Odnośniki
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- Frederick Marshall Brown [Ravaging Myths 01] Ravaging Myths (pdf)(1)
- Anita Philmar [Black Dragon 03] Black Dragon's Heart (pdf)
- Donita K Paul [DragonKeeper Chronicles 04] DragonFire (pdf)
- Beverly Connor [Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation 07] Dust To Dust (pdf)
- Charles R Cross Room Full of Mirrors A Biography of Jimi Hendrix (pdf)
- Bailey Bradford [Love in Xxchange 04] What Matters Most [TEB MM] (pdf)
- Alan Burt Akers [Dray Prescot 14] Krozar of Kregen (pdf)
- Bailey Bradford [Southwestern Shifters 03] Reckless [TEB MM] (pdf)
- Janrae Frank Lycan Blood 03 If Truth Dies [pdf]
- Diana Castilleja [Aiza Clan 02] A Trust Earned (pdf)
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
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- staramsie.pev.pl
obligations or loyalties before another with regard to people, their
closeness to you, the depth of their hurt, their innocence or their
vulnerability, or the degree of their trust in you. You must do what
your own conscience dictates to be right. Serve your own truth.
She had not said so, but Emily had no doubt in her mind that
Vespasia meant that she should tell Thomas all she knew.
Yes, she said aloud. Perhaps I knew that, it was just hard to
acknowledge it, because then I have to do it.
Do you believe Rose may have killed this woman?
138
ANNE PERRY
I don t know. I suppose I do.
They sat without speaking for several minutes, then finally
discussed other things: Jack s campaign, Mr. Gladstone and Lord Salis-
bury, the extraordinary phenomenon of Keir Hardie and the possi-
bility that one day he might actually succeed in reaching Parliament.
Then Emily thanked Vespasia again, kissed her lightly on the cheek,
and bade her good-bye.
She reached home and went upstairs to change into a suitable
gown for dinner, even though she was not going out. She was in her
own sitting room when Jack came in. His face was tired and there
was a pale film of dust around the bottoms of his trousers, as if
he had walked outside on the pavements for some distance.
She stood up to greet him with unaccustomed haste, as if he
brought news, although she did not expect anything but the trivia
of the campaign, much of which she could gain from the daily pa-
pers, had she considered it of sufficient importance.
How is it progressing? she asked him, searching his eyes, which
were wide and gray with the remarkable lashes she had always ad-
mired. She saw in them pleasure at the sight of her, a warmth she
had long known and held so dear it still startled her. But too close
beneath it for safety she saw anxiety, deeper than before. She said
quickly, What s happened?
He was reluctant to answer. The words did not come readily to
him, and usually they did so easily; that in itself chilled her.
Aubrey? she whispered, thinking of Vespasia s warning. He
might lose, mightn t he? Are you going to care very much?
He smiled, but it was deliberate, a gesture to reassure her. I like
him, he said honestly, sitting down in the chair opposite her, re-
laxing with his legs out. And I think with a little more practicality
he d be a fine member. Anyway, we need a few dreamers. He gave
a slight shrug. It would balance out the journeymen who want of-
fice only for what it can profit them.
She knew he was hiding the real hurt it would be if Aubrey
failed. It was Jack who had encouraged him in the beginning, even
opened up much of the pathway for his nomination, and supported
139
SOUTHAMPTON ROW
him after it. He had made it seem casual, as he did so many things,
still keeping that instinctive manner of a man who took things
lightly, who dabbled more than he worked, to whom nothing mat-
tered so much as comfort, popularity, good food and good wine, and
graciousness around him. He had always appreciated beauty and to
flirt was as natural to him as drawing breath. The finality of mar-
riage to a woman who would never turn the other way, or refuse to
see what was uncomfortable to her, was the hardest decision he had
ever made, and at times he also knew it was the best.
Emily had been careful never to tell him that she was very
adept at seeing only what was prudent. She had done it with her
first husband, George Ashworth, and when she had thought he had
betrayed her, not simply physically but with love of the heart, it
had wounded her more deeply than all her sophistication had led
her to expect. She had no intention of allowing Jack to think he
could do the same. She knew the strength in him and the hunger
for a purpose as consuming as that which drove Pitt. It was the fear
he would not match up to it which made him appear to treat it so
lightly. She realized now with a startling pain that she would do
anything in her power to protect him from failure.
Rose was at the house of the spirit medium the night she was
murdered, she said guardedly. Thomas went to question her. She s
terrified, Jack!
His face darkened. This time he could not hide the tension
tightening inside him. He straightened up in the chair, the ease
gone. Thomas! Why Thomas? He s not in Bow Street anymore.
It was not the response she had expected, but now that she
heard it, it was the one she feared. The rest, the questions, the criti-
cism for lack of thought, for selfishness, would come later.
Emily? His voice was harsher, afraid she knew something she
was not telling him, and for once she did not.
I don t know! she said, meeting his eyes squarely. Charlotte
won t tell me. I have to suppose it s political, otherwise Thomas
wouldn t be there.
140
ANNE PERRY
Jack put his hands up over his face, then ran his fingers through
his hair, blinking slowly.
Emily waited, her throat tight. Rose was hiding something.
Could it hurt Aubrey, and through Aubrey Jack? She stared at
him, afraid to prompt.
He looked paler, even more tired. It was as if the bloom of
youth had gone from him and suddenly she saw how he might look
in ten, even twenty, years time.
He stood up, turning away from her, and took a step or two
towards the window. Davenport advised me today to distance my-
self a little from Aubrey, for my own good, he said very quietly.
She could hear the silence as if it were tangible. The evening
light outside was golden on the trees. And what did you say? she
asked. She would hate either answer. If he had refused then his
name would continue to be linked with Aubrey Serracold, and of
course Rose. If Aubrey remained as extreme as he seemed at the
moment, if he said more and more what was idealistic but naive,
then his opponent would capitalize on it and make him appear an
extremist who would at best be useless, at worst a danger. And Jack
would be tarred with the same brush, dragged down by association,
ideas and principles he could never be charged with so he could re-
fute them, but by which he would be judged just the same, and just
as fatally.
And if Rose were in any way involved in the medium s death,
then that would damage them all also, never mind what the truth
of it was. People would remember only that she was part of it. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]