The Dark Enquiry Read Online Free PDF Page A

added, and I knew she meant it as a compliment.
    “Yes, but even cats need more than one life,” I reminded her. “And this particular cat now has a partner to look after him.” I took a deep breath and lifted my chin. Whatever difficulty beset my husband, I was determined to see it through by his side, offering whatever aid and succour I could.
    I fixed my sister with a deliberate look. “And that is why I have formed a plan…”
     
     
    I arrived home to find Brisbane busily engaged in a project that required a pair of workmen wearing leather aprons, endless spools of wires and significant alterations to the cupboard under the stairs.
    “Brisbane?”
    He backed out of the cupboard, shooting his cuffs. “You are rather earlier than I expected. I had hoped to present you with a surprise.”
    He gave me a bland smile and I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. I had reason to be cautious of his surprises, I reflected.
    “What is this?” I asked, collecting the workmen and their wires with a sweep of my arm.
    “A telephone,” Brisbane informed me.
    I stared, blinking hard. “A telephone? To what purpose?”
    “To the purpose of being able to speak upon it,” he explained with exaggerated patience.
    “Yes, but to whom? In order to speak upon the telephone, one must know someone else with a telephone.”
    “We do.” He wore an air of satisfaction. “I am having a second one installed in Chapel Street. We shall be able to communicate with the consulting rooms from here and vice versa.”
    “We are paying for two telephones?” I asked, sotto voce . I had no wish to quarrel with Brisbane, particularly over money, and most particularly in front of workmen. Still, the expense was staggering. “Whatever would possess you?”
    “It will be extremely convenient for my work,” he replied smoothly. “I am surprised you are not more enthusiastic, my dear. I should have thought the notion that we could speak with one another at any time would have appealed to you.”
    “Of course it does,” I told him in full sincerity. “I was simply taken by surprise. It does seem a rather complicated enterprise.”
    “Not at all,” he assured me. “In fact, Bellmont has had a device for some weeks and says it is quite the most useful invention.”
    “Bellmont?” My pulses quickened. “Have you spoken with him recently?”
    Brisbane was skilled at cards, and with a gambler’s sense of timing, he did not pause for an instant. He merely lifted one broad shoulder into a shrug. “Not since the last dinner at March House. But Bellmont and I spoke at length about it then. Surely you heard us. And you were supposed to ask your Aunt Hermia to give you the recipe for the persimmon sauce she served with the duck that night. It was particularly good.”
    Brisbane’s lie had taken the warmth out of the room. I felt a chill seep into my bones, and when I spoke, it was through lips stiff with cold. “I am afraid I forgot. I will send a message to March House to ask her for it. We will have it when I return from the country,” I added, twisting my lips into a semblance of a smile. “I must see if Morag has finished the packing if I am to leave tomorrow,” I told him, turning towards the stairs.
    “Pity Lord Mortlake doesn’t have one of these,” he said, nodding to the device being fixed to the wall. “I would have been able to speak to you even in the country.”
    I silently blessed the fact that the expense of telephones had kept most of our acquaintances from their use. The last thing I needed was Brisbane telephoning the Mortlake country house only to find I had never arrived.
    I gave him a brilliant, deceitful smile. “A pity indeed, my love.”
     
     
    The next morning, I dispatched my trunk and Morag to the country with very specific instructions.
    “It will never work,” she warned me. “That Lady Mortlake might have less sense than a rabbit, but even she will notice a missing guest.”
    “Not if you do precisely as I