The Other Lady Vanishes (Burning Cove #2)(66)

She heard the bleak resignation in his voice and understood.

“It sounds as if you had your fill of that game,” she said.

“I will admit that it was thrilling for a time. I was young and up for adventure and risk. I told myself that I was doing my patriotic duty.”

“You were.”

“I like to think so. But I got weary of living in the shadows.”

“Trust me, no one understands that better than me.”

“I know that now,” he said.

“Is Elizabeth’s family aware that she was murdered?” Adelaide asked. “Or do they believe the suicide story?”

“At first they were convinced that Elizabeth took her own life. They knew all about her strange temperament. At the funeral her father told me that she had attempted suicide on more than one occasion in the past. But, yes, now they know the truth.”

“What happened?”

“After Garrick fell off that gambling ship, someone contacted Elizabeth’s father anonymously to tell him that his daughter had been having an affair with a foreign spy and that she had been actively engaged in espionage against her own country. The blackmailer claimed to be in possession of Elizabeth’s diary.”

“How did you come to suspect that it was Zolanda who had it?”

“When I went through Elizabeth’s appointment calendar, I found the dates and times of her sessions with Zolanda. On one of them she had jotted down a reminder that the psychic had requested her to bring her diary to the appointment. There was some nonsense about using it to analyze the energy of Elizabeth’s dreams.”

“Elizabeth’s family will be ruined if the contents of that diary land in the headlines,” Adelaide said.

“Yes. An illicit liaison can be dealt with by a powerful clan like the New York Bentons. Affairs are routine in that world. But accusations and insinuations of espionage and treason would destroy the family.”

Adelaide caught her breath. “That’s why you’re so determined to recover the diary. You’re trying to protect Elizabeth’s family from scandal.”

“That’s part of it, but the truth is I have an obligation to do everything I can to find that damned diary. I was her husband. I didn’t protect her.”

“Stop it.” Adelaide shot to her feet, clutching the blanket at her breast. “Listen to me, you are not responsible for what happened to Elizabeth. You cannot save someone who does not want to be saved or who cannot muster the willpower to save herself. You could not fix her unstable temperament. Obviously she was obsessed with Peter Garrick. She was doomed because of that obsession. That was not your fault.”

Jake was quiet for a long moment. “I have to find that diary.”

“I know. Believe me, I do understand. Your sense of duty and honor and responsibility won’t allow you any other option. But you must not blame yourself for the situation that Elizabeth and Garrick created. That is another matter entirely. You are simply trying to clean up the mess they made. It’s a task you have undertaken and you will see it through because that is the kind of man you are. But you are not at fault.”

Jake fell silent again for a short time.

“I have never thought of things in quite that way,” he admitted after a while. “It’s all been tangled up in my mind from the moment I walked down those basement steps and found Elizabeth. I was planning to tell her that I wanted a divorce, you see. I knew it would look as if she had hanged herself because she was so unhappy in her marriage.”

“So you blamed yourself for that, as well. What did happen there at the end?”

“Elizabeth was not a very good spy. She simply wasn’t interested in me or my business connections. All she cared about was Garrick, but she never managed to give him anything that he considered useful. When she got bored and restless with the role he had assigned to her, she became a liability as far as he was concerned. He finally concluded that she was more of a liability than an asset.”

“It’s all so sad,” Adelaide said. She became aware of the chill in the room. She pulled the blanket more securely around her shoulders and moved to stand in front of the dying fire. “Thank you for telling me about Elizabeth and the diary. It makes it easier to understand what we’re dealing with.”

Jake got to his feet and came to stand behind her. “You have a right to the whole story. I should have told you sooner.”

“You had every reason to be careful about confiding in me. After all, I’m an escapee from a lunatic asylum.”

“No,” Jake said. “You escaped from a gang of criminals holding you against your will and using you in experiments that involved dangerous drugs.”

Adelaide watched the flames. “It’s as if we are stuck in a spider’s web. Everyone who blunders into it gets caught: you and me, Madam Zolanda, Thelma Leggett—even Dr. Ormsby.”

“The doctor who worked in the Rushbrook lab?”

“Yes. I hated him but I honestly don’t think he cared about selling the drug—he was obsessed with his research.”

“Did he or the others ever figure out that you had made an antidote to Daydream?”

“No. Believe me, I kept that secret.”

“Good.”

“What are you thinking?” Adelaide said.