Jane Austen Mysteries 10 Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron (43 page)

"Did anyone else cross the Pavilion grounds while you looked at the stars?" I asked.

"Nobody but the Colonel."

"McMahon?" Mona said quickly.

He shook his head. "Colonel Hanger. He's an odd one, and no mistake. Never sleeps, playing cards until all hours, or striding about the grounds as tho' all the imps of Satan be after 'im. Many's the time he's sat down on a barrel with Mr. Davy--he's the Head Groom--day or night, to talk of horseflesh or race-meetings or such hunts as he's had. But Mr. Davy was gone to bed. There was only me to talk to the Colonel that night."

"And did Colonel Hanger stay long?" I murmured, to keep the flow of reminiscence unstinted.

The mare had abandoned Mona and was prodding Jem's shoulder with her nose. He poured the bran mash carefully into a feedbag, and strapped it to her head before speaking again.

"At first I thought he'd met with an accident, so wild did he look--tramping into the stable block with his boots and pantaloons soaked to the knees. But then I saw as how he was grinning, so all was well.
Colonel Hanger
, I says,
you gave me quite a turn
. He clapped me on the shoulder and laughed out loud, as tho' he'd just won a packet at hazard or cards; and then he gave me a sovereign. To celebrate the safe delivery of the foal, he said."

His boots and pantaloons soaked to the knees
.

"Was it raining that night?" I asked pensively. "I cannot quite remember."

"No, ma'am. He'd fallen into the sea, he said, while walking along the Marine Parade after the Assembly. Lucky for him the tide was well out. He was foxed, I suppose--but the cold water soon put him to rights."

Mona and I had gone very still. I do not think either of us moved a muscle for an instant, or bothered even to breathe.
The tide was well out
. No one had even thought to remark upon the tides, at the hour of Catherine's death. I had dismissed Caro Lamb, even, as unable to brave the water. But Catherine's killer had
walked
out to Byron's yacht, and fetched the hammock, with only a shallow depth to concern him.

"What did the Colonel want here in the stables?" I asked, as casually as possible. "Surely he did not mean to
ride
at such an hour?"

Jem grinned. "No, ma'am. Not that night--tho' I've known him to gallop the Downs in pitch black before, and a wonder it is that either the Colonel or the horse came home. No--it was a large needle Old Hanger wanted, such as we use on the horse blankets--a needle and good, strong thread."

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Sentry Duty

F
RIDAY
, 14 M
AY
1813
B
RIGHTON, CONT
.

"O
H
,
WHAT
I
WOULD NOT GIVE FOR
L
ORD
H
AROLD AT THIS
moment," I said to Mona, compound of frustration and despair. "
He
should have known what sort of man Colonel Hanger is, and how he must be worked on!"

We had thanked Jem for his interesting conversation with a shilling pressed into his palm, and an unspoken hope that he did not share our interview with Colonel Hanger--lest his life enjoy a very
brief
duration. I suspected, however, that without the posing of pertinent questions, Jem's knowledge should remain locked in the stables; he was not the sort to offer intelligence unsolicited.

"To be sure Uncle was acquainted with Hanger," Mona said with a visible shudder. "They were both second sons, you know, and that is apt to make for fellow-feeling--tho' I do not think you could find two more
dis
similar men the length and breadth of England! I confess I cannot see my uncle emerging from the sea at dead of night, and requesting a needle and thread from the undergroom, so that he might sew up a dead body."

"But that is just the point, Mona. I
can,
" I retorted. "And it is for
that
reason I wish devoutly he were with us still! There is nobody I should rely upon more to confront a villain. Lord Harold may have been the consummate gentleman, but he was capable of
thinking
like a rogue--and therefore, outwitted the worst of them."

She studied me with an oddly arrested look. "You were often in danger when you were with him, were you not? It was not all a pleasant turn around the Park?"

"Your uncle was an agent of the Crown," I said, taken aback. "I cannot recall that it was
ever
a pleasant turn around the Park. But what is that to the point? I am not Lord Harold, and I shall be reduced to a quaking jelly by a man of Colonel Hanger's kidney; I knew it from the first moment I saw him, intent upon ravishing poor Catherine in the Regent's conservatory. The fellow is evil, Mona."

At her exclamation, I supplied the history of our entertainment at the Pavilion, and the Colonel's readiness to draw Henry's cork, or challenge him to a duel. She listened acutely, evidencing neither shock nor dismay.

