Page 82 of A Fearless Heart
“Gabe! Are you sure you wouldn’t like a membership? You do seem a frequent guest.”
He refused to match Trevor’s cheerful tone. “I’ve got a few more questions. Do you happen to know a Lyndon Huxley?”
“Hux?” Trevor smiled. “Of course I know him! He’s a member here.”
“Was he,” Gabe said softly. That was interesting. Was blackmail an element of the murderer’s plans? Was Huxley perhaps killed if he refused to pay it? Gabe shook his head. There was no evidence of blackmail in the other deaths, so he shouldn’t look for it in Huxley’s.
“Why are you asking?” Trevor prompted when Gabe didn’t speak for a moment.
“He’s dead.”
“No.” Trevor shook his head emphatically. “Absolutely not. You’re thinking of another man who must have the same name. The Huxley I know is young.”
“The Huxley who just died is young. His home was in Jermyn Street.”
“That’s him!” Trevor said, his forehead wrinkling in distress. “I don’t understand. Just last week I saw him ride a horse and shoot at a target and then drink everyone else under the table, and he woke up the next day fresh as a daisy! How could such a man justdie?”
Gabe said nothing, but Trevor must have caught something in his face, because he said, “What is it? What don’t I know?”
“He was poisoned…with clephobine.”
Trevor’s face blanched, and his eyes got a glazed look. “Oh, God,” he whispered. “Poor Hux…oh,God, why?”
“I’m sorry you have to hear this,” Gabe said gently.
“Why is that stuff still around?” Trevor demanded. “I got rid of it, and yet it’s still killing people. How is that possible?”
“That’s what I want to find out. There must be another supply out there.”
“Whatever you’re doing, Gabe, I want to help.” Trevor still looked upset and pale, but he stood resolute. “Hux was a good man. I’m not just saying that because he was a friend. He was one of those people you just…knew you could trust. And he did not deserve to die like that. I want his killer to be caught.”
Gabe nodded. “Then it’s important that we learn everything we can about Huxley’s last few days. Where he went, who he was with, everything you can remember.”
Trevor nodded. “I can do that. And I’ll get a few others to speak to you as well. I’ll send word as soon as I’ve found anything.”
Chapter 29
While Gabe was tracking downclues to the killer, Cady was forced to deal with a different challenge. Since it seemed to be expected that young, unmarried ladies went to Almack’s to be approved by the patronesses, Cady went. She hadn’t suffered an attack since that first night, and she told herself that nothing at Almack’s was likely to trigger one. Cady feared spiders, rats, disease, and darkness—none of which was to be found there.
She wore one of her new gowns, one in a deep green silk that was dark enough for half-mourning, but blessedly not black or gray. She did wear the jet jewelry, and her headdress incorporated dyed black feathers. Bond had done up her hair in a very elegant chignon, and judiciously addedjusta touch of rouge to combat Cady’s pallor.
“No one will know,” Bond promised. “It looks like you’ve just got a bit of healthy glow.”
At Almack’s, she waited with a bevy of other women, mostly young ladies in their coming out season, with their mothers hovering close by. Cady felt quite old, even though she was probably only two or three years beyond them. And of course, she had no older woman to shepherd her, only the maid Judith, who acted as a sort of guard dog.
When it came time to step forward and present herself to the patronesses, Cady was grateful for the rouge. She felt deadly cold under their watchful gaze.
The man at the door announced, “Lady Arcadia Osbourne, daughter of the late Lord Calder.”
Cady walked forward, and gave a properly deep curtesy. But unlike every other girl there, she then took a silver tray from Judith, who had shadowed her, and stepped forward to the four women in turn, handing them a single stem from the orchids she’d procured. Each cream-colored flower was perfect and exquisite. No one else had these—some people here never would have seen them.
“What are these?” one patroness asked.
“Flowers,” Cady replied.
“Well, I can see that.”
“Specifically, they are the blossoms of an orchid that grows only on mountain slopes above the clouds in the Hengduan Range. I have always thought them especially gracious in their form and fragrance.”
