CHAPTER TWENTY

‘Leverage? Against Mr Granville?’

    Mrs Possimer lowered herself back into her chair. Quipp also sat again.

    ‘I cannot go into details of the dispute, you understand,’ he said. ‘But my employer can be very...helpful to those who help him.’

    Mrs Possimer sniffed. ‘I am not a person who takes bribes, Mr...er...’

    Quipp stood again and bowed. ‘Quipp is the name, ma’am, Sebastian Quipp, but those who know me well call me Jim.’

    ‘Mr Quipp, as I said, I am not...’

    ‘Heaven forefend, Mrs Possimer!’ Quipp said quickly. ‘I would never suggest such a thing in a lady of your station.’

    He sat down again.

    ‘But permit me to observe,’ he continued. ‘That were it not for Mr Granville you would not now be forced into a position below your dignity, and I see that as a crying shame, for a lady of your worth.’

    ‘That was it!’ Mrs Possimer cried, leaning forward eagerly. ‘He did not know my worth.’

    She lifted a hand and patted her hair. That gesture spoke volumes to Quipp. Mrs Possimer had had expectations of Mr Granville, which had come to nought. Therefore, she might be bitter and willing to reveal all.

    ‘He was so charming at the beginning,’ she said, confirming his notion. Her expression turned sour. ‘And he was so beastly at the end.’

    ‘You have been badly done by, Mrs Possimer,’ Quipp said sympathetically. ‘I beg you to unburden yourself in a kindly ear. I am at your disposal.’

    ‘I don’t know where to begin,’ she said uncertainly.

    ‘Begin at the beginning,’ Quipp suggested gently. ‘That is always the best way. For instance, how long were you landlady at that lodging house?’

    ‘Oh, well over ten years,’ she said. ‘It was a thriving place then. Shoreditch is hardly an exclusive area, of course, but I kept a comfortable and clean place with a good table; very popular with commercial gentlemen, it was.’

    ‘And when did its fortunes change?’

    Mrs Possimer’s lip twisted with bitterness. ‘When Mr Granville bought the place from the former owner,’ she said. ‘Gradually things went down hill. He dismissed most of my staff, except the skivvy.’

    ‘How curious!’

    ‘Yes, Mr Quipp, it was,’ she agreed. ‘Mr Granville would not cough up for repairs. I could not keep the place up to scratch on my own. Business fell off until there were no lodgers at all.’

    ‘But you remained loyal,’ Quipp said gently.

    ‘Mr Granville was charming, as I said.’ Her eyes appeared to mist. ‘He seemed to want me to stay so I stayed, doing the best I could.’

    ‘But Sir Edward Wellesley was lodging there at the time of his death according to the broadsheets.’

    ‘Yes.’ Mrs Possimer licked her lips as though unsure she should say more.

    ‘How did that come about?’

    ‘Mr Granville brought him there one day, and said he must lodge. It seemed strange to me at the time for the old gentleman could rarely pay his rent. I complained to Mr Granville, but he told me not to trouble myself.’

    ‘Did Mr Granville pay much attention to Sir Edward?’

    ‘Oh, yes. He was back and fore all the time; taking the old gentleman to and from the Phoenix Club.’

    ‘That disreputable place?’ Quipp exclaimed in a shocked voice. ‘I have heard it is the lowest of the low.’

    Mrs Possimer put a handkerchief to her lips and nodded.

    ‘I believe the old gentleman suffered much loss because of it,’ she said. She gave Quipp a speculative look. ‘I’m afraid, Mr Quipp, my feminine side got the better of me and I became curious. I listened.’

    ‘One cannot blame you,’ he said encouragingly. ‘Any lady with your finer feelings would have done the same.’

    ‘Mr Granville seemed to want Sir Edward to part with something. The name Charnock Park was mention continually. I got the impression Mr Granville was urging him to sell.’

    ‘Ah!’ Quipp said.

    Mrs Possimer looked at him sharply.

    ‘That means something to you, Mr Quipp?’

