Page 181 of Faceless

Mrs Marsh’s hand had risen, sometime in the last minute, to the ribbon under her chin. She untied it now and laid the bonnet on the small table beside her chair.

It was a small gesture. It meant she intended to remain in the room for longer than a quarter of an hour.

Jane, on the sofa, had not moved. She caught Elizabeth’s eye and turned back to the fire.

Elizabeth drew breath.

“Mrs Marsh, I do not want you to send him a message of any kind tonight. I want you to tell me, in your own time, what your husband has had to bear for eleven months, and what has been done to your household, and what you have understood, between you, of the nature of the man who has been requiring it of him. I want to know what you know. I want to know what he has told you and what he has not had to tell you because you worked it out for yourself. I should like to know all of it, and from you, not from any other source, because you are the person in London who knows it best and the one person whose telling I shall trust.”

“And if I do tell you?”

“Then I will tell you what we are willing to do for you and for your husband, and you shall decide whether it is sufficient to what you have been carrying. If you decide it is not, you shall leave this house tonight escorted by my sister and the colonel; you shall be returned safely to your door; you shall hear no more from us; and I shall not pursue the matter against you. If you decide it is sufficient, we shall begin tonight, and the first thing we shall do is remove you and your children from the lodgings where Mr Sterling’s men know to find you, to a house of the earl’s choosing where they do not. Your husband may be sent for after, by whatever channel you use to reach him, when you have determined that it is safe to call him in.”

Mrs Marsh’s eyes had filled. They did not spill. She was a woman who had decided some years ago not to weep in front of strangers, and she was holding to the decision.

“You would move my children tonight?”

“Tonight. Within two hours. The house is ready. A nurse is engaged. The colonel will arrange the carriage. You will not be required to set foot in Wapping again until you wish to.”

“And there will be no bill?”

“The house is the earl’s. The nurse is the earl’s. The food is the earl’s. You are, from the hour you accept, his guests for as long as you choose.”

“And my husband?”

“If he chooses to come and testify on Monday, he will be received under terms which my husband’s solicitor has been preparing for some weeks and which I shall lay out for you in detail. He will be protected during the trial, after the trial, and for as long as Mr Sterling is at large or in any position to reach him. There will also be consideration made for how he is to make a living thereafter. The protections that have been arranged for the captain who has already agreed to testify will be extended to your husband on the same terms, and the Earl of Matlock’s personal undertaking added to them. If he chooses not to come in, he will not be pressed, and your removal to the earl’s house will stand regardless. The house is for you. The testimony is for him to decide upon.”

Mrs Marsh considered that for what was, by the small clock on the mantel, perhaps a minute and a half. Mrs Hatchett, having heard the bell, was at the door with the tea tray and was sent in with a small nod from Elizabeth. Jane poured, having moved from the sofa to do it without being asked.

Mrs Marsh accepted a cup. She did not drink at once.

“Mrs Darcy?”

“Yes.”

“The last of them stood in my front room with his hat on the whole twenty minutes. My elder girl was in the corner watching. He said how easy it would be for a clerk in hiding to be found dead in a ditch, and how no one would think much on it if there was no fine gentleman wanting him alive. He did not take his hat off when he left. He had been in my house less than half an hour.”

Elizabeth set her own cup down. “His name?”

“He gave no name, but I would know him again anywhere. He had a cut at the corner of his mouth, an old one, gone to scar. He spoke London, but he was putting on Yorkshire, and not very well. I cannot tell you who he was. I can tell you he came from Mr Sterling, because he knew things about my husband only Mr Sterling’s people could have told him.”

“He shall not enter your house again. He shall not come within reach of your children. That much I can promise you.”

Mrs Marsh dropped her eyes to her tea.

She drank a little of it.

She looked into the fire.

Her eyes went, last, to Jane, who was sitting on the sofa with her own cup in her hand and her face turned towards the fire, permitting Elizabeth and Mrs Marsh to trade trust.

“Yes.”

Elizabeth did not move at once. “Yes… to which?”

“Yes to the house. Yes to the children. Yes to tonight.”

“And your husband?”