eye—but very good-looking, nonetheless. He admired her warm coloring and nicely curved figure. She was wearing a morning gown with roses on it, something she would have considered in Edward’s time as being far too showy and self-indulgent.
“Good morning, Thomas,” she said with a slight frown. “Maddock said everything was all right, but are you sure? Charlotte is not ill or troubled?”
“Not in the slightest,” he assured her, “except that there is an unpleasantness where Dominic is now living, and it may concern him. But that is all. The children are very well.”
“Are you?” She regarded him still with a trace of seriousness.
He smiled. “I am up against a difficulty I am hoping you can help me solve,” he replied honestly.
She sat down on the sofa, draping her flowing skirts around her. He noticed that she carried herself with less dignity and more grace than before she had known Joshua. Theatrical was too strong a word to use, but certainly she had a more dramatic flare than before. Years of behaving modestly and appropriately had fallen away, revealing a more colorful woman.
“I?” she said with surprise. “What could I do? What is this difficulty?”
“Do you know where Dominic went after he left here?”
She looked at him very steadily, her eyes shadowed. “You said that the unpleasantness may concern him. You do not waste your time with petty thefts, Thomas. It must be very unpleasant indeed to warrant your attention. Just how much does it concern Dominic? And please don’t fob me off with a comforting story that is not true.”
“I don’t know how much it concerns him,” he said, meeting her eyes without pretense. “I hope not at all. He appears to have changed completely from the rather shallow, charming young man he used to be.”
“But …” she prompted.
“But the case is murder.” He hated having to say it. He saw her face tighten and the shadows cross her eyes.
“You don’t think he did it … surely …”
“I hope not.” He surprised himself by how much he meant that. He really wanted to prove that it was not Dominic.
“Then how can I help?” she asked gravely. “I don’t know where he went after Burton Street, and I don’t think he was there long.”
“Burton Street?” he asked.
“He took rooms there after he left here. He didn’t feel he could remain after Sarah … died.” The pain was there in her eyes for a moment, the anguish of memory, the shock and the grief that never really left. Then she forced her attention to the present again. Sarah was beyond any ability to help now, or any need for it. Dominic was still here, and open to injury and fear. “Why do you want to know? Surely you know where he is at present?”
“Yes, in Brunswick Gardens,” he replied. “But I need the past, between Cater Street and Maida Vale.”
“Maida Vale? I didn’t know he had lived there.” She looked surprised.
“For a while. Do you know the address in Burton Street? I might be able to find someone who could help me there.”
“I don’t remember it, but I’m sure I have it somewhere. I used to forward mail for him. I presume you don’t believe whatever he has told you?”
He smiled a little self-consciously. He had not actually asked Dominic. Perhaps if he had Dominic would have told him the truth, but he doubted it. If Dominic had really known Unity Bellwood in some circumstance so personally tragic that Ramsay had believed it had provoked her murder, if he were going to confess it, he would have done so at the time, not allowed Ramsay to be suspected and to suffer the fear and isolation which it seemed in the end had broken him. That was a dark thought, and one which had not occurred to Pitt in precisely that form before. It was painful.
Caroline was staring at him and sensing his newer, sharper unhappiness.
“I need to know for myself,” he said with slight evasion. “What sort of letters did you forward?” He saw her raised eyebrows. “I mean, were they personal or tradesmen’s accounts?”
She relaxed a little. “Mostly tradesmen’s accounts, I think. There were very few of them anyway.”
“A tailor’s bill perhaps?”
“Why? Do his clothes matter in this … crime?”
“Not at all. But if I were to find the tailor, he might know where Dominic went afterwards. A man quite often keeps the same tailor for years, if he is happy with him.”
In spite of every intention of good manners, Caroline