The Other Lady Vanishes (Burning Cove #2)(74)

“The next question is, how did Gill know that Massey would agree to become part of the conspiracy?”

Adelaide stopped abruptly.

“The Duchess,” she whispered. “She’s the patient who insisted that I did not belong at Rushbrook. She helped me escape.”

Jake went very still. “Tell me about her.”

Adelaide turned to face him. “I never found out her real name. Everyone called her the Duchess because she claimed to be descended from an exclusive San Francisco family. It was probably true. Rushbrook was in the business of locking up the mentally ill relatives of wealthy families. The Duchess was not dangerous, but it was obvious that she was delusional.”

“In what way?”

“She acted as if Rushbrook was her own private country house. The other patients were houseguests. Because she was considered harmless, she had the run of the place and the grounds. She never left her room unless she was wearing a hat and gloves. In the dining room her manners were impeccable.” Adelaide smiled. “I loved that she referred to the orderlies and the nurses as servants. In her mind Gill was the butler. Ormsby was a handyman.”

“That explains why everyone called her the Duchess.”

“She was crazy but harmless. For the most part she lived in her own world and she seemed happy. She didn’t cause any trouble so the staff humored her. For some reason she took a particular interest in me right from the start. I often met up with her in the gardens when the orderlies escorted me on my daily walks. She would invite me to have a cup of tea with her. The orderlies didn’t care. They were bored with their jobs. I looked forward to those invitations to tea more than you can possibly know. When I had tea with the Duchess, I felt almost normal for a while.”

“Tea with a crazy woman in the gardens of an insane asylum.” Jake shook his head. “Sounds like a scene out of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

Adelaide smiled ruefully. “Yes, it does. But I considered the Duchess a friend. She, on the other hand, was convinced that I was a member of her family. A cousin. Once I tried to explain that we weren’t related but she got very upset so I never mentioned it again.”

“Did she realize that she couldn’t leave the mansion?”

“Oh, yes. In her own way she had arrived at a very clear understanding of her situation. She said that she could never leave the mansion because she was crazy. She explained that respectable families like ours had to keep their mentally unbalanced relations hidden away. It wouldn’t do to have other people knowing that there’s a streak of insanity in the bloodline.”

“Did she think that she had other relatives besides you at the asylum?”

“I asked her that from time to time. She always said no, that it was just the two of us. But she insisted that I didn’t belong there. She said it was fine for me to visit occasionally but that I must not stay there forever because I wasn’t crazy like her. She told me that it was high time I did my duty by the family.”

“What was your duty?”

Adelaide smiled. “I was supposed to go out into society and entertain on a proper scale. I was also instructed on my responsibility to beget a few heirs to the family fortune.”

“Did she ever say which family the two of you were supposedly descended from?” Jake asked.

“No. I asked that, too. She just winked and told me that I knew the answer and that we mustn’t mention the name of the family because the servants might overhear us. I’m sure her family came from San Francisco, though. She talked a lot about her past. It was clear she had grown up in the city.”

Jake turned thoughtful. “Conrad Massey’s family would certainly qualify as an old, established San Francisco family.”

Adelaide looked at him, startled. “You’re thinking that maybe I wasn’t the first person the Massey family had tucked away at the Rushbrook Sanitarium, aren’t you? That maybe the Duchess is a Massey relation?”

“That would certainly explain how Gill and Conrad Massey knew each other and how Gill might have been aware that Massey was desperate for money.”

“Yes, it would. It also explains why the Duchess took such a personal interest in me. She knew me as Adelaide Massey.”

“Massey is headed for bankruptcy, so it’s very likely that he was thinking of cutting a few corners in his financial affairs. Keeping a crazy relative tucked away in a high-class asylum is expensive. Maybe Massey told Gill he was going to stop paying the bills for the Duchess.”

“And Gill suggested a way that he could solve his financial problems?” Frustrated by the unknowns, Adelaide swept out her hands. “It’s all speculation at this point.”

“Which is why I agreed to meet Massey tonight,” Jake said. “We need whatever information he can provide.”

“I’m terrified that you’ll be walking into a trap.”

“Knowing it’s a trap gives me an edge.”

“How?”

“It allows me to set a trap of my own,” Jake said.

“Did you learn that sort of thing in the import-export business?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“In that case, I’d say it’s a very good thing you got out of that line—except that now you’re back in the business, aren’t you? All because of me.”