Mrs. Carlyon made her more than a little nervous. She would have cared less had Edith not been her friend; then she could have been free to succeed or fail without emotional damage. As it was, she would rather have faced a night in military camp above Sebastopol than this engagement.

However there was no help for it now, so she dressed in her best muslin afternoon gown. It was not a very glamorous affair, but well cut with pointed waist and softly pleated bodice, a little out of date, though only a lady of fashion would have known it. The faults lay all in the trimmings. Nursing did not allow for luxuries. When she went to bid Major Tiplady good-bye, he regarded her with approval. He had not the least idea of fashion and very pretty women terrified him. He found Hester's face with its strong features very agreeable, and her figure, both too tall and a little too thin, to be not at all displeasing. She did not threaten him with aggressive femininity, and her intellect was closer to that of a man, which he rather liked. He had never imagined that a woman could become a friend, but he was being proved wrong, and it was not in any way an experience he disliked.

"You look very . . . tidy," he said wife slightly pink cheeks.

From anyone else it would have infuriated her. She did not wish to look tidy; tidiness was for housemaids, and junior ones at that. Even parlormaids were allowed to be handsome; indeed, they were required to be. But she knew he meant it well, and it would be gratuitously cruel to take exception, however much distinguished or appealing would have been preferred. Beautiful was too much to hope for. Her sister-in-law, Imogen, was beautiful - and appealing. Hester had discovered that very forcefully when that disastrous policeman Monk had been so haunted by her last year during the affair in Mecklenburg Square. But Monk was an entirely different matter, and nothing to do with this afternoon.

"Thank you, Major Tiplady," she accepted with as much grace as she could. "And please be careful while I am away. If you wish for anything, I have put the bell well within your reach. Do not try to get up without calling Molly to assist you. If you should" - she looked very severe - "and you fall again, you could find yourself in bed for another six weeks!" That was a far more potent threat than the pain of another injury, and she knew it.

He winced. "Certainly not," he said with affronted dignity.

"Good!" And with that she turned and left, assured that he would remain where he was.

She hailed a hansom and rode along the length of Great Titchfield Street, turned into Bolsover Street and went along Osnaburgh Street right into Clarence Gardens - a distance of approximately a mile - and alighted a little before four o'clock. She felt ridiculously as if she were about to make the first charge in a battle. It was absurd. She must pull herself together. The very worst that could happen would be embarrassment. She ought to be able to cope with that. After all, what was it - an acute discomfort of the mind, no more. It was immeasurably better than guilt, or grief.

She sniffed hard, straightened her shoulders and marched up the front steps, reaching for the bell pull and yanking it rather too hard. She stepped back so as not to be on the very verge when the door was opened.

It happened almost immediately and a smart maid looked at her enquiringly, her pretty face otherwise suitably expressionless.

"Yes ma'am?"

"Miss Hester Latterly, to see Mrs. Sobell," Hester replied. "I believe she is expecting me."

"Yes of course, Miss Latterly. Please come in." The door opened all the way and the maid stepped aside to allow her past. She took Hester's bonnet and cloak.

The hallway was as impressive as she had expected it to be, paneled with oak to a height of nearly eight feet, hung with dark portraits framed in gilt with acanthus leaves and curlicues. It was gleaming in the light from the chandelier, lit so early because the oak made it dim in spite of the daylight outside.

"If you please to come this way," the maid requested, going ahead of her across the parquet. "Miss Edith is in the boudoir. Tea will be served in thirty minutes." And so saying she led Hester up the broad stairs and across the first landing to the upper sitting room, reserved solely for the use of the ladies of the house, and hence known as the boudoir. She opened the door and announced Hester.

Edith was inside staring out of the window that faced the square. She turned as soon as Hester was announced, her lace lighting with pleasure. Today she was wearing a gown of purplish plum color, trimmed with black. The crinoline was very small, almost too insignificant to be termed a crinoline at all, and Hester thought instantly how much more becoming it was - and also how much more practical than having to swing around so much fabric and so many stiff hoops. She had little time to notice much of the room, except that it was predominantly pink and gold, and there was a very handsome rosewood escritoire against the far wall.

"I'm so glad you came!" Edith said quickly. "Apart from any news you might have, I desperately need to talk of normal things to someone outside the family."

"Why? Whatever has happened?" Hester could see without asking that something had occurred. Edith looked even more tense than on their previous meeting. Her body was stiff and her movements jerky, with a greater awkwardness than usual, and she was not a graceful woman at the best of times. But more telling was the weariness in her and the total absence of her usual humor.

Edith closed her eyes and then opened them wide.

"Thaddeus's death is immeasurably worse than we first supposed," she said quietly.

"Oh?" Hester was confused. How could it be worse than death?

"You don't understand." Edith was very still. "Of course you don't. I was not explaining myself at all." She took a sudden sharp breath. "They are saying it was not an accident."

