Her sharp look around the table was unmistakably a swearing to silence on the part of everyone, their understanding nods a guarantee of the reinstatement of her son’s reputation and career.
Joe watched the pious sorrow gathering, listened to the murmured compassion being offered to Truelove and his stomach curdled. Only Adelaide was looking puzzled and angry. She got to her feet in a marked manner and murmured something to Cecily as she went by on her way to the door.
Joe followed her clicking heels and managed to cut her off before Ben could open up for her. He hissed, “Stop right there, Adelaide. Don’t leave me alone with these swine! They may need you to sew their balls back on before the evening’s over!”
CHAPTER 24
Joe turned to Ben.
“Did you bring it, man?”
Ben picked up a brown paper package from behind a plant pot and handed it to Joe.
Joe turned his attention back to the gathering. They fell silent, eager to hear him apply the soothing ointment of compliance and understanding. A police officer, a high-ranking one destined for the top position at the Yard, a man now shown to have the confidence and trust of a minister of Truelove’s promise, was a man they would listen to.
He stayed on his feet between them and the door.
“First things first: Miss Joliffe, for whose fate I observe you all to be exhibiting so much sympathy, is as we speak, on her way to enjoy a cup of cocoa with Adam Hunnyton. She will have already heard an apology for the treatment she has just received at our hands. That scene was enacted with her knowledge and consent, her contribution voluntary. It was, nevertheless, an unpleasant experience. I hope one day she will find it in her to forgive me. I know she will never forgive you, Truelove.”
He paused for emphasis. “Yes, you, Truelove! That was a farce, not a pantomime, you have just witnessed. But the first act only. A scene played out to reveal to me—and to all in this room—the depths to which the Truelove household was prepared to stoop to protect its own. Its reputation, its very existence have been—still are—at stake. With one woman dead already, two more women’s lives and happiness were to be sacrificed without a second thought to keep a Truelove in place and in affluence. That’s what this is all about. You have shown yourselves in your true colours. I’m now going to hold up a mirror so that you can see yourselves in all your dishonour.”
Pompous rhetoric, perhaps, but calculated. An Englishman, even a rogue, still had his attention caught by a challenge to his honour.
Jaws dropped, two men leapt to their feet uttering threats. Again, the only thing that saved Joe from a revolt was curiosity. Wives tugged their husbands back down into their chairs, clucking and fussing. What on earth was this fiendish policeman going to come out with next? They had to know.
Alice McIver, more prescient than the rest, spoke sharply to her husband: “Don’t interrupt, Mungo! He’s just smashed up the wristwatch, now he’s going to pull it in one piece out of someone’s ear.”
Alexander managed a delighted grin. “She didn’t do it, did she? Ha! Told you so! You’ve been having us on, Sandilands! Poking us with a stick to see which way we’d jump.”
“No, she didn’t do it, Alex. Dorcas Joliffe is entirely innocent of any attempt on Lavinia. The only thing she has been guilty of is trusting James Truelove. The man who connived at the murder of his own wife. Lavinia produced no heir and had, after many years, dished out the last of her fortune. Her character and conduct were increasingly showing themselves unsuited to life at the side of a man of Sir James’s political ambitions. She had become a worthless hindrance to the Truelove line. With her off the scene, James, still youthful and destined for a glowing future, could attract a rich, socially adept woman of childbearing years. He had one such in mind.
“But how to manage it without drawing down suspicion on himself? The notion of allowing his wife to follow her own stupid fantasy to its inevitable grisly end occurred to a Truelove mind that disastrous weekend. There was even a love-lorn student on hand to take the blame, should anything go wrong and blame become a feature of the case. Dorcas Joliffe, in her blind attachment to her mentor, was a useful insurance policy. As was a recently appointed and ambitious Assistant Commissioner of Police. Conveniently, he was known to have connections with the Joliffe family and could be depended on to deflect suspicion from the Trueloves while ensuring that the blame-carrier escaped any serious trouble at the hands of the law. How thoughtful … How neat!
“Grace was the only one who tried to avert a tragedy. Unfortunately, in her dilemma, she sought advice from not Dorcas but from one she trusted and who knew something about horses. I’ve discovered that in this household, everyone considers himself or herself an expert. But in this case, the authority consulted had access to a very ancient source of information.”