"It is everywhere known, of course, that Hanger used to engage in very rum behaviour--procuring women for Prinny when they were both thirty years younger," she observed. "It was he who helped to make the illegal marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert, poor lady--only think of having such a man as witness to one's wedding! And I do not doubt he has pulled Prinny out of countless scrapes that, were they made publick, should have greatly tarnished his honour. But I cannot think even Hanger should be fool enough to prey upon a child of fifteen, of good family--and drown her when she fought him, Jane."

"Someone certainly did so--and if not Hanger, then
who
? Recollect what the undergroom saw, Mona--and what he gave Hanger."

"Very well," Mona rejoined, with her habitual air of calm amidst lunacy, "let us go and ask the villainous Colonel what use he found for needle and thread."

I stared at her.

"I have known George Hanger this
age,
" she said impatiently. "I shall simply send in my card at the Regent's front door, and enquire whether the Colonel is at home to visitors. If he remains as rapacious for a glimpse of the fair sex as you say, he is unlikely to send us away unanswered."

Her confidence was cool enough to suggest her uncle, after all; and thus I followed her without a murmur from the stable yard to the Pavilion's entry. But George Hanger was not at home; he had gone, so we were informed, to play hazard at Raggett's Club, and none could say when he was expected back again.
23

It was impossible for any lady to penetrate the sacred fastness of Raggett's; we should have to wait for the Colonel to return the Countess of Swithin's call.

"It is a pity he prefers dice over cards," Mona said thoughtfully as we achieved the Steyne, "else we might have set Swithin upon him. I can do nothing about that however, until we meet at dinner--and I am able to tell him all. No doubt he will think of something; I believe Swithin managed fellows of Hanger's ilk with great success, when he was about the opium trade in China."

"I am sure of it," I said. "But meanwhile, Lord Byron sits in Brighton Camp, under armed guard, for a murder he undoubtedly did not commit. We have no evidence to support our suspicions that Hanger drowned Catherine Twining and brought her corpse through the wine cellar's tunnel to the King's Arms--not a pair of trousers with the stains of salt water to their knees, nor a scrap of thread in Hanger's pocket, that might be shown to match the hammock's. We have no motive beyond the fact that the man is an unconscionable roue. In sum, Mona--we have nothing that exonerates Lord Byron! Indeed, we have sunk him to his neck by forcing Caro Lamb to place him in the Pavilion itself, within moments of when Catherine Twining was last seen! I cannot think we have done your friend Lady Oxford any singular service."

"But that was never your object, Jane. You are animated by a desire for truth; and
that
we shall achieve--I feel certain."

"Whether Truth is the same as Justice, remains in doubt."

We proceeded towards the Castle, where I must part from her, but she stopped me at the entry.

"Jane, do you not think it remarkable that Byron failed to
follow
Miss Twining that night? I observed him, you know, throughout the evening--because of my particular concern for Lady Oxford's heart. Byron was single-minded in his efforts to speak to Miss Twining. She was forced to elude him by dancing without cease. Not even the presence of her father at the Assembly could dissuade him. Captain Morley proved her protector for a time; and indeed, it was only after he exchanged words with his lordship that Byron desisted. And then, when Caro Lamb appeared, his lordship quitted the Rooms in high dudgeon--packed up his things at the Arms--and repaired to Caro's rooms.
He went so far as to invade the Pavilion
--he succeeded in achieving Miss Twining's presence--and yet, when she flew from him, he abruptly abandoned pursuit and proclaimed his verses to Caro Lamb instead! It is incomprehensible; in every respect, incomprehensible!"

"He is hardly the most
consistent
of men--" I began.

"But at present, he is very likely to be sober," she said owlishly, "and that is so out of the common way where Byron is concerned, we ought to take advantage of it. Do you not agree this is the perfect time to speak with him--while he languishes alone in gaol, entirely without an audience? What do you say, Jane, to exercising my chestnuts?"

A
ND SO
I
COMMITTED MYSELF ONCE MORE TO THE PERILS
of the Countess's beautiful horses and perch phaeton, and set off up the Lewes road in the direction of Brighton Camp. The team was decidedly fresh, having been eating their heads off in their stalls since Wednesday's race-meeting; the equipage bowled along at a spanking pace through the bright noonday sun. We encountered considerable London traffic, and as Mona never hesitated to give the pair their heads, and pull out to pass the odd gig or farm cart, I expected at every moment to be overturned in the ditch. Apprehension throughout the whole quite robbed me of enjoyment, and I was for the most part unable to speak; but the Countess maintained a pleasant flow of conversation. This was purposefully innocuous, as she had her groom up behind her; within twenty minutes, I daresay, we were pulling up in the Camp. The groom jumped down and held the horses; he intended walking them, I believe, while we were occupied amidst the Barracks.