my hand.” He gave a very slight shrug, not perhaps as discreetly as he had intended. “The engagement was ended.”
“How long before her death did that happen, Mr. de Freitas?”
Tiago looked startled. “I really don’t see how this can be of concern to the British Secret Service.” There was a touch of anger in his voice now. “It is a very personal matter.”
“The announcement of a betrothal to marry is a very public event,” Pitt pointed out. “It is not possible to end it entirely privately, however personal the cause may be.”
De Freitas seemed to hover between irritation and capitulation. Seconds passed as he fought with a decision.
“I am trying to quell rumors that can only hurt the Portuguese ambassador to Britain, Mr. de Freitas,” Pitt pressed. “It is a small courtesy we can accord him at the time of a very dreadful loss. Miss Castelbranco was his only child, as I am sure you are aware.”
De Freitas nodded. “Yes, yes, of course.” He let out a very slight sigh. “We broke our engagement less than a week before she died. I’m sorry about it, of course I am.”
Pitt noticed how gracefully de Freitas had evaded the issue of who made the initial move to end the relationship. The way he said it, the decision sounded like an inevitable mutual agreement.
“Was Miss Castelbranco extremely upset?” Pitt asked, determined to force the young man into an answer.
De Freitas looked up sharply, his face reflecting a sudden anger. “If you are suggesting that her death was … was a result of my breaking off an engagement, then you are completely mistaken.” He lifted his chin a little. “It was she who ended it.”
“Indeed? What reason did she give? One does not do such a thing lightly. Her parents would have been most distressed. As I imagine yours were also.”
De Freitas did not answer for several moments, then he gave a brief, tight smile. “You have me at something of a disadvantage, Mr. Pitt. I had hoped to give you a vague answer, and that you would be gentleman enough to accept it. I’m afraid I cannot say anything further without dishonoring a young woman I had thought to make my wife. Of course I understand you wish to protect her reputation, and give her family whatever comfort is possible, and I respect you for it. Indeed, I admire it. However, to assist you in that I must decline to say anything more. I’m sorry.”
“So it wasn’t she, but you who broke the engagement,” Pitt concluded.
De Freitas shrugged. “I’ve told you, sir. I can say nothing more. Let her rest in peace … for everyone’s sake.”
Pitt knew he would get no more from Tiago de Freitas. He thanked him for his time and walked back through the hushed, wood-lined corridors.
“YOU MEAN HE IMPLIED that it was he who broke it off, and that he was lying to protect her?” Charlotte said incredulously that evening when Pitt was home and dinner was finished and cleared away. They were in the parlor, with the windows ajar. The slight breeze carried in the rustle of leaves and the smell of earth and cut grass. The door to the passageway was closed. Daniel and Jemima were in their respective bedrooms reading.
“More or less,” Pitt conceded. He was not sitting. He felt too restless to settle down; perhaps because Charlotte was so angry she also could not sit.
She looked stricken. “So whatever it is they are saying, he either believes it or he doesn’t care because he wanted to be rid of her anyway,” she accused.
“The engagement was broken off before she died,” Pitt pointed out, shaking his head.
“Exactly!” she retorted. “He listened to some rumor and abandoned her!” Her face was flushed and her eyes brilliant. She was so quick to defend the vulnerable. He loved her for it and he would not change her, even in situations when it would be far wiser to weigh the matter first. She had been wrong before, dangerously so, but that did not stop her.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she accused him. “Of course I might be wrong. Would you be weighing it this carefully if it had happened to someone we were close to?”
“But it isn’t,” he said reasonably.
“It isn’t this time! What about when it is?” she demanded.
He took a deep breath and turned to face her. “If something like this were to happen to someone we love, God forbid, I would be just as furious as you