Page 57 of The Last Chance
“Are all guests members?” Aaron said.
“Of course. I’ll not allow any riffraff in. Frivolity can be expensive. The fee is five hundred pounds per annum. Paid in advance.”
“Then Lord Howard and Mr Parker are members.”
Mrs Flavell gave a covert nod. “I would have to check my ledger. If you and yourfriendjoin the private party later, I’ll grant you access to the records.”
Aaron would rather carve the wordsBerridge’s Flunkeyon his forehead than watch other men seduce Joanna.
“Both men entertained the same woman,” he began, hoping the widow might answer one last question before he refused her offer. “She’s foreign, pretty, with ebony hair and came dressed as Venus. Is she a member?”
Mrs Flavell’s mouth curled into a coy grin. “Please my ladies tonight, and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
Women like Mrs Flavell always wanted payment for their favour.
“If you watched me kiss myfriend, you know why I must refuse. I’ll never kiss another woman as long as I live.” He arched a challenging brow. “There. You’ve heard the private thoughts of a man who always keeps them hidden. Surely that’s worth a simple answer to a simple question.”
But Mrs Flavell did not let it rest there. “Have you given her assurances for the future?”
Aaron glanced at Joanna. “No. Present problems force me to focus on the vow I made to my family. Someone threatens to destroy what I’ve built. I cannot fail those who need me most.”
“Sometimes a man must be selfish,” she said, sneering.
“My father had that attitude, and I despised him.”
Mrs Flavell’s gaze turned reflective. “Life often presents painful choices. We rarely know we’ve chosen incorrectly until it’s too late.” She sighed like the conversation bored her. “The woman you mentioned is an interloper. She crept in with a party of people, and I presumed she was their guest. She left with Lord Howard. He paid for her membership the following week. While Howard smoked in the den, she went outside and spent an hourwith Parker. The name she gave is false. No one has ever heard of her.”
Despite the wealth of information, they were still clueless.
“Have you seen her since?”
“Yes, tonight, while you were in the maze but she disappeared. How the devil she got into the house is anyone’s guess. She didn’t enter through the front door, and the gate to the mews is locked. I believe Mr Daventry is conducting a thorough search of the house.”
Aaron turned and scanned the shady depths of the garden. “Do we have your permission to inspect the mews and coach house?”
The woman gave a nonchalant wave. “Be my guest. All I ask is that you never return here again. You’ve worked my guests up into a lustful frenzy. I’ll have a devil of a job pleasing them all tonight.”
“I mean to avoid this place like the plague.”
“Good.” Mrs Flavell flounced away but came to an abrupt halt and paced back so quickly her wig wobbled. “Tell Daventry he’s wrong about the Mughal dagger. My husband didn’t purchase it at the auctioneers but won it in a bet twenty years ago. It went missing recently. The night Howard and Parker argued over Venus.”
Aaron’s heart skipped a beat. The evidence gave Parker a motive for murder and proved Parker or Venus might have stolen the weapon. He was about to demand Mrs Flavell give a statement, but her gaze moved past them, her eyes bulging from their sockets.
“Be gad! That woman has got the devil’s cheek.” She pointed to the raven-haired beauty strolling at the bottom of the garden, her mask firmly in place, her white gown billowing in the breeze like a ghostly shroud.
Joanna gasped. “It’s Venus.”
Venus hadn’t noticed them as she hugged the darkness anddisappeared behind the trunk of an oak tree. Was she meeting someone? Had she arranged an assignation? If Parker appeared, surely Daventry could arrest him.
Mrs Flavell was ready to march to the bottom of the garden, but Aaron urged her to wait. “We need to speak to Venus, not frighten her away.”
“It looks like she’s in a trance,” Joanna said when Venus reappeared and ambled aimlessly towards the maze. “Like she’s lost her way.”
Or flying high after a visit to the opium den, Aaron thought.
They moved towards the maze, trying to keep to the shadows. Venus gazed up at the house but peered right through them. Even when they came to a halt before her, she merely inclined her head and tried to move past them.
Mrs Flavell grabbed Venus’ wrist, startling the young woman. “What sort of game are you playing, gal? Who are you? Take off that mask. I’ll not stand for your flagrant disrespect for the rules.”
