Page 100 of Lady Gambit
She had no memory of the event, only a list of facts she’d been conditioned to repeat when necessary. “I remember everything,” she lied. “If you kill me, your sister will be arrested.”
Mr Bertram dragged his hand down his face.
His breath turned raspy.
But a sudden knock on the door made him firm his grip on his weapon. “Ask who it is,” he whispered through gritted teeth.
“Who is it?” she called.
“I’ve brought the extra blanket you wanted,” came a woman’s apologetic voice. “I’d have come sooner, but I’ve only just been told.”
“Leave it outside,” she said, per Mr Bertram’s mouthed instructions. She didn’t recall asking for a blanket, but perhaps Dorian knew Mr Bertram was lurking in her room.
“I ain’t leaving it out here for some bugger to steal.” The woman persisted in knocking again. “How long does it take to open the door?”
Mr Bertram moved to the window and peered around the shabby curtain. Whatever he saw must have instilled confidence in him because he gestured for her to open the door.
Say nothing, he mouthed.Or I’ll shoot you where you stand.
Delphine nodded. This was her one chance to escape.
Mr Bertram cocked the hammer and aimed the pistol at her head. “I’m an excellent shot,” he muttered.
Shaking to the tips of her toes, she opened the door ajar and glanced at the woman standing on the dim landing. “I’ll take the blanket.”
“I have to place it on the bed. Some buggers ask for extra bedding and filch it away with their luggage.” There was something familiar about the large eyes peering out from beneath the white cap. “I’ll only be a minute, ducky.”
“I’m afraid I can’t let you in,” she said, though mouthed,Help!
“I’ll be in the workhouse if I can’t keep this job. Move aside.”
When the woman pushed open the door, Delphine realised it was Mrs Haggert. She knew by the woman’s determined chin and the slight limp as she dragged her left leg.
Mr Bertram hid the pistol behind his back. “Be quick, woman.”
Mrs Haggert winked at him. “I understand, sir. Happen you want the lady all to yourself. I’ll just sort out the blanket and be on my way.”
While Delphine held her breath, and Mr Bertram stood with murderous intent in his evil eyes, Mrs Haggert hummed a little ditty before shaking out the blanket.
Of course, she stumbled a little during the action and whipped Mr Bertram in the eye with one rough corner.
“Stupid witch!”
Mrs Haggert hurried over but offered no words to atone for her mistake. She pulled a blade from her pocket and drove it deep into Mr Bertram’s chest.
“That’s for Sofia,” she snarled as the pistol fell from Mr Bertram’s hand and the chill of death chased over his face. She twisted the knife, ignoring the man’s shrill scream. “And that’s for trying to hurt Caterina.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dorian sat at a table in the Belle Sauvage’s sombre taproom, answering the magistrate’s questions. All guests were confined to their rooms while the coroner examined Bertram’s body and his men sketched the wound that had finished the devil off for good.
Mrs Haggert had been taken to Bow Street.
Lord Meldrum bumbled his way through his interview. The fool admitted to freeing Nora and giving her a pistol. He shocked them by revealing Bertie had hired the thugs to kidnap Delphine. “Bertie never meant for them to shoot Theodore Chance. It was supposed to be a way of helping to clear my debts.”
Judging by the thunderous look on Aaron’s face, it was a good job Bertram was dead. Meldrum would need to flee the country or Aaron would hunt him down and make him pay.
“Do you understand how incredulous the tale sounds?” Sir Malcolm Langley asked Dorian while the constable beside him took notes.
