The Hyde Park Headsman - Anne Griffin Perry [42]
“No!” Uttley’s face was pink. “Certainly not! You have quite misunderstood me, Mrs. Pitt.”
“I’m so sorry.” She tried to sound contrite and knew she had failed. “Perhaps you had better explain again. I seem to be slow of understanding.”
“Maybe it is a subject you are not familiar with,” he said between his teeth, his smile so slight as to be almost nonexistent. “It is not one that lends itself to explanation.”
Charlotte lowered her eyes, then glanced at Jack.
Jack grinned, a charming easy expression without malice, but underneath his apparent ease his attention was total.
“Well, you will need to do better than that in the hustings, or you will confuse the voters as much as you have Mrs. Pitt,” he observed lightly. “I’m sure you don’t want anyone thinking you are advocating a sort of secret society.”
The color spread up Uttley’s broad cheeks and his mouth hardened into a thin line. Vespasia stared at him. Thelonius drew in his breath sharply. Emily waited in anticipation, looking from one to another.
At the far side of the room someone dropped a glass.
“Nonsense, Jack!” Charlotte said in ringing tones. “How can you possibly advocate a secret society in an electoral address? It would hardly be very secret, would it?” She turned to Uttley. “Isn’t that true?”
“Yes,” he said grudgingly. “Of course it is. This whole conversation has become absurd. I was simply saying that with the right people in charge in the police we would get greater respect from certain persons—and with it, cooperation. Surely even the most … naive … can understand that?”
“I can,” Charlotte said with self-mockery, looking at Uttley.
He had the grace to blush, stammer for words to deny his intention, and then fall silent.
“What sort of person would do?” She was relentless. “The disadvantage of gentlemen is that they might not know how to detect, especially ordinary crimes like robbery and forgery and so on.” She turned to Thelonius, Vespasia, and finally back to Uttley. “Or should we have two types of policeman, one for the ordinary criminals, another for the special ones? The difficulty is, how do we tell which crime has been committed by which sort?”
Uttley’s face was tight and hard.
“If you will forgive me, ma’am, this is an excellent subject to illustrate why women are so naturally suited to making home the beautiful place both of art and of spirit, which raises fine children and gives a man the resources from which to fight the world’s battles and deal with the spiritually draining matters of trade and finance. You have a different sort of brain, and that is as nature, and God, intended, for the good and the happiness of humanity.” He smiled without a shred of humor, an automatic wrinkling of the lips. “And if you will excuse me, I must speak to one or two other people. I see Landon Hurlwood over there. It has been charming to meet you, Lady Cumming-Gould, Mr. Quade, Mrs. Pitt.” And without giving any of them a chance to reply, he bowed and turned on his heel.
Charlotte let out her breath in a little grunt of fury.
“There you are, dear,” Emily said gratingly. “Go home and sew a fine seam, bake your bread and don’t think too much. It is unwomanly, and your brain is not built for it.”
“It most certainly is!” Jack said, giving Charlotte an impulsive hug. “Listening to you it is quite obvious that political debate is one of your natural gifts. If I do half as well I shall have him destroyed entirely.”
“You will have made a powerful enemy of him,” Thelonius said very quietly. “He is not a man who will be mocked lightly. But beating him at the polls will be a different matter. People will laugh with you, but not necessarily because they understand what you mean. And believe me, his threat was not idle. He is assuredly a member of the Inner Circle, and will call on it to defeat you if he thinks it necessary.”
The smile died on Jack’s face, and he moved away from Charlotte again.
“I know. But I wouldn’t