Free Caught in the Light by Robert Goddard Page A

I'm at liberty to explain."
    "Not at liberty? I love this woman, Miss Sanger, and she loves me. We agreed to leave our spouses for each other when we came back from Vienna. And I went through with it. I left my wife for her. Then ... something went wrong."
    "She vanished?"
    "Yes."
    "Leaving you with no clues to her whereabouts?"
    "None. Except... her husband's name: Jose. And an implication that they lived in some sort of ancestral country residence."
    "Gaunt's Chase?"
    "She never identified it. I was led to Tollard Rising by a postcard of the church, sent to me anonymously. By Marian, I think."
    "Do you have the envelope?"
    "Yes." I took it out of my pocket and showed it to her. "I can't be sure. I've never seen her handwriting."
    "But I have." Daphne Sanger nodded slowly in recognition. "I'd say that was almost certainly written by Eris Moberly."
    "You see. She wants me to find her, Miss Sanger. She needs me to find her."
    "Possibly." An afterthought seemed to occur to her. "Jose is short for Joslyn, of course. Surely that satisfies you Esguard is an assumed name."
    "I'm not sure it does."
    "Then let me tell you this. My enquiries haven't been restricted to Tollard Rising. I've traced a marriage certificate for Joslyn Esguard and a birth certificate for his bride. Marian Juliana Freeman. She was born in Chichester in 1787. She married Joslyn Esguard, a man eleven years her senior, in 1809. The marriage seems to have been childless, assuming they lived throughout it at Tollard Rising; there's no record of a birth there. Nor is there any record of the original Marian Esguard's death. But I'm sure you can see what it all implies. Eris may have sent you the postcard simply to show you where she obtained her alias. In other words, to put an end to your search."
    "Why such an elaborate charade?"
    "Because elaboration upon reality is at the root of her psychological difficulties."
    "So you say. For reasons you're not free to share with me. Well, if you can't discuss your patient sorry, client with me, what about her husband?"
    "I know nothing about him beyond his supposed name, Conrad Moberly, and Eris's description of him as wealthy and emotionally detached."
    "Could he be a descendant of Joslyn Esguard?"
    "He could be. Theoretically. But if you're suggesting Eris is using the relationship between Marian and Joslyn, whatever kind of relationship it was, as some sort of convoluted code for her feelings about her husband ..."
    "What if I am?"
    "Then I have to tell you you're wide of the mark."
    I took a deep breath, letting her see how frustrated I felt. "Do you have any idea where Eris Moberly is now, Miss Sanger?"
    "None."
    "Do you think she may be in danger?"
    Daphne Sanger hesitated a long time before replying. "It's possible. There are .. . worrying ramifications to her case."
    "I want to help her. Don't you?"
    "Of course."
    "Then don't you think we should .. . pool our resources?"
    She frowned. "To do so would involve a gross breach of confidence on my part."
    I shrugged, trying to imply I might walk away from the problem unless she gave me a good reason not to. "Until you tell me more than you have so far, I don't see how we can make any progress. Do you?"
    "No. I suppose not."
    "Then what do you suggest we do?"
    She clunked the ice cubes round in her glass to make the tonic fizz, stared thoughtfully down into it for a moment, then looked up and said, "I suggest we meet again in a day or two at my practice. I'll have made up my mind by then as to whether it would be appropriate, in all the circumstances, to explain to you what this is really all about."
    "And how will you make up your mind?"
    "That's the bit you're not going to like, Mr. Jarrett." She shaped a cautious smile. "I'm afraid you're going to have to win my trust. And I'm not a naturally trusting person."
    Daphne Sanger's method for assessing my trustworthiness was to call in a couple of references: a friend to verify my account of myself as far as he could, for