    ‘It is very telling,’ Quipp said noncommittally. ‘Is there anything more?’

    ‘Yes, there is the woman.’

    ‘What woman? You don’t mean Sir Edward’s daughter.’

    ‘Oh, no, not her,’ Mrs Possimer answered dismissively. ‘One night Mr Granville brought a woman to see Sir Edward. Very beautiful and fashionable, she was; foreign to my way of thinking.’

    ‘You interest me, Mrs Possimer,’ he said eagerly. ‘Did you manage to...listen on that occasion?’

    Mrs Possimer’s cheeks turned slightly pink, but she did not seem to take offence.

    ‘The woman must have been trying the same trick as Mr Granville, because I heard Sir Edward call out. He said, unhand me woman. I will not yield to your feminine wiles.’

    Quipp sat silently, thinking deeply.

    ‘Mr Quipp, do you have what you came for?’ Mrs Possimer asked after several moments.

    ‘What?’ Quipp was roused from his musings. ‘Yes, yes, I think so,’ he said absently.

    His gaze reached into the far distance again.

    ‘You will be on your way, then,’ Mrs Possimer said pointedly.

    ‘Oh! Yes, of course.’ He stood and then paused. ‘Tell me, Mrs Possimer, did you catch the name of this beautiful lady.’

    ‘I heard Mrs Granville refer to her as Mrs Vallentine.’ She sniffed disdainfully yet there was a touch of poignancy in her expression. ‘I have no doubt she is his mistress, Mr Quipp.’

    ‘I believe you are right,’ he said. ‘Mrs Vallentine must be looked into.’

    ‘I wonder what his mistress thinks of his spoiled looks now,’ she said, her lips thinning.

    ‘You were present when he was attacked?’

    ‘Yes, it was the night Sir Edward died. A varmint named Jake came from the Phoenix Club to tell his daughter the news.’

    ‘His daughter was lodging here too?’

    ‘She took a room for the night,’ Mrs Possimer explained. ‘She was to return home in the morning.’

    ‘And Mr Granville came here to see her?’

    ‘Yes.’ Mrs Possimer’s face paled noticeably. ‘Oh it was shameful. I was in the passage outside, but there was nothing I could so.’

    ‘What happened?’

    Mrs Possimer’s glance slide away. ‘He was trying to persuade her to agree to marry him,’ she said almost in a whisper. ‘She refused and then he turned nasty, Mr Quipp. He tried to ravish her. She was crying out for me to come to her aid, but I was too frightened.’

    Quipp waited silently.

    ‘Then all of a sudden there was this dreadful shriek. I thought he had killed her. But she came out of the room and told me to fetch a surgeon. She had struck him with his own walking stick.’

    ‘One cannot blame her for defending her honour,’ Quipp said. ‘And one cannot blame you, dear Mrs Possimer. What could you have done, a woman alone?’

    ‘I did my best for him that night,’ Mrs Possimer went on. ‘I called a surgeon and his valet. They took him home and that was the last time I saw of him.’

    ‘You could not have done more,’ Quipp said.

    ‘You would think so, wouldn’t you?’ Mrs Possimer said bitterly. ‘But within the week a man came to the lodging house; a brute of a man with a battered face of a fighter. He told me to get out of the house by nightfall or face the consequences.’

    ‘Mr Granville had sent him?’

    ‘Yes. Word was spreading that a woman had scarred him, and he blamed me for the rumour. I was being punished.’ She looked appealingly at Quipp. ‘I swear I never breathed a word.’

    ‘You have been thrown out onto the streets unfairly,’ Quipp said. ‘But never fear. I believe your fortunes will change for the better quite soon.’

    Mrs Possimer gave a little sob but remained silent.

    Quipp rose to his feet making ready to leave. He was very pleased with his morning’s work.

    He took Mrs Possimer’s hand and raised it deferentially, bowing deeply to her as he did so.

    ‘You have been very gracious, Mrs Possimer,’ he said. ‘May I have the pleasure of calling on you again? As I said earlier, I may learn something to your advantage.’