Midnight at Marble Arch tp-28 Page 14

  “Most of us have wounds of some sort,” he said quietly.

  “Of course,” Isaura agreed. “But you see, there is nothing you can do. I am grateful for your kindness in coming to me in person rather than sending a letter.”

  He did not want to accept her dismissal.

  “I would still like to speak to your maid, Senhora,” he said grimly. “I will be discreet, I give you my word, but I want to know for myself all that I can. Special Branch has a long memory.”

  Her eyes flickered for a moment. With hope?

  “Of course,” she agreed. “I shall ask her to come.” She turned and left, going out of the door with her head high, her shoulders awkwardly stiff.

  Pitt wondered how rash his promise was, and when Isaura Castelbranco would tell her husband the truth. Probably when she was sure he would not take his own revenge. She had faced more than enough grief already.

  CHAPTER 8

  Narraway went to Lisson Grove reluctantly. It had been his office, his domain, for so many years that going back as a visitor heightened his sense of being superfluous. He did not belong anymore. He looked much the same as he always had, not even noticeably any grayer, certainly not heavier or stiffer. His mind felt just as sharp-in fact, in some ways more so. It was emotionally that he felt different. Surely gentleness, an awareness of others, a greater humanity, was part of wisdom?

  He had time in which to do anything he wanted, to travel anywhere, if he wished. It wasn’t possible that he had forgotten how to enjoy himself. He could go to the beautiful cities of Europe he had only visited in haste before. He could admire the architecture, steep himself in the history of the cultures, the music, the great art created through the centuries. He could stop and talk to people purely for the pleasure of it. He could ignore or forget anything that bored him. There were no boundaries, no responsibilities.

  Was that what troubled him? He needed boundaries? What for-an excuse? Responsibilities, or he felt unimportant? Did that mean there was little to him except the job? He had started in the army at eighteen, straight from Eton, where he had excelled academically. The military had been his father’s idea, much against his own intention.

  He had arrived in India almost coincidentally with the beginning of the Mutiny, and seen firsthand the horrors of war. It had been brutal and desperate-innocent men, women, and children slaughtered as well as soldiers. It was there that he had first become aware of the unnecessary human errors-“stupidity” would not be too strong a word in some cases-that caused such tragedy. It had sparked his appreciation for military intelligence and, even above that, the understanding of people and events, of political will, the perception of social movement that had eventually matched him with his true gifts, Special Branch. He had given the rest of his life to it.

  Was it the loss of purpose that hurt now, or the loss of power? Who was he without those things? It was the question he had avoided asking himself, but now that it was in his mind in so many words, he could not sidestep it anymore. He had never been a coward before. He could not be one now. There was still something left to play for.

  He had brought Pitt into Special Branch, originally as a favor to Cornwallis when Pitt got himself thrown out of the Metropolitan Police because he knew too much about a particular area of corruption. Now Pitt was head of Special Branch and Narraway was retired to kick his heels in the House of Lords, very much against his will. After the miserable Irish business he had had no chance of remaining in office.

  He walked up the steps and in the door self-consciously, aware of the surprise and then discomfort of the men who used to snap to attention and call him “sir.” Now they were uncertain how to greet him. He could see in their faces the indecision as to what to say. He should have the grace to relieve them of that.

  “Good morning,” he said, giving a very slight smile, which was not familiarity, just good manners. “Would you please inform Commander Pitt that I am here, and would like to speak with him regarding a matter in which my advice has been requested. He is already aware of it.”

  “Yes, sir … my lord,” the man replied, relief filling his face that Narraway seemingly knew his place. “If … if you’ll take a seat, sir, I’ll deliver that message.”

  “Thank you.” Narraway moved back from the desk and obeyed, feeling ridiculous, slightly humbled in what had been his own territory, asking favors of men he used to command. Would Pitt feel obliged to see him, however inconvenient it was? Might he even feel a slight pity for him, a man with no purpose? He was too tense to sit down. Perhaps he should not have come to the office, but rather, met Pitt at some other location.

