Epilogue

I had asked Brodie if there would be any justice in the murders of Charlotte Mallory and Elizabeth Cameron.

He knew better than most that the answer to that depended on several things, and in the end, it was difficult to know whether justice would be served at all, with those responsible now dead.

The Metropolitan Police was contacted the morning after we returned from Queen's Dock, with a full report provided by Brodie on the events of that evening.

The bodies were retrieved, including those of Simon Harris and the man who had carried out his scheme all these years later, Edward Carney.

Lily had recovered from her ordeal, as she had from other things in her young life. Having lived on the streets as a child, she accepted that she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time when she was abducted, and merely a tool for Harris's revenge scheme.

Taking her had been the means to send Brodie and me a very strong message, that ‘ we should not have interfered.' However, we had. If not, Charlotte Mallory and Elizabeth Cameron's murderer might never have been known. Lily felt that she had done the right thing in ‘hiring' Brodie and me to find Charlotte's murderer.

It provided some sort of closure for her. Yet, it was small consolation for the loss of a friend.

The web of lies and deceptions spread wider, all the way back to the murder of Amelia Harris five years earlier.

A lover's quarrel to be certain, that had ended badly, when she was killed in a fit of rage by Gerald Ormsby, well-placed in society to be certain. He had counted on his family position to escape prison, possibly even a sentence of death.

Sir Mallory most certainly played his part in the lie. He arranged for the sole witness to the murder to conveniently disappear with a very lucrative payment for the man's silence. Without a witness, Judge Cameron was persuaded to drop the charges against him and Gerald Ormsby escaped the hangman. For a little while.

In the weeks that followed that horrific murder, Simon Harris's wife passed on from a weak heart, weakened further by the death of their only child.

The loss of both set in motion a plan for Simon Harris's revenge against those he held responsible for his daughter's murder, and then the failure of the law to bring Gerald Ormsby to justice.

Only days after he buried his wife, a mysterious fire reduced a good portion of the vast Harris Import warehouse to burnt timbers and ash. The rumor began almost immediately, aided by Mr. Carney, that Simon Harris had perished in the fire.

Whether it was intentional or the result of a man stricken with grief, the story persisted and Simon Harris, badly injured and disfigured in the fire, used it for his own purpose.

The timbers in the warehouse had barely cooled when Gerald Ormsby was killed in what was described at the time as a riding accident in Hyde Park. There were rumors that someone might have caused the accident by startling Ormsby's horse. No one was ever named.

Simon Harris then set up a new enterprise with funds withdrawn from the bank by Carney. The trust had been set up the day after his wife's death, and made it possible for Carney to make purchases from smugglers, then turn around and sell at a profit from Queen's Dock with the coastal guard none the wiser.

A very lucrative enterprise indeed.

Yet, Harris had only just begun. It was discovered in papers found in a small flat very near Queen's Dock, that he had Carney follow both Charlotte Mallory and Elizabeth Cameron for weeks.

He learned their habits, their daily routines, their circle of friends. And then he set his plan in motion—to take from Sir Mallory and Judge Cameron what had been taken from him—their daughters, in an insane need for revenge for death of his daughter.

But that was only the beginning. The wider circle of his web of lies was meant to also include those who had played a direct part in setting Gerald Ormsby free—Sir Mallory, Judge Cameron, and a man who was a young law clerk at the time, Charlotte's fiancé, Daniel Eddington.

It was impossible to know for certain if Charlotte was aware of Daniel's part in that earlier scheme. She knew about the payment that had been made to Johnathan Walmsley, but had chosen not to believe it, according to the note intended for Mrs. Walmsley that was found in her handbag.

That was something Daniel Eddington would have to live with, as would her father and Judge Cameron.

As for legal consequences, Brodie admitted that it would be difficult to bring charges against any of them, with the victims and both Harris and Carney now dead.

"Perhaps it is enough that they have to live with the consequences of their actions, knowing that brought about their daughters' deaths," he had suggested.

I was most careful in how I explained all of this to Lily. Charlotte had been her friend and she felt that loss deeply, although she tried to pretend otherwise.

With bruises fading, hers and mine, it seemed that we would be able to attend my sister's wedding without causing too much of a stir.

