22

Rose and Aurora sat opposite each other in a cab rattling towards Holloway Prison through wisps of yellowish fog. Aurora had insisted on coming, even though she knew that she would have to wait outside the prison. Rose had sent a reply back to Julia to say she was coming at once, and Edward had helped find them a cab. It was another sultry day, close and oppressive, as if someone had sucked all the air out of the city. Even the dogs were listless, and smuts clung to the cab windows making the whole city look bruised.

“You do believe Edward, don’t you?” asked Aurora anxiously as they bumped through the parched streets, bouncing over potholes like gouged-out eye sockets.

Rose nodded. Relief flooded Aurora’s face.

“I do too. He may be an idiot, but I don’t think he had anything to do with the Doomstone’s disappearance or Amy’s and Gandini’s deaths.”

“But somebody did,” said Rose, frowning, “and probably somebody we know.” There was silence for a moment, and then she said, “Rory, I don’t want to pry, but what do you mean about Edward being an idiot? Do you mean over the gambling, or is there something else?”

Rory pinked. “Nothing gets past you, Rose Campion.”

“Except it does – I reckon that the answer to the disappearance of the Doomstone and these terrible deaths is staring me in the face, but I just can’t see it. I’m being blind.”

“Like my dad is blind in love, so he only sees the good in Lydia, and not the vanity, the selfishness, the way she manipulates him to get her way and all the little unkindnesses,” said Rory very quietly.

“Is she so awful? I thought you admired her. Do you hate her, Rory?”

“I don’t hate her, and she’s not awful, just self-obsessed, and obsessed with Edward, just as he is with her. If you’re suggesting that Lydia will be a wicked stepmama from out of a fairy story, then you’re wrong. As long as I’m biddable and don’t cross her I’m sure she’ll be quite delightful. She may even enjoy showing me off like a pretty little lapdog. But when Edward and Lydia are married I think I’ll be spending much more time with you at Campion’s, unless of course she packs me off to that awful school, Miss Pecksniff’s Academy for Young Ladies, that you ran away from after Thomas sent you there.”

Rose grinned. “Yes, poor Thomas thought he could turn me into a lady, but pigs will fly first.” She sighed. “I do hope Mr Cherryble gets him released from Newgate. Campion’s feels desolate without him.” She looked at her friend, relieved that she could call Aurora that again. “Maybe this terrible business with Thomas’s and Effie’s arrests will slow things down with Edward and Lydia and they won’t be in such a rush to marry.”

“I hope so too,” said Aurora. “I know I’m being selfish, and of course I want Edward to be happy, but I can’t help feeling that it’s unfair that he and I had only just found each other and were getting to know each other, and then Lydia came between us.”

“Edward clearly adores her. Do you think she loves him?” asked Rose. “My impression is that she does, she’s not pretending.”

“Oh yes. That’s the saving grace. I’m sure that Lydia is thrilled that Edward has a title and a fortune, but I don’t think that’s why she’s marrying him. It was what the French call a coup de foudre. A thunderbolt. Even Amy said it was true love, and she was always very cynical about anything to do with Lydia. Quite indiscreet at times when Lydia was in a mood and she was in a mood with Lydia. It’s strange, because although Lydia was the employer and Amy her dresser, and Lydia used her more like a ladies’ maid, I sometimes got the impression that it was Amy who was watchful of Lydia – as if she had something over her.”

Rose suddenly gave a little bounce of excitement. “Maybe she did! Maybe she knew something about Lydia’s past? Maybe she found something out?”

Aurora smiled ruefully. “Well, everyone knows that Lydia wasn’t born a lady. One of the reasons I admired her at first was because she made everyone she met forget it. She may not be the world’s greatest actress, but she played the part of a lady to perfection. I thought if she could do it, maybe if I was more like her people would forget where I came from too, and that eventually they would accept me and stop whispering about me everywhere I went.”

Rose took her friend’s hand. Aurora’s eyes were swimming, and she brushed the tears away angrily.

“Maybe you’re right and Amy did have something on Lydia. But why would she bother? She had the Doomstone. She had stolen it from around Lydia’s neck, almost slitting Lydia’s throat in the process, and it was worth a fortune. Why hang around being bossed about by Lydia when she could have sold it and gone anywhere she liked?”

“Except selling something like the Doomstone would be hard. Remember what Effie told us. No fence would touch it. You would have to wait months to dispose of something like that, unless you had really serious connections in the criminal world, or a buyer already lined up. Maybe she was just biding her time.” Rose shook her head. “I’m convinced that Gandini’s death must be connected to its disappearance too.”

“Maybe Amy and Gandini were in league with each other,” said Aurora.

Rose bounced in her seat, and it wasn’t because of a pothole. “Of course,” she said excitedly. “That must be it! On the night of Effie’s debut, Amy demonstrated that she could do magic. Maybe she and Gandini had an arrangement? While he distracted everyone in the room, she stole the Doomstone from around Lydia’s neck. Maybe somebody found out and killed Amy and tried to make it look like suicide, and then killed Gandini?”

“Or,” said Aurora, “maybe Amy stole the Doomstone, and then Gandini killed Amy to get it, and then somebody else killed him to get it.”

Rose nodded. “The one thing I’m certain of is that poor Effie has simply been caught up like a fly in a spider’s web.”

They arrived at the prison and went straight to the gatehouse, where Julia Devonish was waiting. She immediately murmured her commiserations about Thomas’s arrest.

“A dreadful business. But I’m sure Mr Cherryble will secure his release. It’s little Effie I’m most concerned over.” Julia recognised Aurora immediately as Edward’s daughter. “I will authorise a visit from both of you,” she said. “I’m afraid that things are looking very grim for Effie. The poor child is distraught. I’m worried about her state of mind. She keeps saying that she’s cursed.”