After they had signed their statements, Jackman insisted on escorting Ursula back to Mrs Maple’s boarding house. Not only that, he hailed a hansom cab and overrode her objections.
‘The case is solved. Drummond will have to release Alice now and my fee will be paid. Not that I have earned it, I shall insist it goes to you. After you receive it, you can repay me the cab fare.’
Ursula laughed. ‘Oh, Thomas, sometimes it’s difficult to take you seriously. You were the one who did all the leg work. The fee is yours.’
She couldn’t help thinking, though, that she now had no job. She stroked a sleeve of her new coat, blessed the fact that it hadn’t suffered in the fight with Mrs Bruton, but wished for a moment that its cost had been placed in a savings account.
‘For a moment in that van, I thought Mrs Bruton was going to carry all before her. I told you she was a quick thinker. She must have put that story together the moment she came round from your bash on her head. So simple and so effective. I could see Drummond absorbing it like turkey does gravy. It was only after Millie said her piece that he wavered.’
‘And so did she.’
‘Do you think Drummond will search Mrs Bruton’s luggage for the beret? Surely that will be another piece of evidence against her?’
Jackman put a hand on her shoulder. ‘He may well be able to wear her down under interrogation. Right at the end she seemed to be crumbling.’
‘But the journey to the police station will give her time to recover. I’m sorry I couldn’t produce more hard evidence.’
His hand pressed a little harder and she found it comforting. ‘No investigator could have had a better assistant. Without you, I would still be looking at Miss Rachel Fentiman for the part of murderer.’
‘Or even Millie?’ Ursula smiled at him. ‘Let’s face it, there wasn’t a great deal of evidence against anyone, was there?’
‘You know,’ Jackman said after a moment or two, ‘I’m thinking of asking you to work as an assistant to me. I can probably afford to pay you whatever you were earning with Mrs Bruton and maybe those Maison Rose people could keep you on. Maybe working together we could earn enough to afford a proper West End office.’
Before an astonished Ursula could respond, the cab arrived outside Mrs Maple’s and Jackman handed Ursula down and paid the fare.
Meg opened the door to them, her face excited. ‘You got company, miss. It’s Mistress Alice’s sister and ever such a nice young man. They are with Mrs Maple in her parlour and you’re to go along there as soon as you arrive.’
Ursula’s tiredness slipped away. She couldn’t wait to find out how Rachel had been freed from gaol and what she’d been doing at the menagerie.
The moment she and Jackman entered the parlour, Rachel came and embraced Ursula. Lord John shook Jackman’s hand. Mrs Maple said how pleased she was to see them both and went to get Meg to produce fresh tea.
‘Before you ask,’ said Rachel, releasing Ursula. ‘John got his father to intervene on my behalf. I hated having a duke use his position like that but I have to admit that life in a police cell was dire.’ She smiled at the young man. ‘I think we’re now engaged but I don’t expect John will find it all beer and skittles.’
‘Really, dearest, where do you get your language from?’ said John, laughing.
Ursula sat down. ‘Why did you go to the menagerie?’
Rachel went silent for a moment.
‘She had a letter from that pretty girl at the circus,’ said her fiancé.
‘John, it’s my story.’
He retired to the back of the room, leaning against Mrs Maple’s desk, covered as usual with papers, and remained looking lovingly at Rachel. Ursula wondered how long he would be happy to be ordered about.
‘Millie asked me to go and meet her, said I could change her life. I thought first of all she was trying to blackmail me but I think it was just she’s unused to writing letters. It turned out that she wants to find another post as a lady’s maid and thinks I could recommend her to someone.’
‘Would your sister take her back, do you think?’
Rachel looked at Ursula and realisation dawned. ‘You mean you’ve found out who murdered Joshua and Alice is going to be released?’
Ursula nodded. She turned to Jackman. ‘You tell them.’
Before he could start, Mrs Maple entered, followed by Meg with a tray of tea.
Once cups had been passed around, Jackman detailed what had happened.
His audience looked stunned.
‘Mrs Bruton?’ said Rachel. ‘The one who held the tea party that Joshua gate-crashed? You mean, that was when it all started?’
Ursula nodded. ‘I worked most of it out this morning.’
‘And still went to the menagerie with a murderer this afternoon,’ muttered Jackman. ‘Talk about taking your life in your hands.’
‘The way you told it,’ said Mrs Maple, putting her cup on to her desk, ‘it sounded as though she could be clever enough to get away with it. Even when I knew her, all those years ago, she was a very smooth talker, always thought she was a bit above the rest of us. I suppose with a name like Eugenie she thought she could behave like an empress. We never called her that, though, she was known in the hospital as Jeannie. If it goes to court, she’ll put on a good show.’
Jackman nodded. ‘If she gets an experienced counsel, he’ll make mincemeat of Millie, he’ll trash her reputation. After he’s finished with her, I wouldn’t take a bet on any jury believing she’d actually witnessed Mrs Bruton attacking Miss Grandison.’
‘And he can claim anyone can have a cream beret in their wardrobe,’ said Rachel.
‘A beret doesn’t sound like Eugenie’s style at all,’ said Mrs Maple.
‘You said you knew her?’ said Jackman.
Mrs Maple nodded. ‘A long time ago. We were nurses in a hospital, and quite close at one time.’
‘Then she would be able to use a syringe?’
‘Indeed. There was a doctor who made sure all the nurses knew how to inject. We were taught to put our fingers either side of where the needle was to go in, and pinch the flesh together; then to insert the needle at an angle and push it gently in. Quite easy really.’
‘Mrs Bruton didn’t bother with any of that this afternoon,’ said Ursula grimly.