"They?" Hester was stunned. "Who is saying it?"

"The police, of course." Edith blinked, her face white. "They say Thaddeus was murdered!"

Hester felt momentarily a little dizzy, as though the room with its gentle comfort had receded very far away and her vision was foggy at the edges, Edith's face sharp in the center and indelible in her mind.

"Oh my dear-r-how terrible! Have they any idea who it was?"

"That is the worst part," Edith confessed, for the first time moving away and sitting down on the fat pink settee.

Hester sat opposite her in the armchair.

"There were only a very few people there, and no one broke in," Edith explained. "It had to have been one of them. Apart from Mr. and Mrs. Furnival, who gave the party, the only ones there who were not my family were Dr. Hargrave and his wife." She swallowed hard and attempted to smile. It was ghastly. "Otherwise it was Thaddeus and Alexandra; their daughter Sabella and her husband, Fenton Pole; and my sister, Damaris, and my brother-in-law, Peverell Erskine. There was no one else mere."

"What about the servants?" Hester said desperately. "I suppose there is no chance it could have been one of them."

"What for? Why on earth would one of the servants kill Thaddeus?"

Hester's mind raced. "Perhaps he caught them stealing?"

"Stealing what - on the first landing? He fell off the balcony of the first landing. The servants would all be downstairs at that time in the evening, except maybe a ladies' maid."

"Jewelry?"

"How would he know they had been stealing? If they were in a bedroom he wouldn't know it. And if he saw them coming out, he would only presume they were about their duties."

That was totally logical. Hester had no argument. She searched her mind and could think of nothing comforting to say.

"What about the doctor?" she tried.

Edith flashed a weak smile at her, appreciating what she was attempting.

"Dr. Hargrave? I don't know if it's possible. Damaris did tell me what happened that evening, but she didn't seem very clear. In feet she was pretty devastated, and hardly coherent at all."

"Well, where were they?" Hester had already been involved in two murders, the first because of the deaths of her own parents, the second through her acquaintance with the policeman William Monk, who was now working privately for anyone who required relatives traced, thefts solved discreetly, and other such matters dealt with in a private capacity, where they preferred not to engage the law or where no crime had been committed. Surely if she used her intelligence and a little logic she ought to be of some assistance.

"Since they assumed at first that it was an accident," she said aloud, "surely he must have been alone. Where was everyone else? At a dinner party people are not wandering around the house individually."

"That's just it," Edith said with increasing unhappiness. "Damaris made hardly any sense. I've never seen her so. . . so completely . . . out of control. Even Peverell couldn't calm or comfort her - she would scarcely speak to him."

"Perhaps they had a . . ." Hester sought for some polite way of phrasing it. "Some difference of opinion? A misunderstanding?"

Edith's mouth twitched with amusement. "How euphemistic of you. You mean a quarrel? I doubt it. Peverell really isn't that kind of person. He is rather sweet, and very fond of her." She swallowed, and smiled with a sudden edge of sadness, as of other things briefly remembered, perhaps other people. "He isn't weak at all," she went on. "I used to think he was. But he just has a way of dealing with her, and she usually comes 'round - in the end. Really much more satisfactory than ordering people. I admit he may not be an instant great passion, but I like him. In fact, the longer I know him the more I like him. And I rather think she feels the same." She shook her head minutely. "No, I remember the way she was when she came home that evening. I don't think Peverell had anything to do with it."

"What did she say about where people were? Thaddeus - I beg your pardon, General Carlyon - fell, or was pushed, over the banister from the first landing. Where was everyone else at the time?"

"Coming and going," Edith said hopelessly. "I haven't managed to make any sense of it. Perhaps you can. I asked Damaris to come and join us, if she remembers. But she doesn't seem to know what she's doing since that evening."

Hester had not met Edith's sister, but she had heard frequent reference to her, and it seemed that either she was emotionally volatile and somewhat undisciplined or she had been judged unkindly.

At that moment, as if to prove her a bar, the door opened and one of the most striking women Hester had ever seen stood framed by the lintel. For that first moment she seemed heroically beautiful, tall, even taller than Hester or Edith, and very lean. Her hair was dark and soft with natural curl, unlike the present severe style in which a woman's hair was worn scraped back from the face with ringlets over the ears, and she seemed to have no regard for fashion. Indeed her skirt was serviceable, designed for work, without the crinoline hoops, and yet her blouse was gorgeously embroidered and woven with white ribbon. She had a boyish air about her, neither coquettish nor demure, simply blazingly candid. Her face was long, her features so mobile and sensitive they reflected her every thought.

She came in and closed the door, leaning against it for a moment with both hands behind her and regarding Hester with a frankly interested stare.

