Page 97 of Ghost in the Garden
Swan barely hesitated before he extended his hand to help her onto the platform. Then she stood before a sea of wealthy, pampered, expectant faces.
“I shall not keep you, and I shall not stay. It is not a week since my husband’s untimely passing, so my only purpose here is to announce what he intended to, and what I, as his widow and heir, will honor.” From her reticule, she took the folded banker’s draft and handed it to Sir Nicholas. “In memory of my beloved husband.”
She was gratified to see Sir Nicholas’s eyes widen.
“Mrs. Lambert! This is a considerable sum of money…” he said, clearly awed.
“It is,” she agreed. “And what is more, I will personally supply a company of builders and materials—”
“That, though generous, is out of the question,” Sir Nicholas said.
Taken by surprise, Angela took a moment to understand him. “I beg your pardon?” she said frigidly.
“You are of course welcome to submit the names of your company and the sources of your material, but obviously they will be subjected to the same rigorous inspections as everyone else.”
“Inspections?” It felt like swearing in church.
“That is the system we have agreed,” Grey said quietly from the floor below her. “To prevent the fraud and waste of previous projects of building and repair that either don’t happen or are undertaken with cheap, unreliable materials and shoddy workmanship. Everyone involved must sign up to this system of inspections. Which, of course, you are invited to do.” His lips curved as he held her gaze. “If you still wish to.”
For the first time, it entered her head that Grey was rather more than the grubby little investigator who presumed on the brains and the body of his partner. His evening clothes were exquisitely made from the finest cloth. He looked far too aloof to be a friend of these important men, and yet they all seemed to know him…
“Mr. Grey,” she said, clinging to politeness, “you speak for—”
“For the board,” Sir Nicholas said, “of which he is the new chairman and a longstanding member.”
“It is not pleasant,” said the violinist unexpectedly from Lady Swan’s side, “to have one’s donations and offers hemmed in by conditions and boundaries, but sadly, we have found it necessary. Although the inquiry into the St. Giles disaster has been shut down upon the deaths of both landlords concerned, it did manage to point out several of the landlords’ failings—repairs either ignored or carried out with cheap materials by men without skill or knowledge.”
Angela stared at her. “You are accusing me of offering cheap material and unskilled workmen?”
“We are making sure you don’t,” Grey said. “Since your late husband had a poor record in such matters.”
Heat burned in Angela’s face from humiliation and anger. “How dare you?”
“Eighteen people died, Mrs. Lambert. Countless more cannot work through injury. Some don’t even have a roof over their heads anymore.”
“If you’re talking about that building that collapsed in St, Giles, the landlord was not my husband but Huxley Gregg!”
“They were in partnership,” Silver said. “Gregg’s was the name used, but Lambert was the man who collected. There may not be documents to that effect, but there are several witness statements and the cooperation of banks that do prove the connection.”
Angela stared at her.Bloody little traitress.No wonder she would not be brought in to the fold… And she wasn’t remotely intimidated. If anything, the Devil’s Acre stared out of her lovely eyes.
“You are hurling vile accusations at a widow,” Angela said hoarsely, shading her eyes.
“It is a vile situation,” Constance agreed. “And you are, of course, at perfect liberty to withdraw what I’m sure is a most generous donation.”
It was only then that Angela began to realize the full scale of her defeat. She could snatch back the draft and save herself some money, but either way, this Society and their wealthy business was closed to her for good. It wasn’t just that an opportunity to make a lot of money had been shut down, but she had been exposed along with Caleb. Rightly so, for she was complicit in it all. But now, even without legal inquiries or prosecutions, her wings were clipped. The business she had fought to control would grow no further, and instead would shrink. The horror of slipping back into the kind of life she inflicted on her sick, overcrowded tenants chilled her blood.
It was true what she had said to Silver. She really should have listened to Cathy Knox and seen to those repairs. A few pounds was all it would have cost them…
The silence in the room was deafening. Sir Nicholas held out the banker’s draft out to her.
She stared at it. She could snatch it back and stalk out. It was a lot of money. But this was to have been her night, watched from on high by a proud, if dead, Caleb. And a gesture was clearly called for.
“Keep it,” she said grandly. “For your worthy work. Despite your calumny against my late husband, I wish you well in the project. Good evening, Lady Swan.”
She stepped down unaided and walked, head high, through the crowd, which parted for her.
She had just given away a horrendous amount of money and gained nothing in return. Nothing.
