The Frost Fair

    'Thank you so much for agreeing to see me, Lady Holcroft,' he said. 'I know how embarrassing this must be for you but it could be such a help to my brother.'

    'How is Henry?'

    'As well as can be expected.'

    Christopher was conscious of being weighed up. He could see that it would be fruitless to tell her about the attempt on his brother's life or about the privations he was suffering. Lady Holcroft was patently uneasy about her connection with Henry and with Jeronimo Maldini. She wanted her stay at the house to be as brief and painless as possible. Though her face was pinched and her eyes filled with suspicion, she was still beautiful and Christopher was bound to wonder what had attracted her to his brother.

    'Miss Cheever assures me that you are very discreet,' she said.

    'I am, Lady Holcroft.'

    'There's no need to explain the delicacy of my position. I could see from your letter that you understood it very well. It's the only reason that brought me here.'

    'I see.'

    'I did know your brother,' she confessed. 'His work at the Navy Office brought him into contact with Sir Ralph and that was how we became acquainted. I allowed his admiration to me to develop to a degree that was perhaps unwise. But it went no further than that,' she said quietly, 'and I wish to make that clear. Whatever Henry has told you, we did not - and could not - ever go beyond the bounds of simple friendship even though that friendship gave me, at the time, much joy.'

    'It was so with my brother, Lady Holcroft.'

    'I did not mean to hurt his feelings, Mr Redmayne.'

    'He attaches no blame to you,' said Christopher. 'He looked elsewhere to do that.'

    "Then he was mistaken in doing so.'

    'Oh?'

    'Our friendship had rim its course,' she said with a faint hint of irritation. 'The pleasure was waning, the risks seemed too great to take any more. When I explained this to Henry, he accepted it like a gentleman. That should have been an end to it. But,' she continued, pursing her lips, 'someone else came along soon afterwards and, for a number of reasons, that person aroused my curiosity.'

    'May I ask how you met him, Lady Holcroft?'

    'He was at Court one afternoon. His brother was one of the musicians there and he had been invited along to hear him. We met by chance,' she said, looking away, 'and that's all I'm prepared to tell you about it. Henry, I know, took a different view of it all.'

    'He felt that he had been dispossessed.'

    She flashed her eyes at him. 'He never possessed me, Mr Redmayne,' she said with controlled anger. 'He had no claim whatsoever upon me. I told him that a dozen times. He was nursing an illusion.'

    'Henry is rather prone to do that,' admitted Christopher. 'But illusions can exert a tremendous power. In my brother's case, it provoked an extreme hatred. Not of you, Lady Holcroft - that would be unthinkable - but of the other person we are talking about.'

    'Go on.'

    'It made the two of them sworn enemies. They were rivals for your affection.'

    'No!' she said sharply. 'What kind of person do you take me to be? I do not play one man off against another like that. Henry was never more than a friend and he ceased to be that. It was weeks before…' She broke off and took a deep breath. "This is very painful for me, Mr Redmayne. I hoped that these chapters in my life were closed. I'm afraid there's little I can add that may be of help to you.'

    'Answer me this,' he said. 'Do you believe that my brother is guilty of murder?'

    'I'd not be here if I believed that.'

    "Thank you, Lady Holcroft. That means so much to me.'

    'Henry would never hurt me deliberately,' she said, 'and I was deeply upset by that particular death. Even though my friendship with that gentleman had come to an end, I was stricken by the news. And I was even more distressed when your brother was arrested for the crime. He'd not do such a thing to me.' She lifted her chin with patrician pride. 'He'd not dare!'

    Christopher began rearranging questions in his mind. Lady Holcroft was not at all the helpless victim of an Italian lover that he had been led to expect. Nor did she requite his brother's love in the manner that Henry had implied. There was a hard edge to her. She would divulge nothing that would be of use to him unless she was sure that it did not compromise her. Yet he saw a potential weakness. She had something of a temper. If he could play on that, he might find out what he wanted to know.

    'Henry could not bear the way that his rival treated you, Lady Holcroft.'

    'They were not rivals,' she retorted. 'Not in the sense that you mean.'

    "They were, in Henry's imagination.'

    "That was always far too lively, Mr Redmayne. It was one of the things that persuaded me that our friendship had to end. Your brother, alas, began to make certain assumptions.'

    'About what?'

    She was curt. 'That's a private matter and, in any case, no longer relevant.'

    'It is to Henry. He still reveres you.'

    'I've not encouraged him to do that.'

    'But it explains why he was deeply upset when you were cast aside.'

    'I beg your pardon!' she said with indignation.

    'Henry claimed that the other gentleman took advantage of you.'

    'He did nothing of the kind, sir.' Cheeks blushing, she jumped to her feet. 'I regard that as a cruel insult.'

    'It was not intended to be, Lady Holcroft.'

    'Neither you nor your brother know anything about that particular friendship.'

    'But the gentleman did bring that friendship to a sudden end, did he not?'

    'No, Mr Redmayne,' she snapped, wrestling to contain her fury. 'I did that. No man would ever cast me aside. I dispense with them.' She moved to the door. 'Good day to you, sir. I can see that I made a grave error in coming here.'

    "The error was entirely of my brother's making,' he said, rushing to intercept her. 'Henry is the victim of a misunderstanding. He felt sorry for you because he thought that you were abandoned when the other gentleman tired of you.'

    'It was I who tired of him and his infernal questions.'

    'Questions?'

    'You are standing in my way, Mr Redmayne.'

    'What sort of questions did he ask?'

    "The wrong ones, sir,' she said coldly. 'And you have done the same.'

    Christopher stood aside. 'Thank you for coming, Lady Holcroft. I appreciate it.'

    Without a word, she swept past him into the hall and out through the front door. A moment later, he heard the coach pulling away from the house. Susan came into the parlour with a look of consternation.

    'Lady Holcroft has just left without me,' she said.

    'That was my fault,' admitted Christopher. He gave her a warm smile. 'I suppose that I'll have to take responsibility for getting you back to your friends.'

    Susan relaxed visibly. 'There's no hurry,' she said.

      A cold night in Newgate had left its imprint on Pietro Maldini. On the advice of Jonathan Bale, the Italian had been locked in a cell with fifteen other prisoners, sharing their stink, deafened by their noise and recoiling from their abuse. They mocked his accent, they reviled his nation and more than one of them felt obliged to punch or jostle him. He was already in pain. The blood had been cleansed from his face but nothing could be done about the broken nose and it throbbed unmercifully. After a sleepless night, Maldini was hollow- eyed and frightened. The fierce rage that had brought him to Newgate in the first place had been drained out of him.