"You are Hester Latterly?" she asked, although the question was obviously rhetorical. "Edith said you were coming this afternoon. I'm so glad. Ever since she told me you went to the Crimea with Miss Nightingale, I have been longing to meet you. You must come again, when we are more ourselves, and tell us about it." She flashed a sudden illuminating smile. "Or tell me, anyway. I'm not at all sure Papa would approve, and I'm quite certain Mama would not. Far too independent. Rocks the foundations of society when women don't know their proper place - which, of course, is at home, keeping civilization safe for the rest of us."

She walked over to a neo-rococo love seat and threw herself on it utterly casually. "Seeing we learn to clean our teeth every day," she went on. "Eat our rice pudding, speak correctly, never split infinitives, wear our gloves at all the appropriate times, keep a stiff upper lip whatever vicissitudes we may find ourselves placed in, and generally set a good example to the lower classes - who depend upon us for precisely this." She was sitting sideways over the seat. For anyone else it would have been awkward, but for her it had a kind of grace because it was so wholehearted. She did not care greatly what others thought of her. Yet even in this careless attitude there was an ill-concealed tension in her, and Hester could easily imagine the frenzied distress Edith had spoken of.

Now Damaris's face darkened again as she looked at Hester.

"I suppose Edith has told you about our tragedy -  Thaddeus's death - and that they are now saying it was murder?" Her brow furrowed even more deeply. "Although I can't imagine why anyone should want to kill Thaddeus." She turned to Edith. "Can you? I mean, he was a terrible bore at times, but most men are. They think all the wrong things are important. Oh - I'm sorry - I do mean most men, not all!" Suddenly she had realized she might have offended Hester and her contrition was real.

"That is quite all right." Hester smiled. "I agree with you. And I daresay they feel the same about us."

Damaris winced. "Touched Did Edith tell you about it?"

"The dinner party? No - she said it would be better if you did, since you were there." She hoped she sounded concerned and not unbecomingly inquisitive.

Damaris closed her eyes and slid a little farther down on her unorthodox seat.

"It was ghastly. A fiasco almost from the beginning." She opened her eyes again and stared at Hester. "Do you really want to know about it?"

"Unless you find it too painful." That was not the truth. She wanted to know about it regardless, but decency, and compassion, prevented her from pressing too hard.

Damaris shrugged, but she did not meet Hester's eyes. "I don't mind talking about it - it is all going on inside my head anyway, repeating over and over again. Some parts of it don't even seem real anymore."

"Begin at the beginning," Edith prompted, curling her feet up under her. ' "That is the only way we have a hope of making any sense of it. Apparently someone did kill Thad-deus, and it is going to be extremely unpleasant until we find out who."

Damaris shivered and shot her a sour glance, then addressed Hester.

"Peverell and I were the first to arrive. You haven't met him, but you will like him when you do." She said it unselfconsciously and without desire for effect, simply as a comment of fact. "At that time we were both in good spirits and looking forward to the evening." She lifted her eyes to the ceiling. "Can you imagine that? Do you know Maxim and Louisa Furnival? No, I don't suppose you do. Edith says you don't waste time in Society."

Hester smiled and looked down at her hands in her lap to avoid meeting Edith's eyes. That was a charmingly euphemistic way of putting it. Hester was too old to be strictly marriageable, well over twenty-five, and even twenty-five was optimistic. And since her father had lost his money before his death, she had no dowry, nor any social background worth anyone's while to pursue. Also she was of an unbecomingly direct character and both held and expressed too many opinions.

"I have no time I can afford to waste," she answered aloud.

"And I have too much," Edith added.

Hester brought them back to the subject. "Please tell me something of the Furnivals."

Damaris's face lost its momentary look of ease.

"Maxim is really quite agreeable, in a brooding, dark sort of way. He's fearfully decent, and he manages to do it without being stuffy. I often felt if I knew him better he might be quite interesting. I could easily imagine falling madly in love with him - just to know what lies underneath - if I didn't already know Peverell. But whether it would stand a close acquaintance I have no idea." She glanced at Hester to make sure she understood, then continued, staring up at the molded and painted ceiling. "Louisa is another matter altogether. She is very beautiful, in an unconventional way, like a large cat - of the jungle sort, not the domestic. She is no one's tabby. I used to envy her." She smiled ruefully. "She is very small. She can be feminine and look up at any man at ail-where I look down on far more than I wish. And she is all curves in the most flattering places, which I am not. She has very high, wide cheekbones, but when I stopped being envious, and looked a little more closely, I did not care for her mouth."

"You are not saying much of what she is like, Ris," Edith prompted.

"She is like a cat," Damaris said reasonably. "Sensuous, predatory, and taking great care of her own, but utterly charming when she wishes to be."

Edith looked across at Hester. "Which tells you at least that Damaris doesn't like her very much. Or that she is more than a trifle envious."

