Chapter Fourteen

R adiance had actually been asking Mr. Minton whether he minded her interrogating him, but Mr. Lockwood had intercepted her request. Nevertheless, she wanted to show the older jeweler, a man of enough age that he must have spent decades working his craft, the respect he deserved.

Even if he was a forger and a thief!

“Mr. Minton, I am sorry we cannot procure you a pint of ale.”

Mr. Lockwood made a sound of exasperation, but she ignored him.

“When the gemstone was switched, was that the first time you had cleaned the Queen’s brooch?”

“Young lady, I did not switch the stone. And no, at my age, there is not a first time left for much, except being put in jail. I have cleaned the brooch before upon occasion.”

Her heart pained for the man. “Are you married?”

Mr. Minton nodded. “I am. My wife visits regularly. Luckily, I have been employed long enough that she shall not become a watercress-seller or, worse, a matchstick beggar.” Then he sighed loudly.

“They never let Mrs. Minton bring in any lokum or Pontefract cakes, my two favorite sweets. She tries, but they take it from her. The blackguards!”

Radiance glanced at Mr. Lockwood. Seeing his golden eyes already locked on her, she experienced a shivery tingle along her spine. Straightening, she directed her words at him rather than at the jeweler.

“If Mr. Minton has cleaned the brooch before without mishap, why would anyone believe he suddenly acted out of character?”

“I don’t know,” Mr. Lockwood replied. “The Palace must have had reason and some proof.”

“They had no proof,” the old jeweler insisted, “because I didn’t do anything apart from clean the blessed piece, and now I wish I had never touched it.”

“Who asked you to perform the cleaning?” she asked.

“My employer, Mr. Garrard. Often, he or Mr. Robert Garrard would have done it personally, but they had other business.”

“Other business?” Radiance considered the task. “What could have been more important than handling the Queen’s jewels?”

“Indeed, I have no idea.”

She looked again at Mr. Lockwood, seeing he also thought it strange. Surely, being asked to clean Queen Victoria’s jewelry was an honor.

“How did you get the brooch?”

Mr. Minton stared at her. “I don’t take your meaning, my lady.”

“Who gave it to you?”

“Mr. Garrard directly. He’s the Crown Jeweler, after all.”

Mr. Lockwood unfolded his arms. “Were you the only one in the room when you cleaned it?”

“I feel as if I’m on trial again,” Mr. Minton complained.

“The Crown Jeweler is considered above reproach,” Mr. Lockwood said to the unfortunate jeweler. “That leaves only you.”

“Only me.” Mr. Minton had a coughing fit before adding, “I have never done anything remotely against the law, except record a dodgy number of windows in order to lessen my city tax.”

Radiance felt sorry for the man and for Mrs. Minton. And she had no doubt as to his innocence. No one had ever seemed less like an arch rogue who had time to —

She caught herself. Time!

“Even if Mr. Minton did replace the sapphire with a spinel,” she began.

“Which I didn’t,” Mr. Minton insisted under his breath.

“That does not explain how he had the means to make a perfect replication of it. Did the judge believe he had produced a perfect fake from memory?”

Mr. Lockwood shook his head. “I believe the court thought Mr. Minton would give up the name of someone else who did have the means. Someone who would have given him the replica already made with the instructions to replace it during the cleaning and return the real one to the counterfeiter.”

“I could snitch on no one,” the old jeweler said, “since I have no knowledge of any crime. Thus, they had only me to convict.”

“And no one else put hands upon the brooch apart from you and the Crown Jeweler?” Mr. Lockwood asked.

“And the footman,” Mr. Minton added.

“Which footman?” Mr. Lockwood asked.

“The one who picked up the brooch.”

“Lord Exeter didn’t collect it himself?” Radiance asked, thinking it strange that the Lord Chamberlain would send someone.

“Exeter? You mean Lord Breadalbane, my lady. And he always sent a footman.”

She ignored his mistake over who the current Lord Chamberlain was. “By chance do you know the footman’s name?” Radiance asked.

“Absolutely no chance at all.”

At her astonished look, Mr. Minton added, “He was sent by the Lord Chamberlain, and he had a paper with the royal seal. ‘ By the grace of God, Queen of the Britains, Defender of the Faith, ’ and all such. That was good enough for me.”

A brief knock heralded the return of the guard an instant before the door swung open.

“That’s all the time you have,” the tall, stern man said, eyeing Radiance before looking at the prisoner. “Come along, Minton.”

In a few minutes, she was outside again with Mr. Lockwood, breathing the sooty air of London.

“He’s not guilty,” Radiance said.

Her companion stopped in his tracks as they reached her carriage. “How can you say that with such certainty?”

She had no proof, only a feeling. “I simply believe he’s innocent. Did you think him a man of cunning?”

They settled into her father’s comfortable carriage before he answered.

“Honestly, no. I wouldn’t have thought him to be anything but a slightly grumpy old man.”

