“You three can run if you like,” Lord Downes said. “Lady Fontaine stays with me. She’s up to her neck in my schemes, and if she remains in London, I will make certain everyone knows what she’s done and why.”
Lady Fontaine stared at him in confusion. “In your schemes? Cyril? What are you talking about?”
“You used her information to write the blackmail letters,” I stated. “Probably collected it over the years, every time she came to visit her brother. Your groom told me you let her speak to you almost nonstop.”
Lord Downes sent me a faint smile. “She knows so many whose husbands, brothers, and fathers are in the cabinet and high government positions—the gentlemen who guide Britain’s policies. Dear Mary told me all the scandalous secrets of their wives, sisters, and daughters. I kept it all cataloged, knowing it would come in handy one day.”
Color drained from Lady Fontaine’s face. She was not the cleverest of women, but it was at last dawning on her that Lord Downes’s attentions to her were less than honest.
Astonishment was quickly followed by anger and humiliation. “You horrible little man,” she exclaimed.
Lord Downes ignored her. “It is sad how many great men have women who betray and belittle them, who have secrets that would topple them if known.”
“Did you truly believe blackmailing their wives would help you?” I asked, my skepticism evident. “That they wouldharangue their husbands to put policies in place that would make you happy? That Miss Townsend would actually beg her father to tell the police to cease investigating?”
Lord Downes shrugged, looking like nothing more than an impatient gentleman explaining his reasoning to the slow-witted. “It couldn’t hurt. The police are disgusting too. Spying on their fellow countrymen, writing up reports on them whether they’ve done anything to warrant investigation or not. Britain is supposed to be a shining example of freedom to the cowed peoples of the Continent and beyond. How pathetic. Even Peyton didn’t trust the police. He gathered all his proof about me right under my nose, or so he thought. Believed his boyhood friend capable of treachery but not smart enough to know what he was doing.”
“Youaretreacherous,” Lady Fontaine said in outrage. “You made me believe you cared for me.”
Lord Downes took no notice of her. “Peyton’s machinations were all for naught,” he said to me. “I am only sorry he isn’t here to be buried in his own house together with any evidence in mine.”
“You made certain of that,” I said. “He saw you out the window, didn’t he? You frightened him, and he fell.”
Lord Downes chuckled, nodding. “That he did. I only meant to taunt him, but I couldn’t have planned a better end if I’d tried. I never laughed so hard.”
His lack of compassion was chilling. “Did you aim your shotgun at him?”
“No, no, nothing so obvious. I rolled a stick of dynamite toward his back door, pretending to light it first.”
Lord Peyton had seen that, had believed that his house was about to be destroyed, all inside it in danger. He’d risen inshock, tried to warn the others, and fell to his death for his pains.
“You murdered him,” I said sharply.
Lord Downes laughed again. “No court in the land can prove that.”
“You murdered Mr.Howard as well. That might be easier to prove, if your hired ruffians confess.”
“Ifthey do,” Lord Downes agreed. “There is no reason I should kill Peyton’s secretary, is there?”
I hated that he was right. There was no obvious connection between Lord Downes and Mr.Howard, the secretary, but I’d been thinking things through.
I’d first believed Mr.Howard had been killed because he knew too much about Lord Peyton’s schemes. However, after my conversation with the groom and Daniel’s information that Lord Peyton was actually trying to prevent the bombings, I’d shifted my attention from Lord Peyton to Lord Downes. I’d realized, during my restlessness last night, that Mr.Howard had been killed because of the letters. Lord Downes had used Mr.Howard to prepare them as much as he’d used Lady Fontaine.
“Mr.Howard wrote out the first batch of envelopes for you,” I said. “I suppose you came up with some excuse, or simply said you had no secretary of your own, and he helped you out of kindness. Lady Fontaine, I imagine, was happy to carry the envelopes back and forth for you. Did you have Mr.Howard post the letters as well? Did he discover what was inside them?”
“Howard was a compliant young man,” Lord Downes said. “He did know what I was doing, so do not call himkind. He helped me because I promised him a cut of the money I’d get from these pitiful ladies. He bundled up the letters and postedthem, so I wouldn’t have to touch them. He was impressed with how clever I was. Then he made a mistake.”
“He posted the letter to Lady Rankin,” I said. “We wondered whyshe’dreceived a letter when she’s been gone these last three years. You wrote the letters with Lady Fontaine’s information over a long stretch of time, hoarding them, as you said, until you decided the time was ripe. Mr.Howard must have included it when he sent a batch for you, not knowing who Lady Rankin was, or that she was deceased. The direction only said,To the Lady of the Household, after all. But the information in it was very specific.”
“Which meant it would be opened by someone else in the house,” Lord Downes snapped. “Who’d wonder why it was threatening a woman long dead, and maybe they’d go to the police. Jeopardizing everything. Howard was an idiot, and now he knew too much. He had to go.”
I felt sick. “The secretary who replaced Mr.Howard didn’t find you out. You’d grown wiser and made certain he saw only the envelopes, with no letters inside them.”
Lord Downes’s eyes narrowed. “How the devil do you know all this? Have they recruited women for the secret police now? How appalling.”
“She’s not with the police,” Lady Fontaine said faintly. “She’s a medium.”
Lord Downes shot her an incredulous look. “Whoever she is, she’s a ridiculous, interfering busybody, and I am tired of talking to her. Leave now,” he commanded me. “Lady Fontaine will remain behind. It is the best thing she can do, unless she wants the world to know she was a blackmailer as well as a petty thief.” He turned a sneer on her. “You should be grateful I intend to destroy your house—no one will find all the bits and pieces you stole.”