"You are interrupting," Damaris said with an aloof air. "The next to arrive were Thaddeus and Alexandra. He was just as usual, polite, pompous and rather preoccupied, but Alex looked pale and not so much preoccupied as distracted. I thought then that they must have had a disagreement over something, and of course Alex had lost."

Hester nearly asked why "of course," then realized the question was foolish. A wife would always lose, particularly in public.

"Then Sabella and Fenton came," Damaris continued. ' "That's Thaddeus's younger daughter and her husband," she explained to Hester. "Almost immediately Sabella was rude to Thaddeus. We all pretended we hadn't noticed, which is about all you can do when you are forced to witness a family quarrel. It was rather embarrassing, and Alex looked very ..." she searched for the word she wanted. "... very brittle, as though her self-control might snap if she were pressed too hard." Her face changed swiftly, and a shadow passed over it. "The last ones to arrive were Dr. Hargrave and his wife." She altered her position slightly in the chair, with the result that she was no longer facing Hester. "It was all very polite, and trivial, and totally artificial."

"You said it was ghastly." Edith's eyebrows rose. "You don't mean you sat around through the entire evening being icily civil to each other. You told me Thaddeus and Sabella quarreled and Sabella behaved terribly, and Alex was white as a sheet, which Thaddeus either did not even notice - or else pretended not to. And that Maxim was hovering over Alex, and Louisa obviously resented it."

Damaris frowned, her shoulders tightening. "I thought so. But of course it may simply have been that it was Maxim's house and he felt responsible, so he was trying to be kind to Alex and make her feel better, and Louisa misunderstood." She glanced at Hester. "She likes to be the center of attention and wouldn't appreciate anyone being so absorbed in someone else. She was very scratchy with Alex all evening."

"You all went in to dinner?" Hester prompted, still searching for the factual elements of the crime, if the police were correct and there had been one.

"What?" Damaris knitted her brows, staring at the window. "Oh - yes, all on each other's arms as we had been directed, according to the best etiquette. Do you know, I can't even remember what we ate." She lifted her shoulders a little under the gorgeous blouse. "It could have been bread pudding for all I tasted. After the desserts we went to the withdrawing room and talked nonsense while the men passed the port, or whatever men do in the dining room when the women have gone. I've often wondered if they say anything at all worth listening to." She looked up at Hester quickly. "Haven't you?"

Hester smiled briefly. "Yes I have. But I think it may be one of those cases where the truth would be disappointing. The mystery is far better. Did the men rejoin you?"

Damaris grimaced in a strange half smile, rueful and ironic. "You mean was Thaddeus still alive then? Yes he was. Sabella went upstairs to be alone, or I think more accurately to sulk, but I can't remember when. It was before the men came in, because I thought she was avoiding Thaddeus."

"So you were all in the withdrawing room, apart from Sabella?"

"Yes. The conversation was very artificial. I mean more so than usual. It's always pretty futile. Louisa was making vicious little asides about Alex, all with a smooth smile on her face, of course. Then Louisa rose and invited Thaddeus to go up and visit Valentine - " She gave a quick little gasp as if she had choked on something, and then changed it into a cough. "Alex was furious. I can picture the look on her face as if I had only just seen it."

Hester knew Damaris was speaking of a subject about which she felt some deep emotion, but she had no idea why, or quite what emotion it was. But there was little point in pressing the matter at all if she stopped now.

"Who is Valentine?"

Damaris's voice was husky as she answered. "He is the Furnivals' son. He is thirteen - nearly fourteen."

"And Thaddeus was fond of him?" Hester said quietly.

"Yes - yes he was." Her tone had a kind of finality and her face a bleakness that stopped Hester from asking any more. She knew from Edith that Damaris had no children of her own, and she had enough sensitivity to imagine the feelings that might lie behind those words. She changed the subject and brought it back to the immediate.

"How long was he gone?"

Damaris smiled with a strange, wounded humor.

"Forever."

"Oh." Hester was more disconcerted than she was prepared for. She felt dismay, and for a moment she was robbed of words.

"I'm sorry," Damaris said quickly, looking at Hester with wide, dark eyes. "Actually I don't know. I was absorbed in my own thoughts. Some time. People were coming and going." She smiled as if there were some punishing humor in that thought. "Maxim went off for something, and Louisa came back alone. Alex went off too, I suppose after Thaddeus, and she came back. Then Maxim went off again, this time into the front hall - I should have said they went up the back stairs to the wing where Valentine has his room, on the third floor. It is quicker that way."

"You've been up?"

Damaris looked away. "Yes."

"Maxim went into the front hall?" Hester prompted.

