Long Spoon Lane - Anne Perry [128]
“A brave man?” she said softly, a razor’s edge of sarcasm in her voice, as if with a fine blade it cut almost without pain, until too late.
Tellman smiled very slightly. “No, Lady Vespasia, I don’t think so. I don’t think he wants to meet his enemies face-to-face.”
Narraway nodded fractionally. He did not interrupt.
“If he is a coward,” Vespasia said, pursing her lips slightly, “that may be of use to us. Cowards can be rattled, provoked into acting rashly, if they are given little time, and made to feel threatened.” She turned to Pitt. “Is Sir Charles also a coward, Thomas?”
He knew his answer without having to weigh it. “No, Aunt Vespasia, he’d meet you face-to-face, if need be. In fact, I think he would rather enjoy it.”
“Because he expects to win,” Vespasia stated. “But he wants revenge, yes?”
It was a rhetorical question, and they all knew it.
“Yes,” Pitt said ruefully.
“Does Wetron know that?” Vespasia asked, turning again to Tellman.
“I think so,” he answered.
“If not, we could always tell him,” Charlotte put in.
Narraway looked at her sharply, his brow furrowed.
“If we wanted to,” she added quickly.
Gracie simplified the whole thing in a sentence. “Yer mean, like, set ’em at each other?” She poured the tea.
Vespasia smiled at her. “Admirably succinct,” she said. “Since we appear to have no weapons, and they have, then we must use theirs, or let them win—a thought that sticks in my throat.”
Narraway looked at Pitt, then at Vespasia. “Wetron has created a network of corruption where the police of several stations—we don’t know the size of it yet—extort money from the ordinary people of their areas, using certain members of the criminal classes to do the ugliest of the work. As for example, Jones the Pocket. With the proceeds of this Wetron finances his empire. He has raised public feeling, with the help of men like Edward Denoon and his newspaper, to the pitch where they are willing, indeed eager, to arm the police and increase their power without giving any serious thought to the possibilities for abuse. The time for such legislation is ripe now, the bombings and the murder of Magnus Landsborough have seen to that.”
Pitt understood, and he saw it in Charlotte also, and Vespasia. Tellman was frowning.
Narraway continued. He very pointedly did not look at Charlotte, as if he were afraid to meet her eyes.
“Apparently Voisey has the proof to destroy Wetron by connecting him irrevocably with Simbister and the Scarborough Street bombing, and the blackmail of Piers Denoon with the murder of Magnus.” He faced Pitt. “Voisey still has this?”
“Yes,” Pitt said unhappily. “We have the blackmail statements, but Voisey has the evidence that proves complicity in the Scarborough Street bombing. At least he said he has.”
“Do you believe him?”
Pitt hesitated. “Yes.”
Vespasia set down her cup. “Surely the point is, can Wetron afford to disbelieve him?”
A flash of appreciation lit Narraway’s face. “Precisely, Lady Vespasia. If Wetron knows this, he cannot afford to allow Voisey to remain. Voisey is hungry to regain his old leadership and have his revenge upon the man who usurped him. He believes he has destroyed Pitt. He will now be turning his attention to Wetron, and he will lose no time.”
“Wetron may know that, but, equally, he may not,” Pitt pointed out. “His mind may be directed towards ensuring the bill goes through Parliament. And for all he says otherwise, perhaps Voisey would actually like it to, then quietly step into Wetron’s place in the Inner Circle, and see that one of his own allies is appointed in Wetron’s position, to keep on, far more discreetly, with the extortion. The bombing will stop and there’ll be a big show of catching anarchists and trying and executing them. The people who have power will be satisfied, and Voisey will reap Wetron’s reward. And be a hero. And make an advance towards being power minister one day.”
Tellman had said little since coming in. Vespasia regarded him now, knowing that he was the only one in a position to tell Wetron all