Page 24 of Faceless

I have a man in Bristol answering the description of the clerk, Thomas Marsh, lodging in Redcliffe under the name Joseph Benson. I cannot confirm it is the same man without closer investigation, and closer investigation risks alerting Sterling that someone is looking. I have not moved. Awaiting your instruction.

Pemberley has not been touched. The warrant’s death before conviction means the Crown has no instrument for seizure. The frozen accounts and the timing of your death have attracted some attention, read, I think, as the action of one who knew the warrant was coming and moved quickly. This is not exculpatory. It is also not prosecutable. The family’s solicitors are handling it.

The following is from Hodges, relayed through me.

Lrd Matlock is holding himself together by force of habit and has publicly said that his nephew was innocent of all charges and that the investigation was politically motivated. This is useful to us whether he believes it or not. He has been in contact with Hodges regarding the final disposal of personal effects at Grosvenor Square. Hodges reports that Lord Matlock wept once, briefly, when he believed himself unobserved, in the library.

Colonel Fitzwilliam has asked Hodges three separate questions about your reasons for leaving Kent and the subsequent journey. Hodges has answered consistently and within the agreed account. The Colonel does not believe the account. He has not said so directly. He has asked whether you seemed well, whether you seemed frightened, whether anything struck Hodges as unusual in your manner or your instructions. Hodges says he told the Colonel you seemed entirely yourself, save for the pressing business matter to which he was not privy.

Colonel Fitzwilliam has visited the Dover road. He has not found anything. There is nothing to find. But he went, which you should know. And Hodges reports that the colonel regularly stops at Darcy House, but does not often come in.

Mr Bingley was expected to make an offer to Miss Harrington in late April. He has delayed, reportedly out of respect for the period of mourning. He told Hodges he is not sure you would have wanted him to rush the thing. Hodges says he was drinking when he said this and did not appear to be enjoying the drink.

The investigation will continue as a matter of legality, but at present, no one else is being pursued for treason. Sterling is safe as long as the clerk is beyond reach. The clerk is beyond my reach until you tell me otherwise.

One further matter, briefly noted. The Home Office has begun reviewing the vessel records for the southern routes. Three ships have been identified as carrying the relevant manifests. The masters’ names are now in the case papers. I do not know yet what the investigators intend to do with this information. I am watching it.

W.

Darcy read it twice more. Then he set it down and turned his eye to the ceiling.

Sterling had been cooperative. Of course, he had been. A man who had spent three years constructing a frame with sufficient care to survive a Home Office investigation would not begin to behave evasively when the named suspect conveniently died. He would grieve. He would offer assistance. He would do it with the confidence of having already removed the one witness who could contradict him.

If the clerk in Bristol was the clerk — the man who had sat in Sterling’s offices and prepared the forged manifests and then vanished — then Sterling had not killed him. A dead clerk was a loose end eliminated. A clerk living under a false name in Bristol was a loose end that could be found, and if Sterling had allowed him to live, it was because Sterling was confident he could not be reached without first knowing about it. The clerk was alive because Sterling held him.

Which meant the thread existed.

Which meant Darcy could not touch it.

He pulled out a fresh sheet and began his reply.

W.

Do not move on the clerk. No approach that could be reported; observation only, and at a distance. I need to know whether he is there of his own will, what Sterling holds over him, and whether he has family who might be used against him.

What I can do from here is think, and I have done. Get me the whole picture of the forged manifests; every shipment, every date, every discrepancy between the forged records and what the ships in fact carried. If Sterling used my vessels, the true manifests exist, filed at the customs houses and logged at the ports. Somewhere, the paper trail breaks. Find where it breaks.

The rest may stand. Tell Hodges the account does not change. Keep me informed and do nothing else.

GC

The Gardiners’ faces said it before anything else did.

Mrs Gardiner opened the door herself, and the expression on her face when she saw the cart — the bags, the six of them, the whole of it arriving without warning on her doorstep — was not surprise. It was something that had been waiting to be confirmed. She held the door wide.

“Come in,” she said. “All of you. Come in.”

Her voice did not waver, and her eyes were not dry.

Mr Gardiner was behind her in the hallway. He took in the cart, the bags, his sister’s red eyes; then came out himself and began lifting bags down from the cart without being asked.

The sitting room was arranged for them within the hour. The children were moved. Beds were found. Mrs Gardiner went through the house with brisk purpose, calculating which numbers changed when six more people arrived, making space where there was not much space to make. When Mrs Bennet said she could not possibly share a room with Mary, Mrs Gardiner only said, “Of course not,” and made other arrangements.

Tea was brought. Mrs Bennet began, almost immediately, to talk about how cruel Mr Collins had been, Sir William Lucas and what he had said, Mrs Philips choosing her mother-in-law over her sister. She lamented the loss of the good china, because she was sure the good china had been part of her settlement, but it was found not to be.

Elizabeth’s eye was on her aunt as she poured the tea.

Mrs Gardiner’s hands were careful and unhurried. Her face gave nothing away. She passed the cups around and smiled at each of them. “How was the journey?” she asked, and then, “You are all very welcome. You know that.”