to find some way around the bitter damnation of the Church, the judgment of men who, by their very calling, had no children of their own, no understanding of the endless tenderness a parent feels, no matter how tired, frustrated or temporarily angry.
Did any parent ever put his or her child beyond forgiveness, truly? He could not imagine Charlotte doing so, for all her impetuosity, her high hopes and at times instant judgments, hot tempers, impatience, ungoverned tongue; no, she would defend those she loved to her last breath.
He smiled as he thought of her. She was exasperating, sometimes even a professional liability with her crusading ideas, and, in the past, her incessant meddling in his cases. But she was never, ever a coward. She might have been a lot less trouble if she had been, and a lot safer. And, he admitted, a lot less help. But without question, he would never have loved her as he did.
Heaven help him, was Jemima going to be the same? At three years younger, Daniel was already more levelheaded; Jemima, however, would instinctively, without thought or planning, leap to his defense, right or wrong.
One day she would be a mother like Charlotte: protect first, and chastise afterward. Punish, but forgive. And having forgiven, she would never mention the offense again. Charlotte had once sent Daniel to his room without supper for carrying a grudge after a matter had been resolved.
Pitt knew now at least where he would begin. He rose to his feet and called for Stoker. When he arrived, Pitt gave him his task. Then he went alone to see Isaura Castelbranco.
He caught a hansom with ease, and all too rapidly made his way through the busy, jostling streets to the ambassador’s residence. Perhaps Castelbranco had prepared her, because Isaura received Pitt without any excuses or prevarication. He was asked to wait in the private study, where mirrors were turned to the wall, pictures draped with black and the curtains on the windows pulled all but closed.
Isaura came in quietly. The only sound he heard was the click of the latch as the door closed. She stood straight, but she seemed smaller than he remembered, and her face was bleached of all color except the faint olive of her complexion.
“It is kind of you to come, Mr. Pitt,” she said with a slight huskiness, as if she had not used her voice for quite some time, after so much weeping.
“The ambassador asked me to look into the events leading up to Miss Castelbranco’s death and find out whatever facts I can,” he explained. In the face of her dignity it would be faintly insulting to be anything but direct. “I expect you can tell me at least some things that I do not know.”
A slight movement touched her mouth, almost a smile.
“My husband is deeply grieved. He loved his daughter very much, as did I. But I think perhaps I am a little more realistic as to what may be done.” She looked down for a moment, then up again, meeting his eyes. “Of course part of me wishes for revenge. It is natural. But it is also futile. Anger is a quite understandable reaction to loss. And he has lost his only child. You did not know her, Mr. Pitt, but she was lovely, full of life and dreams, warmhearted …” She stopped, unable for a moment to keep up her brave demeanor. She turned half away from him, concealing her face.
“As you may know, I have a daughter myself, Senhora Castelbranco,” he said. “She is fourteen and already half a woman. I suppose that is why the case matters so much to me. I could easily be in your place.”
“Please God, you will not be.” She turned back to him slowly. Something in his words had allowed her to reclaim at least a semblance of self-mastery. “If you were, you might feel the fury my husband does, the desperate desire to clear our daughter’s name from the slander that is being spread. But your wife would tell you, as I tell the ambassador; we are helpless to bring any charges. It will only prolong the speculation and the gossip. It will cure nothing.”
Pitt was taken aback. She was as much ravaged by grief as her husband, and yet she seemed quite calm in her refusal to take the issue further. It was not defeat. Meeting her eyes he knew she was not emotionally frozen by shock. She spoke from