Larcenous Lady Read online

  “How did you arrange it?” Deirdre asked. “Are you paying for us, Dick?”

  “It was Charney’s offer to help with the chore of husband-sitting that turned the trick. I hope this convinces you there’s nothing between Carlotta and me.”

  Deirdre smiled mischievously. The world was suddenly bright again. “If there is, I’ll soon discover it,” she warned, and scampered upstairs.

  Pronto was sitting in the lobby and called when Belami passed. “Figured you’d bring the ladies home,” he said. “I’ll grab a ride back to the palazzo with you. I’ll be leaving it demanini, Dick. I’m moving here, to the Léon Bianco.”

  Belami could usually figure out Pronto’s few insertions of foreign speech. They were some strange admixture of French and Italian. “Why?” Dick asked.

  Pronto rubbed a hand over his luxuriant brown curls and sighed. “Elvira. Bit of a nuisance having to leap into a leaky boat every time I want to see my amoro. Rates here ain’t any steeper than Carlotta’s. I’m taking Elvira to see the Doge’s Palace demanini. By the by, she was wondering if you’d come in the morning and take a look at that pearl her mama’s buying.”

  “I’ll be here to pick up the ladies,” Belami said. “They’re removing to the palazzo. I’d be happy to have a look at the pearl, but why do they want me to see it?”

  “The duchess gave Mrs. Sutton the notion the pearl was a fake. Told her she couldn’t do better than to have my old compagno take a look at it.”

  “Cerboni wouldn’t sell a fake. He’s a reputable jeweler, but I’d like to see the piece. Well, shall we go?”

  They returned to the gondola. As the oars splashed through the water, Pronto leaned back and gazed up at the stars. “Just like a dream,” he said softly.

  “It’s beautiful here,” Belami agreed.

  “I didn’t mean this old creaking boat. I meant Elvira. She’s mad for me, Dick. Said she’d missed me.”

  Belami frowned into the darkness. “I’d be wary of strange ladies if I were you.”

  “No reason to be jealous. You’ve got your Deirdre—and Carlotta. That minx is hot for you. I saw her cornering you in the hallway this morning—the old conte was peeking around the lid of his basket, too. You’d best be careful.”

  “Carlotta was only asking my opinion of her bonnet.”

  “Why’d she have you by both hands then?”

  “She’s affectionate,” Dick said, but he was a little worried that her affection would get out of hand.

  “She was affectionate to me, too. Came to my bedroom when I was undressing. Told me I have nice hands,” he said.

  “You’re becoming quite the accomplished flirt, but I still say be wary of Elvira. She told Deirdre she’d left me a note in Paris. As you very well know, there was no note. She told you they were going to Rome.”

  “Explained that,” Pronto said. “Thought I was just a trifler. Didn’t want to get her heart broken, so she told me that hammer. Very sensitive,” Pronto added gently.

  “What did you two do this evening?”

  “It was the four of us. The mama and Lucy tagged along. Took the signoras out for dinner and a walk around a couple of piazzas. We’re going to paint some bridges one of these days. Some old gaffer tried to strike up an acquaintance with Mrs. Sutton. An Englishman, he was.”

  “This seems to be a city of romance.”

  “He didn’t get much romance I can tell you. She made short shrift of him. I had the notion he followed us from the restauranto. Knew it was the same fellow by the pipe he smoked. One of those big ones, you know, with the white lining.”

  Belami jerked to attention. “A meerschaum pipe?” he asked.

  “Eh?”

  “What did he look like?”

  “I told you—big one, white lining.”

  “The man, Pronto.”

  “Oh, the man. Gray hair, high color. A bluff old gent.”

  “By God, it was Styger.”

  “Didn’t give his name.”

  “It’s the man who had a counterfeit coin on the boat. I think he’s one of the Jalbert gang! Now what could he want with Mrs. Sutton?”

  “Trying to make a date with her, I daresay. Heard us talking English at the restaurant. Lonesome, very likely.”

  Belami rubbed his hand over his chin. “She had his newspaper at the hotel in Paris. We’re coming across some mighty strange coincidences here, my friend.”

