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“Swithin! But I thought you despised the fellow!”
“Oh, as to that—” She paused awkwardly. “He is the most odious of men, and throws poor Easton into quite a favourable light. Do you know that Uncle suspects Swithin of the murder? And of leaving you to bear the blame?”
“But he was not even invited to Grandmère’s rout!”
“No more he was. But Uncle has found a pin we believe to be his — a snarling tiger, with rubies for eyes — dropped and forgotten in the anteroom passageway. You know it ca
“The Devil!” Lord Kinsfell exclaimed, and then looked to myself with comic anxiety. “I beg your pardon, Miss Austen. I hope I did not offend—”
“So you see, Ki
“I do not pretend to understand you, Mona. I have no intention of shielding Swithin.”
“Ki
Lord Kinsfell shook his head. “I saw nothing of Swithin that night.”
“But perhaps you saw a Pierrot?” I suggested. “A broad-shouldered fellow, not unlike the Earl. Throughout Her Grace’s rout, I observed a similar figure in conversation with Maria Conyngham.”
He started at this, and surveyed me narrowly. “And what should Maria Conyngham have to do with Mr. Portal’s death? You saw yourself how destroyed she was by his end.”
I shrugged. “We know her to be allied in the closest terms with Lord Swithin.”
“I fear you are mistaken, madam,” Kinsfell cried, with a conscious look for Lady Desdemona. “Lord Swithin is excessively attached to my sister!”
“Oh, Ki
The Marquis threw himself down on the dirty hay and put his head in his hands. “I ca
“But you must, my dear,” Lady Desdemona said gently. “For it is no more than the truth. Whatever we each might have chosen to hope regarding the respective parties, I for one refuse to continue in ignorance.”
He was silent a moment, and his sister glanced at me uneasily.
“Ki
“It matters nothing, now.”
“It matters a very great deal, indeed. I have only one brother, and I will not part with him for the sake of such a jade, for any inducement in the world!” Lady Desdemona cried stoutly. “You know something, I am sure of it.”
“Did you chance to observe the lady on your passage to the anteroom — while her brother was declaiming Macbeth?” I enquired.
The Marquis’s answer was drowned in the clamour of knocking at his door. “Time, my lady!” called Constable Shaw.
Lady Desdemona looked about her wildly. “Tell us, Ki
“Very well,” he said, with infinite weariness; “I now no longer care what happens to myself. I did not observe Maria Conyngham, nor Swithin either. If he killed Portal and availed himself of the passage, however, it must have been at Miss Conyngham’s urging — for she knew of the passage’s existence, where Swithin could not. You will remember, Mona, how often the Conynghams dined in Laura Place, in the weeks before Her Grace’s rout; and any might observe the servants to pass from drawing-room to kitchen, by way of the anteroom passage.”
“That is no more than the truth,” his sister thoughtfully replied.
“But there is something, Lord Kinsfell, that you know regarding the lady,” I said.
He looked at me for a long moment, his eyes devoid of hope. And then he nodded once. “It is a word only.”
“A word?”
“Maria,” he said. “I heard it on Portal’s lips, in his final agony.”
WE LEFT LORD KINSFELL TO THE MOST MELANCHOLY thoughts, and found Colonel Easton pacing in the central courtyard. He very kindly escorted us both to his phaeton, and enquired of our direction; and at Lady Desdemona’s declaring herself faint from hunger, agreed to set us down in Milsom Street, for the procuring of a nuncheon at Molland’s, the confectioners.[60] There he was forced to part from us, being elsewhere engaged; but we assured him of our ability to walk the remaining distance home in the strongest accents possible.
A little while later we were established on a pair of stools in the bow-front window, well-fortified with chocolate and macaroons.
“It would seem that Portal named his killer in his last moments,” I began. “We must inform Lord Harold without delay.”
“May I beg you to accompany me to Laura Place, Miss Austen, and dine there with us? For the morning is much advanced, and you ca
Having reasons of my own for wishing to consult Lord Harold — a consultation already too-long deferred — I readily agreed.
“Then do you jot a little note for the instruction of your family, and I shall send one of Mrs. Molland’s messengers to Green Park Buildings,” Lady Desdemona suggested, with admirable efficiency.
The paper was brought, the note written, and the messenger despatched in a matter of moments. Mrs. Molland refreshed our cups, and we settled down to indulge in a thorough canvassing of Lord Kinsfell’s affairs.
“Poor Ki
“Had you any notion of your brother’s regard for Miss Conyngham?” I enquired.
“No, indeed,” Lady Desdemona exclaimed. “You must comprehend, Miss Austen, that Ki
“Perhaps he found a value in discretion.”
“Rather than risk Papa’s disapproval, you would mean? I should not be greatly surprised. But I must reproach myself for failing to detect the change in his behaviour. For Ki
“A man of taste and elegance, I see. Does his acquaintance with the lady, then, predate this visit to Bath?”
“He came down last Easter to stay with Grandmère, and may have met Miss Conyngham then. I must suppose Mr. Portal to have thrown her in his way — for Portal was an intimate of long standing in Laura Place. But what I ca
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Readers of Persuasion will be familiar with Molland’s, where A