Page 5 of A Gentleman in Possession of Secrets (The Lord Julian Mysteries #10)

Chapter Three

“Tell me about Miss Stadler’s family,” I said, taking the place across the reading table from MacNamara.

Late afternoon sunshine caught fatigue and forbearance in my guest’s features, though the library was situated such that he’d heard the carriage return.

He had awaited my report, but I hardly knew what to tell him.

“What would you like to know?” he asked.

“They don’t care for you, but other than that, what sort of people are they?”

Beneath the table, my foot encountered a hassock. MacNamara had elevated his leg, but had done so in a manner not easily detected by any passing footmen.

“They are… decent,” he said, setting aside Gulliver’s Travels . “Decent and narrow in the manner of minor aristocracy. They haven’t the graciousness of their betters nor the kindly spirit of the usual squire.”

“You describe an unhappy group, though I know many a viscount or baron whose family is quite jolly.”

He nodded. “The Stadlers are pinched, I guess you’d say. They must keep up appearances with the likes of you lot here at the Hall, but the older daughters were lucky to marry baronets or Honorables. Hannah feels sorry for her family, even though she doesn’t like them much.”

“She’s the youngest?”

“The failed spare, to hear her tell it. Of all the girls, she is closest to Strother, who came immediately before her, though he’s not exactly a scintillating intellect.

His father hasn’t taken the management of the estate seriously, and yet, the estate is about all they have left.

Just short of ten thousand acres and maybe three-quarters of it under cultivation. ”

That was enough acreage to generate considerable revenue as rent, or should have been.

“One saw signs of economies about the domicile,” I said. “Nothing too severe, but pervasive nonetheless.”

“Cold hearths. Servants work fifteen hours a day. No new livery for three years. Hannah claims her mother’s Scottish soul rebelled at lavish spending, but the Stadler town house is routinely rented out, their coach is at least twenty years old, and Hannah’s mare is just as venerable.

Had the family been well-off, I would have been less sanguine about approaching Hannah as a suitor. ”

“What of her settlements?”

MacNamara shifted in his seat, winced, and sat up straighter. “Our discussions never reached that topic. From a few of Strother’s casual comments, I concluded that Hannah’s settlements were modest in the extreme. Launching her sisters and then her brother took considerable coin.”

The chairs at the reading table weren’t padded. Surely that was an oversight? “Was Strother trying to warn you off?”

“You mean, was he lying about Hannah’s situation in order to discourage me? Possibly, but that occasion was one of very few when I’ve seen Strother tipsy at home. I tend to think he was being honest and uncharacteristically forthright.”

“ In vino veritas .”

MacNamara’s smile was sad. “In wine, there is truth. Cited originally by Pliny the Elder in the first century Anno Domini, as a proverb common at the time, though I believe Strother’s preference is for brandy.”

“How does the Honorable Strother fill his days?” I asked about Miss Hannah’s sibling because he was the only one still dwelling under the same roof with her.

“I don’t know much more. Strother has always been cordial to me in an offhand way.

Hannah maintains he’s easily distracted.

He does the pretty up in Town each year—a bachelor in expectation of a title—but takes rented rooms rather than biding at the family’s London property.

I haven’t heard of mistresses, cockfights, or curricle races, but I never did travel in fashionable circles.

Hannah would have me believe Strother is a harmless fribble.

A passable staff officer, though don’t expect any ingenuity from him on the battlefield. ”

I had known many passable staff officers and had never aspired to join their numbers. “A neat, quick hand copying or deciphering a dispatch, not one to buck protocol.” A son to be proud of, not necessarily a fellow to befriend or lend a substantial sum.

“Strother seems fond of Hannah, for all his self-absorbed inclinations, and she is quite fond of him. They all are. He was much doted upon, being the only boy with four sisters.”

I had been fond of Harry, too, and yet, at times I’d wanted to pound him flat.

“I need to speak to Strother privately. How might that be engineered? The viscountess gave us the same story you were handed. Miss Hannah is off taking the waters, possibly in Bath, but she isn’t likely to bide there for long.

If funds are short, that is an expensive excursion.

Strother might have something to add to the picture.

He and the viscount are prone to arguments over the ledgers, apparently. ”

“Strother rides his acres, or his father’s acres.

