Page 37 of The Devil in Oxford
“Miss Vaughn!” She wore the charming violet-and-black-striped uniform of the Artemis Club. Her expression faltered as she took in my disheveled appearance, but she recovered admirably. “Miss Abernathy is already in the tearoom. She said you would be coming. I put her in the usual spot. Shall I have the morning paper sent in?”
I started to shake my head but thought better of it. Considering the violence last night at the University, perhaps it would be good to see what had truly occurred. Ruan’s account was tinged with an uncomfortable bitterness, and it was best to take in other sources to get a sense of things. “Yes. Please do.”
“Of course, miss.”
My shoes were silent on the plush carpet as I hurried down the corridor lined with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the gymnasium on the left and the walled garden on my right.
At least she’d decided to meet me—it was a start.
The tearoom was little more than an old solarium turned into a dining space. The walls and ceilings were made from great rectangular panes of glass with potted ferns and vining plants dripping from their great hanging pots. Blooming orchids, lush peonies, and scented climbing roses warred with the vines for sunlight. All carefully tended and cultivated. I adored it here—and breakfast in the tearoom was the other reason I came here most days since I’d been in Oxford.
Leona sat at our usual table alongside the raised fishpond full of turtles and koi, quietly stirring her cup of tea. “I do not like being threatened.”
I wrapped my fingers around the back of the chair across from her. “And I don’t like being lied to. We’re evenly matched.”
Leona took a pointed sip of her tea, her eyes downcast. “It was for your own good.”
Half irritated, half relieved that she didn’t deny her subterfuge,I sank into the violet velvet cushioned chair across from her. “What is or isn’t good for me is mine to decide”—I pointed to my chest—“not yours. Who was that man at your house yesterday, and why were you not at the museum?”
“I cannot say.”
My pulse thrummed in my temple. “Cannot or will not?”
She sighed. “Ruby, there are things happening in Oxford right now that are dangerous for you to know about. Trust me when I say that, if this was pertinent, I would share it with you. But that person yesterday—he has no bearing on Mr. Mueller’s arrest, or Julius Harker’s death.”
A young server came, laid out a fresh place setting before me alongside the morning paper, and poured me a cup of white tea. I held my tongue until she was out of earshot again and dropped two cubes of sugar into the cup, stirring it slowly. “How can you be certain it has no bearing?”
She wet her lips, gaze drifting to the fishpond beside me, and shook her head. “I just am. What did you come to talk to me about yesterday? Did you learn something to help clear Mr. Mueller’s name?”
I stared at Leona, not at all recognizing my old friend. Oh, physically she was exactly as she’d always been. But there was a newfound wariness lurking behind her eyes—a shrewdness that I’d not noticed before. “Nothing at all. Tell me, Leona. What was Julius Harker working on before he died? I’ve come to understand that you were close to him.”
She sniffed, as irritated with me as I with her. “It wasn’t like that with him—”
I took a sip of the rapidly cooling tea, keeping my voice carefully low. “Then how was it? What am I to think when you are hiding information frommeand all the while you are also hiding your relationship with that man from Professor Reaver? The two of them hated one another—”
“That’s not true!” she snapped. “Spit it out, Ruby. I can see you are frustrated with me, and I don’t blame you for it, but there are some things you cannot know. For your own safety.”
Frustrated was an understatement, and yet my stubborn heart refused to abandon her in this endeavor. She had been my friend—and even if she was making it terribly difficult to trust her, I could not leave her alone to save poor Mr. Mueller. I struggled to keep my voice down. “Then tell me what you can. What was Julius Harker involved in? Mr. Mueller wondered if he might have had business dealings with his killer. He seemed to think that Harker was soon to come into a great deal of money. Enough to end their troubles forever. Mueller believed that Harker meant to sell something. Do you have any idea what it could be?”
A flurry of emotion crossed Leona’s face before a sickening realization settled upon her. “Oh no…” Her bare fingers went to her lips in disbelief. “No… surely he wouldn’t have done something reckless…”
I reached across the table and touched her forearm. “What has Harker done? What do you suspect?”
“I don’t know… not for certain. But I do wonder…”
Her hand fell limp to the table. I took it in my own, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
Leona pressed her lips into a thin line, glancing around the empty breakfast room. “There are some very powerful people in Oxfordshire. Ones that Julius had crossed in the past…” She wet her lips again, looking back over her shoulder before turning her attention to me. “They’ve been involved in… less than legal ventures…”
I furrowed my brow, not quite comprehending. “Less than legal…”
“Drugs, Ruby. I’m speaking of drugs. Cocaine. Heroin. Hashish.” The impatience in her voice paled in comparison to the prick of fear rising at the back of my neck. She squeezed my fingers tight.“Julius had threatened to intercept a shipment of cocaine from one of these people. I frankly thought him mad for even considering it and told him the same. How could he do something so… utterly foolish, and for what end? It would risk everything he’d worked so hard to rebuild. I told him I wanted no part in that, and he assured me he would not, that it had been a foolish idea spoken of in the heat of the moment—”
“And now you think he might have done it after all…” My mind raced back to the urns of powder in the basement of Harker’s museum.
“I do. It’s the only thing that would give him that sort of money. Julius was in such terrible debt. It was only a matter of time before he lost the museum to his creditors. Can you speak with Mr. Mueller again—see if he has any idea if Julius actuallydidmanage to steal the shipment?”
“Do you knowwhoseshipment it was? Who it is he had in his sights?”