"Oh - yes. And he came back looking awful and saying there had been an accident. Thaddeus had Mien over the banister and been seriously hurt - he was unconscious. Of course we know now he was dead." She was still looking at Hester, watching her face. Now she looked away again. "Charles Hargrave got up immediately and went to see. We all sat there in silence. Alex was as white as a ghost, but she had been most of the evening. Louisa was very quiet; she turned and went, saying she was fetching Sabella down, she ought to know her father had been hurt. I can't really remember what else happened till Charles - Dr. Hargrave -  came back to say Thaddeus was dead, and of course we would have to report it. No one should touch anything."

"Just leave him there?" Edith said indignantly. "Lying on the floor in the hallway, tangled up with the suit of armor?"

"Yes. . ."

"They would have to." Hester looked from one to the other of them. "And if he was dead it wouldn't cause him any distress. It is only what we think . . ."

Edith pulled a face, but said nothing more, curling her legs up a little higher.

"It's rather absurd, isn't it?" Damaris said very quietly. "A cavalry general who fought all over the place being killed eventually by falling over the stairs onto a halberd held by an empty suit of armor. Poor Thaddeus - he never had any sense of humor. I doubt he would have seen the funny side of it."

"I'm sure he wouldn't." Edith's voice broke for a moment, and she took a deep breath. "And neither would Papa. I wouldn't mention it again, if I were you."

"For heaven's sake!" Damaris snapped. "I'm not a complete fool. Of course I won't. But if I don't laugh I think I shall not be able to stop crying. Death is often absurd. People are absurd. I am!" She sat up properly and swiveled around straight in the seat, facing Hester.

"Someone murdered Thaddeus, and it had to be one of us who were there that evening. That's the awful thing about it all. The police say he couldn't have fallen onto the point of the halberd like that. It would never have penetrated his body - it would just have gone over. He could have broken his neck, or his back, and died. But that was not what happened. He didn't break any bones in the fall. He did knock his head, and almost certainly concuss himself, but it was the halberd through the chest that killed him - and that was driven in after he was lying on the ground."

She shivered. "Which is pretty horrible - and has not the remotest sort of humor about any part of it. Isn't it silly how we have this quite offensive desire to laugh at all the worst and most tragic things? The police have already been around asking all sorts of questions. It was dreadful - sort of unreal, like being inside a magic lantern show, except that of course they don't have stories like that."

"And they haven't come to any conclusions?" Hester went on relentlessly, but how else could she be of any help? They did not need pity; anyone could give them that.

"No." Damaris looked grim. "It seems several of us would have had the opportunity, and both Sabella and Alex had obviously quarreled with him recently. Others might have. I don't know." Then suddenly she stood up and smiled with forced gaiety.

"Let us go in to tea. Mama will be angry if we are late, and that would spoil it all."

Hester obeyed willingly. Apart from the fact that she thought they had exhausted the subject of the dinner party, at least for the time being, she was most interested in meeting Edith's parents, and indeed she was also ready for tea.

Edith uncurled herself, straightening her skirts, and followed them downstairs, through the big hall and into the main withdrawing room, where tea was to be served. It was a magnificent room. Hester had only a moment in which to appreciate it, since her interest, as well as her manners, required she give her attention to the occupants. She saw brocaded walls with gilt-framed pictures, an ornate ceiling, exquisitely draped curtains in claret-colored velvet with gold sashes, and a darker patterned carpet. She caught sight of two tall bronzes in highly ornate Renaissance style, and had a dim idea of terra-cotta ornaments near the mantel.

Colonel Randolph Carlyon was sitting totally relaxed, almost like a man asleep, in one of the great armchairs. He was a big man gone slack with age, his ruddy-skinned face partially concealed by white mustache and side whiskers, his pale blue eyes tired. He made an attempt to stand as they came in, but the gesture died before he was on his feet, a half bow sufficing to satisfy etiquette.

Felicia Carlyon was as different as was imaginable. She was perhaps ten years younger than her husband, no more than her mid-sixties, and although her face showed a certain strain, a tightness about the mouth and shadows around the large, deep-set eyes, there was nothing in the least passive or defeated about her. She stood in front of the walnut table on which tea was laid, her body still slender and rigidly upright with a deportment many a younger woman would have envied. Naturally she was wearing black in mourning for her son, but it was handsome, vivid black, well decorated with jet beading and trimmed with black velvet braid. Her black lace cap was similarly fashionable.

She did not move when they came in, but her glance went straight to Hester, and Hester was intensely aware of the force of her character.

"Good afternoon, Miss Latterly," Felicia said graciously, but without warmth. She reserved her judgment of people; her regard had to be earned. "How pleasant of you to come. Edith has spoken most kindly of you."

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Carlyon," Hester replied equally formally. "It is gracious of you to receive me. May I offer you my deepest sympathies for your loss."

