Page 37 of Enlightened

He trailed off as Mr. Carr shook his head. “Not at all,” the older man said. He paused, then added, “Before we go further, I should ask if you’ve heard about Patrick.”

“That he’s passed away?” David felt the heaviness of his sorrow again as he nodded. “Yes. I went to see Elizabeth yesterday, and a letter came from her sister with the news.”

Mr. Carr nodded. “He is a great loss to his family and to the legal profession. A fine man.”

“The finest,” David whispered.

“He had a very high regard for you, Mr. Lauriston.”

David couldn’t speak in response to that, and perhaps Mr. Carr saw it, because he became suddenly businesslike.

“Now, as to Miss Elizabeth, our beneficiary. I assume you are aware of what happened recently?”

David nodded. “I know that Sir Alasdair came here, seeking information as to her whereabouts. In the circumstances, I understand you advised Mr. Chalmers that it would be prudent to move the administration of the trust to another solicitor.”

“That is correct, so far as it goes,” Mr. Carr said. “Though there is a little more to the story than I wished to share by letter with my poor brother-in-law.” He leaned forward and took hold of a small bell. It gave only a light tinkle, but a moment later the door opened and the clerk who had greeted David on his arrival peered inside.

“Yes, sir?”

“Would you kindly arrange for Mrs. Kirkton’s papers to be returned to storage, Mr. Jenkins? No change to the current arrangements required. Just a little chat today.”

The clerk approached the desk and lifted the bundle of neatly tied papers out of the wooden tray. “Very good, sir.”

“Thank you.”

As the clerk left, closing the door quietly behind him, Mr. Carr returned his calm gaze to David.

“This office is rather small, Mr. Lauriston, so we store most of our clients’ files and papers in another location close by. The clerks fetch what I need and return it when I’m done. In all, they make several journeys each day.”

Puzzled, David nodded. “That sounds sensible,” he agreed.

“Sensible and…fortunate.”

“Fortunate?”

“As I said, I didn’t tell Patrick the whole story of Sir Alasdair’s visit here. He came in the afternoon. The same night, this office was broken into and turned upside down. There were a few client papers on my desk, but only what I’d been working on that day. Nothing pertaining to Elizabeth’s trust. Nothing that would reveal her whereabouts.”

David stared at the other man, at his tidy, polite countenance, and didn’t know what to say for a moment. “You think Kinnell—” he began, breaking off in sheer disbelief.

“Candidly?” Mr. Carr said. “I do. I can prove nothing, of course. But Sir Alasdair made it fairly clear to me during our—quite unpleasant—conversation that he believed I had knowledge of Elizabeth’s whereabouts, and if I wasn’t prepared to tell him, he would take whatever action was necessary to find out for himself.”

A soft knock on the door interrupted them.

“Come in,” Mr. Carr said.

A middle-aged maidservant bearing a tea tray entered. She set it down on the large desk and bobbed a curtsey.

“Thank you, Polly,” Mr. Carr said in his calm, pleasant voice. “Those biscuits look delicious, I must say.”

The maidservant beamed and departed.

David found himself smiling too. Mr. Carr’s scrupulous politeness appeared to extend not only to his clients and visitors, but to his clerks and servants. Now the man was pouring a cup of tea for David, adding a splash of milk and offering him a plate of biscuits that looked to be freshly baked. David took one and bit into it. It was every bit as delicious as Mr. Carr thought, a crispy little wafer of sugar that melted in the mouth.

“What else did Kinnell say when he was here?” David asked.

Mr. Carr sat back in his chair, folding his hands over his chest. “Let me see. Well, when he first arrived, I was with another client—as I was when you arrived this morning. Sir Alasdair wasn’t as content as yourself to wait. He made such a racket that I had no choice but to excuse myself to my client and go out to investigate what the hullabaloo was. When I emerged from my office, he announced loudly that he knew who I was and he’d thank me to tell him where his wife was before he was forced to knock my teeth down my throat.”

“Charming.”