Page 93 of Lady Gambit
“How long have you been friends?” She supposed it must be almost a decade if they met on Lord Meldrum’s Grand Tour.
“Nine years.” He frowned, clearly wondering why it was relevant. “We met in Geneva and again in Turin. I remember remarking it was strange, not strange we visited the same destinations, but that we’d chosen the same hotels. We exchanged letters while he travelled the Continent, but he returned to London when my father died.”
“That was three years ago,” Mr Daventry said from a shadowed corner of the room. “I presume he didn’t remain in town.”
“No, Bertie rarely stays in one place for long.” Tired of answering what he surely perceived were pointless questions, he said, “What has my friendship with Bertie got to do with anything? You said there’s evidence to suggest I’m guilty of a crime.”
“Nora Adkins came here last night.” Dorian folded his arms across his chest. “She said you released her from Bethlem, that you gave her the pistol she used to threaten Miss Chance. According to the records, you’ve visited Nora’s cell frequently the last few weeks.”
“That makes you an accessory to attempted murder,” Daventry added. “Worse still, Nora was part of an assassination plot, so I suppose we could charge you with a crime against the Crown.”
Lord Meldrum shot off the chair. “No!”
Fearing what he would do, Dorian grabbed the lord by his cravat. “I suggest you start talking. Even a peer can hang for treason.”
“Wait! Wait!” Lord Meldrum raised his hands, his breath coming in shallow pants. “There’s been a misunderstanding. Allow me to explain.”
Dorian threw the devil back in the seat. “Did you conspire with Powell to free Nora from Bethlem?”
“Yes, but the woman is mad.” He scrubbed his face with his hand. “I presumed she’d be dead within a day, and then I’d be free from the blackmailer. Bertie said I needed to deal with the matter swiftly, and Powell feared the board would learn he’d been taking bribes.”
“So you gave her a weapon?” Aaron said incredulously.
“It was Bertie’s idea. He said she would most likely shoot herself, or she’d wave it about in the street and come a cropper.”
One look at this pathetic fool made Delphine glad her brothers were rogues. She looked at Dorian, butterflies fluttering in her belly. There was something attractive about a man who knew his own mind.
“Do you do everything Mr Bertram says?”
“I trust his advice.”
“Did he ever go with you to Bethlem?” she said.
He hesitated before saying, “Twice. We let him talk to Nora, hoping she’d tell him why someone wanted her kept locked away.”
“His name isn’t in the visitors’ book,” Dorian snapped.
“He used an alias.”
For long, drawn-out seconds, no one spoke.
One could almost hear the cogs turning in everyone’s mind.
Something Lord Meldrum said earlier roused her interest. “You said Mr Powell has been taking bribes. What did you mean?”
The lord shrugged. “Powell said the blackmailer contacted him directly. He threatened to report him to the board if he didn’t keep Nora’s incarceration a secret. Powell was to inform him if she had any visitors or mentioned any names.”
After confessing all today, Mrs Haggert would have told them if she had written to Mr Powell.
“Did you ever check the letters Mr Powell received against the letters from the blackmailer?”
The lord shook his head. “Why would I? No one else knew I was being blackmailed. It’s obviously the same person.”
For a man of thirty, Lord Meldrum was stupid and naive.
Could he not see that Bertie had been using him?
“What else did Bertie tell you to do?” she said before raising a hand to stall him. “Let me guess. He advised you to elope with me. He urged you to write to my brother.”
