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Tobias’s hand tightened on his fork, until he unintentionally scraped it across the porcelain with a loud squeak.
Jemima drew in her breath to reassure him, then realized she should not interrupt.
“No, of course not,” Tobias said without looking at her. “Armitage would only answer the questions he’s asked. But if he is asked anything that would lead to that answer, then I am sure he would not be less than honest. I know how you feel, but nothing is your fault. We have already been over this.”
“I know,” Rebecca kept her eyes on her plate. “I…I just hate it!”
Bernadette put her hand over her daughter’s, quite gently, stopping her daughter’s nervous fidgeting. “You will not be required to say anything. Patrick has promised you that, haven’t you, Patrick?”
Patrick was obviously caught off guard. He hesitated a moment.
Jemima wondered then how much Patrick really knew about what was going on, what Tobias planned, and with whom. She looked at him now and saw the shadow in his expression, the second’s silence before he answered.
“You don’t know anything,” he said to Rebecca with a slight smile. “You woke in the night and found a stranger in your room. You screamed. He tore the pendant from your neck, then ran away. It was your father who came immediately to your aid, and saw him in the hallway. He recognized him. You can add nothing. They know that.”
He was explaining too much, Jemima knew that. If he had been sure, he would simply have said “no.”
Rebecca relaxed, smiling back. She believed hi
m.
It was Tobias who would not let it go. “Why is Armitage prepared to testify this afternoon? He can hardly say he knew Sidney was embezzling. If he had, he’d have dismissed the man whenever he first found out. Saying that he was in charge, yet didn’t know he was being systematically robbed, makes him appear incompetent. He’s far too proud to do that! Has he no sense of patriotism?”
“Obviously Sidney has none,” Bernadette cut across him. “Perhaps that is why Sir John sent him back to England, so he would not disgrace the embassy in Washington, but still answer for the crime in London. After all, it is essentially an English crime.”
Jemima stiffened. “Embezzlement?” she said very coolly, taking exception to Bernadette’s wording. “Really?”
Bernadette’s eyes were like stones as she stared across the table. “One Englishman steals from his own embassy and is got out of the country by a man high in that embassy, who then accuses him when they are over here, back in England, and gives evidence against him in an English court. I don’t see what you are questioning. It seems to be both an honorable and a just way of dealing with it. In all respects.”
Jemima was furious at Bernadette’s tone, and at her objecting to Jemima defending her countrymen, and yet she could think of nothing to say. Certainly nothing she ought to say in the circumstances. She was the Thorwoods’ guest and she disliked it intensely, but it could not be helped.
She felt Patrick’s hand on hers, where the tablecloth hid it, and closed her fingers over his. Did he understand? Perhaps he hated it, too, but he was better at hiding it? Or more used to having to.
Bernadette bent to her meal again.
“I doubt I will be called,” Tobias said. “I can add nothing about the embezzlement. How could I possibly know what goes on inside the British Embassy?”
“But you know Philip Sidney,” Jemima pointed out. She wanted to disconcert him. “You could be called as a character witness.”
Tobias looked stunned. “You think I’m going to…to stand up there and say that I think well of the man? After he…assaulted my daughter…in her bedroom? And tore the pendant from her neck? Are you…?” He bit back what he’d been about to say.
It was Patrick who explained what Jemima had meant. “Not for the defense,” he said quietly. “For the prosecution.”
For seconds, no one spoke.
“Are you?” Bernadette said at last, staring at her husband with an expression that was unreadable. “Are you going to do that?”
“The man’s a…a total swine!” Tobias almost choked on his own words. “I cannot stand by and let him get away with it! Is that what you expect of me?”
Bernadette stared down at her plate and the delicate fish bones on it, the flesh taken away. “No, my dear,” she said very quietly. “It will be very difficult for you, for all of us, but you have to do what is right. Rebecca will understand that. And if it is done here, that will be so much easier for us. I…I thank you for your courage and foresight.”
Tobias flushed deep pink, but it was impossible to tell what mixture of emotions caused it.
Jemima considered saying something normal, unconnected with the case at all, but nothing came to her mind that was not ridiculous.
* * *
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