Page 58 of The Last Chance
Venus panicked and said in a soft Italian accent, “Forgive me. I meant no disrespect, but I know nothing of your rules. I am new here.”
“New?” Mrs Flavell cried. “And I live under a toadstool.”
As always, Joanna brought calm to a tense situation. “There’s nothing to fear. We simply ask that you remove your mask and explain why you’re wandering around the garden.”
Aaron studied the timid woman. He’d expected an impudent creature, overtly sexual in manner. A woman who could persuade a man to choose the watch he didn’t want and force another to play the cruel tormentor.
“Remove your mask, Lucia,” he said, raising his to reveal his face.
“M-Mr Chance?” With shaky hands, the maid did as she was told. Her doe eyes stared with childlike innocence. “What are you doing here?”
“We’re looking for a pretty young foreign woman dressed as Venus,” Joanna snapped, tearing her mask off, too. “Someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to you. And to think I vouched for you. Does Miss Stowe know of your secret identity?”
Tears filled Lucia’s eyes. “Please, you mustn’t tell her.”
Despite Aaron’s earlier misgivings, instinct said Lucia wasn’t Venus. “Tell us why you’re here, or we must place you under arrest.”
“While you’re at it, charge her with theft and trespassing,” Mrs Flavell blurted. “I want my husband’s dagger back, gal. No one steals from me.”
Lucia looked to be drowning in a sea of confusion.
“Why are you here?” Joanna pressed.
“I—I was paid to come and walk in the garden.”
“Paid?” Mrs Flavell said. “By whom?”
Lucia’s tiny shoulders rose and fell. “I do not know. A letter came. The sender offered to pay me a hundred pounds if I wore this costume and made sure I was seen in the garden. The person arranged for a hackney cab to collect me from the bottom of the street. The driver paid me and brought me here.” She gestured to the mews beyond the garden gate.
Aaron wasn’t sure why, but the far-fetched story rang true.
“Is he coming back for you?” Aaron said, hoping to throttle the truth from the jarvey.
“No. I must make my own way home. I can leave at the stroke of midnight. I only pray Miss Stowe does not notice I am missing.”
Mrs Flavell’s eyes shone with suspicion. “Liar! I locked the gate and took the key. How did you get in?”
Lucia opened her clasped hand to reveal an iron key. “The driver gave it to me when he brought me to the mews.”
“This is all very convenient.” Mrs Flavell grabbed Lucia’sarm. “I want to question you myself. I want to know what else you’ve stolen from me.”
“But I have never been here before tonight.”
Daventry suddenly appeared and made his own demands. “As she’s a suspect in a criminal case, she’s coming with me.” He faced Mrs Flavell. “Don’t argue, or I might be forced to mention your illegal shipment of raw opium to the Home Secretary.”
Mrs Flavell paled, the fight leaving her in an instant. “Then get her out of here. If she is Venus, I want my husband’s dagger and anything else she stole.”
Aaron turned to Daventry. “Mr Flavell won the dagger in a bet.”
“From whom?”
Mrs Flavell shocked everyone when she pointed at Aaron. “From his rotten father. That dagger belonged to Ignatius Chance.”
Chapter Twelve
It was fifteen minutes past curfew when Joanna entered the hall of Fortune’s Den with Mr Chance. Amid the stillness, they both sighed, glad the constable wasn’t waiting to cart them away in his prison wagon. Relieved the night was at an end, and there might be some respite from the confounding feelings plaguing them both.
There would be no respite for her.
