The Mermaid in the Basement (27 page)

“And you’ve been successful.”

“It’s not a thing I care a great deal about. Some people, like Ashley and most other actors, make the theatre their lives, but I could be happy if I never saw another stage again.”

“You’ve had a hard life.”

“And so have you.”

Startled, Serafina glanced at him. “How—how did you know that?”

“I’ve seen it in your eyes. I’ve heard it in your voice. Life is hard, my dear viscountess, but there’s good in it. You have to search for it like a man searching for a treasure.He finally finds it in a field, and he goes and sells all he has to buy that field. That’s what we all ought to be doing.”

Serafina was shocked when Dylan reached over and took her hand.

She let it lie in his, and he exerted a firm pressure. It was a liberty that would normally offend her, but the sound of his voice and the tale of his early life had softened her.

His voice drew her eyes to him. “You have so much to give, Serafina.

All that a man could want. A lone man’s urges move like the needle of a compass toward some women. Perhaps a woman just walks into a room, one he’s never seen before, and he looks at her, and she catches his glance, and the old impulses rise. Perhaps in both of them. You’re a proud woman, Serafina Trent, and your emotions run far beneath the surface.

You have a power to stir men, but I don’t think you recognise it.”

“I—I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dylan.”

“A woman is beauty, Serafina, and somehow all men look for beauty in their lives. Some men must stay a safe distance, afraid to go too close, and when they come upon it, the beauty fades and dies out. It’s hard for a man to come into the shrine where a woman is and see that which he can never have.”

Serafina was watching him and listening to him almost breathlessly.

Her eyes were filled with shadows, and her bosom rose and fell with her quickened breathing. “There’s a fragrance of you. You’re a full woman, and a man feels strange things when he looks upon beauty and knows it will never be for him.”

Serafina was intently aware of the warmth and strength of his hand as he held hers. She felt a strong impulse to leave it there and surrender, but at the same time deeply buried old memories troubled her, and she wanted to flee. “I—I must go back to the house.” She pulled her hand away and stood to her feet. Dylan rose and said, “You’ve got all a man wants, Lady Serafina Trent, but you’ve built a wall around yourself. A wall so high that no man could ever climb over it.”

FOURTEEN

I
just can’t do it!”

Serafina, with a violent motion, slammed the cover of the notebook shut, and for a moment sat there staring at it as if it were some sort of dangerous item. The sunlight streamed in from the window on one side of her bedroom. Ordinarily she took pleasure in the room, for she had spent many hours here at the small desk. Now, however, her lips were drawn into a tight line. She closed her eyes wearily and leaned back in the leather-covered chair. “It’s just too hard for me!” she whispered.

A streak of frustration ran along her nerves, for she had always liked a challenge, and the journal, the secret cypher, that Kate Fairfield had used was indeed a challenge. She realised that this frustration was because her brother’s life might well depend upon it. It was not like a problem in mathematics or an experiment in chemistry. She took pleasure in those things, but now the fear that had been lurking in her ever since Clive’s arrest seemed to swell and rise to her throat.

She rose quickly and began to pace the floor. As she did, a strange thought came to her, one she had never had before.
It must be nice and
convenient to believe in prayer as Dylan does.

The thought brought with it an image of Dylan Tremayne, and she was confused at her thoughts, for she realised that Tremayne had impacted her in a way that troubled her. She did not analyse it, but actually she had built up a wall against admitting anyone into her intimate fellowship. But since the tragedy had struck their house, Dylan had come into her life, and she realised that he had come to play a much larger part in her thoughts than she liked. She stared out at the green grass and the flowers in the yard, but thoughts of Dylan would not leave her. “I can’t be a fool,” she whispered. “He’s everything that I’m not.”

A tap at the door broke into her thoughts, and Louisa came in. “The two policemen who were here before, ma’am, they’re here again.”

“What do they want?”

“Please, ma’am, they want to see you.”

“What did you do with them?”

“I didn’t know exactly where you’d want them, so I put them in the study.”

“Thank you, Louisa. I’ll come down.” Serafina was aware that Louisa was intimidated by the policemen, and straightening her shoulders, she was determined to show no sign of weakness before the two men. Leaving her room, she walked down the hall and then descended to the ground floor. She made her way toward the study and found Winters and Grant standing in the centre of the room.

“Good afternoon, Superintendent, and you, Inspector Grant.”

She saw that the two men exchanged an odd glance that troubled her, then Winters said, “I’m sorry to have to trouble you,Viscountess, but it was necessary that we have a word.”

“Of course.Won’t you sit down?”

“No, we’ll not be here that long,”Winters said. He looked handsome as he stood there—tall, well built, his eaglelike features highlighted by his icy blue eyes. No,
icy
was not the word. They were not cold, but bright and alert. He wore expensive clothes, far more expensive than a policeman would usually wear, and Serafina noted again the large diamond ring on his right hand. Grant, the smaller man, was also watching her cautiously.

“I’m afraid we have come on rather unpleasant business,” Winters said. He shifted his weight for one moment and seemed to search for the right words.

“What is it, Superintendent?”

Winters nodded as if coming to some final decision and spoke in clipped tones. “I’m afraid we’re here on official business.”

“Does it have something to do with Clive?”

“Only indirectly.We’ve had a complaint from Sir William Dowding concerning the visit you and Tremayne made to his house.”

A small alarm went off in Serafina’s mind. She was not frightened but totally alert. “What did he say, sir?”

“He said that you as much as accused him of murdering Katherine Fairfield.”

“That’s not true, Superintendent. We asked him questions about some items that were troubling us.”

“I felt this was important enough to come and warn you about.