"Thank you." Felicia's complete composure and the brevity with which she accepted made it tactless to add anything further. Obviously she did not wish to discuss the subject; it was deeply personal, and she did not share her emotions with anyone. "I am pleased you will take tea with us. Please be comfortable." She- did not move her body, but the invitation was implicit.

Hester thanked her again and sat, not in the least comfortably, on the dark red sofa farthest from the fire. Edith and Damaris both seated themselves and introductions were completed, Randolph Carlyon contributing only what was required of him for civility.

They spoke of the merest trivialities until the maid came with the last of the dishes required for tea, paper-thin sandwiches of cucumber, watercress and cream cheese, and finely chopped egg. There were also French pastries and cake with cream and jam. Hester looked at it with great appreciation, and wished it were an occasion on which it would be acceptable to eat heartily, but knew unquestionably that it was not.

When tea had been poured and passed Felicia looked at her with polite enquiry.

"Edith tells me you have traveled considerably, Miss Latterly. Have you been to Italy? It is a country I should have liked to visit. Unfortunately at the time when it would have been suitable for me, we were at war, and such things were impossible. Did you enjoy it?"

Hester wondered for a frantic moment what on earth Edith could have said, but she dared not look at her now, and there was no evading an answer to Felicia Carlyon. But she must protect Edith from having appeared to speak untruthfully.

"Perhaps I was not clear enough in my conversation with Edith." She forced a slight smile. She felt like adding "ma'am," as if she were speaking to a duchess, which was absurd. This woman was socially no better than herself - or at least than her parents. "I regret my traveling was in the course of war, and anything but educational in the great arts of Italy. Although I did put in to port there briefly."

"Indeed?" Felicia's arched eyebrows rose, but it would be immeasurably beneath her to allow her good manners to be diverted. "Did war oblige you to leave your home, Miss Latterly? Regrettably we seem to have trouble in so many parts of the Empire at the moment. And they speak of unrest in India as well, although I have no idea whether that is serious or not."

Hester hesitated between equivocation and the truth, and decided truth would be safer, in the long run. Felicia Carlyon was not a woman to overlook an inconsistency or minor contradiction.

"No, I was in the Crimea, with Miss Nightingale." That magic name was sufficient to impress most people, and it was the best reference she had both as to character and worth.

"Good gracious," Felicia said, sipping her tea delicately.

"Extraordinary!" Randolph blew out through his whiskers.

"I think it is fascinating." Edith spoke for the first time since coming into the withdrawing room. "A most worthwhile thing to do with one's life."

"Traveling with Miss Nightingale is hardly a lifetime occupation, Edith," Felicia said coolly. "An adventure, perhaps, but of short duration."

"Inspired by noble motives, no doubt," Randolph added. "But extraordinary, and not entirely suitable for a - a - " He stopped.

Hester knew what he had been going to say; she had met the attitude many times before, especially in older soldiers. It was not suitable for gentlewomen. Females who followed the army were either enlisted men's wives, laundresses, servants, or whores. Except the most senior officers' ladies, of course, but that was quite different. They knew Hester was not married.

"Nursing has improved immensely in the last few years," she said with a smile. "It is now a profession."

"Not for women," Felicia said flatly. "Although I am sure your work was very noble, and all England admires it. What are you doing now you are home again?"

Hester heard Edith's indrawn breath and saw Damaris swiftly lower her eyes to her plate.

"I am caring for a retired military gentleman who has broken his leg quite severely," Hester answered, forcing herself to see the humor of the situation rather than the offense. "He requires someone more skilled in caring for the injured than a housemaid."

"Very commendable," Felicia said with a slight nod, sipping at her tea again.

Hester knew implicitly that what she did not add was that it was excellent only for women who were obliged to support themselves and were beyond a certain age when they might reasonably hope for marriage. She would never countenance her own daughters descending to such a pass, as long as there was a roof over their heads and a single garment to put on their backs.

Hester made her smile even sweeter.

"Thank you, Mrs. Carlyon. It is most gratifying to be of use to someone, and Major Tiplady is a gentleman of good family and high reputation."

"Tiplady ..." Randolph frowned. "Tiplady? Can't say I ever heard of him. Where'd he serve, eh?"

"India."

"Funny! Thaddeus, my son, you know, served in India for years. Outstanding man - a general, you know. Sikh Wars - '45 to '46, then again in '49. Was in the Opium Wars in China in '39 as well. Very fine man! Everyone says so. Very fine indeed, if I do say so. Son any man would be proud of. Never heard him mention anyone called Tiplady."

"Actually I believe Major Tiplady was sent to Afghanistan - the Afghan Wars of '39 and '42. He talks about it sometimes. It is most interesting."

Randolph looked at her with mild reproof, as one would a precocious child.

"Nonsense, my dear Miss Latterly. There is no need to affect interest in military matters in order to be polite. My son has very recently died" - his face clouded - "most tragically. As no doubt you are aware from Edith, but we are used to bearing our loss with fortitude. You do not need to consider our feelings in such a way."