  He was not old; he was still more than capable of doing the job. He had been dismissed because of a scandal deliberately and artificially created in one of the most dangerous plots of the decade, perhaps of the century. But he had made enemies. The very nature of Special Branch made it impossible for Narraway to justify himself without also telling the truth as to what had happened. And that he could never do. He acknowledged with a bitter irony that the very act of talking to the public would have made him unfit for the position.

  And Pitt was a worthy successor. He would grow into the job. He had both the intelligence and the courage. With luck he would last long enough to gain the experience. The only quality in doubt was the steel in his soul to make the decisions where there was no morally clear answer, where other men’s lives were at stake and there was no time to weigh or measure possibilities. That required a particular type of strength, not only to act, but afterward to live with the consequences. Narraway could not count the number of times he had lain awake half the night, second-guessing himself, regretting. There was no other loneliness quite like it.

  The man returned. Narraway remained where he stood, waiting for the response.

  “If you’ll come with me, my lord, Commander Pitt has a little free time and would be happy to see you,” the man said.

  Narraway thanked him, wondering whether the “little free time” was Pitt’s wording or the messenger’s. It was very faintly patronizing and did not sound like Pitt.

  “Morning.” Pitt rose to his feet as if Narraway were still the superior. “The Quixwood case?” he asked as Narraway closed the door.

  “Yes,” Narraway replied, accepting the seat offered him. He felt a touch of surprise at Pitt’s serious tone, and the fact that he had brought up the subject so quickly. “You’re not interested in the Quixwood case, are you? I mean officially?”

  “Not quite. As far as I know, thus far it’s an ordinary tragedy, no political implications. But I’m just beginning to realize what a complicated, misunderstood, and horrible crime rape is. I was actually thinking of Angeles Castelbranco, before you came.”

  Narraway blinked. “The Portuguese ambassador’s daughter who died in that appalling accident?”

  “I think it was probably an accident, to some degree,” Pitt answered. “At least on her part. On his, I don’t know.”

  “His?” Narraway raised his eyebrows. “What are we talking about?”

  Pitt’s face creased with distaste. “It was a public taunting-baiting, if you like-that led to her fall, largely orchestrated by Neville Forsbrook. I don’t think she had any intention of going out the window, as is now being suggested.”

  Narraway frowned. “What are you saying, that she was raped too? By Forsbrook?”

  “I think so. But I have no way of proving it. But this isn’t why you came. What can I do to help you with Catherine Quixwood?”

  There was a horrible irony in Pitt’s sudden switch from Angeles to Catherine. Narraway tried to marshal his thoughts.

  “Knox is a good man,” he began. “But he doesn’t seem to have gotten anywhere beyond the fact-which now seems inescapable-that she let the rapist in herself.” He watched Pitt’s face closely, trying to see if his thoughts were critical, or open. He saw no change in Pitt’s eyes at all. “I can see that he hates it, that he believes she had a lover,” he went on.

 
; “What do you think?” Pitt asked.

  Narraway hesitated. “I’ve done a lot of digging into her actions over the last six months or so.” He measured his words carefully. When he had been in Pitt’s job he had not allowed emotions to touch his judgment. Well, not often. Now he was thinking of Catherine Quixwood as a woman: charming, interested in all kinds of things, creative, probably with a quick sense of humor, someone he would have liked. Was it because the whole tragedy had nothing to do with danger to the country, no issues of treason or violence to the state, that he allowed himself to really visualize the people involved? People with dreams, vulnerabilities like his own? He could not have afforded to before.

  “Was her marriage reasonably happy?” Pitt asked.

  “Happy?” Narraway thought about it and was puzzled. “What makes a person happy, Pitt? Are you happy?”

  Pitt did not hesitate. “Yes.”

