Captain Lacey 05 - A Body in Berkley Square by Ashley Gardner

Author:Ashley Gardner [Gardner, Ashley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Traditional British, Mystery, England, amateur sleuth, London, regency, regency england, Historical Mystery, spy novel, napoleonic wars, british mystery, berkeley square, exploring officers
ISBN: 9780425207284
Google: 03PrPAAACAAJ
Goodreads: 545907
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2005-11-14T23:00:00+00:00

*** *** ***

Much divided in mind, I set off for Covent Garden Theatre.

The arched piazza leading to the theatre stretched along the northwest side of Bow Street, its soaring columns sheltering theatregoers, game girls, pickpockets, and servants from the April rain and wind. I walked among ladies and gentlemen dressed in the finest style as well as girls in tawdry gowns picked from secondhand stores or parish charities.

A lord descending from a carriage marked with a coat of arms was instantly surrounded by beggars with hands outstretched. The lord scattered a few pennies among them before he lifted his head and swept past them. His footman swatted at the group, telling them to clear off, then hopped back onto the coach and rattled away to no doubt drink and dice with the coachman.

I stopped to bow to a gentleman I recognized and then his wife, a large woman with feathers balancing atop a mass of gray curls. I had met the man through Grenville, and the three of us exchanged polite pleasantries. Just as the gentleman drew his wife on toward the doors of the theatre, someone hissed at me from the shadow of a pillar.

"Lacey!"

I waited until the gentleman and his lady had entered the theatre, then I peered into the darkness under the piazza.

"Marianne," I said. "What are you doing?"

She stepped from the shadow. She wore blue velvet trimmed with gold and silver tissue, and a bonnet with a long blue feather. She ruined this semblance of respectability by lurking behind the column like a street courtesan.

"Is he here?" she asked.

"I am to meet Grenville in his box, yes."

Her tone grew bitter. "He has come to see Mrs. Bennington. He suggested a gathering afterward with her to his friends. I heard him as he arrived."

"Did you hide here and spy on him?"

"Well, if I did not spy on him, I would never know where he was, would I?" she said heatedly. "He has not come to see me for days. He does not even write me, and his servants are useless for information."

"He and I spent the last two days in Epsom. At a funeral, if you must know. It was not a frivolous outing."

"He might have been plowing a field, for all he told me. And now, he arrives, sweet as you please, to ogle Mrs. Bennington in yet another performance."

I remembered Grenville's evasiveness about Mrs. Bennington. I did not want to lie to reassure Marianne, but she was becoming most obsessed about the subject.

"Grenville invited me tonight so that I'd have a chance to speak to more of the guests from the Gillises' ball," I said.

Marianne stepped closer to me. "If you'd like to know something interesting, he seemed quite keen to go to that ball. Kept saying there was something he had to do there."

My interest perked. "Did he? He seems to have spoken to you a little about it, in any case."

"Mrs. Bennington was also there. I can imagine what he had in mind."

"Well, I cannot.

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