“Me? That’s ridiculous. If I knew the whereabouts of the bracelet, I would never have agreed to pay you to retrieve it.”
“I believe that you were put into a trance by a mesmerist and instructed to take the bracelet to a secret location. There is every reason to hope that the relic is still there and that it may be recovered. But I will need your cooperation.”
“Good Lord.” Mrs. Rushton’s eyes widened in horrified amazement. She put her hand to her bosom. “Are you saying that I may have been unwittingly entranced?”
“Yes.” Lavinia unfastened the silver chain around her neck. She held it in front of her so that the pendant caught the light. “Mrs. Rushton, please trust me. I want your permission to induce another mesmeric trance. While you are in it, I will ask you some questions concerning what happened the day the bracelet disappeared.”
Mrs. Rushton looked bemused at the sight of the dangling pendant. “It is not easy to put me into a mesmeric trance, you know. I am a woman of extremely strong will.”
“I understand.”
Mrs. Rushton did not look away from the gently swinging necklace. “See here, are you an expert at this sort of thing?”
“Yes, Mrs. Rushton. I am really rather good at this sort of thing.”
She left the ugly mansion ten minutes later, intent only on her next destination. Luck was with her. There was a hackney standing quietly in the square almost directly in front of her.
She raised a hand and waved madly to get the coachman’s attention. He made no move to get down from his box to assist her up into the carriage. She was in too much of a hurry to be offended.
She opened her mouth to give the man the address at the same time she opened the door of the vehicle.
It was then that she realized the hackney was already occupied.
Maggie was inside. Her hands were bound with rope. Her eyes were huge and stark with fear above the gag that had been tied around her mouth.
She was not alone in the vehicle. Oscar Pelling sat beside her. He held a knife to her throat.
“Get in,” he said to Lavinia, “or I will kill her right here. Right now. In front of you.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
“I WATCHED YOUR HOUSE FOR HOURS, MRS.
Lake, waiting to see if you would make any move that would indicate that you might have been successful in your quest to find the bracelet. You were my last, best hope, and I thank you for confirming my faith in your deceitful and cunning ways.”
“I do not know what you are talking about,” Lavinia whispered.
“Really, you are so very typical of your sex, madam. Lying, cheating, potentially deadly Medusas, every last one of you. But knowing the nature of women as I do was what persuaded me to follow you rather than Mr. March today. It is clear he is your lover and no doubt completely under your control. Get in.”
Lavinia climbed slowly into the closed cab of the hackney and sat down on the seat across from Pelling and Maggie. Pelling gave her an approving smile. She caught a glimpse of the monster lurking just beneath the surface of his eyes and shivered.
“What made you conclude that I know the location of the Blue Medusa?” she asked warily.
“There is no other reason why you would pay another visit to the Banks mansion today, is there?” He smiled with satisfaction. “Obviously you came here to conduct business with Mrs. Rushton, and the only business that involves the two of you is the Blue Medusa. I trust that you have not yet concluded your bargain and turned over the bracelet. Because if that is the case, I no longer need you, do I?”
“You must let Maggie go,” she said quietly.
“Oh, I don’t think I’ll do that.” Pelling prodded Maggie’s throat with the tip of the knife. A drop of blood appeared. “She is a cheap whore who must be punished for betraying me. Is that not right, my sweet?”
Maggie closed her eyes and whimpered behind the gag. Lavinia touched the silver pendant, in what she hoped looked like a nervous gesture. “You must let her go. You no longer need her, and killing her would be too risky.”
Pelling looked at her with blood-freezing eyes. “Do not presume to tell me what to do. I knew that you were trouble on the first occasion when we met. Probably should have got rid of you then.”
“That would have been foolish. After all, you had just lost your wife under tragic and mysterious circumstances. The murder of the mesmerist who had been treating her would have been a bit much for the local authorities, don’t you think? They might have started asking embarrassing and exceedingly awkward questions.”
“Bah. The authorities did not worry me in the least. The reason I did not punish you then was because you were not worth the time and trouble. You had, in point of fact, done me a favor. You contrived to rid me of an increasingly troublesome wife, and I was left with her inheritance. Under the circumstances, it would have been churlish to kill you.”
“Churlish.” Lavinia swallowed. “Yes. Quite. But now there is the problem of Maggie.”
“Maggie is no problem, as you can see.” Pelling tapped the knife against the woman’s shoulder. “I shall slit her throat when it suits me. Until then, she will remain quiet and obedient. Isn’t that right, Maggie?”
Tears leaked from Maggie’s eyes.
“I’m afraid it will not be as simple as that,” Lavinia said. “You see, as long as Maggie is sitting there with a knife at her throat, I will not tell you the location of the Medusa bracelet. And the bracelet is what you are after, is it not?”
“You will tell me,” Pelling said. “Or you will first watch Maggie die very slowly. If you manage to resist the urge to tell me where the bracelet is during that process, I’m sure you will talk when it is your turn.”
“The risk of killing both of us is too great.” Lavinia toyed with the silver pendant, twisting it so that it caught the light that seeped in around the edges of the window curtain. “Much too great. Better to let Maggie go. She cannot hurt you. You are too strong and too powerful to worry about a prostitute who drinks too much gin. No one pays any attention to women like Maggie.”
“Stop it.” Pelling took the point of the knife away from Maggie’s throat and jabbed it at Lavinia. “Stop it right now.”
She flinched and flattened her back against the cushions. But there was little room to maneuver in the close confines of the carriage. Pelling could easily gut her like a fish before she could reach the door if he took a notion to do so.
Maggie opened her eyes and looked at her with an expression of resignation and dread.
“I know what you are trying to do,” Pelling said to Lavinia. “You are trying to put me in a mesmeric trance. But it will not work. My mind is too strong.”
“Yes, you are strong,” she whispered. “Much too strong.”
Pelling was amused. “It’s true. Celeste and Hudson both tried their skills on me. Both failed. If they could not entrance me, you have no chance of doing so, do you?”
“No.” Lavinia watched him steadily and fiddled with the silver at her throat. “My skills are poor, indeed, compared to theirs. And you are too strong. So very, very strong. But the night is coming on. Soon it will be dark. It will be difficult to keep track of two prisoners in the dark. Better to let Maggie go. She can do you no harm.”
Pelling said nothing.
“You are too strong. You do not need her. She is a nuisance. Better to toss her out onto the street. She can do you no harm. You are too strong.”
He was not in a deep trance, Lavinia realized. But there was an odd calm about him now, as if he had come to some conclusion and had formed a plan. She could only pray that he had not decided to slit Maggie’s throat immediately and be done with the matter. The expression in Maggie’s eyes told her that she feared that was precisely what was about to happen.