  For an instant Narraway was overtaken by a sense of loss, of something inexpressible that he had missed. Then he banished it. “No, I don’t think it was,” he answered. “She was making as much happiness for herself as she could, but through aesthetic or intellectual appreciation.”

  “Has Knox given up looking for suspects?” Pitt asked.

  “There’s a young man named Alban Hythe who seems likely,” Narraway replied. “He is smart, likes the same arts and explorations that she did, and attended many of the same functions. He admits to being acquainted with her, although since they were seen together a number of times he could hardly deny it.”

  Pitt frowned. “Then what troubles you? Her reputation, if she was known to have a lover? Or are you concerned for Quixwood’s embarrassment? There’s nothing you can do about that.” His face was filled with regret. He gave a very slight shrug. “I’m finding it hard to face that fact myself.”

  Narraway heard Pitt’s dilemma and for the moment ignored it.

  “My problem is, I’m not certain I believe it was Alban Hythe,” he argued. “I met him and he seemed a decent chap. The rape was violent. Whoever did it hated her. It doesn’t seem like the crime of a lover unexpectedly denied-not a sane one.”

  Pitt shook his head. “If rapists didn’t appear perfectly natural we’d find them a lot easier to catch.”

  “I can believe it of an arrogant young pup like Neville Forsbrook a lot more easily,” Narraway retaliated, startled by his own anger.

  Pitt looked at him in silence for several moments before replying. “If Hythe is innocent, then someone else is guilty,” he said at last. “Whether he was her lover or not, whoever it was raped her violently and killed her. That can never be excused.”

  Narraway took a deep breath. “That’s another part of the problem,” he admitted. “The medical evidence suggests it’s possible he didn’t kill her directly. She actually died of an overdose of laudanum-it very easily could have been suicide. It will be difficult to convince a jury otherwise. It’s easy to believe, given the violence of the rape, that she was traumatized to the extent that she wanted to end her life.”

  Pitt continued to stare at him, his gray eyes steady and full of pain. “We know far too little about it, this rape or any other,” he said levelly. “Perhaps we know too little about ourselves as well. But if Alban Hythe isn’t the man, and the circumstantial evidence is piling up against him, then you need to prove he’s innocent, or he may eventually be imprisoned, or worse, for something he didn’t do. Not to mention the fact that whoever did do it will escape entirely, and probably do it again. And there may be something to be salvaged of Catherine’s reputation, at the very least.” His mouth turned down in a bitter twist. “People are now suggesting that Angeles Castelbranco was with child, and that was why she killed herself.”

  “Like you said, it’s doubtful she wanted to go out that window,” Narraway said with some heat. “Judging by what you know, I don’t believe she thought of anything except getting away from Forsbrook and his taunts.”

  “I agree,” Pitt said. “But if I say so, then Pelham Forsbrook will defend his son.” The misery and the anger were cut deep in his face. “How does anyone prove Neville is truly to blame for anything beyond cruel words and insensitive behavior?”

  Narraway clenched his fists, hardly aware of it until his nails dug into the flesh of his palms. “I refuse to be so bloody helpless!”

  “Good.” Pitt smiled bleakly. “When you discover how to accomplish that, please share it with me.”

  Narraway rose to his feet. “Can’t you at least prove Angeles wasn’t with child? There would have been signs, surely?”

  “That isn’t the point,” Pitt answered wearily. “If she thought she was, or could have been, then her reputation is equally ruined.”

  Narraway no longer had the energy for this. He felt a coldness close around him, in spite of the warmth of the day and the sunlight streaming through the window. The brightness seemed curiously far away. He should recall what he had come for and ask Pitt, before the opportunity slipped away.

  “I haven’t dealt with rape before,” he said. “What kind of proof do the police look for if the victim is dead and can’t say anything herself?”

  Pitt thought for several moments. “I’m not sure that they would try to prove rape,” he said at last. “If she was badly beaten that might be enough to convict the guilty party. That is a crime, and the jury would read more into it, under the circumstances. The sentence could be just as heavy; obviously she could not have done that to herself. If you can prove the accused was there, and no one else could have been, it should be sufficient.”

