Page 38 of A Sense of Injustice
‘The poor girl.’ The countess shook her head. ‘There’s something obviously not right in that family, but I’m sure you won’t be able to stop yourself from meddling until you get to the bottom of things.’
Flora gave a small cry of protest. ‘Why does everyone suppose me incapable of minding my own business?’ she asked hotly. ‘Louise came to me. What was I supposed to do? Ignore her need for someone to confide in? Besides, your ladyship, you asked me to help her.’
‘Yes well, some people are beyond help.’
Flora smiled, sensing that the countess would say nothing more on the subject. She suspected that the old woman understood a great deal more than she was letting on. ‘Shall I read to you?’ she asked.
‘Just so long as it’s not from the Bible.’
Flora shook her head as she reached for the novel that they’d been enjoying. ‘That lament is getting repetitive, ma’am. I have not once attempted to read to you from the scriptures.’
‘Ah, but you would the moment I let my guard down.’
Chapter Nine
As soon as the library door closed behind the squire, Luke and Paul took a moment to consider his disclosures.
‘Do you think that Miss Gregory is somehow in league with her sister and has been sent here to gain Louise Pearson’s trust?’ Paul asked.
‘I doubt it. I didn’t observe her once speaking to Miss Pearson last night.’
Paul’s grim expression gave way to a chuckle. ‘That’s because she lavished all her attention on you.’
Luke rolled his eyes. ‘I have a feeling that Miss Gregory will be receiving a visit from her sister in the not too distant future.’
Paul nodded. ‘Which means that Cleethorp will be in the district too.’
‘Louise Pearson needs to be put on her guard, and Flora’s the only one who can warn her.’ Luke stood to pull the bell rope and asked Woodley to have Flora join him the moment her duties permitted it.
‘Perhaps we shouldn’t get involved,’ Paul said. ‘I don’t like the idea of inaction any more than you, but short of warning Cleethorp off there’s nothing we can really do, other than to make matters worse by forcing his hand.’
‘I agree that it’s not our fight.’ Luke absently stroked the slumbering Romulus with the toe of his boot as he contemplated the problem. ‘But I can’t sit aside when my grandmother’s friend’s family is being exploited. Especially by a man of Cleethorp’s ilk. We know what he is capable of, so doing nothing to prevent him would make us complicit.’ He shot an enquiring look Paul’s way. ‘Besides, I should have thought you’d be thirsting for revenge.’
Paul shrugged. ‘Bearing grudges can make a man bitter if he allows himself to dwell on what can’t be undone.’
‘The sacrifice you made for Archie probably altered your perspective, to say nothing of the course of your life.’ Luke seldom referred to the fact that Paul had taken the blame for one of Archie’s indiscretions and been sent down from Oxford as a consequence.
‘Things have a way of working themselves out.’ Paul stretched his legs out in front of him. ‘Flora would say that it’s fate. That everything happens for a reason.’
‘Her sixth sense?’ Luke let out a slow breath. ‘Don’t tell me she has you believing in all that nonsense. I thought you had more sense.’
‘Don’t dismiss it out of hand, Luke. Just because you can’t explain her abilities, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.’ Paul flapped a negligent hand. ‘Given that she saved you from Lily Carlton’s machinations, I’d have thought you’d be willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.’
‘I knowshebelieves in the supernatural, but there must be a more rational explanation. She went to extreme lengths to help me because she knew Lily planned to corner me in my bedchamber, but she could have overheard snippets of conversations that put her on the right track.’ Luke paused, wondering if he was being fair, never having given her supposed gift of second sight serious consideration. ‘I suspect it’s her way of rebelling against her strict religious upbringing. She’s desperate to prove to herself that there’s an alternative to the accepted forms of Christianity.’
‘So do the thousands of ordinary people who flock to seances nowadays, anxious to speak to the dearly departed. Who’s to say they don’t manage it?’ Luke shook his head, refusing to be swayed. ‘What are you afraid of?’
Before Luke could respond, a tap at the door preceded Flora opening it.
‘You asked to see me?’
Romulus decided she was worth the effort it would take to rouse himself. He trotted across the room and pushed his big head beneath her hand. She laughed and duly made a fuss of him.
‘Do sit down.’
Flora joined Luke and Paul at the chairs in front of the fire, from which they had both risen when she walked in. She sat, sending them an enquiring look.
‘When are you seeing Miss Pearson again?’ Luke asked, resuming his own seat.
