Harry joined Rose. She whispered urgently, “I must talk to you in private.”
“There’s a conservatory at the back of the house. Let’s walk there.”
In the steamy warmth of the conservatory, they sat down on a bench in front of a marble statue of Niobe.
Harry was the first to speak. Rose listened in amazement when he told her how Berrow and Banks had hired Finch and how his secretary had nearly been killed. “The police commissioner in York is going to arrest them. Don’t you see? You are safe now. They must have been the ones behind the murder of Dolly.”
Rose’s splendid deduction was losing its glow, but she said, “I have discovered something as well. I am sure it was Jeremy Tremaine who hired Reg Bolton.”
“Why?”
“There is this Cockney who comes to the soup kitchen. He found God in prison. Don’t you see? Jeremy is a divinity student. He could have been visiting prisoners and found a useful one.”
“I really do think we’ll find out it was Berrow and Banks.”
Rose looked so disappointed that he said hurriedly, “To put your mind at rest, I can leave now and go to Wormwood Scrubs and check the book for visiting clerics.”
“Take me with you. Please!”
“Very well. Tell Daisy to take Turner home in a cab.”
Normally Daisy would have been curious, but she was so addicted to cards that she only nodded.
At the prison, the governor protested that he was too busy a man to keep dealing with Captain Cathcart’s requests.
Rose gave him a blinding smile and the governor thawed. He not only produced the required books but suggested that he take Rose on a tour of the prison.
Wormwood Scrubs proved to be even larger than Rose had imagined. It generally contained a thousand male and two hundred female convicts. They walked round the laundries where the women worked and then to the bakeries where the prisoners in their ugly uniforms were baking bread. There was also shoemaking and tailoring going on.
What Rose found unnerving was that all the labour was done in complete silence. It was like being in a Trappist monastery.
She was also taken to a room where the triangles were. Prisoners were strapped to these triangles and either birched or lashed with the cat-o’-nine-tails. The cat-o’-nine-tails was kept in a drawer. The governor lifted it out for Rose to examine. “Doesn’t look much, but it can inflict some damage.”
Rose repressed a shudder and suggested they return to Harry.
He was just closing the books when they entered the governor’s barrack-like office.
As he and Rose got into the Rolls, he said, “Jeremy Tremaine visited the prison on six occasions in the months before his sister’s death. One of the prisoners he visited was Reg Bolton.”
“I wonder what Jeremy will say when we ask him?”
“We? I thought of going myself with Becket tomorrow.”
“You must take me with you! It was my idea.”
“I suppose your parents will agree if we take Becket and Daisy.”
Lady Polly was in a fury when they got back, demanding to know where they had gone, Rose without either her maid or companion. Rose took Harry’s arm and smiled up at him. “Only for a little drive,” she said. “We wanted to be alone.”
Harry’s heart gave a lurch and then he realized that, of course, she was acting.
Nonetheless, it took a great deal of persuading to get permission to go “for a little drive” with Harry the following day with just Becket and Daisy as chaperones.
But Lady Polly finally melted. She saw the way Rose smiled up at the captain and was sure her wayward daughter was in love at last.
They all set out the following morning in high spirits that even the damp mist clouding the day could not dim.
Daisy had won too much at cards to be angry with Rose for not having told her about Jeremy.
When they turned down Oxford High, the mist was hiding the spires and pinnacles of the colleges, and even the top of Cairfax Tower was lost to view.
Daisy and Becket were told to stay in the car while Rose and Harry made their way up the shallow stone steps to Jeremy’s rooms.
“We’re in luck,” said Harry. “He’s not sporting his oak.”
“What does that mean?”
“These are double doors. If the outer door is closed, that’s called sporting the oak and it means you’re either out or do not want visitors.”
Harry knocked and a faint voice called, “Enter.”
Harry held open the door for Rose and followed her in. Jeremy was dressed in gown and mortar board.
“What do you want?” he demanded harshly. “I was just going out.”
“You visited a certain Reg Bolton in Wormwood Scrubs on several occasions just before his release. He is the man who tried twice to kill Lady Rose.”
“I visited him along with other prisoners. I was doing my duty, bringing Christian hope to the suffering.”
“Nobody seems to think of bringing Christian hope to the victims,” said Rose.
“Don’t you think it odd,” pursued Harry, “that after your sister is murdered, a hired assassin called Reg Bolton tries to kill Lady Rose, a man you visited?”
Jeremy’s face was wax-pale and his eyes burned with fury. “Get out of here,” he shouted. “How dare you? You are accusing me of killing my own sister.”
“You haven’t heard the end of this,” said Harry. “I am sure the police will want to interview you. Come, Rose.”
“Well, I didn’t expect to get a confession out of him,” said Rose as they walked together across the quadrangle.
“No, the purpose was to rattle him and see if he betrays himself in any way.”
Daisy and Becket sat in the front seat in sulky silence. Becket had sprung the idea on Daisy that maybe they could one day save enough to buy a little pub in the country. Daisy could work behind the bar. Daisy had said furiously that she was not going to sink to be a barmaid. Becket had called her a snob and said she had acquired ideas above her station.
Becket was driving, so Rose and Harry climbed into the back.
They went to the Randolph Hotel for luncheon. Daisy and Becket sat at a separate table, staring angrily at each other in dead silence.
“I think,” said Harry, “that I should go to Scotland Yard on our return and tell Kerridge about these visits.”
“Good idea. I shall come with you.”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Why?”
“It’s a man’s world. There are people at Scotland Yard who view my visits with disfavour. They feel Kerridge should not be wasting time with amateurs. The presence of even a beautiful lady like yourself diminishes me.”
“That’s not fair!”
“As I have just pointed out to you, it’s man’s world.”
Now Rose was, like her companion, too furious to speak. Harry tried several times to talk about various things, but she sat glaring at him and refused to utter a word.
It was a carload of silent and sulky people who returned to London.
Harry went straight to Scotland Yard. Kerridge was out on a case, so he waited patiently while the mist thickened on the river Thames outside the window.
At last Kerridge returned and listened in surprise to Harry’s story about Jeremy’s prison visits.
“I’ll pull him in for questioning.”
“It won’t do any good at the moment. All he has to do is look outraged. No one else is going to believe he had a hand in his sister’s murder. I’d like to examine that house they rented for the Season.”
“What do you expect to find? It’ll have been scrubbed from top to bottom.”
“There might just be something.”
“All right. I’ll come along with you.”
“Are you sure the servants that were there at the time didn’t hear or see anything?”