  “I see. Then that is the approach I shall take.” Narraway rose to his feet. “Thank you.”

  Pitt relaxed a fraction. “It was good to see you,” he replied.

  Narraway was still turning the matter over in his mind early that evening. He sat with the windows open onto the deepening colors as the sun lowered toward the horizon. He was startled when his manservant knocked discreetly and stood in the doorway to say that Mrs. Hythe was in the entryway and wished to speak with him.

  “Shall I bring tea, my lord?” he added with elaborate innocence. “Or a glass of sherry, perhaps? I don’t know the lady sufficiently well to guess.”

  “But you know her sufficiently well to assume that I will see her?” Narraway said a trifle waspishly. He was tired, more by frustration than action, and would have been happy to forget the whole issue of the Quixwood case for a few hours.

  “No, sir,” the manservant replied, his eyes momentarily downcast. “But I know you, my lord, well enough to be certain you would not refuse someone in considerable distress, and who is counting on you to be of help.”

  Narraway stared at him and did not see even a flicker of irony in the man’s face. “You should have been a diplomat,” he said drily. “You are far better at it than most of those I know.”

  “Thank you, my lord.” A light glinted for a moment in the man’s eyes. “Shall I bring tea or sherry?”

  “Sherry,” Narraway answered. “I would like it, whether she would or not.”

  “Yes, my lord.” He withdrew silently and a moment later Maris Hythe came in. Her face was as charming as before, with the same blunt gentleness, but she could not hide the fact that she was both tired and frightened. Instantly Narraway regretted his self-absorption.

  He rose to his feet and invited her to sit down in the chair facing the window and the deepening sunset.

  “I apologize for coming uninvited, my lord,” she said a little awkwardly. “Normally I would have had better manners, but I am frightened, and I don’t know of anyone else who might help.”

  Narraway sat down opposite her, leaning forward a little as if he too were tense. “I assume the situation has worsened with regard to Mr. Knox’s investigation? I haven’t spoken to him for a day or two. What has happened?”

  Her answer was forestalled by the return of the manservant with a silver tray bearing sherry and two long-stemmed crystal glasses.

  Maris hesitated.
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  The manservant poured a little of the rich dark golden liquid into one of the glasses and placed it on the table beside her. He poured a second and gave it to Narraway.

  After he had gone Narraway picked his up, so she might do the same, and waited attentively for her to speak.

  “Nothing Mr. Knox finds could prove my husband’s guilt, because he is not guilty,” she said, forcing herself to meet his eyes. “But every new fact does make it look worse for him.”

  “He has never denied that he and Mrs. Quixwood were friends,” Narraway pointed out. “What new information has been added to that?”

  She kept her composure with difficulty, taking a sip of sherry, probably more to hide her eyes for a moment than because she wished for its taste.

  He waited.

  “Small gifts he gave her,” Maris replied very quietly. “I didn’t know about them. I think he felt sorry for her. She … she was very lonely. Mr. Quixwood has been both honest and contrite about it, as if he blames himself for putting so much effort into his work that he did not accompany her to the places she wished to go.”

  “It is natural to feel guilty when it is too late to go back and make a better task of it,” he said with a twinge of guilt for his own sins of omission.

  She smiled very slightly. “I think he is a kind man who did not see how she really felt. And perhaps she did not tell him. One doesn’t. It sounds so like complaining, and when you have comfort, position, no need to worry … and respect as well, from a man who is honorable, to ask for more is … greedy, don’t you think?” She looked at him as if she genuinely wished for an answer.

  “I have no idea,” he admitted. He tried to think of the women he knew. Charlotte would certainly want more. She would sacrifice financial security or social position for love, she had already proved that. Perhaps within the definition of “love” she would include a sharing of purpose, and a commonality of interest. Above all she might require to be needed, not an ornament but a part of the fabric of life.