Chapter Twenty-One
Benjamin had waiteduntil after the women had arrived for their day with Miss Whitchurch before he called in at Duncan Place. He wished to know with certainty that Mr. Betts had not returned before he left the lady alone.
“Alexander is awake for longer and longer periods,” Duncan told him when his lordship greeted Benjamin in the foyer. “You did well, Boy,” he said. “Marksman may not have survived without your quick thinking at the inn and your continued care here.”
“I was glad to be of service,” Benjamin said. “Are the others in the morning room?” he asked casually. “I have been thinking a great deal of late about your attacker.”
“You have new clues?” Duncan asked as he gestured Benjamin towards where the others tarried over their meal.
“May I serve you, my lord?” Mr. Fields asked when Benjamin entered the room.
“I broke my fast at Macalhey House, but coffee would do me well.”
Fields poured Benjamin’s coffee while Duncan said, “Benjamin and his ever-fabulous questioning mind has several observations hebelieves we should address.”
“Should we leave?” Lady Orson asked as she gestured to Theodora and Lady Annalise.
“I do not mind your insights,” Benjamin assured. “However, please know my thoughts are full of a mystery that I believe we all share.”
Orson ordered, “Then speak. We are a willing audience.”
Benjamin nodded his thanks. “We all witnessed the man who shot Duncan. We thought he was tall, but the coat we found, along with our belatedly realizing we were standing at the bottom of that slight slope in front of the Lyon’s Den entrance proved he was not. The coat suggests he was also thinner than our initial observations.”
Beaufort said, “I have not looked at the coat since Hartley carried it to the Home Office for a closer examination.”
“That is my point,” Benjamin said, “Our lives have continued on, and though we have not forgotten that fateful night, we have treated each of our memories as separate and not overlapping. I believe the man in the long coat has peppered our lives since the night Duncan was shot, but we have treated each foray as a separate and disconnected encounter.”
Orson, always quick-minded, said, “When I came across Lady Emma in Covent Garden, I was chasing after a man dressed for the opera when the opera was not in session. His appearance had me initially thinking of Duncan’s shooter, though I absolutely understood that Duncan’s shooter wore no cape, but the oddity of his appearance had set off an alarm in my head, for our lack of clues had been circling through my head that evening. The man wore a long coat, but with a cape.”
“But we thought that man was Mr. Palmer,” Lady Emma added. “Remember how he was dressed when he meant to do away with me?”
Before anyone could comment on the man in Covent Garden,Theodora added, “Alexander shot the man who assisted Count Almano in kidnapping me. He, too, wore a long coat and cape, only the lining on that man’s cape was white, rather than red.”
Theodora’s observation was met with a brief silence by all about the table.
“The man who shot me did not wear a cape,” Duncan reminded them. “I would have remembered a cape.”
“Neither did the man who watched us so closely when we transported Duncan home,” Beaufort added.
“Yet, we must not overlook that the man provided us an idea of his height by where he stood along the wall,” Benjamin added. “Perhaps he was taunting us. Though he was slightly hunched over, the signs marking the close provided us with an idea of his height. My question is whether that action was purposeful or not. Was it a reminder that he is still out there, and, even with all our efforts, he still eludes us. Moreover, a cape would appear out of place outside the Lyon’s Den, as well as on a Whitehall street at dawn.”
“We have never recovered the body of the man that Alexander shot—the one who took Theodora captive,” Duncan added to their story. “Our men have searched up and down the river repeatedly. Along both banks. Moreover, Almano was taken from jail by a man in a long coat. Several days later, Almano’s body was found near where he had taken Theodora.” He paused. “Symbolic? A reminder to us that whatever gripe this unknown individual has with me is not yet finished?”
They all sat in silence for more than a minute before Benjamin reclaimed their analysis. “Recently, Miss Whitchurch, the lady Duncan, Graham, and I have been assisting of late, has had two encounters with a man in a long, dark coat. Brunswick has been escorting the lady back and forth from her place of employment at Sustar’s Draperies. Brunswick alerted me regarding a man who had been watching the shops, so I made a point of personally retrieving thelady the next morning. A man that Brunswick described as wearing a long coat knocked him from the way when my footman confronted him. There was evidence of someone having been staying in an empty shop that backs to the close Miss Whitchurch must use to enter Sustar’s shop. When the lady exited the shop that morning, she thought she heard her missing sister’s voice, whereas I heard a man’s voice.”
Graham added, “A few days after Thompson’s encounter with this unknown stranger, Miss Whitchurch spoke to a lady she knew. That was right outside of Mr. Sustar’s shop. When she turned to leave, Miss Whitchurch bumped into a man in a long, black coat who knocked her bag from her hands and assisted her in returning her belongings to her bag. Several hours later, her friend was found in a nearby close. Dead. Miss Whitchurch’s needles were through the woman’s eyes.”
“Such is the reason I have moved the lady and the child she tends into the other half of Macalhey House,” Benjamin told them. “However, when I returned home yesterday afternoon, Mr. Jonas Betts was harassing Miss Whitchurch. It was not until long after Graham and I conversed last evening that I recalled that Betts wore a similar coat.”
Orson observed, “Though I can easily believe him to be the type to harass an innocent woman, I doubt Betts would attack Duncan or Theodora, and he definitely was not the man I followed in Covent Garden. He is way too thin.”
Benjamin said, “I agree, but we also know Almano assisted the stranger who attacked Dora. If this unknown man used Almano, could he now be using another, such as Betts, to reach one of us, specifically me?”
All his brothers and Duncan and the ladies sat in complete silence for several minutes, before Graham asserted, “Thompson has reminded all of us, though our lives have continued, we must still be vigilant. To date, we have been fortunate to have escaped harm, but this unknown man’s madness is not finished until we finish it. Now, letus go through these facts again and look for more connections. Emma, would you mind keeping a list for us? I find it very helpful these days to have a summary. Moreover, I am confident that Duncan will wish to go over these ‘coincidences’ with Hartley and our staff at the Home Office.”
“Are you well,miss?” Mrs. Geoffrey asked Victoria when she entered the house. “What a very foul man was that Mr. Betts!”
“I am thankful to all of you, but especially you, Miss Adolph, for having the presence of mind to seek out Mr. Patterson’s assistance,” Victoria said politely.
