‘Perhaps he feels responsible for me somehow. Lords of the peerage have an inflated view of duty towards others in need.’ Cassandra prayed that her sister might take her explanation as an end point to the conversation, but she was disappointed.
‘Kenyon thinks he is a good person. He also said that his grandfather is a mean-spirited old miser who needs a hearty talking to.’
‘Your husband-to-be has strong opinions, Reena.’
‘I know. Isn’t he wonderful?’
Unexpectedly, Cassandra found herself laughing. Her sister had changed from a woman who often questioned masculine dominance to one who was allowing Kenyon Riley every right of persuasion. It was heartening because Maureen looked so very happy, a smile pinned on her lips almost permanently now and nothing and no one could dull it. Not even their father when he joined them in the breakfast room looking irritated.
‘Reginald was here again yesterday and he is becoming more and more of an interfering and bombastic bore. I shall instruct the servants not to let him through to the laboratory again because he cannot help touching the experiments even when I ask him not to. Your mother was always exasperated by him and I can well see why.’
‘I think he was after the watch Grandfather brought home with him from South Africa, Papa. He said the other week that he was certain it was supposed to be given to him.’ Maureen sounded distant, as though the problems of this household were becoming less and less of a concern to her.
‘The acquisition of family heirlooms is the only reason he ever comes calling and Lord knows he has more in the way of chattels than we do.’
‘Why do you give him things, then?’ Cassie joined in the conversation now, interested in his answer.
‘Because he never loved a woman like I did or had children. Offspring. Heirs. His life is as barren as a moor and as empty. It seems he uses the clubs selling pleasure these days as a reason for living. God knows he is always trying to deter me from funding your charity.’
Cassie frowned. ‘He told me at the Forsythe ball the other week that I should be placing my efforts into the marriage mart and that the frippery of charitable works would put any man off an alliance with our family.’
‘And yet he himself has never entertained the idea of a bride?’ Maureen’s words were laced with question.
‘Oh, he did once. He asked your mother to marry him and she refused. I don’t think he ever forgave her for marrying me instead.’
Cassandra had heard this before from her mama. Alysa was a woman who barely spoke of the personal, but once when Uncle Reginald had come to the door she had pretended she was out and had given an explanation for the lie. Her love of science was the reason. Reginald for all his money and handsome looks could never abide a woman with a brain and if Alysa had a goal in life it was to understand the theory behind the small and unseen badness in a sick person.
‘She had a lucky escape, Papa, and I am certain she knew it.’
‘But it has made him mean and small-minded.’
Their father was usually far more reticent about discussing any of his feelings so Cassie determined that he must be worried about something. She had no further opportunity to ask questions, though, as he finished his breakfast and left the table. Back to the laboratory, she thought and watched as he left, a man slightly bent over by life and loss. She hoped she would not be like that in thirty years.
A few moments later a knock on the door took their attention. These days any unexpected caller had the effect of making Cassandra’s heart race wildly just in case it was Nathaniel Lindsay, but when their butler showed in Elizabeth Hartley from the school, a new worry surfaced. She looked alarmed and anxious, her more usual languid demeanour disappeared beneath a flushed face and bright eyes.
‘Another girl has been pulled out of the river. We have just been informed of it and we think it may be Sarah Milgrew, for she has not returned home for two nights.’
Both Cassie and Maureen stood.
‘When did you last see her?’
‘She said she had to go out around six the day before yesterday and never came home. She had some information of her lost sister, it seems, and was hurrying out to find her.’
‘How did the word come?’
‘A young boy came to the front door and asked for her by name. When I looked in her room there was no note or anything. After we heard the news this morning, though, Mrs Wilson said I was to fetch you and that you would know what to do.’
Both sisters looked at each other. ‘We will come, of course,’ Cassandra said. ‘Where has the body been taken?’
‘To the police station in Aldwych.’
‘Then I need to be there. If you stay here, Maureen, until I return we will all go to the school together.’
* * *
Twenty minutes later she was pulling up in front of the Aldwych constabulary in a hired brougham. God, how she hated what she had come to do, but as there was no one else for the job she took a deep breath and stepped down from the carriage, walking right into the path of Lord Nathaniel Lindsay.
Because her mind was on the dreadful business of the discovered body it took her a second to register his presence and react. The bloom of anger and discomfort could be felt on her cheeks.
‘It is Sarah Milgrew, Cassandra. I have just identified her.’ His words replaced embarrassment with a deep and shocked horror. ‘Her throat was cut just like the last girls’.’
He was not being careful with his facts and for that Cassie was glad. She did not wish to be treated like a woman who would need the truth filtered and sanitised. His grey eyes were filled with the sort of anger she had seen them to contain in France.
‘The constabulary said that there is nothing else that they can do at the moment. I have asked them to keep me informed of any new developments, however, and they said they would send someone over if there was other information uncovered. I have my own leads, too, that I shall want to investigate.’
‘You have an idea of who it might be?’
‘Sarah Milgrew’s home town of Wallingford might allow us some answers. I will travel across there in the morning.’
‘If you could keep us up to date, too, we would be most grateful.’
‘Of course. Would you like me to drop you at home?’
‘If you have the wish to.’ Sadness had hollowed her; sadness for Sarah and for the other girls who had died.
‘My carriage is this way.’ For the first time he touched her, his hand at her elbow guiding her past a group of people walking the other way; an aloof and detached touch that was discarded as soon as they reached the conveyance. Once inside he kept talking.
‘Surely someone else could have been sent from the Daughters of the Poor other than you to identify the body?’
‘There are no men on the pay roll, if that is what you are suggesting.’
‘Older women, then. Married women.’
The barb dug deep, lancing all the hurt and anger. ‘I might remind you, Lord Lindsay, that I was married even though you seem to have forgotten the fact entirely.’
‘Hardly.’ His eyes ran across her body in the way of a man who remembered everything.
‘Well, as someone who spends his evenings in the bosom of the Venus Club you give all the impression of otherwise.’ My God, she thought as soon as it was out of her mouth. What had made her say that? The sharp edge of hurt probably and the wasted loss of hope.