The Dark Days Deceit (Lady Helen) by Alison Goodman

Author:Alison Goodman [Goodman, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781406382068
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: 2018-11-14T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Helen sent Sprat to the kitchen to collect the ordered tea, mainly to keep the girl occupied, and made her way to her own bedchamber. Now that she had the time and solitude to think upon what had happened in Quiet Street, an uneasy conviction was pushing its way into her mind; that Mrs Knoll had, indeed, once been Berta.

She opened the door to find Darby standing at the window, staring at Lansdown Crescent beneath the rising full moon, her arms crossed over her chest. She turned at the sound of the door and dipped a curtsey. Her eyes were red, the skin around them damp and swollen. “Your bath is almost prepared, my lady.”

“You have been crying,” Helen said. “I am so sorry. This is not the wedding day I would wish for you.”

Darby quit the window, waving away the consideration. “My tears are for poor Miss Cransdon, my lady, not for myself. I am wed to Mr Quinn and that is all I need. Right now, we must focus upon the Grand Deceiver.” She took Helen’s scarf and placed it on the bed. “I had not thought Mrs Pike so far gone though. She is all but skin and bone. And no sense at all, poor lady.”

“I am not so certain about her sense.” Helen lifted her chin as Darby undid the frogged clasps on her pelisse. “I am sure she felt the Ligatus in me. Maybe even the rift.”

She turned and angled her arms behind herself to allow Darby to ease the coat off. Her maid held it up, staring at the wide seep of blood that had dried into the wool.

“I do not think we will be able to clean this,” she remarked.

“You may have it, if you wish, or do what you will with it,” Helen said. “I could never wear it again.”

“Nor me.” Darby folded the pelisse and placed it on the bed, her head bowed. “I must confess to such feelings of hatred towards Philip and Mrs Knoll, my lady. To take Miss Cransdon’s life in order to send a message… It is beyond heinous.”

“I know.” Helen’s own rage crawled hot beneath her skin. “Tell me, are you certain you recognised Berta within Mrs Knoll?”

Darby looked up. “That is bothering you too, my lady? I know it is impossible, but I really did think it was Berta.”

“I do too,” Helen said. “I have been thinking upon it. If we are correct and Berta somehow moved into Mrs Knoll’s body, then it must follow that she is different. Could she be one half of a Grand Deceiver?”

“But we had already come to that, my lady,” Darby said. “At least, Lord Carlston and Mr Pike are making our plans upon the belief of it.”

“Yes, but not via the idea of Berta being Mrs Knoll. Think further. If that is the case, could it be that a Deceiver that is part of a Grand Deceiver does not need to move into its own progeny, like all other Deceivers? Perhaps it might move into whatever body, whatever living person, it wants.

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