Chapter Three

The next day, there was no word from Stephen by eleven, which was when Crane called on Leonora Hart.

Leo Callas had been a coltish fifteen-year-old when he'd first met her, nearly two decades ago. Her father had been a trader, her mother long dead. She had run wild in the Shanghai streets, trading halls and merchant palaces all her life, and could curse in English, Spanish and Shanghainese with as much fluency as any of the young men around her. At seventeen she had abruptly blossomed into beauty and, armed with her father's fat purse, had been set to go to London and become a Success. Instead, to everyone's astonishment except Lucien Vaudrey's, she had at eighteen eloped with Tom Hart, a silk trader of forty-two years, dubious reputation, and no appeal at all to her father.

Lucien Vaudrey had been unsurprised because she had confided her elopement plans to him, and in fact he and Merrick had taken on the slightly unconventional groomsmen roles of overpowering the gatekeepers at the Callas compound to let Leo out that night.

He had played his part without hesitation, because Tom had been kind to him in a life that had been very bare of kindness, and because he was twenty-two and barely expected to last to twenty-three. By the time he was old enough that he might have regretted his role in such an obviously disastrous match, it had become clear that Tom and Leonora were two halves of a soul.

Tom Hart had died some eight years ago, of a heart attack. Leonora had been almost deranged with grief, starving herself, drinking too much, acting in a way that shocked even the least shockable.

There was no trace of that wild, crazed widow now, any more than of the tomboyish girl. Leonora Hart was a very lovely woman at thirty-four. She was tall and curvaceous, with rich black hair and striking brown eyes, high cheekbones, and skin dark enough to seem exotic without raising too many whispers about mixed parentage. She was wearing silk in a shade of dull orange that was a perfect foil for her autumnal eyes, beautiful, elegant, sophisticated. She looked wildly out of place in the conventionally overdecorated drawing room of her aunt's house, where she had been staying for the last two months.

"Leo, darling, you look magnificent," said Crane, sweeping her hand to his lips.

She pulled him into a hug. "You rotten aristo. First you become a peer, now you're playing the gentleman. What's next, Lady Crane and some chicks?"

"Good God, don't say such things. Anyway, isn't it you who's nesting? Why did I not know about this?"

"Oh sweet heaven." Leonora rolled her eyes. "I suppose you've seen The Times . I could have shaken Eadweard."

"But you are engaged?"

"Yes. Well—we are, but it wasn't supposed to come out yet."

"Why on earth not?"

Leonora gestured to a pair of chairs and sat. She leaned in to him, and he mimicked her, knowing that the English cousins she lived with were far too respectable for her liking. He wasn't surprised when Leonora spoke in Shanghainese.

"I like Eadweard very much. I want to marry him. I really do." Leonora knitted her fingers together. "You understand why I married Jan Ahl, don't you?"

"Because it was exactly a year after Tom died, and you'd been drunk for the best part of a week, and in bed with Ahl for much of that, and marrying him was one alternative to killing yourself, although not the best one."

"I love you for your kindness, Lucien," Leo said wryly. "But you do understand. Because you knew Tom, and you knew what we had, and you know how I grew up, and how things are back home. It's not like that here."

"That it isn't."

"And Eadweard's not like Tom," Leonora went on. "I don't suppose I could love him if he was. He's—he's righteous. Do you know what I mean? He doesn't lie. He has high standards and lives by them. He would never let me down, never do a dishonest thing."

"You're right. He's not like Tom."

"No." Leo grinned reminiscently. "Tom was the most lawless man I ever knew. He always said he never let a friend down—"

"But sometimes people didn't know they weren't friends any more until it was too late."

"Hah! Yes. And, I loved Tom, but I'm older now and I've been alone for so long and…Eadweard's a truly good man, and I respect that. I don't suppose you know what I mean about righteousness, but—"

"An honesty that's basically untouchable. Someone who will break before he bows. There's a sort of purity to it. Yes, I know the appeal."

"Well," Leo said. "That's the problem."

"Blaydon does know about Hart, doesn't he?"

"Of course. That is, I haven't gone into too much detail. He thinks Tom was a scoundrel just for eloping with me, so I certainly wouldn't tell him about his business dealings."

"And what does he think about Ahl?"

"I haven't told him."

Crane digested that for a moment. "You haven't told your fiancé about your second husband."

"No."

"You have told him you had a second husband?"

"No."

"Because…"

"Because I slept with Ahl before we married, and I married him while I was drunk, and when he hit me, I had him beaten half to death and thrown on a ship to nowhere, and then I divorced him in his absence. And every single part of that would revolt Eadweard, and even if I didn't tell him any of it…" She took a deep breath. "He doesn't approve of divorce. Not for the best reasons, conducted in the best way."

Crane wasn't entirely convinced that Leonora's divorce was legal at all, done as it had been by a few words from a friendly and inebriated magistrate. "Leo, are you sure this engagement is a good idea?"

