Page 27 of With Good Grace
‘Clearly, but I cannot begin to imagine what it might be.’ She sent Jake a sultry smile that played havoc with his recently regained composure. ‘The boxes,’ she said with a resigned shrug. ‘Idosee their significance now, I suppose.’
‘With regard to Sir Hubert, I shall go to the Garrick Club this morning and make enquiries myself about the mysterious A.C. You are welcome to accompany me. I also plan to visit Barber.’
‘Why?’
‘I am curious to know why all of your husband’s clients stayed with him. Some of them are very well known and highly regarded. Barber has connections, but from what Parker has been able to ascertain, they are not nearly as good as some of his competitors. The Music Hall has made theatre accessible for all classes of society and treading the boards is no longer considered to be a disreputable profession; quite the reverse in fact, hence the spawning of so many more agents over the past few years. I will say one thing for your husband: he saw which way the wind blew early on and was not afraid to take risks.’
‘You think whatever was the cause of Marcus’s death also persuaded his clients to remain true to his agency?’
Jake nodded. ‘Which implies that Barber inherited that toxic something. Hence, the break-in orchestrated perhaps by one of the actors tired of being restricted to a small agency.’
Olivia gasped. ‘You think Marcus blackmailed his clients into remaining with him?’
‘Do you think him capable of doing so?’
‘There is little I would not think him capable of,’ Olivia replied slowly. ‘Even so, I hope you are not right. If you are, I must live with the knowledge that the father of my child was a blackmailer.’
‘I should not have mentioned it.’ Jake scowled. ‘Forgive me. I can see that the possibility upsets you. Of course it does.’
‘Hubert worked with Marcus,’ Olivia replied, waving Jake’s apology aside. ‘If there was blackmail involved, he probably knew about it and had ample opportunity to take the offending material and use it for his own purposes.’
‘But we know he did not do so; otherwise he wouldn’t be in sure dire financial straits.’
‘Indeed, and since, for once, you have deigned to share your thoughts with me, I shall be happy to remain here and go through the boxes whilst you go off and ask your questions.’
‘Thank you.’ Jake inclined his head, doing his best not to smile because he had found a way to make her do as he asked. ‘Concentrate on any files he has for his leading ladies and gentlemen. Specifically Verity Aspin, Michael Danton and Cecelia Fortescue.’
‘I don’t think I will find anything, Jake.’ Olivia shook her curls to reinforce her point. ‘Hubert took over the house in Belgravia whilst I was incarcerated, probably assuming he would be able to reside there in his guise as Tom’s guardian when I was hanged for a crime I did not commit.’ She looked angry and upset. ‘Anyway, as I said before, he had access to all of Marcus’s things. I am perfectly sure he helped himself to a lot of valuable trinkets that I have not been able to find since my release.’
‘And yet he did not find what he was looking for. If he did, it follows it is not him who has been looking for it now. And if he does have it, he has not used it to his advantage. I find that hard to believe because we know just how hard pressed he is.’
‘Perhaps he has been abducted because whoever is looking for this mythical evidence thinks he knows where it is, or can gain access to it.’ She paled. ‘Through me.’
Jake nodded, his expression grim. ‘Precisely.’
If he expected Olivia to wilt at this discovery, he was to be disappointed. Instead, she considered the matter for a moment and then brightened considerably.
‘You are quite wrong, Jake. Goodness alone knows, I have no love for Hubert or Margaret. They thought Marcus becoming a theatrical agent would undermine the Grantley name and the family’s standing in the eyes of the aristocracy. They really are the most frightful snobs and care only about society’s opinion of them.’ Olivia made it clear what she thought of that attitude by wrinkling her pert little nose. ‘They applied to me, hoping that I would support them and try and persuade Marcus to have a change of heart. I declined, aware that he wouldn’t listen to me—even if I agreed that his occupation was unfitting, which I did not. Times are changing and those who do not change with them will be left behind. Anyway, Margaret accused me of…well, let us just say that she and I have never seen eye to eye.’
‘That I can easily understand.’
‘When Hubert saw how well Marcus was doing, he changed his tune, but Margaret never did. Anyway, my point is that even if someone is holding Hubert against his will, I am convinced Margaret doesn’t know about it. She is not good at dissembling and I can tell that her distress for Hubert is genuine. Whether it’s because she truly cares, or just doesn’t want to be abandoned with a mountain of debt and become an object of pity in the society’s eyes, I neither know nor care. All I mean to imply is that Hubert’s mythical kidnapper could not be sure that Margaret would come to me in her hour of need. Indeed, anyone within her circle will not hear her say a good word about me and I would likely be her last port of call.’
‘But you were not; that is what I keep coming back to. I agree with your opinion of her. She represents everything that I most dislike in a woman of her ilk.’
‘And yet she has been compelled to swallow her pride.’ Olivia chuckled. ‘She probably thinks she will be tainted beyond redemption by contact with me.’
‘Such a scarlet woman,’ Jake said in a teasing tone, shaking his head in mock dismay.
‘You will do well to remember it,’ she replied playfully. ‘When one is not trying to maintain a position, one is free to do and say what one pleases. It is really quite liberating.’
‘You do not fool me, Olivia.’
‘I am not attempting to fool anyone. I simply speak as I find.’ She leaned her elbow on her knee and her chin on her clenched fist. ‘Why the gap of over two years between Marcus’s death and the resumption of the search for this evidence you seem convinced exists?’
‘That I have yet to decide, but I agree with you, it is puzzling.’
‘You have not forgotten about Tom’s ship?’ she asked, her expression sobering.