The viscount claims gout keeps him from long hours in the saddle, but my limp is far worse than his, when he remembers to affect one, and I can sit a horse well enough.

Somebody in that household knows more than they’re saying, Caldicott. A lot more.”

I rummaged mentally for how to convey what Miss Hannah’s granny might have said— if she was capable of accurate recollection, if my mother had heard her correctly, and if Lady Dewar had seen what she thought she saw, and not Miss Hannah strolling across the churchyard with her brother and the vicar’s eldest boy…

“Excuse me, my lord.” The first footman hovered by the open library door. “You’re wanted in the nursery.”

This again . “Am I wanted urgently?”

“Seems so, my lord. Urgently and loudly.”

“Warn the rebel that I’m on my way, please.”

The footman withdrew, smirking.

“MacNamara, excuse me. The infantry regularly grows rumgumptious, and my mother has deemed me the best resource for reading the Riot Act.”

Blue eyes crinkled with amusement. “Best see to the king’s peace, then.”

“In my absence, please make me a list of Hannah’s siblings and friends, their directions, and any noteworthy aspects of the relationship.”

“Noteworthy?”

“Disappointed suitors. Frustrated creditors or debtors. Rivals cast into the shade because Miss Stadler caught your eye. The whole situation wants a motive.”

MacNamara went through the laborious process of getting to his feet, or to his foot, because he put little weight on the left one. “You believe Hannah was kidnapped?”

“That’s one theory. She might well have eloped.

She might also have gone for a repairing lease to twit you into making an offer.

We don’t know, and I hope to replace ignorance with information.

I must be off lest Miss Hunter’s charge take another notion to admire the view of the property from the roof. ”

I bowed and withdrew at a pace intended to convey impatience rather than panic. When I reached the steps, I nonetheless took them two at a time, and I arrived to the schoolroom panting.

“Where is he?” I asked the governess, who stood by the open window.

“Out again, my lord. I am so sorry. I just cracked the window a little bit, and when I went down the corridor to retrieve some chalk from my room, out he went.”

My soul rebelled at the notion of putting bars on the windows of any schoolroom, but my nephew was showing a nigh criminal genius for eluding his studies.

I hoisted myself through the window, waiting out the predictable stab of agony in both eyeballs, and spotted my quarry up by the nearest grouping of chimneys.

Leander Caldicott, aged seven, hadn’t a care in the world, by the looks of him, while I could barely breathe for the fear choking me.

“Young man, get down here this instant. You have been warned about this behavior.”

“I warned you first, Uncle Julian. I like it up here.”

His little chin jutted with righteous conviction, and I knew with a sinking certainty that I would have to make the ascent, because no power on earth could induce that stubborn boy to come down before he jolly well pleased to.

I had been at least ten before I’d ventured onto the roof—and then only in Harry’s older and stronger company.

The view from the standing seam tin ridge was familiar to me from those boyhood adventures and just as spectacular now as it had been years ago.

I was still taken aback by the magnificence of the park, the home wood, the church spire poking above the hedgerow, the tiny sheep and cattle dotting the landscape.

The whole verdant, peaceful, lovely lot of it belonged to the Caldicotts, or to the dukedom and family. That made it partly, indirectly mine, and I took pride in what I saw.

I wasn’t at all sure what to make of my nephew, though. I settled beside him, a somewhat undignified process.

“Explain yourself, young man. In what regard did you warn me?”

He was the right size for his age, but quite small compared to me. He had Harry’s dark hair and Harry’s smile. I could only pray he hadn’t also inherited Harry’s penchant for reckless mischief, though the early signs were discouraging.

“You went to Hampshire, Uncle Julian, and you did not take me with you.”

“I went to Hampshire briefly, and I came back when I said I would. The duchess bided with you here.” Though in fairness to the boy, Her Grace might have looked in on him for twenty minutes once or twice a day.

“Then you went to Berkshire, but you did not take me with you there either.”

“The invitations I accepted did not include you, Leander. I had serious business to attend to on both outings, and you have serious responsibilities in the schoolroom.”

Let it be said that grown men do not find perching on rooftops comfortable, and the bright vista I so loved was tormenting my eyes. That I had somehow betrayed Leander’s respect for me was also no damned comfort.

Leander muttered something snatched away on the breeze.

“I beg your pardon?” I leaned closer, getting a whiff of his lavender-and-little-boy scent.