Page 108 of The Hollow of Fear
Lady Ingram was headed directly for them. Lady Ingram, not a corpse, but a woman very much alive, if rather pale and tense, with an expression of distaste on her face.
Her antagonism is a broad and catholic entity, Charlotte Holmes had once said,aimed at no one in particular. Even so, Treadles wished he were out of its swath.
Too late. She came to a stop next to him. Remembering that they had been formally introduced by her husband, he scrambled to his feet.
“Lady Ingram, I am—I am overjoyed to see you in good health.”
She nodded regally. “Inspector.”
“May I present my colleague, Chief Inspector Fowler, the lead detective on your murder case.”
Fowler remained where he was, agape. Treadles had to give the man a nudge on the shoulder for him to come out of his chair. Even then he was capable of only a haphazard bow.
“Charmed, I’m sure,” said Lady Ingram coolly. “Lady Avery, Lady Somersby, we meet again.”
Lady Somersby’s recovery was quicker than Fowler’s. “Lady Ingram, we thought your husband had killed you.”
Lady Ingram rolled her eyes. “That man is so sanctimonious he probably wouldn’t even let himself think of such a thing. No, I had left him for another man. But the situation was... complicated, so I decided to take my twin sister’s place at a private asylum in Gloucestershire. She was removed from home at four and committed to an asylum eight years later.
“Moriarty, the man I left my husband for, had taken on the care of Miss Constantina Greville. But he chose to murder her to frame Lord Ingram, and that is something I cannot countenance.”
Lady Avery blinked. “You left Lord Ingram for amurderer?”
“It would appear that I did,” answered Lady Ingram, seemingly unmoved, but Treadles caught sight of her hand tightening into a fist. “Anyway, I thought the police should know. And as enjoyable as this meeting has been, I regret I cannot stay much longer. Now that I’ve exposed Moriarty, I myself am no longer safe.”
“Wait, we need to—” Fowler began.
Lady Ingram cut him off. “Ladies, by the way, this may not have been in the news but the police can confirm that my sister was with child. I understand you take an interest in exposing and righting injustices. In which case, allow me to point you in the direction of one Dr. Connelly at her former asylum. Good day.”
She turned and marched out.
Lord Ingram embracedhis children again and again.
He took them to the park, bought them boiled sweets, and had both tea and dinner in the nursery. They, of course, excitedly told him about seeing their mother earlier in the day, even as they were saddened that she had to leave again.
Remington had promised her that the Crown would no longer pursue her for her earlier collusion with Moriarty, which had led to the death of three agents, and see her safely out of the country, if, in exchange, she took responsibility for her sister’s death. She had asked to see her children in addition, and there had been a harried reunion before she set off for parts unknown.
But Remington had been surprised by the choice she’d made to point the finger at Moriarty. He was one of the true culprits, of course, and she had not been forbidden to mention his name. But still, by speaking the truth she had announced her break with Moriarty and put herself at risk.
We may not see her alive again, Remington had warned.
I hope you are wrong, he’d replied.
She was still the mother of his children and, for their sake, he wished her well.
“I will still be here,” he promised them. “Mamma will come when she can, but I will always be here.”
After they went to sleep, he would have liked to call on Holmes. But she was no longer in London: Mimi Duffin’s body had been found, and Holmes and Mrs. Farr had left for Derbyshire together.
So he made a less pleasant visit.
Bancroft had been put up in quarters much superior to Lord Ingram’s jail cell. But no one had brought him a basket from Harrod’s. And judging by the plate of half-eaten food he’d set aside, the cooking was not to his taste.
“In my shoes you would have done the same,” said Bancroft, without any preamble.
He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t have sold state secrets in the first place.
But that one sentence from Bancroft let him know that he would get nowhere with his brother, this stranger. So he asked only, “When you proposed to Charlotte Holmes this summer, after her exile, I’d thought you more enlightened than I’d given you credit for. But it was only so that you could get close to Mr. Finch through her, wasn’t it?”
