“Miss Mortimer and Miss Jenson, I suppose. And the vicar and his wife. Everyone else is beneath her, even Charles and me. She only tolerates us.”
“Then the Keatons are not her friends? Nor Mr. Nolan the blacksmith?”
“Hardly.”
Then certainly not the Gimlets nor the Dickies,Constance thought. “Is she defensive of the children she once taught?”
“More critical. She will not have it that Mr. Ogden is more learned or a better teacher.”
“Because he comes from a lower class? She does not regard that as a mark of his success, his strength of character?”
A hint of color seeped into Emmeline’s face. “No one could deny his scholastic achievements. Nor should they try.”
“But you do not approve of his friendship with your daughter?”
Mrs. Chadwick waved one impatient hand. “It is not really a friendship. She is fascinated, besotted, because she has never met anyone like him. That is not a basis for lasting love and marriage.”
“Forgive me, but neither is cheating at cards and raking around the country.”
“Of course not! Who on earth behaves so?” Constance held the other woman’s gaze until Emmeline laughed uneasily. “Mr. Mortimer? I feel sure you are wrong!”
“He most certainly cheats. For the rest, he is young yet, but I would not leave my daughter alone with him. May I ask you about another village scandal?”
“Which one?”
“Miss Mortimer’s father and her mother’s maid?”
“Oh, that must have been before our time.”
Constance left it there, wary of stirring up a scandal that had quietened to all but the older residents.
*
Solomon entered theSilver and Grey offices to find Janey grinning at him.
“Ha! Welcome back! Where’s herself?”
“Thank you. In Surrey still. I can’t stay long. Have you anything to report?”
“Well, according to the constable forced to stand outside the Crown and Anchor, poor sod, there were two men seen running away from there after the murder. One sounds like your double, the other’s another sailor, but no one knows who he is. The peelers’ve been asking around for someone called Johnny.”
Solomon swore beneath his breath—Janey’s language could be catching—for Johnny was the name David had gone by before he remembered his own identity. Someone in the Crown and Anchor must have recognized him and given the police that name.
“I can’t find anything about the other sailor,” Janey continued. “None of the working girls can help me. Lenny’s beenlooking into Herbert Chase, the dead cove. He left a list of his investments, going back ten years. Seems he was the up-and-coming man for a while, and then began to lose it all through bad investments—whatever that means.”
Solomon went to his desk and snatched up the closely written paper on his desk.
“This is good,” he said. “The sailorandthe list.”
“Can we get more money, then?” Janey asked cheekily.
“Probably,” Solomon said, without paying much attention, for a handful of words on the list of Chase’s past investments jumped up at him.The Mary Anne, cargo vessel, London, 1842-1850.
TheMary Annewas the ship David had been on when he had seen Chase “die” the first time. And if Chase had been the owner, or part owner, it certainly explained his presence on board.
“I’m going to St. Catherine’s,” he said, stuffing the list into his pocket, “to see what else I can dig up. I might have something more for you and Lenny to do before I go back to Surrey.”
“You got other letters,” Janey growled. “I only leave you the ones youhaveto deal with.”