  “Coincidences—that’s another word for clue,” Pronto said accusingly. “If you’re suggesting the Suttons have anything to do with the Jalberts, you’re off the mark. They’re rich as Croesus. Had an old nabob uncle stuck his fork in the wall last year and left them a fortune. Why, ain’t Mrs. Sutton buying a great big pearl for Elvira tomorrow, and paying cash?”

  “Cash! Counterfeit guineas if I know anything,” Belami exclaimed. “They’ll buy the pearl and disappear.”

  “Now see here, Dick, I’ve gone along with you on many a case, but when you try to involve Elvira’s mother, you go too far. I won’t have you bouncing her gold on the counter and weighing it—dashed insult.”

  “I shall be exceedingly discreet,” Belami promised, but he was quivering with excitement.

  Pronto was in such a foul mood when they reached the palazzo that he said “aurivderci” very coolly, then went to his room and locked the door, in case Carlotta came to admire his hands. Belami locked his door, too. As he lay in bed reviewing the doings of this strange day, he wondered why the Suttons had especially invited him to be present during the purchase of the pearl. There wasn’t a chance in a thousand Pronto hadn’t told them his suspicions of the counterfeiters. They had discussed it a good deal during their trip.

  Was Mrs. Sutton, that woman who looked like the incarnation of a clergyman’s wife, connected with the Jalbert gang? It seemed incredible. Lucy, too, was a very ordinary sort of girl. But Elvira... There was a cat of a different stripe! And after all her evasionary tactics, she invited him to oversee the purchase of the pearl.

  She didn’t match the rest of that ordinary family. She was better spoken, more sure of herself, more intelligent. He had suspected before that she had been reared separately from Lucy. Perhaps reared in some circumstance that brought her in touch with the Jalberts? Could it be Elvira the man with the pipe was trying to speak to, not Mrs. Sutton?

  As Belami lay in bed thinking, he could see no way to learn the truth but to tackle Elvira himself. He must do it discreetly. Compliments would help—perhaps a mild flirtation. She really was a very handsome woman; making up to her wouldn’t appear unusual. It was well Deirdre was removing from the hotel—though whether moving her into Carlotta’s orbit was a good idea, he had grave doubts.

  Chapter Seven

  Deirdre and the duchess had a farewell breakfast with the Suttons the next morning. At eleven Belami and Pronto came, the latter with his luggage to check into the hotel. When Signor Cerboni arrived, the group went to a private parlor to view the pearl. Belami took it and the jeweler’s loupe to the window to examine it in daylight. He saw at a glance that the pearl was genuine and the setting, too, had the rough appearance of fifteenth-century work.

  He remembered his plan to befriend Elvira, and was pleased when she joined him. “Mr. Pilgrim tells me you are an expert, Lord Belami,” she said. The teasing look in her eyes did not denote agreement with this notion. Quite the contrary.

  “You strike me as a young lady who knows her own mind,” he answered with a flirtatious smile. “I never was an oyster and claim no intimacy with pearls, but this certainly looks genuine to me.”

  “I thought so, too,” she said, and reached for the pearl. Their hands brushed. Elvira, who hadn’t a clumsy bone in her body, lost her grip on the pearl. Belami, quick as a cat, reached out and grabbed it before it fell. Their eyes met and held. Some spark of emotion flared between them. Elvira took the pearl and turned away.

  Belami put his hand on her wrist to stop her. “Pronto has been singing your praises to me, Miss Sutton,�
� he said.

  She lifted her eyes and directed a challenging look at him. “You would know better than I to what extent Mr. Pilgrim’s opinion might be relied on.”

  “I prefer to judge for myself. I judge you to be a young lady of the world.” He said no more but allowed his eyes to admire her a moment before wandering to Lucy and Mrs. Sutton. “Rather more so than your sister,” he added thoughtfully.

  “I have had more advantages than Lucy.”

  “You, I think, have had the advantage of a larger society than...?”

  “We’re from Cornwall. I was sent to a seminary in Bath to be educated. Lucy was a frail child and remained at home.”

  Was it possible the haughty Elvira was uncomfortable in a mild flirtation? She certainly seemed ill at ease.

  “That would account for it.” Belami nodded.

