Garden of Lies(92)

“You saw Damian Cobb as heroic but in truth he was manipulating you.”

“I was a fool but I will never play that role again,” Valerie said.

“It was the chatelaine, wasn’t it? When Anne started wearing it you realized somehow that Cobb had sent it to her.”

“She wore the chatelaine to my house.” Valerie’s voice rose. “She pretended that a grateful client had given it to her but I knew the truth.”

“How?”

“I recognized the maker’s mark.” Tears of rage glittered in Valerie’s eyes. The gun in her hand shook violently. “Damian bought it at the same New York jewelry store where he purchased the brooch that he gave me.”

“Cobb gave you a gift of jewelry?”

Valerie reached into the pocket of her cloak and took out a small blue velvet pouch. She hurled it onto the desk.

“He told me to think of him whenever I wore it beneath my gowns,” she hissed. “I pinned it to my petticoats every day. Look at the mark on the back. Look at it.”

Ursula took the opportunity to move behind her desk, putting it between herself and Valerie. It wasn’t much in the way of a fortress but it was all that was available.

She picked up the velvet bag and turned it upside down. An exquisite little brooch tumbled out. She remembered the day that Valerie had come running toward her in the conservatory, skirts raised to her knees. There had been something small and glittery pinned to her petticoats.

Ursula examined the markings on the back of the brooch.

“You are correct,” she said. “It appears both items came from the same store. However, if it’s any consolation, I think we can safely say that your brooch cost considerably more than Anne’s chatelaine. But, then, Cobb would have known that if Anne showed up at the office wearing a fabulously expensive piece of jewelry, her colleagues as well as her clients would have asked a great many awkward questions.”

“I did not need to ask any questions,” Valerie spit out. “She flaunted that damned chatelaine in front of me. When I asked to take a closer look, she was only too happy to allow me to examine it. She gave me the same story she gave you—told me it was a gift from a grateful client. But when I saw the markings I knew for certain that she had betrayed me.”

“Did she know about your brooch?”

“No. I did not dare to wear it openly for fear that one of the servants would tell Fulbrook. He would know that he had not given me the brooch. But I wore it every day in secret.”

“How did you murder Anne?” Ursula asked. “You were never allowed to leave the house. You said the servants were always watching.”

“During the past few months I have become very expert with the drug. In some formulations, it can kill. I spent hours testing the poisonous version on mice and rats. I knew that Anne enjoyed the ambrosia and that she kept her supply in a perfume bottle that Rosemont gave her. She was a bit of an addict, I’m afraid. I instructed her to bring the bottle to me so that I could give her a sample of the latest version of the drug. I knew she would not be able to resist trying it.”

“You told yourself that with Anne dead, things would go back to the way they had been between you and Cobb.”

“He would realize that he needed me,” Valerie wailed. “I was the only one left who could give him the secrets of the ambrosia. And then you showed up, insisting on taking Anne’s place as my secretary.”

“Why did you let me do that?”

“Because I realized that you might have ulterior motives. Anne had often talked about how smart you were, how you had reinvented yourself after a great scandal. She said she had left everything to you. I started to wonder if she had left the secrets of the ambrosia to you, as well.”

“I made you nervous so you decided to contact the reporter who ruined my reputation two years ago.”

“Anne told me about him and his newspaper. I explained to Fulbrook that you might be dangerous. He agreed we had to be cautious when it came to getting rid of you because if you turned up dead, Slater Roxton was bound to cause trouble. I gave my husband the idea of exposing you to the journalist, Otford. I was certain that he would smear your name in the gutter press. I thought that would be the end of you—that Roxton would not want anything to do with you after he found out that you were involved in a great scandal. Then you could quietly drown yourself in the river.”

“Why did you come here to kill me? I had nothing to do with Anne’s connection to Damian Cobb.”

“You had everything to do with it.” Valerie used both hands to grip the gun. “You are the one who sent that whore into my home.”

“Anne and Cobb did not have a romantic connection. Anne wanted to become his business partner.”

“I don’t believe that, not for a moment. And even if it’s true, it doesn’t matter. They betrayed me. If it had not been for you, things would have ended the way they were supposed to end. I would be on my way to New York with Damian.”

“Cobb wanted you, not Anne,” Ursula said. “And I can prove it.”

The lie came with astonishing ease. Perhaps that was because she had gotten rather good at the business in the wake of the Picton divorce scandal, she thought. Or perhaps the words came quickly because she was desperate to distract Valerie.

Whatever the case, it worked. Valerie was visibly stunned.