The Solitary House Read Online Free PDF Page A

Bucket’s long reach now, but Charles was alive and had to earn his bread somehow.
    “I am aware, of course,” continues Tulkinghorn, “of your family antecedents. Inspector Bucket was, I believe, something of a protégé of your great-uncle in his youth?”
    Charles nods. “He worked for him for a time, before joining the Detective, and I dare say he owes much of his subsequent success to my uncle’s methods. As, indeed”—this with the slightest bridling that the lawyer does not fail to register—“do I. Mr Maddox has been my teacher and mentor since I was a boy.”
    “Indeed so. And now you are a young man. A young man, moreover—or so I have been informed—of intellect and discretion. The matter I wish to discuss with you requires both qualities, but it is the latter that is my paramount concern.”
    “I understand.”
    Tulkinghorn eyes him. “Possibly you do. But I shall repeat the point nonetheless. Discretion in this case is all in all. My client in this affair is a man with an unimpeachable reputation. A man trusted with the confidential business of the highest in the land.”
    For one wild moment Charles thinks the lawyer is referring to himself, but Tulkinghorn has not finished.
    “You will have heard, I think, of Sir Julius Cremorne?”
    As Tulkinghorn is to the Law, so Cremorne is to High Finance. The latest in a long family line to head one of the City’s oldest and most astute merchant banks; a prime enabler of imperial trade, and lender of first resort to the country’s largest corporations. Even—it’s rumoured—an adviser to the Queen. Yes, Charles has heard of Sir Julius Cremorne, but he cannot begin to imagine what such a man could possibly want with him. His bafflement must be legible in his face, because Tulkinghorn gives the ghost of a smile. It is not an expression that finds an easy home on his impassive features.
    “The case is not, of itself, a taxing one,” the lawyer continues. “The need for discretion arises purely from Sir Julius’s rank and repute. In all other respects it is utterly trivial. But it must, nonetheless, be resolved, and with dispatch. I am afraid, Mr Maddox, that there will always be those who seek to besmirch eminent men for their own nefarious purposes. I have seen it happen many times before. The more spotless the family credit, the more zealous such villains seem to be to compromise it.”
    “I see,” says Charles, who does not, quite. “Perhaps you could—?”
    “Of course. You will want details. It is in the nature of your profession.”
    A noise. So low as to be almost inaudible—little more than the slightest creak of the ancient boards, but Charles is suddenly alert. Is it possible that there is someone else in the room? He’d noticed the elaborate Oriental screen when he came in, and thought in passing that it sat rather oddly with the austerity of the rest, but he had not suspected its role might be more than decorative.
    “Sir Julius,” continues Mr Tulkinghorn, looking at Charles from under his bent grey brows, “has been receiving letters. Very unpleasant letters.”
    “Letters of a threatening nature?”
    Tulkinghorn considers. “Nothing specific. Merely the expression of a vague but undeniably malevolent intent.”
    Charles frowns. “But as you said yourself, it cannot be the first time that Sir Julius has been harassed in a similar way. Why should this particular example concern him so much?”
    Tulkinghorn places the tips of his fingers together. “Sir Julius has always gone to extraordinary lengths to protect his wife and daughters from the less seemly consequences of his public position. In this endeavour he has, until very recently, been entirely successful. Unfortunately, the eldest Miss Cremorne is about to be married, and the house has, as a result, been thronged at all hours of the day by dressmakers, provisioners, flower-sellers, and I know not what. In short, there has been an unwarrantable breach on the part of one