Betrayal at Lisson Grove (Treason at Lisson Grove)

Minnie Maude held her guard. “No, sir, I mean a real lady, not jus’ some nice person, like.”

“Tall and slender, and very beautiful, despite the fact that she isn’t young anymore,” Pitt agreed. “And eyes that could freeze you at twenty paces, if you step out of line. Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould. Please ask her to come into the kitchen. She has been in here before. Then make her a cup of tea. We have some Earl Grey. We keep it for her.”

Minnie Maude stared at him as if he had lost his wits.

“Please,” he added.

“Yer’ll pardon me, sir,” Minnie Maude said shakily. “But yer look like yer bin dragged through an ’edge backward.”

Pitt pushed his hand through his hair. “She wouldn’t recognize me if I didn’t. Don’t leave her standing in the hall. Bring her here.”

“She in’t in the ’all, sir. She’s in the parlor,” Minnie Maude told him with disgust at his imagining she would do anything less.

“I apologize. Of course she is. Bring her here anyway.”

Defeated, she went to obey.

Pitt ate the last mouthful of his supper and cleared the table as Vespasia arrived in the doorway.

“I always liked this room,” she observed. “Thank you, Minnie Maude. Good evening, Thomas. I am sorry to have interrupted your dinner, but it is unavoidable.”

Behind him Minnie Maude skirted her and put the kettle onto the hob. Then she began to wash out the teapot in which Pitt’s tea had been, and prepare it to make a different brew for Vespasia. Her back was very straight, and her hands shook just a little.

Pitt did not interrupt Vespasia. He held one of the hard-backed kitchen chairs for her to be seated. She declined to take off her cape.

“I have just heard from Victor,” she told him. “On the telephone, from a railway station not far from the city. Charlotte was with him, and perfectly well. You have no need to concern yourself about her health, or anything else. However there are other matters of very great concern indeed. Matters that require your immediate and total attention.”

“Narraway?” His mind raced. She was being discreet, no doubt aware that Minnie Maude could hear all they said. It would be cruel, pointless, and possibly even dangerous to frighten her unnecessarily. Certainly she did not deserve it, apart from the very practical matter that he needed her common sense to care for his household and, most important, his children—at least until Charlotte returned. And, he admitted, he rather liked her. She was good-natured and not without spirit. There was something about her not totally unlike Gracie.

“Indeed.” Vespasia turned to Minnie Maude. “When you have made the tea, will you please go and pack a small case for your master, with what he will need for one night away from home. Clean personal linen and a clean shirt, and his customary toiletries. When you have it, bring it downstairs and leave it in the hall by the bottom step.”

Minnie Maude’s eyes widened. She blinked, as if wondering whether she dare confirm the orders with Pitt, or if she should simply obey them. Who was in charge?

They were giving the poor girl a great deal to become accustomed to in a very short while. He smiled at her. “Please do that, Minnie Maude. It appears I shall have to leave you. But also, I shall return before too long.”

“You may be extremely busy for some time,” Vespasia corrected him. “It is a very good thing that Minnie Maude is a responsible girl. You will need her. Now let us have tea and prepare to leave.”

As soon as the tea was poured and Minnie Maude was out of the room Pitt turned to Vespasia. The look on his face demanded she explain.

“It is a conclusion no longer avoidable that both you and Victor were drawn away from London for a very specific purpose,” she said, sipping delicately at her tea. “Victor was put out of office, with an attempt to have him at least imprisoned in Ireland, possibly hanged. You were lured away from London before that, so you, as the only person at Lisson Grove with an unquestionable personal loyalty to him, and the courage to fight for him, would not be there. He would be friendless, as indeed he was.”

Pitt would have interrupted Narraway to ask why, but he would not dare interrupt Vespasia.

“It appears that Charles Austwick is involved,” she continued. “To what degree, and for what purpose, we do not yet know, but the plot is widespread, dangerous, and probably violent.”

“I know,” he said quietly. “I think I can rely on Stoker, but so far as I can see, at the moment, he is the only one. There will be more, but I don’t know who they are, and I can’t afford any mistakes. Even one could be fatal. What I don’t understand is why Austwick made so little fuss at being removed from the leadership. It makes me fear that there is someone else who knows every move I make and who is reporting to him.”