‘What the hell?’ Luc and James burst in and stopped dead. Then Luc strode across to the desk, took me by the shoulders, jerked me against him and kissed me until my head swam. ‘What happened?’ he demanded when he eventually let me go.
‘Look at this.’ James held up the ledger, a deep slashing cut right across the cover.
I pointed to the razor. ‘Bromley was going to cut his own throat. When I misunderstood and accused him of killing Talbot he, er, became irrational.’
‘Irrational?’ Garrick said. ‘I was walking past the window towards the front door and heard him becoming irrational very clearly. It sounded like nothing I’ve ever heard. When I got in here he had Cassandra on the floor – ’
He’d never called me by my first name before. I swallowed. ‘Correction. I had him on the floor. I’d just kicked him in the gut.’
‘Are you hurt?’ Luc demanded. I shook my head. ‘Thank God. We saw Garrick break into a run, got here to find the front door wide open…’
‘Look, let’s go upstairs, sit down, have some tea, discuss this,’ I suggested. ‘Bromley is deeply distressed.’
‘He is distressed?’ Luc snarled, but he shrugged, took my arm and led the way to the door.
We ended up in the kitchen and I was quite glad of the heat of the range. Garrick tied Bromley’s ankles to the legs of a heavy chair and gave him sweet tea too when I insisted. The man was silent, shaking, and seemed dazed. He certainly gave no sign of hearing me when I recounted what had happened.
‘Is it likely that Talbot would react like that?’ Luc asked James.
‘Oh yes, if he was taken by surprise. I imagine he had absolutely no idea what to do and was clumsy as a result.’
‘I’d say cruel.’
James gave me a rueful smile. ‘He was very much absorbed with Coates. I think the discovery that someone felt like that was a complete shock, especially when he did not regard them as in any way his equal, when they were someone in his own household.’
‘Anyway, he was thoughtless enough to go out and leave Bromley alone to brood all through the night and into the morning. I assumed that he had summoned him downstairs, said something to make things worse, or dismissed him, and Bromley struck out with the poker.’
‘An odd weapon for a valet,’ James said. ‘I’d have expected him to use that razor.’ We all looked at the deadly thing lying on the table in front of Luc.
‘Only if he had gone down there intending murder,’ Luc pointed out. ‘It wasn’t as though the crime was committed in his dressing room where it was easily to hand.’
‘I did not kill Doctor Talbot,’ Bromley said suddenly, making us all jump. ‘I was going to kill myself. Then you came to the door and found him, so then I wanted to find out who had murdered him so I could kill them and then cut my throat.’ He sounded exhausted, but calm and rational. ‘But at the inquest there was no clue who might have done it. I saw it was hopeless, so I thought I’d do it today, go down and tell Miss Lawrence so someone knew.’
‘I believe him,’ I said. ‘He was utterly shocked when I assumed he had killed Talbot. It was frightening because his behaviour was so strange – and he had the razor, of course – but I swear he wasn’t hostile to me until he realised I thought him the killer.’
‘I’m sorry, Miss Lawrence,’ Bromley said.
The handle of Luc’s cup snapped off in his hand but he met my gaze and kept silent.
‘What are we going to do with him?’ James asked. ‘If we hand him over with this story they’ll hang him.’
‘He needs care – and I don’t mean tossing into one of your awful madhouses. Somewhere secure but where he will be properly looked after,’ I said.
‘I might know of a place,’ Luc said. ‘One of the members at White’s had a brother who became… unwell. He was telling me he found a doctor who took in a few patients, securely. Apparently the family have been visiting regularly and have been very impressed at how well he’s been looked after. He might have a vacancy, although I gather it comes at a high price.’
‘You can afford it.’
His brows drew together at my tone. ‘Of course I can. But for a man who tried to kill you?’
‘Yes. He’s a victim in this.’
‘Very well.’ He shrugged. ‘I recall the address because it happened to be next door to a house I took for… That is, I rented on behalf of someone a while ago in Kensington.’
From James’s e
xpression I guessed this would have been a mistress. He saw me looking and said hastily, ‘Give me the address. Garrick and I will take Bromley now and see if the doctor can take him right away. He must be used to emergencies. If he can’t then we’ll have to come back here, lock him in and think of something tomorrow.’
‘I’ll pack him a bag,’ Garrick said and went upstairs while I tried to explain to Bromley what was happening, although he seemed too sunk in apathy to care.