‘Well, as I said, in those days she acted a bit uppity but she could be very entertaining. We used to get young men to take us to the music hall, she said there was safety in numbers. Not that that counted for anything, as I found out later.’ She gave a reminiscent smile. ‘I was maid of honour at her wedding to Joe Peters.’
Her words had an electrifying effect. ‘Joe Peters?’ said Rachel. ‘Could you mean Joshua Peters?’
Mrs Maple laughed. ‘That was his name on the marriage certificate. We had a good laugh over that, Jeannie and I. She said she’d never call him Joshua.’
‘You mean he was married to Mrs Bruton?’ Rachel sounded astounded.
‘Did he really abandon her?’ asked Ursula.
Mrs Maple nodded. ‘I don’t think he ever really wanted to marry her. Only she was in the family way and she had a nest egg saved up. Well, he took it all and went off, just before the baby was due. Right bastard he was.’
Nobody seemed surprised at such unusual language from Mrs Maple.
‘How did she hear that he’d died?’ Ursula asked.
‘Ah, now there I have something to confess,’ Mrs Maple said, not looking at all guilty. ‘There was a report in the Times one day. A patient used to give me newspapers, he said he was trying to educate me.’ She looked almost bashful. ‘That was Mr Maple. After he recovered we walked out together. Anyway, I read all the papers, every page; didn’t understand half of it, all those speeches from politicians and accounts of what was going on abroad. But I found a story that said an Englishman called J. Peters had been accidentally shot and killed in Cairo. I showed it to Jeannie. She had taken his desertion very hard and she’d lost the baby in childbirth. I thought if she knew her husband was dead, she could start over again.’
‘Did you ever find out he wasn’t really dead?’ asked Jackman curiously.
‘Oh, yes! Jeannie decided to give up nursing and trained as a manicurist instead. She offered her services in a big spa hotel on the coast, and that’s where she met Mr Bruton. She came back and told me all about him. She seemed really happy and I was pleased for her. They had a small marriage ceremony and went off to the continent on honeymoon.’ Mrs Maple paused. Everybody was waiting for more and after a moment she continued: ‘By then Mr Maple and me were affianced, but I was still working in the hospital. And one day he turned up, Joe Peters, and asked to see me.’
‘Must have been something of a surprise,’ said Ursula.
‘A breath would have knocked me down. Joe tried to spin me some tale of wanting to repay her the money he’d taken – except he told me she’d lent it to him. Well, I knew that was a lie. It seemed he’d made it big and thought he’d make it up to her.’
‘Was he going to try and make another go of their marriage? asked Jackman.
Mrs Maple shrugged her shoulders. ‘Never asked him. Never could stand him and the way he’d treated her, I couldn’t bear him to ruin her life again. So I told him she’d died having the baby.’
‘And you didn’t tell her he’d turned up?’ said Ursula.
Mrs Maple shook her head. ‘He said he was going back to Egypt, he had a shipping business of some sort there, so I didn’t think there was much chance of her ever finding out.’ She poured herself more tea. ‘It wasn’t as if she needed Joe’s money, Edward Bruton had plenty.’
‘Would you be prepared to give a statement as to the marriage between Eugenie whatever-her-name-was-then and Joshua Peters?’ asked Jackman.
‘Her maiden name was Carson.’ Mrs Maple thought for a moment then said, ‘Well, I can’t see giving a statement would do any harm. And if it means helping to get her convicted, then of course I will.’ She turned to Ursula. ‘I feel just terrible that she attacked you like that. And to think I sent you to work for her!’
‘You thought you were doing me a good turn, and you were. It was a very good job. Tell me, when you ran into her that time, how long was it since you had last seen her?’
‘Oh, many, many years. After she married Mr Bruton, she … well … I understood he was a cut above me and Mr Maple.’
It was obvious that Mrs Bruton had dropped her old friend and that it still rankled with Mrs Maple.
‘But when I ran into her outside Harrods, we recognised each other instantly and she was charming. We had quite a chat, I told her about this place,’ Mrs Maple glanced around her parlour with a touch of satisfaction. ‘And she told me she’d just emerged from mourning and intended to build a social life. That was when she mentioned that she would be looking for a secretary.’ She turned to Ursula. ‘I immediately thought of you. She said you might be suitable and gave me her address.’
‘Is there any chance, do you think,’ said Jackman to Ursula, ‘that the certificate from her first marriage could be in Mrs Bruton’s home somewhere? Hidden away? If we had that, the case against her would be strengthened. Or,’ he turned to Mrs Maple. ‘If you could tell me where and when they were married, I should be able to get a copy.’
‘You don’t need one,’ said Mrs Maple. ‘I’ve got their marriage lines here.’
There was an astonished silence.
‘You mean?’ said Ursula.
‘I mean when Jeannie left the hospital to train as a manicurist, she said she was leaving all her old life behind her. She was fed up with caring for the sick, now she was going where the money was and making sure the rich paid her way through life. She told me to take anything I wanted from her old room and throw the rest away. Well, I found her marriage lines in a shoebox with a letter or two that Joe had sent her at some stage, plus a nursing certificate and some odd bits and pieces. She hadn’t given me a forwarding address, so I just took the box and kept it carefully. I should have thrown it away a long time ago but, somehow, I couldn’t bring myself to.’ She bent down, opened the bottom drawer of her desk and took out a battered shoe box. ‘Here it is. Who should I give it to? You, Thomas, or you, Miss Grandison?’
‘I’m only the assistant,’ said Ursula with a smile, ‘You’d better give it to Mr Jackman.’