We could not complain of a lack of company that day. We had half a dozen callers, one more in the morning and two groups of two in the afternoon. Each time I rushed to the house to see why they had come. All of them came for no other reason than to assess the soi-disant Lady Lorna. All had made up their minds before they set eyes on her. All were viciously rude, and all got as good as they gave. It was hard to believe Lady Lorna’s high-handed treatment came from anyone but a genuine lady.
I was not long in figuring out why they all descended on us at that time. Lady Mary had put them up to it. And she had let them know that in her opinion the guest was no more Lady Lorna than she was Marie Antoinette. As the uncontested leader of society in the neighbourhood, she had them all under her thumb.
This was how she was handling last night’s fiasco. She was trying to drive Lorna out by making her feel so unwelcome she left. And perhaps trying to force Mama to put her out too. It had quite the opposite effect on me. I was more than ever determined to prove Lady Mary wrong. If Lorna had behaved badly, she had done no worse than her aunt.
When Mr. Beamer called on Mama around four that afternoon I left the park and went inside to hear if he had heard rumours of our visit to the Abbey. Lorna had had enough of being insulted and rose almost at once saying she wanted to put the ribbons on her new gown and went abovestairs. I was on thorns lest Beamer had got wind of what Lorna and I had done, but he didn’t seem to know anything about it. I didn’t think Lady Mary had got at him at all. He had just come to see if he could take Mama and myself to Larson’s rout party, as was his custom.
“Oh we are not going this year, Bernie,” she said, trying to sound as if the decision was ours.
He shook his head. “I take it your guest did not receive an invitation? That is no reason for you to stay away.”
“We were not invited, Bernie,” she said, pinching her lips to keep them from trembling.
“Ah, I feared it might come to this. You must turn the woman off, Lucy. I have made enquiries at the coach house in Colchester. It seems she did take the coach to Colchester as she told you, but how did she get here from there?”
“What difference does it make how she got here?” Mama snapped. Beamer blinked in surprise at this unusual display of temper. “She may have walked for all I know. She hadn’t any money.”
“And you are her banker,” he said, with another rueful shake of his head.
“Fiddlesticks! A few pounds to buy her little necessities. She is still my old friend, even if she has — changed. It is disgraceful the way she has been treated by everyone. I am the only one she has to rely on. We were always bosom friends, Lorna and I.” Her eyes were moist, but she managed to hold back her tears, and she is a regular watering pot. I was proud of Mama.
He turned to me. “What have you to say about her, Kate?”
“I think she handled the rudeness of our callers uncommonly well — like a real lady. There is no point asking me for proof, Squire. I didn’t know her before she came here.” But I was much inclined to hear if he had anything else to say.
“Did you happen to hear anything about that fellow who is staying at the inn in Kelvedon?” he asked Mama.
“What man? I don’t know who you mean.”
“It seems he arrived the same day as your guest turned up at the Abbey. An interesting coincidence. Chalmers, he calls himself.”
“Chalmers? Oh, he is a drapery salesman,” I said. “He told Lady Lorna so.”
Beamer leapt on it. “She knows him? How do you know this? Odd she would admit it.”
I told him about her meeting him on the road the day she borrowed Jezebel. It had completely slipped my mind. He asked me all about Chalmers, and I told him what little I knew. He found it odd Lorna had arrived at Lewes Abbey the same day that Chalmers arrived at Kelvedon, and a few days later they had both been in Colchester at the same time.
“Naturally a salesman in the area would visit the Colchester shops,” Mama said. “I see nothing odd in that.” She didn’t mention that Lorna had made a point of wanting to go there. She had also coaxed Mama into stopping at the George Inn. I wondered if Chalmers had left a note for her at the desk there, to be picked up when she went to purchase her journal. I had not seen her take so much as a single glance at that journal, nor had she mentioned any of the London doings she wanted to read about.
“A muslin salesman don’t stay so long in one area,” Beamer said. “An hour would be enough to handle the little bit of business he’d get at Kelvedon. He’s been at the inn nearly a week.”
“But why meet in Colchester that day, when Kelvedon is closer?” I asked.
“Because they had already made the arrangement before you mentioned Kelvedon,” Beamer said. “Very likely she didn’t want to parade herself in Kelvedon, where Lorna was well known. Another point, Chalmers don’t call himself a salesman. He says he is looking for a little cottage to buy in the neighbourhood. A weekend place, to get away from the city. I don’t care for the aroma of this. I’d like to have a word with your guest.”
Mama bridled up at this. “I will not have my guest badgered and insulted any more, Bernie,” she said angrily. “If that is why you have come, you may leave.”
“Peagoose! I came to offer you a drive to Larson’s rout, as I always do. I have been looking out for you at all the houses you usually visit. You were not at the Mellon’s card party yesterday, and you love your game of whist. I had to play with Mrs. Abbot. You know what a wretched player she is.”
Mama was close to tears of frustration, and he looked as if he meant to keep badgering her. I caught his eye and gave a warning shake of my head.
He rose and said, “I’ll be running along. Think about what I said, Lucy. You know it is only your welfare I am interested in.”
She didn’t even bother looking at him. I saw him to the door. “I am going to look into this Chalmers business, Kate.”
“Yes, do,” I said, trying to be fair. I still believed in Lorna, but as the sensible one of the family, felt obliged to consider the alternative. I told him how insistent Lorna had been that we go to Colchester that day, and visit the George Inn for lunch. “Mama suggested the Red Lion, but Lorna said her papa always took them to the George.”
“You think she met him there? How could she manage it, being with you?”
“I don’t really know that she did, but if she did, it was while she was at the necessary room. Of course she couldn’t meet him there, but she stopped at the desk to pick up a journal, and hasn’t so much as glanced at it.”
“They are certainly working together. I’ll bet a monkey he brought her here. Lucy is too stubborn to listen to me, but by gad she’ll listen to the police!”
“Oh!” It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him about the fracas I had run into with Lorna the night before, but with the hope of keeping that secret, I said only, “I wouldn’t do that, Squire. Mama would never forgive you. Acton will be back from London soon. Let him handle it. It is his business really. Wait and hear what he has to say. I believe he meant to investigate Lady Lorna in London.”
“Did he indeed? No grass growing under that lad’s feet. I’ll have a word with him.”
“You might ask him to have a word with Taylor as well. I have twice seen Lorna talking to him in the spinney. Met by chance, she said. But really, Squire, I think Lorna is Lady Lorna. There are things, a dozen little things that I don’t see how she could possibly have learned in any other way. If she were some local woman who lived here twenty years ago, someone would recognize her.”
“Who has seen her, cooped up here with your mama?”
“You’d be surprised. We have had many callers.”
“Did any of them recognize her?”
“They didn’t seem to,” I admitted. “I believe Lady Mary had a word with them. Why else did they all come today?” I couldn’t tell him my explanation for it, and he didn’t ask.
“Look out for your Mama, Kate,” he said, and left, wearing a worried frown.
And I resumed my vigil for Acton’s arrival in the park wearing the same expression. I was half disappointed when he didn’t come and half relieved, for I was dreading that interview.