The Paid Companion | Herophine

Chapter Thirty Five

Josephine

The following afternoon was Wednesday, the day the servants had free. Josephine found herself alone in the house with Sally, who quickly disappeared to her room to read her new Anne Mallory novel.

Anne had gone out with Felix a half-hour before. Hero had left soon thereafter, saying that he intended to search the rooms where Parker had lived. Josephine knew he had expected her to insist upon accompanying him, but when he had informed her of his plan, she had merely nodded absently and wished him luck finding the three red gems.

At two-thirty, she put on her bonnet and gloves and set out for a walk.

It was a warm, sunny day. When she arrived at her destination she found Lucy Colyer and Charlotte Atwater waiting for her in the perpetual funereal gloom of Mrs Blancheflower’s parlour.

“There you are, Josephine.” Lucy reached for the teapot. “We are anxious to hear your news.”

“I think you will find it very interesting.” Josephine sat down on the sofa and surveyed her two friends. “I apologize for the short notice.”

“Do not worry about that,” Charlotte said. “In your note, you claimed that there was a matter of great import that we had to discuss immediately.”

“Good heavens, it happened, didn’t it?” Lucy’s eyes lit with horrified expectation. “Just as I predicted. Your new employer took advantage of you. My poor, poor, Josephine. I did warn you.

Josephine thought about what Hero had done to her last night and the incredible sensations she had endured as a result. She suddenly felt quite warm.

“Calm yourself, Lucy,” she said and took a sip of tea. “I assure you Fiennes Tiffin has not perpetrated any grievous insult upon my person.”

“Oh.” Lucy’s face fell in acute disappointment, but she managed a weak smile. “I’m so relieved to hear that.”

Josephine put the cup down on the saucer. “I'm afraid that I cannot regale either of you with thrilling tales of my employer’s lechery, but I think that you will find what I have to say even more exciting. It should certainly prove to be a great deal more profitable.”

Hero

Hero stood in the centre of the small room that Parker had used as a parlour. There was something very wrong with this place.

When Lady Wilmington had given him the key an hour before, she had assured him that he would find Parker’s lodgings in the same condition that they had been in the day before, when he had been taken away to the asylum. She had made it clear that she had not yet had time to remove any of her grandson’s possessions or furnishings.

Hero had gone through each of the rooms with methodical precision. He had not found the red stones, but that was not what was making him uneasy. What bothered him was the appearance of these rooms.

On the surface, everything seemed entirely appropriate and unremarkable. The furnishings in the bedchamber, sitting room and kitchen were precisely what one would expect to see in lodgings that had been used by a fashionable young gentleman. The bookcase contained the works of the most popular poets and an assortment of the classics. The clothes in the wardrobe were in the latest style.

There was nothing unusual or out of the ordinary, Hero noted. And that was what was wrong. Because Parker was a most unusual and extraordinary villain.

Josephine

Josephine was amused by Lucy’s and Charlotte’s reaction to what she had just said. They stared at her in appalled astonishment.