A Gentleman of Dubious Reputation by Grace Burrowes

Author:Grace Burrowes [Burrowes, Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grace Burrowes

Chapter Ten

“My lord, Miss West.” Lady Clarissa curtseyed to us as we were shown into the gallery. She looked a bit more the thing today, less wan and weary. The gallery, situated at the back of the house and well ventilated, was relatively cool, though half the paintings I’d seen here previously had been taken down.

The missing artwork imparted a sort of silence to the room, a sense of lost purpose. A few landscapes yet remained, though those did not look to be Reardon’s work. An underfootman was trimming ivy on the balcony and sweeping the clippings into a dustbin.

“My lady.” I bowed, because as Arthur had said, the occasion called for dignity. “We come bearing upsetting news.”

Clarissa sighed gustily. “Reardon refuses to come home? I suppose he might as well stay in London. The exhibition looms at hand, and we’d soon be going up to Town anyway. Enola has claimed all along that Reardon is simply having a fit of the artistic vapors.”

“What makes you think he went to London?” Hyperia asked. From her, the question was mere polite curiosity. From me, it would have been the start of an interrogation.

Clarissa walked off toward the furniture grouped at the far end of the room. “Where else would he go but the Valloise town house? Mama and Papa are to meet us there next week, and I have had nearly all the paintings shipped. I just wish Reardon hadn’t indulged in these pointless dramatics about a simple change of plans.”

Was she too calm? When I’d last parted from Clarissa, she’d been beside herself with worry, and willing to let all and sundry know of her concerns. Now, she posited that Reardon had merely nipped up to Town—a journey he’d normally have made on horseback or in his own conveyance—and her attitude approached blasé.

“I have reason to believe that your brother has met with ill fortune on the way to London,” I said. “Might we sit?”

Clarissa looked from me to Hyperia and back again. “Ill fortune?”

Hyperia settled onto the sofa, Clarissa took a wing chair, and I took the place beside Hyperia. A footman wheeled a tea trolley in at the far end of the room, but Lady Clarissa gestured for him to wait.

I did not particularly want an audience for this discussion, but somebody might be needed to fetch smelling salts, so I forged ahead.

“I followed Lord Reardon along the coach road as far as The King’s Man in Surrey. He spent the night there, then went walking yesterday rather than travel on to Town.” If Town had ever been his destination.

“He broke his journey in Surrey? That doesn’t make sense.”

For once, Clarissa and I were in agreement. “The King’s Man lies near a sizable waterway, and I gather walking the riverbank is a local pastime. The trail rises along a headland at one point near the inn, and the drop to the river is precipitous.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“It appears that his lordship slipped from the heights into the river.

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