Paragon Walk - Anne Perry [61]
“I should, my dear. After all, she may not be aware who he is!”
“No, she may not,” Charlotte agreed. “Who is he?”
Lady Tamworth looked nonplussed for a moment.
“Why—he’s a Jew!” she said.
“Yes, so you said.”
Lady Tamworth snorted. Miss Lucinda’s face dropped, her eyebrows puckered.
“Do you approve of Jews, Mrs. Pitt?”
“Wasn’t Christ one?”
“Really, Mrs. Pitt!” Lady Tamworth shook with outrage. “I accept that the younger generation has different standards from our own.” She stared once more at Charlotte’s still glowing neck. “But I cannot tolerate blasphemy. Really, I can’t!”
“That is not blasphemy, Lady Tamworth,” Charlotte said clearly. “Christ was a Jew.”
“Christ was God, Mrs. Pitt,” Lady Tamworth said icily. “And God is most certainly not a Jew!”
Charlotte did not know whether to lose her temper completely or laugh. She was glad Paul Alaric was out of earshot.
“Isn’t He?” she said with a slight smile. “I never really thought about it. What is He then?”
“A mad scientist,” Hallam Cayley said from over her shoulder, a glass in his hand. “A Frankenstein who didn’t know when to stop! His experiment has got a little out of hand, don’t you think?” he stared around the room, his face mirroring a disgust so deep it hurt him.
Lady Tamworth chewed her teeth in impotence, her rage too great for words.
Hallam regarded her with contempt.
“Do you really imagine this was what He intended?” he finished his glass and waved it round the room. “Is this bloody lot in the image of any God you want to worship? If we’ve descended from God, then we’ve descended a hell of a long way. I think I’d rather join Mr. Darwin. According to him, at least we’re improving. In another million years we might be fit for something.”
At last Miss Lucinda found speech.
“You must speak for yourself, Mr. Cayley,” she said with difficulty, as if she, too, were a little drunk. “For myself, I am a Christian, and I have no doubts whatever!”
“Doubts?” Hallam stared into the bottom of his empty glass and turned it upside down. A single drop fell out onto the floor. “I wish I had doubts. A doubt would at least include room for a hope, wouldn’t it?”
Seven
THE SOIREE WAS a success; the poet spoke brilliantly. He knew exactly how much to titillate with excitement, to hint at daring and change, to provoke thoughts of the wildest criticism of others, and yet at the same time never to insist on the truly unpleasant disturbance of conscience in oneself. He provided the thrill of intellectual danger without any of its pain.
He was received rapturously, and it was obvious he would be talked about for weeks to come. Even next summer the affair would be recalled as one of the more interesting events of the Season.
But after it was all over and the last guests had taken their leave, Emily was too tired to savor her victory. It had been more of a strain than she expected. Her legs were tired from so much standing, and her back ached. When she finally sat down, she found she was shaking a little, and it no longer seemed to matter a great deal that she had given a party that was a resounding success. The realities had not changed. Fanny Nash was still violated and murdered, Fulbert was still missing, and none of the answers were any kinder or easier to bear. She was too weary to delude herself any longer that it was some stranger with no claim on their lives. It was someone in the Walk. They all had their trivial or sordid little secrets, the ugly sides of life that most people could continue to hide forever. Of course, they were guessed at; no one but a fool thought the surface smile was all there was to anyone. But for other people, where there was no crime, no investigation, they could be allowed to fester silently in the dark places where they had lain hidden, and no one willfully uncovered them. There was a mutual conspiracy, to overlook.
But with the police, especially someone like Thomas Pitt, whether the real crime was discovered or not, all the other grubby little sins would be turned over sooner or later. It was not that he would wish to, but she