It was to be a small, intimate affair at Sussex Square just before Christmas, a double celebration that included the holiday, with only a hundred guests after my sister put her foot down.

Our great-aunt had originally planned for over twice that number. She was already making plans for a New Year celebration the week after for the hundred or so who would not be attending the wedding.

As the day drew closer, Lily had her final fitting for that new gown. I accompanied her for my own fitting.

Afterward we invaded Harrod's. I called it an invasion, as it took hours, with time spent in each department before Lily decided on a wedding gift for my sister and James Warren

"What do ye think?" she asked. "Will they like it?"

‘It' was a glass table ornament, a foot-tall, remarkable glass elephant, reminiscent of our safari in Africa months earlier.

I thought it was magnificent.

"Absolutely," I announced. My sister had wanted to accompany us on safari; however, she was in the throes of pre-wedding planning after Mr. Warren proposed.

I tried to convince her that the ‘pre ' part of the wedding planning fell far short of the ‘ after' wedding part of all of it.

"Good heavens, Mikaela. Surely you are not talking about...that."

That was precisely what I was talking about. From what I heard about that first go-round of marriage, as Brodie would call it, that part of it had been disappointing for her to say the least.

"Not to worry," she assured me. " That is quite marvelous."

She did have the ability to surprise me from time to time.

Rupert had settled into his after-inquiry status in the alcove with a new bed. I thought he deserved it. Although Mr. Cavendish was in doubt.

"You'll spoil him, you will. It's bad enough that he goes lookin' for Mrs. Ryan's cakes every time you come to the office."

As for Brodie and the approaching wedding, I accompanied him to the tailor's shop for his final fitting of a new suit. To say it had taken some persuasion was a mild understatement. He preferred his serviceable black coat and trousers or the costume he wore when out on the street, both quite unacceptable for a formal wedding.

"I canna see spending money for something I will only wear once," he had grumbled, with a narrow eye on the establishment as we arrived.

"And I willna wear a man's corset!"

Corset? I could personally attest to the fact that he did not need one.

While it was not customary for a wife or other woman to accompany a man to his tailor, it was the only way I could persuade Brodie. I waited in the salon while he was being fitted for the final time before the wedding, which was then three days away.

As we had no inquiry cases at present, I was making notes for my next book when he appeared in the private salon. To say that he was quite an admirable figure of a man was an understatement.

The suit was black with stripes on the grey wool pants, a gray satin vest, and white silk shirt, with a gray cravat. And the man in it glowered at me.

"I willna wear the bloody cravat. It's a nuisance."

At moments like this I had learned to ignore the glower as if nothing was amiss. I did have to admit though, that he cut a stirring figure. And I couldn't resist.

"Oh, my," I said, as I set aside my notebook.

"That is all ye have to say in the matter? The bloody thing is too tight."

"Let me loosen it for you."

That dark gaze met mine.

"The cravat," he reminded me.

I smiled. Of course.

It was quite remarkable that the wedding occurred three days later without a hiccup. The bride was radiant, the groom was quite handsome, and the celebration went into the evening.

Afterward, I thought I heard the strains of the piano in the small salon. I found Lily there.

"Chopin?" I commented as I sat beside her on the piano bench.

"Miss Charlotte said that if I practiced every day, I might be as good as she was. But I dinna think so."

"I was never very good either," I said with considerable empathy.

"Ye dinna need to be. Yer an author, and a good one, Mr. Warren says. I canna imagine writing a book, or playing a full..."

"Concerto?" I reminded her of the word.

"That's what Miss Charlotte called it."

"I believe it's important to do what you are good at," I told her. "And not worry about the rest of it."

"I ken that one song that I learnt at The Church," she had replied. "But it's probably not right for a wedding."

I remembered it well and couldn't resist.

"Oh, I think it would be perfect."

She hardly needed encouragement and immediately plunged into a tune that was best described as bawdy.

As I joined her, I caught sight of Brodie standing in the doorway of the salon in his Saville Row suit, quite dashing in spite of earlier complaints. That dark gaze met mine as Lily and I sang together.

"There was a girl from Halifax who went about in her garters;

She charged six pence for just a look, and more to share her quarters!"