Airs and Graces by Roz Southey Page A

like it.’
    ‘But Fleming said Gregson didn’t keep much money in the house and in any case there’s no point in having two money boxes unless one is full. And if one was full, she couldn’t have emptied the other one into it.’
    Hugh sighed. ‘It’s probably not in the least important.’
    ‘I still say she wasn’t weighed down by anything heavy when she fled.’ That reminded me of the foreign coin Alice had dropped; I reached into my pocket. ‘Damn it, he’s taken that as well!’
    ‘Charles,’ Hugh said with heavy patience. ‘The fellow was a common thief – he took everything he could find.’
    ‘No, he didn’t,’ I retorted. ‘I’ve still got my neckerchief and my coat. Any thief worth the name would have taken as many of my clothes as he could manage.’
    ‘He was disturbed,’ Hugh suggested, ‘and had to run off.’
    ‘Maybe. But surely anyone disturbing him would have come to my aid.’
    Hugh gave another sigh. I shook my head in an effort to clear it. ‘Let’s say Alice took the missing box, but didn’t have it on her when she slid down the rope. That means she must have removed it from the house before the murders but not long before, because Gregson might have missed it. Supposing she came down here, took the box, passed it to an accomplice—’
    ‘Wait, wait!’ Hugh interrupted, eyes wide. ‘An accomplice ? Where did he spring from?’
    ‘The man who attacked me.’
    ‘He was a common thief ! And you were talking about a burglar before, not an accomplice.’
    ‘No, Mrs Fletcher was talking about a burglar, but that plainly doesn’t make sense. The rope, Hugh, think of the rope! Alice made that in advance, and she couldn’t possibly have anticipated she’d need to escape a chance burglar. This was all planned, Hugh!’
    ‘Any accomplice or burglar,’ Hugh pointed out, ‘must have made his escape at about the same time as Alice. We’d have seen him.’
    ‘Not necessarily. He had time to run off while we were watching Alice slide down that rope. And, in any case, the snow was so thick, I could hardly see a yard ahead when I ran on to the bridge.’
    I walked about the cellar, restless and frustrated. ‘And now he’s come back. He must have thought there was something that would implicate him. If only we’d found it!’
    Hugh repeated, ‘It was an opportunist thief, Charles. He’d heard you had the keys of the shop and was looking for valuables.’
    ‘Who’d know I had the keys?’
    ‘The watchmen. And Philips could have told half a dozen people.’
    That was true enough. I gave in to the pain in my head. ‘I’m going home. I need sleep. Hugh – don’t tell anyone about this. Not at least until I’ve had time to tell Philips and Armstrong what’s happened. They ought to know first.’
    He nodded and blew out the branch of candles. Shadows gathered around us. With the single candle, we climbed the stairs to the shop. I checked the shutters, particularly the one with a broken bracket, then locked the door behind us. I couldn’t resist glancing about the bridge in case I saw the woman from the other world again, but there was only the snow, falling steadily now, and a passing dog that gave us a curious look.
    I wished I could rid myself of a growing suspicion we’d accused the wrong person of the murders.

Eleven
    In the homes of the poor, you will see many old things, still used out of necessity. In the houses of the rich, you will see many old things, displayed for their antiquity, which is often great, and their beauty, which is often non-existent.
    [Letter from Louis de Glabre to his friend Philippe
    Froidevaux, 19 January 1737]
    ‘It’s a long way from being robbed in the street, to believing in an accomplice,’ Heron said, running his fingers over the stem of his wine glass. We were sitting in the elegant Chinese beauty of his newly redecorated library; looking at the flawless taste and quality of the wallpaper, the vases and the little statuettes, I