The Vanishing Thief(39)
As I reached the short steps to the front door, Miss Lucinda came out, bundled in a coat, hat, scarf, and gloves. She put up her umbrella as I said, “Miss Lucinda, I was going to call on you.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t follow that custom.” She looked wistfully at a passing hansom and then shifted her umbrella and plunged determinedly onward.
“May I walk with you?”
“You may do whatever you wish.”
I decided to remain in my Georgia Peabody persona. “I hope you don’t dislike me because of my grandmother.”
“No.” For the first time, I saw a fleeting smile on the woman’s face. She shared the same blond coloring and features as her brother, but there was an intelligence in her eyes that I didn’t see in his. “We have to answer for our own sins, not anyone else’s.”
“Do you know what sins Nicholas Drake must answer for?”
“Do you?”
“I’ve been told he’s a thief and a blackmailer.”
Her steps hesitated for a moment before continuing down the street. “What does Mr. Drake say about this?”
“He’s beyond our power to ask him.”
“Is he dead?” She sounded hopeful.
“No. Not that we know of. Only missing. Tell me about Mr. Drake.”
“He’s a good-looking man, well dressed, but cruel. Evil.”
I would have to have been deaf to have missed the venom in her voice. “Isn’t that a harsh judgment, Miss Lucinda?”
“No less than he deserves.”
“Why don’t you like him?”
Now her steps sped up. “That is a private matter.”
I decided to force the subject. “I’ve heard he’s tried to blackmail several people, so I understand why they don’t like him. Did he try to blackmail you, too?”
Lucinda’s face paled, but she sped up her pace walking east. “No. No, he couldn’t blackmail me. Only people who have something to hide are blackmailed.”
“Everyone has something to hide. Sometimes people want to hide good news from their friends and neighbors.”
“How could someone be blackmailed over good news, even if they didn’t want to share it with the world?”
“Tell me, Miss Lucinda. Tell me how Nicholas Drake could do such a thing.”
“He didn’t.”
“Lying is a sin.”
She gave me a sorrowful look. “Something else for me to confess.”
“Confess?” Then I understood. “Miss Lucinda, you’ve converted to the Roman faith.”
“Yes.” She lifted her chin and said the word more defiantly. “Yes.”
“Nicholas Drake held this against you.”
“He threatened to tell my brother if I didn’t pay him. The fool didn’t realize there are no secrets between Laurence and me. He’s an even greater fool for trying to separate us.”
Her expression told me how very foolish Drake had been. “Why would he do that?”
“So he could take advantage of my brother’s good nature. He quickly learned he couldn’t drive a wedge between us.” She gave me a satisfied smile.
“Your brother already knew about your conversion before Drake tried to blackmail you?”
“Yes. Laurence has no problem with it as long as I don’t leave him.”
We both kept quiet as we waited for a break in the never-ending line of carriages, wagons, omnibuses, and horses crowding the street. Finally, a second’s pause in the traffic let us scramble across the busy intersection.
“Prospective spouses for either of you might find this need for a combined household difficult.” Aristocrats have to continue their bloodlines. A requirement drilled into them from the nursery. I wondered if any of Lord Naylard’s lessons had made an impression.
“I want to become a nun, so marriage is out of the question. And Laurence is in no hurry to wed. Once he finds a suitable wife who will both love him and provide his backbone, I will join a convent both for my own joy and for his domestic peace.”
We were nearing Charing Cross Road. We would soon leave the boundaries of Miss Lucinda’s world. “Where are you headed?”
“The chapel of St. Etheldreda near the Holborn Viaduct. It’s an ancient church, used by the faithful long before the Reformation.” Her face took on an otherworldly glow. “I feel so close to Christ there.”
I envied her faith. “One last question if I may, Miss Lucinda. What did Drake do and say when you told him your brother knew and had no problems with your conversion?”
A smile crossed her face. “That was the only time I saw Nicholas Drake speechless. I thought for a moment he was going to strike me, but then he took a deep breath, said he was sorry he misjudged me, and walked off. He’s made no attempts to bother me again.