Bedford Square - Anne Perry [104]
“Do you think he was guilty?” he asked.
She opened her amazing silver-gray eyes wide, her perfectly arched brows barely moving.
“I have considered it carefully, for reasons relating to the problem facing us. It serves as something of a measure of public opinion, at least that part of it which would be of concern to men like Dunraithe White and Brandon Balantyne.” She frowned slightly, looking directly at Pitt. “It seems undeniable his method of placing his wager was ill advised, most particularly in the company in which he found himself.” The expression in her eyes was impossible to read. “No one comes out of this well, neither man nor woman. There has been a suggestion, not entirely absurd, that the whole matter was deliberately brought about in order to discredit Gordon-Cumming and thus disqualify him as a rival of the Prince’s for the affections of Frances Brooke.”
“The Lady Brooke with whom the Prince arrived at Ascot today?” Pitt asked, surprised. It seemed either extremely stupid or unnecessarily arrogant, and possibly both.
“The same,” she agreed dryly. “I have no idea whether it is true, but the fact that it can be suggested is indicative of opinion.”
“Innocent?” he said quietly.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “The jury apparently took only fifteen minutes to reach their decision. It was greeted by jeers and hisses also. But after the summation given by the judge little else was possible.”
“To save the Prince?” he asked.
She gave a very slight gesture of despair.
“That seems unarguable.”
“Then it has no bearing upon our situation ….”
She smiled very slightly. “Other things will have, my dear Thomas. Public opinion is a very fickle animal, and I fear our blackmailer has great skill. He has chosen his subjects far too well for us to delude ourselves that he is likely to make mistakes. To answer your question, yes, I think poor Gordon-Cumming may well have been innocent.”
“I have looked through all the possible cases where there might be a connection between Cornwallis and Dunraithe White,” he said thoughtfully, reverting back to the reason for which he had come. “A very ugly fear is in the back of my mind that the conspiracy may be a great deal more ambitious than I imagined to begin with. Nothing to do with simple payment of money, but the corruption of power …” He watched her face as he spoke, seeking to read whether she found his thought absurd. He saw only the greatest gravity. “To do with expansion in Africa, perhaps. That is the area involving all the people we know about which comes most easily to mind.”
“Indeed.” She nodded. “Of course, we do not know who else may be concerned. That is one of the most frightening aspects of this case. There may be other members of government or the judiciary, or any other area of power or influence. But I agree, Africa does seem likely. The amounts of money to be gained there at present are beyond the dreams of most of us. I think Mr. Rhodes may end up building little short of his own empire. And throughout history people have been dazzled by the prospects of gold. It seems to breed a kind of madness.”
He brought out the piece of paper on which he had written the names of the cases in which Cornwallis and Dunraithe White were both involved. There were only five. He showed it to her.
She picked up her lorgnette to read his handwriting.
“What do you need?” she asked when she had finished. “To know more about them?”
“Yes. White would not tell me, because he intends to yield to the blackmailer; you told me that yourself. I should prefer not to ask Cornwallis, because I believe he is politically naive, and I would also rather not compromise him, should we not be able to prevent the matter from becoming public.” He felt a weight inside himself, a heaviness of foreboding it was not easy to dispel, even here in this calm, sunlit room with which he had become so pleasantly familiar. “I must be able to help him … if it should come to that.”
“You do not need to explain it to me, Thomas,” she said quietly. “I understand the nature of suspicion, and