Cassandra saw them and looked aside with a shudder. She pulled on a white robe and headed for the adjoining bathroom. Water splashed and gurgled, pots and jars clanged and steam fragrant with lavender began to issue from the room. Lily sat on, wondering whether the ensuing silence was sinister and whether she ought to intervene. Perhaps Cassandra in her exhausted state had fallen asleep in the water? Dangerous. Lily tapped on the door and walked in.
Alarmed at what she saw — a pale face lolling just above the froth, eyes tightly shut — she called Cassandra’s name.
‘Oh, so sorry, my dear. Didn’t mean to startle you. Come in. I wasn’t asleep, just thinking. It must be the effect of the lavender, you know — it has a reputation for bracing up the mind.’ She smiled. ‘This has done me the world of good. Pass me a towel, will you? I think I heard our coffee tray arriving. And now I have something to tell you. A bit of a puzzle to put before you. It’s been lurking there at the back of my mind for hours but I haven’t had time to think about it. You must hear me and decide whether I’ve turned overnight into a silly old woman with a silly old woman’s groundless fears and fervid imaginings.’
‘The men involved have been captured. They’ll be coming up before Sir Humphrey Bodkin at the Old Bailey before you know it and they’ll be hanged. Take comfort from that, Lady Dedham,’ Lily murmured reassuringly. ‘They can represent no further danger to you and yours.’
‘You’re telling me what you think I want to hear, Lily. Come off it. I’m sure that a girl smart enough to be assisting the commander has seen further than the arrest of those two stool-pigeons. Would that be the word?’
Lily was taken aback and replied carefully: ‘It will do, but I think, in the trade, we might say “patsies”. To describe a pair who were set up — or hired — by some other agency to commit the crime. Is that what’s worrying you? I’d be intrigued to hear what gives rise to your suspicion.’
‘It concerns me, Lily, that a murderous menace is walking the streets of our capital. There may be other innocent targets going about their daily lives in London, unaware that they’re being hunted down by nationalistic madmen at loose in our midst. Who will be next to suffer?’ Unable to keep it to herself a moment longer, she sat up and fixed Lily with eager dark eyes. ‘Listen. Those two brigands didn’t kill Oliver, you know. Oh, I agree that was their intent and they would probably have finished him off, given a little longer … who knows? I keep hearing the shots replaying in my head. The first two had the same note — they were fired from the same type of gun and almost simultaneously. But it wasn’t those shots that laid him low. Oliver was still on his feet, wielding his sword and setting them to rout, when it happened. Oh, I must be mistaken … the street was clear — no one else about, I can swear to that … but it was the third bullet that did for him. A different sound. I’m no expert but I’d say it was a larger calibre gun. And fired from across the street.’
Chapter Nine
‘I have mine with cream and one lump of sugar, my dear,’ Cassandra said, slipping a peony-patterned Japanese kimono over her head. She settled on a chair by the coffee table. ‘But first, do draw back the curtains and let the light in. Out there in the world it must be lunch time, I’d guess. I prefer to see what the person I’m talking to is thinking and I expect you do too.’
Lily busied herself with the curtains and then with cups, jugs and sugar tongs, hoping she was getting everything right. Presiding over a coffee tray in a sunlit Melton Square boudoir was a new experience for her, rendered surprisingly easy by Cassandra Dedham’s friendly, if distracted, acceptance of her. It occurred to Lily that, cousin or not, to be vouched for by Sandilands was no mean accolade. And Cassandra clearly adored him. Whatever Lily’s own reservations about the man and his motives, they would have to remain concealed in the present circumstances.