The Cater Street Hangman - Anne Perry [46]
“Yes, Grandmama, but frightening her will do no good, and even if she does not marry, she will survive. Better single than married to someone disreputable, or loose-living, or who could not provide for her satisfactorily.”
“My dear Caroline,” Grandmama said exasperatedly, “it is your duty as her mother to see that she does not! And it is also your duty to control this house in an organized fashion. When are you going to get another maid?”
“I have already made enquiries and Mrs. Dunphy has seen two, but they were not satisfactory.”
“What was the matter with them?”
“One was too young, no experience; the other had a reputation that was undesirable.”
“Perhaps if you’d checked Lily a little more closely she wouldn’t now be murdered! This sort of thing doesn’t happen in a well-ordered house.”
“It didn’t happen in the house!” Caroline was stung to sharpness at last. “It happened in Cater Street. And you are quite irresponsible to suggest, even by implication, that Lily brought it upon herself in any way, or that she was immoral. And I won’t have it said in my house.”
“Well, really!” Grandmama stood up, her hands tight, her face flushed. “No wonder Charlotte doesn’t know how to keep a civil tongue in her head, and Emily’s chasing after that ne’er-do-well just because he has a title. She’ll do nothing but make a fool of herself, and you’ll be to blame. I told Edward when he married you that he was making a mistake, but of course he was enamoured of you and didn’t listen. Now Charlotte and Emily will have to pay for it. Well, don’t say afterwards that I didn’t warn you!”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, Grandmama. Do you want dinner upstairs or will you be sufficiently recovered in time to come down for it?”
“I am not ill, Caroline. I am merely very disappointed, though not surprised.”
“One can recover from disappointment as well as illness,” Caroline said drily.
“You are immodest, Caroline, and unfeminine. No wonder Charlotte is a shrill. If you’d been my daughter, I would have seen to it that you grew up to be a lady.” And without giving Caroline a chance to reply to that, she went out and closed the door behind her with a sharp clack.
Caroline sighed. There was more than enough to do, enough trouble, without Grandmama aping a prima donna. Still, she ought to be used to it by now, only she resented the criticism of Charlotte. The slander against Lily was painful in a different and deeper way.
What kind of person would kill a harmless, penniless girl like Lily Mitchell? Only a madman. A madman straying from the criminal world, or a madman who looked like any of the rest of them, except at night, when he saw a young woman alone in the streets? Could it even be someone she herself had seen?
Her thoughts were interrupted by Edward coming in.
“Good evening, my dear.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Have you had a pleasant day?” He looked at the linen and frowned. “Still no replacement for Lily? I thought you were seeing one or two today.”
“I did. Nothing suitable.”
“Where are the girls? And Mama?” He sat down, stretching comfortably.
“Do you wish some refreshment before dinner?”
“No, thank you. I stopped at my club.”
“I thought you were a little late,” she said as she glanced at the clock.
“Where are they?” he repeated.
“Sarah and Dominic are dining with the Lessings—”
“The who?”
“The Lessings, the sexton and his family.”
“Oh. And the others?”
“Emily is with George Ashworth again. I wish you would speak to her, Edward. I don’t seem to make any impression.”
“I’m afraid, my dear, she will have to learn by the bitterness of experience. I doubt she will listen to anyone. I could forbid her, of course, but they would be bound to see each other at social occasions, and it would only lend an air of romance to the affair, which would strengthen it in her eyes. It would defeat its purpose in the end.”
She smiled. She had not credited him with such perception. She had made the suggestion only to safeguard