  “And now perhaps you would be kind enough to return my hand,” she said, looking boldly at him with a smile in her eyes. “Miss Gower will think her kindness toward me ill-paid. She might mistake this interlude for a flirtation.”

  “I’m sure we both agree she would be quite mistaken,” Belami said, but ambiguously. His tone hinted at romance. And Elvira was interested. He could see it in her eyes. Interested and—what? Guilty, no doubt, because of Deirdre. He accompanied her to the table, where they sat side by side.

  Deirdre was not such a demon of jealousy that she resented their brief absence. Belami indicated his satisfaction to Cerboni, and they both looked expectantly to Mrs. Sutton for the money. She set on the table a black leather box and unlocked it to reveal one thousand English guineas twinkling in the light from the window. They certainly looked genuine to Belami, but then so did the counterfeit coin in his pocket. He reached for it and discovered to his dismay that it was missing. He had changed jackets before leaving the palazzo and most particularly put the coin there to check against Mrs. Sutton’s money. His pockets were deep enough—it seemed unlikely it had fallen out. His eyes slid to Elvira, who had turned aside to speak to her sister.

  It struck him that this morning was the first occasion Elvira had ever voluntarily said a word to him. Had she taken the coin from his pocket while they spoke? Was that why she “dropped” the pearl, and why she had looked self-conscious? He adopted his drawling voice that told both Deirdre and Pronto he was in a pelter and said, “We have agreed the pearl is genuine. Shall we now put the money to the test?”

  Elvira’s head turned slowly. If ever contempt glowed in a woman’s eyes, it glowed in Elvira Sutton’s now. Signor Cerboni looked quite alarmed. “What do you mean?” he demanded.

  “Have you not heard, signore?” Belami drawled. “England is overrun with counterfeit gold coins—guineas, exactly like this,” he said, and lifted one from the leather box. He bounced it on the table. It appeared to him that it rang true. The weight also seemed right, though without his own counterfeit for a comparison, he couldn’t be positive. That’s why Elvira had stolen it!

  Again Belami glanced at Elvira, who smiled triumphantly at him. “Are you satisfied, milord?” she asked.

  “Not yet,” Belami countered, and tested another from the bottom of the box. It also rang true.

  “Would your lordship like to test the money with acid? You’ll find no copper present, I assure you,” Elvira said.

  “I wouldn’t expect to find anything but gold till I got inside the coin,” Belami replied. He turned aside to Cerboni. “The counterfeits have an iron slug inside. If you’re in any doubt, you might cut one of these apart. Gold cuts easily.”

  Cerboni was sufficiently alarmed that he wished to make this experiment on the spot. “The kitchen here at the hotel should be able to provide some tools,” Belami informed him.

  They went off together and were back in a few moments with a mutilated guinea, solid gold to the core.

  “Are we all satisfied?” Elvira asked. “Quite sure you wouldn’t like to have it assayed, Lord Belami? A pity we can’t take it to the Fraternity of Goldsmiths.”

  Belami glared and took another coin from the box.

  “I assure you it would pass the Trial of the Pyx,’’ Elvira said. He knew from the weight it was genuine, and he knew from Elvira’s angry face that she regretted her last revealing speech.

  It would be difficult to say who was more angry with Belami. The duchess deeply resented the delay in getting to the palazzo, Deirdre was angry that her friends had been insulted, and Pronto was in the boughs. Belami felt like a fool, but strangely the Suttons were unfazed. Elvira, with her taunting smile, looked like the cat who has just swallowed the cream.

  The purchase was completed, but there was still one more item of business. “Mama, you are forgetting Lucy’s pearl,” Elvira reminded Mrs. Sutton.

  “It slipped my mind with the scare Lord Belami put into us,” the mother said. “We want to buy another pearl exactly like this for my other daughter, signore,” she explained.

  “It will be very difficult to find another like it,” Cerboni said. “These teardrop pearls are rare. I have a very nice pearl necklace that would suit the young lady,” he added.

  “We realize Lucrezia Borgia did not possess two identical necklaces, signore. Just find us the pearl, and we shall have it mounted,” Elvira said.

  “I don’t have anything remotely resembling this piece,” Cerboni insisted. “I have not seen such a thing in Venice.”

