Page 18 of Beyond the Grave
Gus snickered.
"I wondered how she met someone of Harcourt's standing, and long suspected it was under circumstances that some would frown upon," Lincoln went on. "I didn't know it was at The Alhambra until you found those references."
"If you already knew, and you weren't prepared to take the matter further, why allow me to investigate?"
His gaze slipped away. "You would have gone anyway. I thought it best to get it out of your system."
"Get what out of my system?"
Several seconds passed before he answered. "You can see now that Lady Harcourt has had a difficult past. Sometimes she acts in a particular way to preserve herself because she's afraid of losing what she's gained."
I blinked at him. "Are you saying you want me to be friends with her? After she threw me to the wolves?"
"I am not a wolf."
"Then stop growling like one."
Gus and Seth exchanged glances, clearly lost by our conversation. They didn't know Lady Harcourt had used me to betray Lincoln's trust and then scarpered so that I would take the blame. Lincoln did, however, yet he wanted me to sympathize with her and excuse her behavior.
I would not. It was unthinkable, and it hurt that he expected it. It hurt even more that he still held her in high regard.
"So the matter will be forgotten," I said. "I think that's a mistake."
He shook his head, but it was Seth who spoke. "One does not ask a lady about her past, Charlie, particularly in matters of the heart."
"She wasn't a lady then."
Gus grunted a laugh. "And I'd wager the heart had nothin' to do with it."
"All the more reason to let sleeping dogs lie," Seth said. "That's the etiquette when a gentleman discovers these things."
"I doubt other ladies would be so blind," I said.
"They would savage her," he agreed. "I can't have that on my conscience. I suggest that this goes no further than the four of us." He arched his brows at Lincoln.
Lincoln nodded. "It has nothing to do with our search for Buchanan, so I will not mention it in her company or elsewhere. Nor will any of you." He glared at Gus and Gus swallowed heavily and nodded. Then he looked to me.
"You may be wrong," I said, trying to keep the smugness out of my voice. "Thereisa connection with this piece of information and Andrew Buchanan, as it happens."
All three men gave me their full attention.
"Buchanan used to frequent The Alhambra too. He fell in love with the dancer known as Miss D.D.—Julia Templeton—but was quickly set aside when a more eligible gentleman took an interest in her—his own father. Such rejection from a mere dancer would have angered him. Couple that with jealousy, and then to have the same woman become his stepmother! Can you imagine it?"
Gus was the first to recover his voice. "Blimey," he muttered. "That's a kick in the bollocks that he'd feel for years."
"Precisely. Perhaps Buchanan had finally had enough of seeing her every day and decided to walk away from his life, and her, forever."
Seth stroked his chin and pulled a face as he thought. "It doesn't sound like something he would do. Why now? Why not when they married?"
I shrugged. "He had no money and needed the financial support of his father, and now his stepmother perhaps."
"But nothing has changed. He still has no money. The long list of creditors proves that. Fitzroy?"
"It's an interesting fact, but irrelevant."
As much as I was in the mood for an argument with him, I couldn't do it over this point. He was right. If there was a connection linking this piece of information with Buchanan's disappearance, there was no evidence of it. Yet. Hopefully I would uncover it some other way, as questioning Lady Harcourt was out. I wouldn't go against Lincoln's wishes.
Seth shook his head over and over. "Imagine being usurped in your lover's bed by your own father. Not that I've ever fallen madly in love, but it would gall me to have found my father's fat arse in the bed of one of my conquests."