“I would be grumpy, too, if I was put in jail unjustly. But the absence of guilt is hard to prove.”

She glanced at the book Sarah was consuming, with all its deception, dirty deeds, and machinations.

“Perhaps someone wanted Mr. Minton to be blamed. Someone who knew he wouldn’t be able to clear his name since there were no witnesses to him not doing the crime.”

Mr. Lockwood looked thoughtful, and Radiance couldn’t deny she liked everything about him so far. Every lock of chestnut brown hair, every well-shaped muscle she’d glimpsed through his white shirt when he’d answered his door in a state of wonderfully enlightening undress, and every flash of his topaz-colored eyes. She even appreciated his current pensive expression.

“A limited number of people have access to the Queen’s jewels. And each one would have been thoroughly questioned.”

Radiance wasn’t satisfied. “We must speak privately to Mr. Garrard.”

Her handsome geologist gave her his first dimpled smile of the day, and her body tingled with awareness.

“You have a good head for this,” he remarked.

And you have an extremely attractive one, she thought.

“Thank you,” Radiance said demurely. “I understand the matter is serious, but I confess to finding the whole thing if not entertaining, then a welcome diversion. The notion of investigating such an important theft, and perhaps resolving it, is better than what I would normally be doing.”

“Which is?”

Radiance squirmed. He already knew she attended lectures and dabbled in the craft of jewelry-making at Mr. Bonwit’s. What else could she tell him?

“Everyday life, I suppose. I sometimes look after my elder siblings’ children. I keep a journal of the day’s events. I ride. I go to parties and to dances.” She left it at that, unable to admit how lately she had found herself lost in pleasant daydreams of becoming his wife or, at the very least, being his partner at a ball. She would very much like to be encircled by his strong arms and feel his hands upon her.

“Is traipsing along, even to Buckingham Palace, and meeting with musty old jewelers in prison more to your liking, my lady?” he asked. “You won’t find a suitable husband hanging around with me.”

That stung a little. Was he purposefully warning her off?

“Did I say I was in search of a husband? Or even in need of one, for that matter?” Radiance wished her tone hadn’t gone from jovial to waspish. Mr. Lockwood would know he had struck a chord she didn’t wish him to play. Or more precisely, a chord she did wish he would think about playing. Sadly, so far, he hadn’t shown a modicum of interest in her as a female.

He put up his gloved hands to ward off her words.

“No need to get in a tweague, Lady Radiance. My sister always has a man on her mind, and she is about your age, I warrant. I wrongly assumed you, too, had an interest in marrying. If you are happy as a single lady, perhaps living your life in an independent fashion like a blue-stocking, then that is your choice. And I no more judge it to be a bad one than I applaud it as a good one.”

Radiance cringed. Now he thought her a prude who didn’t want to be with a man. She decided to set him straight at once.

“I do wish to be a wife someday. And not in the far-distant future, either. I have seen my two elder sisters and my brother make successful marriages.”

He nodded. “A strange topic we have strayed upon. Undoubtedly too intimate for our association.”

She looked at her hands in her lap, feeling a little dejected. And they were almost at her door. Then she had an idea.

“I am attending a ball at the end of the week. Perhaps you are going as well, sir?”

“Unlikely,” he said, “since I have not been invited to any upcoming events.” He laughed. “Not for the rest of the year.”

Gracious! She eyed him. No invitations at all. Why, he was practically a pariah. Radiance brightened as an idea came to her.

“Then I shall invite you to come as my escort.”

He frowned, and the carriage rocked to a halt. “Why would you do that?”

Oh dear! Didn’t he have the smallest inclination to spend time with her apart from their common interest in gemstones?

“In order for us to ... to spend time discussing Mr. Minton.” Radiance nearly rolled her eyes at her own nonsense. “It seems you think the prosecutors were hoping for him to give them the real forger on a platter. Maybe we can come up with a few ideas of whom that might be.”

To her amazement, he nodded. “Very well. Shall I collect you at your home? And will the attentive Sarah come, too?”

Radiance wasn’t certain of the answer to either of those questions. But her heart was pounding with excitement. She was going to a ball with Mr. Lockwood as her escort. How delightful!

“I will send the details to your home tomorrow,” she said, just before the driver opened the carriage door.

Mr. Lockwood descended. “I look forward to it, my lady.”

“And you won’t go conducting any investigating in the meantime without me?” she asked.

He tilted his head. “I cannot promise that. Something may arise —”

“Then send word, and I shall accompany you.”

“We’ll see,” he said. “In any case, I am glad you came. Always better to have another pair of eyes and ears, even if we didn’t learn much.”

“We should go see his former employer next,” Radiance reminded him. Hating to beg, yet desperately wanting to remain a part of whatever was unfolding, she added, “Please do not go without me.”

He shrugged. “I shall endeavor to keep you involved.”

She supposed that was as good a promise as she was going to receive from him.