  “Then might I suggest you try outside of Venice?” Elvira said patiently, as though to a child. “Surely in Rome or one of the large centers you could find something. We would be willing to pay handsomely for it,” she added enticingly.

  A greedy smile lifted Cerboni’s lips. “I shall return to my shop and begin investigations this very morning, signorina.”

  The jeweler soon left, and it was time for the others to depart for the palazzo. There was a moist leave-taking amongst the young ladies, who promised to meet again soon.

  “I’ll see you later, Pronto,” Belami said. “What are you doing today?”

  “Elvira’s going to paint the Rialto. A picture of it, I mean, not the bridge itself. I’ll bear her company.”

  “Keep in touch. You know where to find me.”

  Deirdre found Dick quiet as they proceeded along the Grand Canal to the Ginnasis’ place. The duchess, however, wasn’t about to let him off so easily.

  “You must have felt a flaming jackass, Belami, trying to pull off one of your stunts and coming a cropper,” she said merrily. “You’ve met your match in young Elvira Sutton.”

  “She knows her business,” he agreed.

  “Aye, she is quite an expert, speaking of assays and Fraternity of Goldsmiths and I don’t know what all, like a professional gentleman.”

  “And the Trial of the Pyx,” he mused. “Your average young lady don’t carry that bit of esoterica in her head, even if she’s attended a good seminary in Bath.”

  “Bath? They are from Cornwall,” the duchess told him.

  “Elvira was educated in a seminary at Bath, unlike Lucy.”

  “It’s odd Meggie never mentioned it. Did she tell you that, Deirdre?”

  “No,” Deirdre said, frowning, “though I suspected some such thing. She is better educated than Lucy.”

  “And better educated than her mama,” the duchess added. “That goosecap had no notion that the Italian language was based on Latin. I mentioned to her that I would feel quite at home, having a sound education in Latin. ‘What good will that do, your grace?’ she asked me. ‘They speak Italian in Venice.’ I noticed young Elvira smiling behind her fist.”

  Belami listened quietly, interested to see these chinks appearing in the Suttons’ background. He kept thinking of that missing counterfeit coin from his pocket. Pronto would have told Elvira that he always carried it as a good-luck omen. Had she stolen it while they talked by the window? He’d looked in the gondola, and would look again in his bedroom, but he was quite sure he wouldn’t find it.

  Yet there was no reason for her to take it—the
Suttons’ coins were legitimate, so any comparison would have been harmless. Why had Elvira wanted him to be there at all? Was it to authenticate not the pearl, but the coins? Was that it?

  While the duchess and Deirdre were being installed in their rooms, Belami called for Réal.

  “I have a job for you,” he said.

  “This is most excellent news.” Réal smiled. “It is very ennuyante in this watery place.”

  “You don’t care for the Grand Canal?” Belami asked.

  “Pshh! You call this creek a grand canal? In Canada, there we have real waters. The Saint Laurent, wide as an ocean, and the mighty lakes. The job, melord?” he asked eagerly.

  “Go to the Léon Bianco and keep an eye on the Suttons,” he said. “I’m particularly interested to see if any of the party speak to a certain gentleman,” he added, and described Captain Styger. “If Styger shows up, follow him.”

  “You wish I enter also into the ladies’ chamber for the searching?” Réal suggested.

  “An excellent notion, but don’t get caught.”

  Réal looked at him as though he were an idiot. “I don’t get caught, me. What I am looking for? Which clues?”

  “Letters, money—a large quantity of gold coins in particular or anything that suggests counterfeiting. Also names or addresses. Whatever strikes you as out of place in a ladies’ chamber. Take as long as you require. I shan’t need your coaching services on these wet Venetian roads.”

  Réal left and Belami went in search of Deirdre. She was busy settling into her new home till lunch time, when the whole party met at the table. The duchess intended to fulfill her bargain for the remainder of that first day and offered to sit with the conte in the afternoon. Carlotta graciously accepted and looked at Belami, who was careful not to meet her gaze.

  “That leaves us free to explore Venice, Deirdre,” he said.

  Carlotta snapped an angry glance at him but said nothing. Her amorous interests were by no means limited to Englishmen. She had a young Italian nobleman, Marchese Laderchi, in her eye as well, as a potential replacement for her aging conte.