Silence in Hanover Close - Anne Perry [31]
“Yes sir. You asked about guests, people callin’ ’ere ...”
“Yes?”
“Well, that week was the last time I saw ’er, or anything belonging to ’er.” She stopped, biting her lip, suddenly uncertain whether she should be so indiscreet.
“Saw who, Dulcie?” He must be gentle, not attach too much importance to it and frighten her. “Saw who?”
“I don’t know ’er name. The woman what wore the cerise-colored gowns, always something o’ that shade. She weren’t a guest—at least, she never came in the front door with other people, and I never saw ’er face except that one time in the light from the gas lamp on the landing; there she was one moment, and gone a second later. But she wore cerise always, either a gown or gloves or a flower or something. I know Miss Veronica’s things, and she ’adn’t nothing that color. But I found a glove one day in the library, ’alf under one of them cushions.” She pointed to the furthest chair. “And once there was a piece o’ ribbon.”
“Are you sure they weren’t the elder Mrs. York’s?”
“Oh yes, sir. I knew the lady’s maids then, and we talked about the mistresses’ clothes. It’s a hard color, that; I know as neither of them wore it. It was the woman in cerise, sir, but ’oo she was I swear I don’t know. ’Cept she came and went like a shadow, like no one should see ’er, and I ’aven’t seen ’er since that week, sir. I’m sorry as it weren’t the right vase, sir. I wish as you could catch ’ooever done it. It in’t the silver: Mr. Piers says as you can always get money from the insurance, like ’e did when Mrs. Loretta lost ’er pearls with the sapphire clip.” She bit her lip and suddenly stopped.
“Thank you, Dulcie.” Pitt looked at her worried face. “You did the right thing to tell me. I shan’t repeat it to Mr. Redditch unless I have to. Now show me to the door, and no one will notice your being here.”
“Yes sir. Thank you sir. I . . .” She hesitated a moment, as if she would say more, then changed her mind and bobbed a brief curtsy before leading him out across the large hall and opening the front door.
A moment later he was outside in the silent close, ice crackling under his boots. Who was this woman in cerise, who apparently had never called again after Robert York’s murder, and why had no one else spoken of her?
Perhaps she did not matter; she might be a friend of Veronica’s, a relative with eccentric or unacceptable behavior. Or she might be just what the Foreign Office was concealing and hoping he could not trace—a spy. He would have to speak to Dulcie again, when he knew a little more.
4
EMILY RETURNED HOME the day after Boxing Day. The Ashworth town house was large and extremely gracious. George had had much of it redecorated to please Emily’s taste the first year after they were married, and he had been characteristically generous. Nothing that added charm or personality had been denied, and yet the overall effect was not ostentatious in the least. There were no ornate French pieces, no gilt or curlicues; the furniture was Regency and Georgian, in keeping with the architecture of the house itself. Emily had argued with George at the time about his parents’ love of tassels and fringes and had banished most of the indifferent family portraits to unused guest rooms. The result had both surprised and pleased George, who had compared it with satisfaction to the crowded houses of their friends.
Now, as Emily stood in the hallway while the servants obeyed her instructions, carrying in cases, preparing luncheon for Edward and herself, she felt a void of loneliness close round her as if the house were alien. She drew in her breath, wanting to tell them to stop, that she would be returning to Charlotte’s much smaller house. It was positively cramped by comparison, with secondhand furnishings, and located in a narrow, unfashionable street. But Emily had been happy there; for a few days she had entirely forgotten about her new state of widowhood. Physical differences had been irrelevant, they had all been together, and if she woke once or twice in the night in her bed alone and