Hester drew breath to say her interest had nothing to do with Thaddeus Carlyon and long predated her even having heard of him, then decided it would not be understood or believed, and would appear merely offensive.

She compromised.

"Stories of courage and endeavor are always interesting, Colonel Carlyon," she said with a very direct stare at him. "I am extremely sorry for your loss, but I never for a moment considered affecting an interest or a respect I did not feel."

He seemed caught off balance for a moment. His cheeks grew pinker and he blew out his breath sharply, but glancing sideways at Felicia, Hester saw a flicker of appreciation and something which might have been a dark, painful humor, but it was too brief for her to do more than wonder at it.

Before any reply was required, the door opened and a man came in. His manner seemed on the surface almost deferential, until one observed that actually he did not wait for any approval or acknowledgment; it was simply that there was no arrogance in him. Hester judged he was barely an inch taller than Damaris, but still a good height for a man, of very average build if a little round-shouldered. His face was unremarkable, dark eyed, lips hidden by his mustache, features regular, except that there was an aura of good humor about him as though he held no inner anger and optimism were a part of his life.

Damaris looked up at him quickly, her expression lightening.

"Hallo, Pev. You look cold - have some tea."

He touched her gently on the shoulder as he passed and sat down in the chair next to hers.

"Thank you," he accepted, smiling across at Hester, waiting to be introduced.

"My husband," Damaris said quickly. "Peverell Erskine. Pev, this is Hester Latterly, Edith's friend, who nursed in the Crimea with Florence Nightingale."

"How do you do, Miss Latterly." He inclined his head, his face full of interest."I hope you are not bored by endless people asking you to tell us about your experiences. We should still be obliged if you would do it for us."

Felicia poured his tea and passed it. "Later, perhaps, if Miss Latterly should call again. Did you have a satisfactory day, Peverell?"

He took her rebuff without the least irritation, almost as if he had not noticed it. Hester would have felt patronized and retaliated. That would have been far less satisfying, and watching Peverell Erskine, she realized it with a little stab of surprise.

He took a cucumber sandwich and ate it with relish before replying.

"Yes thank you, Mama-in-law. I met a most interesting man who fought in the Maori Wars ten years ago." He looked at Hester. "That is in New Zealand, you know? Yes, of course you do. They have the most marvelous birds there. Quite unique, and so beautiful." His agreeable face was full of enthusiasm. "I love birds, Miss Latterly. Such a variety. Everything from a hummingbird no bigger than my little finger, which hovers in the air to suck the nectar from a flower, right up to an albatross, which flies the oceans of the earth, with a wingspan twice the height of a man." His face was bright with the marvels he perceived, and in that instant Hester knew precisely why Damaris had remained in love with him.

She smiled back. "I will trade with you, Mr. Erskine," she offered. "I will tell you everything I know about the Crimea and Miss Nightingale if you will tell me about what you know of birds."

He laughed cheerfully. "What an excellent idea. But I assure you, I am simply an amateur."

"By far the best. I should wish to listen for love of it, not in order to become learned."

"Mr. Erskine is a lawyer, Miss Latterly," Felicia said with distinct chill. Then she turned to her son-in-law. "Did you see Alexandra?"

His expression did not alter, and Hester wondered briefly if he had avoided telling her this immediately because she had been so curt in cutting him off. It -would be a good-natured and yet effective way of asserting himself so she did not overrule him completely.

"Yes I did." He addressed no one in particular, and continued sipping his tea. "I saw her this morning. She is very distressed of course, but bearing it with courage and dignity." .

"I would expect that of any Carlyon," Felicia said rather sharply. "You do not need to tell me that. I beg your pardon, Miss Latterly, but this is a family matter which cannot interest you. I wish to know her affairs, Peverell. Is everything in order? Does she have what she requires? I imagine Thaddeus left everything tidy and well arranged?"

"Well enough.

Her eyebrows rose. "Well enough? What on earth do you mean?"

"I mean that I have taken care of the preliminaries, and so far there is nothing that cannot be satisfactorily dealt with, Mama-in-law."

"I shall require to know more than that, at a suitable time."

"Then you will have to ask Alexandra, because I cannot tell you," he said with a bland and totally uncommunicative smile.

"Don't be absurd! Of course you can." Her large blue eyes were hard. "You are her solicitor; you must be aware of everything there is."

"Certainly I am aware of it." Peverell set down his cup and looked at her more directly. "But for precisely that reason I cannot discuss her affairs with anyone else."

"He was my son, Peverell. Have you forgotten that?"

"Every man is someone's son, Mama-in-law," he said gently. "That does not invalidate his right to privacy, nor his widow's."

Felicia's face was white. Randolph retreated farther back into his chair, as if he had not heard. Damaris sat motionless. Edith watched them all.

