Free Murder at the Mikado by Julianna Deering Page A

close to him. “No, I don’t expect you will. But I hope it needn’t be a great bother to you.”
    “What is it?”
    He took a steadying breath and then gave her a bright smile. “I told Landis I’d look into the Ravenswood case for him.”
    “You mean for Fleur.” There was a sudden tightness in her expression, a spark of anger in her eyes.
    He squeezed her hand. “No, darling, for him. Mr. Landis. It’s understandable, isn’t it? A man wouldn’t want his wife to be in a jam like this. Certainly he would do all he could to get her out of it.” He stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. “I know I would, if it were my wife under suspicion.”
    She seemed to soften a bit, but then her mouth tightened. “I thought you weren’t going to have anything more to do with her.”
    “I’m not.”
    “Then why did you tell him you would try to clear her? Why did you even go talk to him about it?”
    “Please try to understand, Madeline. I merely went to give him a little advice on how to deal with the chief inspector and to recommend our solicitor. I was going to turn him down if he asked me to help. I did turn him down, in point of fact. I told him exactly what I told her, that I couldn’t help him. Then, well, he told me more about their little boy and how neither of them would much like it if she were taken away from them.”
    “What does that have to do with you?”
    He was silent for a time, wondering how much to tell her.
    “She asked me to forgive her,” he said at last, “and I realized that, after all these years, I never had.”
    He looked into her eyes, pleading for her understanding, and after a taut moment, she sighed and pulled away from him.
    “Okay, I agree. You ought to forgive her, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay in touch with her.”
    “I’m not staying in touch. I’m simply looking into a case for her husband. For a good man who works for my company.”
    “Why?”
    “We talked not too long ago about the possibility that investigating certain cases might be what I was meant to do with my life. To help people who needed it, people in a jam who didn’t know where to turn for help.” He took her hand in his. “I thought you agreed with me.”
    “I did. I do. It’s just—”
    “If she were a complete stranger, I would try to help her. If I’ve forgiven her, why shouldn’t I help her now? I suppose . . .” He searched her face. “Part of it is this thing with my mother. It’s been four months since I found out I’d been mistaken about Constance all my life, that someone else was my real mother. I thought it wouldn’t matter really, but it does. I just . . . I don’t want Landis’s boy to wonder his whole life about his mother.” He let out a slow breath. “You’re angry with me, aren’t you?”
    She shook her head, not looking at him, but she tried to pull her hand away. He held it more tightly.
    “Madeline.”
    “I . . . I don’t know what to think. I want you to know about your mother, of course. If it’s important to you. But I don’t know why that means you have to help Fleur.”
    “Are you angry with me for agreeing to help her or because she exists at all?”
    She looked at him, her forehead wrinkled. “I suppose I ought to forgive her, too.” She laughed under her breath. “Until a few days ago I didn’t even know she existed. And now, knowing how she treated you, knowing that she . . .” She broke off, refusing to say whatever else she was thinking.
    “It was all a very long time ago, darling. Oughtn’t we both to let it go?”
    There was something distant and dark in her expression. “I can’t stand even the thought of her.”
    “Poor darling.” He kissed her temple. “If Landis weren’t such a grand chap, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have considered helping Mrs. Landis, either. What a pair of reprobates we are, eh?”
    After a long pause, she said, “Maybe that’s the point of this whole thing, Drew, helping anyone who