Charlotte House Affair 01 - My Particular Friend

play at standing followed by a real cry.
    ‘You are all being ridiculous,’ Mrs Fitzhugh said. ‘What he really needs is stronger help,’ handing him a glass she had filled from a decanter she procured from somewhere.
    He sniffed the brown liquid and smiled, took a sip and sighed and then downed the remainder.
    ‘Oh Mrs Fitzhugh, you have provided the best medicine,’ he said.
    ‘Now tell us what happened,’ I commanded, eager to know how he came to be injured.
    ‘I followed your Mr Simms as you asked, Miss House. He walked quickly and I rushed to keep up but it seemed every time I did he would glance back.’
    ‘And did he return to his home?’ Charlotte asked.
    ‘No, he did not. He made some small purchases and also stopped for food and drink. Finally he went across Pulteney Bridge and came to a house on Argyle Street. Actually it was a small shop, a milliner’s, and he entered and remained. He must be in the rooms above the shop.’ #
    ‘He remains there?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘But he might leave while you are gone,’ I said.
    ‘Thankfully one of your “agents” found me. A small boy tugged my coat and asked if I were Mr Wallace and he remains, or one of a number of other small boys I assume, will keep a watch over the house. How they found me is a mystery.’
    ‘Not too deep a one. After you left the children arrived to report back to me on the other errand I had given them. I then despatched them to look for you and one of them obviously thought to watch Pulteney Bridge. I shall have to reward him well. Did you catch the boy’s name?’
    ‘Peter it was, although I have already rewarded him.’
    ‘That was very kind of you, Mr Wallace.’
    ‘But you still haven’t said how you came to be injured,’ I said.
    ‘Oh, that. When Peter tugged at my coat I had walked back to get a better look at the upper room of the house and I was craning my neck back. He pulled me off balance and I tripped over the kerb.’
    I laughed and felt instantly sorry for it for he coloured quite red.
    ‘And yet you still rewarded Peter,’ Mrs Fitzhugh said. ‘You are a man of character, sir.’
    ‘I am a man who is too clumsy for his own good. I remained as long as I could but after a while I knew I could not follow Mr Simms were he to leave, and so I have returned. And now Miss House, what does all this mean?’
    Charlotte recounted to him all that we had surmised about the switch of the chairs, which left Mr Wallace astounded.
    ‘Well I’ll be blowed. That’s a pretty piece of reasoning, Miss House. But this Simms, what are we to think of him?’
    Charlotte sighed and said, ‘I am … I do not wish to advance theories before I have all the particulars.’
    ‘Oh come Charlotte,’ I said, ‘we will not hold it against you if you guess wrong. Your surmises are better than most people’s facts.’
    ‘Yes, out with it Charlotte,’ Mrs Fitzhugh said with the voice of a governess commanding her charge to recite her lines.
    ‘Very well, here are the possibilities. One, it is possible there is no Mrs Brown. After all, Violet Brown? What an absurd name! But if she does not exist, I am afraid I am clueless as to Mr Simms’s game. Two, Mr Simms has done away with her, but then why ask my assistance? Or three, and this is most likely, Mr Simms and Mrs Brown together have staged this disappearance.’
    We looked at her with amazement. That Mrs Brown should be party to her own abduction seemed preposterous.
    ‘What about the simpler explanation that Mrs Brown has left Mr Simms at the altar?’ Mr Wallace asked, with ready nods from myself and Mrs Fitzhugh.
    ‘No, we have left simple behind. With the knowledge that he neither proceeded to his home or that of Mrs Brown and the knowledge I have received from my agents …’
    ‘What knowledge is that?’ he asked.
    ‘The knowledge that no one will own to the picking of Mr Simm’s pocket.’
    Mrs Fitzhugh nodded as if she understood and I realized the benefit she had from long acquaintance with Charlotte’s methods.
    ‘Forgive me, how can you know that?’ Mr Wallace finally asked.
    ‘The children are very well acquainted with the criminal element—they
are
the criminal element—and know who works the street where Mr Simms claims to have been robbed. I can assure you no one picked Mr Simms’s pocket.’
    ‘Then his story …’ I said, unsure what to say next.
    ‘He needed an excuse for his late appearance at the register office. Undoubtedly because he was