Page 23 of Blackmailed (The Browns of Butcher’s Hill #2)

Phillip held out his hand and stared at their host without a hint of emotion while Clement contrived to look dangerous and failed.

It was hard to look intimidating when your forehead was sweating, and your palm was too.

Clement looked to the next couple to be greeted, and Phillip pulled Virginia’s arm through his and held her hand in place on his as they turned to follow a servant into a large parlor.

Every corner held shelves with glassware and figurines, and every tabletop had lamps and elaborate displays of china and artifacts.

The walls were covered with artwork and wall hangings, some under glass as they were clearly ancient.

Unless there was another home on Calvert Street with this type of extensive collection, there was little doubt that the items in Colfax’s closet came from this house.

“I’ve been here several times,” Virginia said. “But I do not remember if I saw any of the three items you mentioned or not. There’s another room upstairs that is usually open to the public with more valuable antiquities and artwork from several European masters.”

“It cannot be a coincidence.”

“Agreed.”

Phillip looked around the room and noticed a man standing near a small door. He was watching all of the guests with a specific intent. To make sure no one slipped one of the small items into a pocket or a woman’s bag. Phillip turned his back to the man.

“The man in the corner who is watching everyone near the small table. Do you see him?” he asked.

Virginia glanced around the room, smiling and nodding, to whom, he didn’t know. “Yes. Dark suit, a bit rumpled.”

“That’s the one. He was one of the men who broke into Dolly Irving’s home.”

“He would recognize you?”

“Uncle cracked him in the head, and he went down pretty quick, but I still think he might recognize me.”

“Then we’ll have to stay away from him. Let’s go upstairs,” she said as she took a glass of champagne from a circulating waiter. “Do you want one?” she asked Phillip.

He shook his head. “Don’t suppose you have any Bond beer?”

The waiter looked at him with pinched lips. “No, sir. I’m sorry.”

Virginia smiled at him and slipped her arm through his. She led him up the wide staircase to a long hallway with guests milling in and out of a large room.

“How does Clement afford this kind of home on the salary your board pays him?”

“I never thought of that. He couldn’t possibly. I know how much he makes.”

“Maybe family money?”

“Maybe,” she said. “Although I’ve never heard him talk about his relatives, and I’ve never heard the Clement name mentioned in society circles.”

Phillip guided Virginia into the room guests were allowed in, another one filled with art and artifacts. There was a man standing near the window, watching the guests as they moved around the room.

Virginia nodded in the man’s direction while looking at a painting on the wall. “Do you recognize that man?”

“No. Never saw him before.”

Phillip was scanning the room when Virginia tightened her grip on his arm. “You did say a small painting by Copley. A woman and a dog, correct?”

He nodded and focused where she was looking. “That’s it. That’s the painting I saw.”

“Good Lord,” Virginia said. “I didn’t particularly want to believe that Clement was anything more than unpleasant and overly sure of his appeal to women.”

Phillip glanced around the room. “I wonder if we will find the necklace or the wooden box as well.”

They walked slowly around the perimeter of the room, examining the items on display, but it was not until they went to a large glass-covered table in the middle of the room that they saw what they’d been looking for.

“There’s the necklace and earbobs,” Phillip whispered.

Virginia read the card beside the jewels. “Belonged to a French aristocrat who handed them to a random person before her beheading.”

“Good Lord,” Phillip said.

“The value of these would be nearly impossible to estimate. The gems alone would be worth a fortune, let alone the history.”

“If Colfax stole these, how did he get them out of this case—unless he broke the case in a nighttime theft?”

“Colfax would have been invited here, I think, and somehow got them out from under the glass. If it was a theft, you would think it would have been reported or talked about at least. I heard nothing about a theft from him.”

“Unless Clement didn’t want the police poking into his business,” Phillip said and looked around the room. “Especially if some of his treasures were stolen in the first place.”

“You think he’s a thief as well?”

“How would he ever pay for these things unless he is very, very rich? Or if he didn’t pay for them at all or bought them from someone like Irene Littleman.”

They walked out of the room and down the stairs, Virginia greeting people as they went, introducing him to more people than he’d ever remember.

He smiled and shook hands and nodded at the ladies.

A few of the women looked him up and down as if he were a hanging side of beef at Savitsky’s Butcher Shop.

Virginia led him to a buffet where Clement was standing. “Oh, Horatio! Another lovely fundraiser, and it looks as though the pledge book is filling up. All because of your generosity.”

Clement smiled at Virginia and glared at Phillip. “Why don’t you fill a plate, Mr. Brown?” he said with an exaggerated emphasis on his name. “I’ll keep our Virginia company.”

For only having met the man an hour ago, Phillip would have liked nothing more than to wipe the smug smile from Clement’s face with his fist. But he gave the man a tight-lipped nod instead and turned to a table laden with food, although he did not move far from Virginia’s side.

He glanced around the room and saw the man from Dolly’s shop attack had been replaced by another whom Phillip did not recognize.

“Your display room on the second floor is miraculous. Probably the most prestigious collection, certainly in Baltimore, and maybe on the whole East Coast,” Virginia said.

Clement replied with gushing thanks while congratulating himself on his exemplary taste and uncanny ability to spot a true heirloom. It was enough to make Phillip sick.

“I know I’d hardly be able to sleep at night, knowing all these beautiful valuables were in my home! How courageous you are, Horatio,” Virginia said.

“Well, I do employ watchmen and have safes where the most valuable of my collection is stored unless I’m entertaining.”

Phillip reached for a pastry that enabled him to see Virginia as she laid her hand on Clement’s arm and looked up at him. “But you must worry.”

He laid a hand over hers. “I do worry, but I’ve had some experience with danger and am not afraid to defend my property.”

Virginia fluttered her lashes. “Of course you’re not. How silly of me.”

Phillip filled a plate for Virginia and came back to her side. Clement looked at him with disgust.

“Did you get your fill, Mr. Brown?”

“I stopped at twenty-two of those big shrimp. Wanted to leave a few for your other guests.”

Clement’s eyes widened, and he glanced away. “I see someone wishing to speak to me. It was a pleasure talking to you, Virginia. Brown,” he said with a stiff nod.