But Peverell was not disconcerted. He had obviously foreseen both the question and his answer to it. Her reaction could not have surprised him.

"I am sure Alexandra will discuss with you everything that is of family concern," he went on as if nothing had happened.

"It is all of family concern, Peverell!" Felicia said with a tight, hard voice. "The police are involved. Ridiculous as that seems, someone in that wretched house killed Thad-deus. I assume it was Maxim Furnival. I never cared for him. I always thought he lacked self-control, in a finer sense. He paid far too much attention to Alexandra, and she had not the sense to discourage him! I sometimes thought he imagined himself in love with her - whatever that may mean to such a man."

"I never saw him do anything undignified or hasty," Damaris said quickly. "He was merely fond of her."

"Be quiet, Damaris," her mother ordered. "You do not know what you are talking about. I am referring to his nature, not his acts - until now, of course."

"We don't know that he has done anything now," Edith joined in reasonably.

"He married that Warburton woman; that was a lapse of taste and judgment if ever I saw one," Felicia snapped. " Emotional, uncontrolled."

"Louisa?" Edith asked, looking at Damaris, who nodded.

"Well?" Felicia turned to Peverell. "What are the police doing? When are they going to arrest him?"

"I have no idea."

Before she could respond the door opened and the butler came in looking extremely grave and not a little embarrassed, and carrying a note on a silver tray. He presented it not to Randolph but to Felicia. Possibly Randolph's eyesight was no longer good.

"Miss Alexandra's footman brought it, ma'am," he said very quietly.

"Indeed." She picked it up without speaking and read it through. The very last trace of color fled from her skin, leaving her rigid and waxy pale.

"There will be no reply," she said huskily. "You may go."

"Yes ma'am." He departed obediently, closing the door behind him.

"The police have arrested Alexandra for the murder of Thaddeus," Felicia said with a level, icily controlled voice, as soon as he was gone. "Apparently she has confessed."

Damaris started to say something and choked on her words. Immediately Peverell put his hand over hers and held it hard.

Randolph stared uncomprehendingly, his eyes wide.

"No!" Edith protested. "That's - that's impossible! Not Alex!"

Felicia rose to her feet. "There is no purpose in denying it, Edith. Apparently it is so. She has admitted it." She squared her shoulders. "Peverell, we would be obliged if you would take care of the matter. It seems she has taken leave of her senses, and in a fit of madness become homicidal. Perhaps it can be dealt with privately, since she does not contest the issue."

Her voice gained confidence. "She can be put away in a suitable asylum. We shall have Cassian here, naturally, poor child. I shall fetch him myself. I imagine that will have to be done tonight. He cannot remain in that house without family." She reached for the bell, then turned to Hester. "Miss Latterly, you have been privy to our family tragedy. You will surely appreciate that we are no longer in a position to entertain even the closest friends and sympathisers. Thank you for calling. Edith will show you to the door and bid you goodbye."

Hester stood up. "Of course. I am most extremely sorry."

Felicia acknowledged her words with a look but no more. There was nothing to add. All that was possible now was to excuse herself to Randolph, Peverell and Damaris, and leave.

As soon as they were in the hall Edith clasped her arm.

"Dear God, this is terrible! We have to do something!"

Hester stopped and faced her. "What? I think your mother's answer may be the best. If she has lost her mind and become violent - "

"Rubbish!" Edith exploded fiercely. "Alex is not mad. If anyone in the family killed him, it will be their daughter Sabella. She really is ... very strange. After the birth of her child she threatened to take her own life. Oh - there isn't time to tell you now, but believe me there is a long story about Sabella." She was holding Hester so hard there was little choice but to stay. "She hated Thaddeus," Edith went on urgently. "She didn't want to marry; she wanted to become a nun, of all things. But Thaddeus would not hear of it. She hated him for making her marry, and still does. Poor Alex will have confessed to save her. We've got to do something to help. Can't you think of anything?"

"Well . . ." Hester's mind raced. "Well, I do know a private sort of policeman who works for people - but if she has confessed, she will be tried, you know. I know a brilliant lawyer. But Peverell..."

"No," Edith said quickly. "He is a solicitor, not a barrister - he doesn't appear in court. He won't mind, I swear. He would want the best for Alex. Sometimes he appears to do whatever Mama says, but he doesn't really. He just smiles and goes his own way. Please, Hester, if there is anything you can do . . . ?"

"I will," Hester promised, clasping Edith's hand. "I will try!"

"Thank you. Now you must go before anyone else comes out and finds us here - please!"

"Of course. Keep heart."

"I will - and thank you again."

Quickly Hester turned and accepted her cloak from the waiting maid and went to the door, her mind racing, her thoughts in turmoil, and the face of Oliver Rathbone sharp in her mind.