Page 86 of Lady Gambit
Dorian inwardly cursed.
So much for following the plan.
Mrs Haggert’s hooded eyes darkened. “I did what was best, all things considered. Yes, you’ve a right to be angry, but you got the better end of the bargain. You got to keep the jewel in the crown.”
“You wanted me dead.”
“That ain’t true.” Mrs Haggert raised her hands in silent apology. “I needed you alive. I didn’t know the fool would pull a knife. I didn’t know he’d be a sore loser and take his shame out on you. You were too clever for your own good back then. I never expected you to grace my door, wanting to know where she came from.”
“Wait,” Dorian interrupted, before Aaron released a tirade of abuse and had them all thrown out. He shot Aaron an irate glare. “We’re racing ahead of ourselves. We’re here because?—”
“Nora Adkins escaped Bethlem and tried to shoot Caterina last night.” Mrs Haggert’s thin lips curled in amusement, though the memory chilled Dorian’s blood. “It pays to havefriendsat Bow Street, Mr Flynn.”
He was impressed, though not surprised. Only a handful of men were on the take, but greed was an incurable disease and often contagious. “How do you know Nora Adkins?”
“I don’t.” Mrs Haggert lowered herself into the chair. “I’ve never spoken to her myself.”
“How do you know Tobias Trigg?”
Silence ensued.
“I went to see a mesmerist,” Delphine confessed. “He helped me access lost memories. Monsieur Chabert said I may need more sessions to unlock all the secrets of the past, but I remembered seeing you in Green Park.”
The news had Mrs Haggert trembling. She covered her mouth with her hand, taking a moment to regain her composure. “Trust me. Those memories are best left buried. No good will come from resurrecting the dead. It’s a mistake, Caterina.”
Delphine remained resolute in her quest for answers. “We have every reason to believe you’re to blame for what happened to my parents. That you stole me away and murdered them in cold blood.”
Although Delphine had sobbed this morning when Dorian held her close and explained how her parents had died, she did not shed a tear now.
“Then the devil has done a good job of making you believe his lies. Search your heart, Caterina. You know I ain’t to blame. If you could remember the time you spent here, you’d know I ain’t never hurt you.”
Instinct said there was truth to those words, but Dorian was quick to prove her wrong. “Nora said she found Caterina picking pockets on West Street.”
“That’s a lie. Nora saw Tobias on West Street. She recognised him because he refused to get rid of that ruby stick. She never found us. He died keeping our secret.”
“What secret?” Delphine darted from the chair and fell to her knees at Mrs Haggert’s feet. “Be honest with me. Please. I deserve to know the truth, however ugly it may be. I need justice, justice for my parents.” She reached for Mrs Haggert’s gnarled hand and gripped it tightly. “Something tells me I can trust you. Don’t forsake me now.”
The woman’s rheumy eyes settled on Delphine. She surprised everyone by saying, “I’d have kept you if it weren’tfor Nora Adkins. I’d have raised you as my own daughter, said goodbye to this life and bought us a cottage on the coast somewhere.”
Delphine looked more confused than ever.
“You need to tell me everything,” she begged.
The weight of the past had Mrs Haggert slumping in the chair. “I’ve kept the secrets for so long, I ain’t got a clue where to start.”
Dorian helped matters by relaying the facts.
“Monsieur Chabert believes someone tampered with Miss Chance’s mind when she was a child. That man was Tobias Trigg. He was there the night you took Miss Chance from Green Park. He left Nora bound and gagged in a warehouse not far from here. The timing suggests he was murdered sometime after that.”
“He was murdered the same night,” the woman barked. “They never caught the devil, but Nora had been blabbing to someone.” Mrs Haggert dabbed a tear from her eye. “It’s why I had to let Caterina go. It’s why I had the name Delphine sewn into her dress and arranged for Aaron Chance to find her.”
Aaron shot to his feet. “She’s lying. It was a chance meeting. We’ve always joked about it because of our surname. She’s inventing a story to suit her purpose.”
Mrs Haggert laughed. “It weren’t no chance meeting. You went to look at lodgings on Phoenix Street. That’s where you found each other.”
Delphine looked at Aaron, her eyes wide. “I remember now. I was told to wait in Phoenix Street, to sleep in the baker’s shop doorway.”
“Course, I couldn’t have you living so close to the hen house,” Mrs Haggert continued. “So I arranged for you to fight Maguire. I made a sizeable donation to the purse. That’s how you couldafford the room above Mrs Maloney’s bookshop. I knew she’d take one look at you all and gather you under her wing.”
