“I thought that was more than two years ago,” Balantyne went on.
“It was!” Reggie found his tongue at last, his lips stiff. “It was! Four years. Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with it! But you know what people are, give a dog a bad name. They’ll think because-” he foundered in the lie, and took another glass of Madeira.
There was no need to press him about the present; the truth was too obvious, the reason he wanted the police out of the square, away from talkative servants. Poor fool!
“I expect they’ll give up of their own accord soon,” Balantyne said with a pity he resented feeling. “But I’ll see what Carlton feels, when I get an opportunity. Don’t suppose that Pitt chap wants to spend more time than he has to up a blind alley. No good for his career.”
“No,” Reggie cheered up visibly. “Don’t suppose we need to point that out to him.” His words were a little blurred. “But speak to Carlton all the same. He must know people; few words in the right places, could get it closed a bit sooner. Save a lot of nasty gossip; some public money too. Whole thing’s a waste of time.” He stood up a little shakily. “Thanks, old man. Thought you’d understand.”
Christina did not appear for luncheon, and Brandy was spending a week in the country with friends. He found himself alone at the table with Augusta.
“Christina still not better?” he said with a touch of anxiety. “Why hasn’t she seen a doctor? Get Freddie to look at her, if Meredith can’t come.”
“Not necessary,” Augusta replied, reaching for cold salmon. “It’s only a chill. Cook prepared her a tray. Have some of the salmon. It’s one Brandy caught last weekend in Cumberland. Very good, don’t you think?”
He took some and tasted it.
“Excellent. Are you sure it’s nothing worse? She’s been in bed for a long time.”
“Quite sure. A spell in bed will do her no harm. She’s been overdoing it lately. Too many parties. Which reminds me, have you remembered we are dining with the Campbells this evening?”
He had not remembered. Still, it could have been worse. Garson Campbell was an interesting fellow, dry humor, if a little cynical; and Mariah was a more than usually sensible woman. Hardly ever heard her indulge in gossip or the endless flirtations that so many women seemed to engage their emotions with.
“Was that Reggie Southeron here this morning?” Augusta asked.
“Yes.”
“What did he want, on a Saturday morning?”
“Nothing really. In a bit of a lather about the police upsetting the servants with a lot of questions and insinuations.”
“Upsetting the servants?” she said incredulously.
He looked at her across the salmon.
“Yes. Why not?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Brandon. Reggie never gave a hoot about the servants, his own or anybody else’s. What did he intend you should do about it anyway?”
He smiled in spite of himself.
“What makes you think he intended me to do anything about it?”
“He didn’t come here to drink your Madeira. You always give him the worst, and he knows it. What did he want?”
“He suggested I should speak to Robert Carlton to see if he can persuade the police to let the thing lie. They’ll probably never discover the truth, anyway, all they can achieve is to waste their time, and stir up a lot of gossip. He could be right.”
“He is right,” she agreed tartly. “But I doubt that is why he is concerned. And I would be surprised if that odd young man-Pitt, I think his name is-will let it die until he has explored a good deal further than he has so far. But you can try, by all means, if you wish. Don’t let Reggie make a fool of himself. It will rub off on all of us. Apart from the embarrassment to Adelina, poor creature.”
“Why should Reggie make a fool of himself?” He had no intention of telling her about Dolly. It was not a matter for a decent woman to know of.
Augusta sighed.
“Sometimes, Brandon, I wonder if you affect to be obtuse merely to annoy me. Reggie wishes to keep the police from questioning his own servants too closely, which you must know quite as well as I do.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” He did not wish to have to explain to her something which would both shock and distress her. She would find it sordid; as indeed perhaps it was, but a common human failing which women were apt, since the offense was against them, to view differently, and without the compassion a man might feel.
Augusta snorted and pushed away her empty plate. The pudding was brought in and served. When they were alone again she looked at him coolly.
“Then perhaps I had better tell you, before you unwittingly say something clumsy and embarrass us all. Reggie sleeps with all his parlormaids, so no doubt he is afraid the police will discover it, and be less than discreet about it. They may even think he has wandered farther afield.”
He was stunned. She was speaking about it as if it hardly mattered!
“How on earth do you know?” he said hoarsely.
“My dear Brandon, everybody knows. One doesn’t discuss it, of course; but one knows.”
“Adelina?”
“Of course she knows. Do you take her for a fool?”
”Doesn’t she-mind?”
“I’ve no idea. One doesn’t ask, and naturally she doesn’t mention it.”
He was stunned. He could think of no reply adequate to his confusion. He had always known that women’s minds and emotions worked on lines not comprehensible to men, but never before had it been so forcibly brought home to him.
Augusta was still looking at him.
“I wish there were some way it could be kept from that policeman, for Adelina’s sake,” she went on, “but I have not so far thought of any. That is why it might be a good idea for you to approach Robert Carlton to see if he can get the investigation shelved. It can hardly serve any purpose now, even in the unlikely event of their discovering which poor girl was responsible.”
“There is the small matter of justice,” he said indignantly, his feelings stunned once again. How on earth could she speak of it as if it were all irrelevant, as if they had not been human babies, now dead, possibly murdered?
“Really, Brandon, sometimes I despair of you,” she said as she passed him the caramel sauce. “You are the most impractical man I ever knew. Why are soldiers such dreamers? You would think with the command of armies in their charge they would at least be practical, if nothing else, wouldn’t you?” she sighed. “But then I suppose war is really the most idiotic of all pursuits, so perhaps not.”
He stared at her as if she were a totally alien creature, as if she had changed shape from the known to the unknown in front of him.
“Naturally you don’t understand war,” he dismissed the last subject. “But even if justice is too abstract a concept for you, surely as a woman, who has borne children herself, you are moved to compassion?”
She put down her spoon and fork and leaned a little forward.
“The children are dead; whether they were born dead or died afterward, they are beyond our help now. The mother will have been through deeper hell than you can imagine, or probably than I can either. Whatever manner of woman she was, she will have paid for it in grief in this life, and will answer to God for it in the next. What else is it you want from her? Her example will not prevent it happening again, I assure you, as long as there are both men and women in the world.
“Yes, your idea of justice is far too abstract for me. It is a word that sounds sonorous and pleasing to you; but you have no idea what it means from day to day; you have satisfied your ideals, and someone else is left to live it through.
“This thing is better buried. It is a pity those men ever went to plant their tree. If you can persuade Robert Carlton to exert a little influence and have the police leave well enough alone, it will be the best day’s work you have done in a long time.
“Now if you intend to eat that pudding you had better do so before it gets cold, or it will give you indigestion. I am going upstairs to see how Christina is,” and she stood up and walked out, leaving him staring after her, speechless.