"Yes. He doesn't have to know. It was a mistake, it's done with."

"Alright. So why are you worried about the announcement in the papers? Either Ahl is out of your life or he's not. You haven't heard from him, have you?"

"No, no." Leo sounded dismissive, but there was a thin line of worry between her brows. "No. He's not the trouble."

"So what is?"

Leonora looked away, and the truth dawned on Crane like the morning of an execution.

"Leo, have you by any chance had a visit from Theodore Rackham recently?"

She spun back to face him. "How did you— Oh God, not you too?"

"He came to see me yesterday."

"Oh, damn him. The little shit." Leonora bit her lip, worry in her eyes. "You have to be careful, Lucien, this ridiculous country will put you in prison without a thought. What are you going to do? Have you paid him?"

"Have I hell. I told him to fuck off. I always said I'd leave this damned island in a heartbeat rather than submit to blackmail. And I would…"

Leo looked narrowly at him. "But?"

Crane sighed. "But someone else is involved."

"Your righteous man?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, please, Lucien, I do listen to you." She shook her head, mercurial mood changing, and the conspiratorial grin he knew so well lit up her face. "Go on, tell me. Who is he? Can I meet him? Is he handsome? How long has this been going on? He's not married, is he? Are you in love?"

"Calm down, woman," said Crane, laughing. "Er…that's hard to explain, no, not precisely handsome but very appealing, about four months, not married, and…I enjoy his company. I'd call him a just man, rather than a righteous one, incidentally."

"Interesting distinction. Does Merrick like him?"

"Very much. Likes him, respects him, and is just a little bit scared of him."

" Really ." Leonora sat up straight. "What kind of man scares Merrick?"

"A just one, of course. You'd like him, Leo. Rackham, however, doesn't, and has threatened to destroy him unless I pay up."

That quenched the brief spurt of laughter in Leonora's eyes. "Can he?"

"Possibly. I need to talk to him. My lover, not Rackham. So what's he threatening you with?"

"He said he'd tell Eadweard everything. About Ahl and that week before I married him. He said he'll tell Eadweard I'm not divorced, and you know, it will be dreadfully hard to prove I am, and even if I do… Eadweard doesn't believe in it, he thinks that what God has joined, men should not put asunder. I know he loves me, but I think he'll leave me if he finds out all this."

"You could just deny it all."

"I could try, but…well, if he started looking… It would destroy everything. He wouldn't trust me again." Her eyes were wide with hurt at the thought.

"No, probably not." Crane felt a momentary sympathy for the absent Blaydon. "You know, Leo, the proper course at this point would be to confess everything. Either Blaydon will forgive it all and you're happy forever, or he won't but you'll both know where you stand."

"No." Her voice was flat. "I shan't. I don't see that I deserve to have my chance at a new life spoiled by something that, honestly, thousands of other people do every day. Why should I live as a nun because I made a mistake seven years ago? How often did you get drunk and wake up in someone's bed? What about that warlord?"

"Don't remind me. I'm not arguing, but I'm not Blaydon either. And it won't be any better if he finds out after you're married."

"That's why I wanted to wait," Leo said. "But Eadweard doesn't want to. He wants children. I've told him I never could with Tom but he's willing to take the chance."

"Good for him. What exactly were you hoping this wait would achieve? How is this going to go away?"

She gave a little helpless shrug. "I don't know . I don't know what to do."

"How much have you paid Rackham?"

"Three hundred pounds, last week. He wants more. He sent a note this morning saying he'd call tomorrow. He must have seen that damned notice."

"Hmm." Crane frowned. "He asked me for five thousand."

" How much?"

"And…Merton's dead, did you hear? Last week."

"Good."

"Yes, Leo, but he killed himself. And if anyone was susceptible to blackmail it would be him."

"Oh," Leonora said slowly. "So…Rackham killed the goose that laid the golden egg, and now he's looking for more geese?"

"Or, he needs a lot of money fast. He's given me till Friday to come up with the five thousand."

"Someone's on his back. Gambling debts? Opium debts?"

"My thoughts exactly."

Leo's dark eyes met his. "Can you find out who he owes?"

"I'm getting Merrick onto it this afternoon."

"What are you thinking of?"

"Offering him passage on a boat and a fat purse. If he's under the cosh, he might jump at a chance to get away."

Leonora looked dubious. "What if it's the kind of people you can't escape?"

"We'll find out. Don't worry, Leo. Stall him if you can, pay him if you can't. I'll have him dealt with one way or the other in the next two days."

"And…what about the other way?" asked Leonora.

There was a short silence. Crane said, "I don't know."

"I know what Tom would have done."

"So do I. And I've considered it. I even told him I'd send Merrick after him. But I don't think I could explain to—my just man—that I'd set up a murder, Leo. I don't think I'd want to try."

"Is it murder to kill a blackmailer?"

"Maybe not," Crane said. "Not if you're desperate. I'm not desperate yet."