William Monk 02 - A Dangerous Mourning

Monk asked with a wry expression. “You spent all day below stairs to learn that? Nothing about the family?”
    “Not yet,” Evan apologized. “But I am still trying. The other laundrymaid, Rose, is a pretty thing, very small and dark with eyes like cornflowers—and an excellent mimic, by the way. She has a dislike for the footman Percival, which sounds to me as if it may be rooted in having once been something much warmer—”
    “Evan!”
    Evan opened his eyes wide in innocence. “Based on much observation by the upstairs maid Maggie and the ladies’ maid Mary, who has a high regard for other people’s romances, moving them along wherever she can. And the other upstairs maid, Annie, has a sharp dislike for poor Percival, although she wouldn’t say why.”
    “Very enlightening,” Monk said sarcastically. “Get an instant conviction before any jury with that.”
    “Don’t dismiss it too lightly, sir,” Evan said quite seriously, hitching himself off the sill. “Young girls like that, with little else to occupy their minds, can be very observant. A lot of it is superficial, but underneath the giggles they see a great deal.”
    “I suppose so,” Monk said dubiously. “But we’ll need to do much better than that to satisfy either Runcorn or the law.”
    Evan shrugged. “I’ll go back tomorrow, but I don’t know what else to ask anyone.”
       Monk found Septimus the following lunchtime in the public house which he frequented regularly. It was a small, cheerful place just off the Strand, known for its patronage by actors and law students. Groups of young men stood around talking eagerly, gesticulating, flinging arms in the air and poking fingers at an imaginary audience, but whether it was envisioned in a theater or a courtroom was impossible even to guess. There was a smell of sawdust and ale, and at this time of the day, a pleasant steam of vegetables, gravy and thick pastry.
    He had been there only a few minutes, with a glass of cider,when he saw Septimus alone on a leather-upholstered seat in the corner, drinking. He walked over and sat down opposite him.
    “Good day, Inspector.” Septimus put down his mug, and it was a moment before Monk realized how he had seen him while he was still drinking. The mug’s bottom was glass, an old-fashioned custom so a drinker might not be taken by surprise in the days when men carried swords and coaching inn brawls were not uncommon.
    “Good day, Mr. Thirsk,” Monk replied, and he admired the mug with Septimus’s name engraved on it.
    “I cannot tell you anything more,” Septimus said with a sad little smile. “If I knew who killed Tavie, or had the faintest idea why, I would have come to you without your bothering to follow me here.”
    Monk sipped his cider.
    “I came because I thought it would be easier to speak without interruption here than it would in Queen Anne Street.”
    Septimus’s faded blue eyes lit with a moment’s humor. “You mean without Basil’s reminding me of my obligation, my duty to be discreet and behave like a gentleman, even if I cannot afford to be one, except now and again, by his grace and favor.”
    Monk did not insult him by evasion. “Something like that,” he agreed. He glanced sideways as a young man with a fair face, not unlike Evan, lurched close to them in mock despair, clutching his heart, then began a dramatic monologue directed at his fellows at a neighboring table. Even after a full minute or two, Monk was not sure whether he was an aspiring actor or a would-be lawyer defending a client. He thought briefly and satirically of Oliver Rathbone, and pictured him as a callow youth at some public house like this.
    “I see no military men,” he remarked, looking back at Septimus.
    Septimus smiled down into his ale. “Someone has told you my story.”
    “Mr. Cyprian,” Monk admitted. “With great sympathy.”
    “He would.” Septimus pulled a face. “Now if you had asked Myles you would have had quite a different tale, meaner, grubbier, less flattering to women. And dear Fenella …” He took another deep draft of his ale. “Hers would have beenmore lurid, far more dramatic; the tragedy would have become grotesque, the love a frenzied passion, the whole thing rather gaudy; the real feeling, and the real pain, lost in effect—like the colored lights of a stage.”
    “And yet you like to come to a public house full of actors of one sort or another,” Monk pointed out.
    Septimus looked across the