When a policeman comes into someone’s house,” he said with a slight grimace, “they automatically go on the defensive. That’s natural enough, I suppose.We very rarely bring good news.”Winters hesitated, then said, “I don’t think he’s going to bring any legal action against you, but Inspector Grant and I felt we needed to come by and warn you that this investigation that you and Tremayne seem to be determined to pursue can have unpleasant consequences.”

“Exactly what are you telling me, Superintendent?” Serafina asked.

Her voice was steady, and her eyes even more so as she faced the two men.

She saw that Grant was watching her steadily, and she felt that she could not like the man much.He had a manner that seemed to be close to arrogance, but he kept silent as Winters continued.

“When people are in difficulties such as you and your family have been thrust into, they often make rash mistakes. I realise, of course, that your entire family is disturbed, but you can’t run around accusing respectable citizens. We’ve already discovered that Sir William was at home at the time the murder was committed.”

“And who told you that, Superintendent?”

“His valet.”Winters immediately saw the disbelief on Serafina’s face. “He’s a respectable enough servant.He’s not likely to lie about such a thing. Let us handle this matter, Viscountess. You’re too emotionally involved.”

“The man had an affair with the murdered woman.”

“So did several other men, as you probably have discovered by now,” Grant said. “But it’s not against the law for a man to have an affair with a woman, and that’s all the evidence you have.”

A hot reply leapt to Serafina’s lips, but she choked it off, saying merely, “I will take what you say under advisement, gentlemen, and I thank you for coming.”

Winters smiled briefly. “I can see you’re set on this thing,Viscountess, and I can only warn you again that it could be dangerous. If you did discover the murderer, he would be likely to turn on you.”

“I’m not afraid of that.”

“I’m sure you aren’t.You’re a strong woman, but there’s another matter to consider, and that is that you may disturb evidence that we at the Yard need. You may give away something to the killer that would cause him to hide his trail even more cleverly.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t promise you that I will stop looking for the man who killed Kate Fairfield. My brother’s life is in the balance, and I will not stop until I have found the true murderer.”

A silence seemed to fill the room, and the two men watched Serafina for a moment. Then Winters sighed and shook his head. “I feared this would be your attitude.We have no charges, of course. This is just in the nature of a warning. I hope you will listen to reason, Viscountess. Come along, Grant.”

Serafina stepped aside, and the two men left, neither giving her a backward glance. She heard the front door close, then almost at once Dora came running in. She must have been waiting outside in the hallway. Her eyes were wide, and she said in an agitated tone, “What did they want, Serafina?”

“There’s nothing to fear, Dora. Don’t be troubled.”

“How can I not be?” Dora said. She bit her lower lip in a nervous gesture that Serafina knew well from her childhood. “Did they come to give bad news about Clive?”

“Not at all. It was about another matter entirely. A minor thing.”

Dora watched her older sister anxiously, and seeing no sign of trouble in Serafina’s expression, she said, “I’m so glad.”

“What have you got planned today, Dora?” Serafina asked. She went over and stood next to her sister and thought about how vulnerable she was, how she had always been that way. She was growing into a fine young woman, but still there was a dependency in her that Serafina saw and rather admired. Serafina had always been strong willed, and no one would ever call her vulnerable, but there was a quality of sweetness, of gentleness in Dora that made Serafina love her deeply, perhaps because she felt that somewhere along the way she had lost these qualities.

“I’m going to visit Clive,” Dora said. “I’ve had Nessa make him some of his favourite dishes, and I’m going to take him some books.”

“That’s very good, Dora. You tell Clive that I’ll be in to see him later on.” She hesitated, then added, “That jail is a very depressing place. Are you sure you feel up to this?”

“Oh yes,” Dora said quickly. “I don’t mind it.”

Serafina watched as Dora left the study, then returned to her room. She sat down before Kate’s journal, opened it, and stared at the peculiar combination of numbers.“There’s
got
to be an answer here somewhere that will save Clive,” she muttered between clenched teeth.“There just has to be!”

For one moment Dora hesitated, looking up at the cold, grey stone that composed the city’s jail. She looked at the heavily barred windows in the front and had to push herself to continue. She mounted the steps, and upon entering the building noticed an odor that nearly sickened her. She had never smelled anything like it before, and she knew that Clive must be sickened by it as well. He had always been fastidious about such things.

A guard sat at a table reading the newspaper, and Dora walked over and said, “Please, I’d like to see my brother.”

The guard, a burly man with beetling brows and muddy brown eyes, slapped the paper down and put his hand over it as if to keep it from walking away. “Wot’s ’is name?”

“Clive Newton.”

The guard’s eyes half closed, and he said, “This ain’t the regular visiting hours.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Dora cried. “I didn’t know there was a regular time.”

The burly guard stared at her for a long moment, then shrugged his beefy shoulders. “I’ll make an exception, but next time you’ll ’ave to come when it’s regular.”

“Oh, I will,” Dora said quickly.

“And I ’ave to look into those sacks.”

“That will be all right.” She watched as the guard examined the contents of the two sacks and was relieved when he said, “This way, then. I’ll take you to ’im.”

Dora followed the guard through a door and saw that the corridor led between two rows of cells. The stench here was almost unbearable, but she steeled herself against it.

“’E’s up on the second floor. This way, miss.”

The guard’s boots clanged on the steel steps as he ascended, and when they got to the top floor, they met another guard there. “Woman ’ere wants to see Newton, Billy.”

“It ain’t regular visiting hours.”

“Do you tell me that? Don’t you think I know the rules? We’ll make an exception this once. Take ’er to ’er brother.”