William Monk 03 - Defend and Betray

He attends his business every weekday from nine in the morning until, at the earliest, half past four. He is an architect. Sometimes he is out considerably later.”
    “It will be, I expect, but I would prefer to have a story ready in case we are caught out. We must at least agree on our explanations.”
    She closed her eyes for a moment. “You make it sound so … deceitful, Mr. Monk. I have no wish to lie to Mr. Penrose. It is simply that the matter is so distressing, it would be so much pleasanter for Marianne if he did not know. She has to continue living in his house, you see?” She stared up at him suddenly with fierce intensity. “She has already suffered the attack. Her only chance of recovering her emotions, her peace of mind, and any happiness at all, will lie in putting it all behind her. How can she do that if every time she sits down at the table she knows that the man opposite her is fully aware of her shame? It would be intolerable for her!”
    “But you know, Mrs. Penrose,” he pointed out, although even as he said it he knew that was entirely different.
    A smile flickered across her mouth. “I am a woman, Mr. Monk. Need I explain to you that that brings us closer in a way you cannot know. Marianne will not mind me. WithAudley it would be quite different, for all his gentleness. He is a man, and nothing can alter that.”
    There was no possible comment to make on such a statement.
    “What would you like to tell him to explain my presence?” he asked.
    “I—I am not sure.” She was momentarily confused, but she gathered her wits rapidly. She looked him up and down: his lean, smooth-boned face with its penetrating eyes and wide mouth, his elegant and expensively dressed figure. He still had the fine clothes he had bought when he was a senior inspector in the Metropolitan Police with no one to support but himself, before his last and most dreadful quarrel with Runcorn.
    He waited with a dry amusement.
    Evidently she approved what she saw. “You may say we have a mutual friend and you are calling to pay your respects to us,” she replied decisively.
    “And the friend?” He raised his eyebrows. “We should be agreed upon that.”
    “My cousin Albert Finnister. He is short and fat and lives in Halifax where he owns a woolen mill. My husband has never met him, nor is ever likely to. That you may not know Yorkshire is beside the point. You may have met him anywhere you choose, except London. Audley would wonder why he had not visited us.”
    “I have some knowledge of Yorkshire,” Monk replied, hiding his smile. “Halifax will do. I shall see you this afternoon, Mrs. Penrose.”
    “Thank you. Good day, Mr. Monk.” And with a slight inflection of her head she waited while he opened the door for her, then took her leave, walking straight-backed, head high, out into Fitzroy Street and north toward the square, and in a hundred yards or so, the Euston Road.

To my father

With thanks to Jonathan Manning,
B.A. (Cantab.), for advice on points of law
regarding manslaughter, perverse
verdicts, etc. in 1857.

BY ANNE PERRY
    FEATURING WILLIAM MONK
    The Face of a Stranger
    A Dangerous Mourning
    Defend and Betray
    A Sudden, Fearful Death
    The Sins of the Wolf
    Cain His Brother
    A Breach of Promise
    The Twisted Root
    Slaves of Obsession
    Funeral in Blue
    Death of a Stranger
    The Shifting Tide
    Dark Assassin
    Execution Dock
    FEATURING CHARLOTTE AND THOMAS PITT
    The Cater Street Hangman
    Callander Square
    Paragon Walk
    Resurrection Row
    Bluegate Fields
    Rutland Place
    Death in the Devil’s Acre
    Cardington Crescent
    Silence in Hanover Close
    Bethlehem Road
    Farriers’ Lane
    Hyde Park Headsman
    Traitors Gate
    Pentecost Alley
    Ashworth Hall
    Brunswick Gardens
    Bedford Square
    Half Moon Street
    The Whitechapel Conspiracy
    Southampton Row
    Seven Dials
    Long Spoon Lane
    Buckingham Palace Gardens
    THE WORLD WAR I NOVELS
    No Graves as Yet
    Shoulder the Sky
    At Some Disputed Barricade
    Angles in the Gloom
    We Shall Not Sleep
    THE CHRISTMAS NOVELS
    A Christmas Journey
    A Christmas Visitor
    A Christmas Guest
    A Christmas Secret
    A Christmas Beginning
    A Christmas Grace

Anne Perry is the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels, including
Dark Assassin
and
The Shifting Tide
, and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, including
Buckingham Palace Gardens
and
Long Spoon Lane.
She is also the author of the World War I novels
No Graves As Yet, Shoulder the Sky,