Regina’s defensiveness had fallen away. “The same as the first time—a note delivered to the back door by a messenger boy. That was in”—she screwed up her face in thought—“late September, I think. We were back in London by then and goingout to balls and parties.” She sobered as she remembered. “This time, he wanted a pearl-and-amethyst brooch I’d been given by one of my great-aunts.” She met Penelope’s gaze. “I didn’t want to give it up, but the note stated he didn’t want anything else.”
“Where were you told to leave it?” Barnaby asked.
Regina sighed. “In a particular Venetian-glass vase on the shelves in Lady Hamilton’s music room. We were there two nights later for a musicale. I slipped the brooch into the vase and tried to keep watch on it through the performance, but up to the time everyone filed out of the room at the end—and I had to go, too—no one had gone near the vase.”
“I see.” Penelope resisted the urge to consult the black book. Instead, she asked, “How many more ‘payments’ have you made?”
“Two more between then and this week.” Regina added, “It was always the same—a note sent to the back door, asking for money or a piece of jewelry that I was to leave in a more or less public place. One was a spot in the museum.”
“Shifting to his latest demand,” Stokes said, “was that communicated via a note as well?”
“Yes. A boy delivered it to the back door on Thursday morning. He—the blackmailer—always seemed to know when we were in town and what events I would be attending.” Regina’s expression grew troubled. “This time, he asked for the pearl necklace my grandmother had left me. I’d worn it to a ball the week before. It’s all I have from her, and I didn’t want to give it up.” Her shoulders slumped, her lips turning down. “But, of course, I couldn’t afford not to. Or so I thought.”
Penelope nodded understandingly. “And you were told to leave the necklace…?”
Regina tipped her head in the direction of the orchard. “In the hollow in the apple tree in the first row of the orchard, five trees along from the entrance archway.”
Penelope looked at Stokes and Barnaby, then returned her gaze to Regina. “I don’t suppose you’ve kept this note?”
Regina’s eyes widened. “I did. I have it here. He always ended with an instruction to burn the note, but I was worried I’d forget which tree it was, so I brought the note with me.”
Penelope straightened. “Where is it?”
“Upstairs. In my reticule in our room,” Regina answered.
Rosalind caught Penelope’s eye. “Perhaps I could go and fetch it while Regina answers the rest of your questions.”
Stokes inclined his head. “If you would, Miss Hemmings, that would help.”
Richard also met Penelope’s gaze. As Rosalind rose, he did, too. “I’ll come with you.”
Rosalind accepted his escort without demur, and the pair left and quietly closed the door behind them.
“Now.” Penelope refocused on Regina, who had plainly recovered a great deal of what, Penelope judged, was her usual composure. “That brings us to yesterday morning. Start from when you woke. Did you come downstairs with your mother and Rosalind?”
Regina nodded. “I share a room with Rosalind, so I couldn’t slip out early and put the necklace in the hollow. I had to behave as if nothing was wrong, that I wasn’t on edge and rushing off somewhere. So after breakfast, when Rosalind left to go upstairs and read, I went with the other younger ladies, and we made for the conservatory, but before we got there, I pretended I needed something from my room and headed up the stairs. I stopped on the landing, and once the other girls had gone down the corridor, I slipped downstairs again and onto the terrace and from there onto the lawn.” She pulled a face. “I hadn’t expected Rosalind to see me, but she did, and of course, she followed me. She called, but I pretended not to hear and hurried on. I was sure I was very late by then—the note had said to put the necklace inthe hollow before nine o’clock, and I was sure it had to be close to that time already. Then, I realized Rosalind was gaining on me! I went around into the woods, then circled back. I thought I’d lost her, so I rushed to the orchard.”
The color ebbed from her cheeks. “I had the pearls in my pocket, and I was reaching for them as I ran along the first row of trees—and I tripped over him! I was soshocked, but I managed not to scream. I was petrified. Frozen. But after a few seconds, I made myself creep closer and see if he was still alive, but he wasn’t. Then, I heard Rosalind calling and coming nearer. I didn’t know if others were around. I panicked and rushed on through the orchard and into the shrubbery. Then, I heard Rosalind scream for help and knew she’d found him. I didn’t know what to do! The shrubbery gives onto the woods, and I went out into the quiet and found a log and sat there.” She paused, then more calmly added, “I don’t know how long I sat on that log, but while I was there, I realized what finding Mr. Underhill in the orchard, stretched out like that, meant.” She met Penelope’s eyes. “Hewas the blackmailer. It was too coincidental for him to be going to look in that hollow when I was supposed to have put Grandmother’s pearls into it by then.”
Briskly, Penelope nodded. “We know Mr. Underhill was blackmailing you as well as quite a few others.”
Regina brightened. “You do?”
“We have evidence of his crimes,” Stokes said.
Regina’s relief was palpable. “So you believe me?”
When Penelope, Barnaby, and Stokes nodded, Regina’s tension wholly evaporated.
“Where did you go once you left the wood?” Stokes asked.
“I could hear all the ruckus in the orchard,” Regina replied, “and I knew Rosalind would look for me, so I circled around to the terrace and went up to our room.” She paused, then added, “That was when I realized I had blood on the hem ofmy gown—from crouching to see if Mr. Underhill was alive. I changed gowns and gave the dirtied one to our maid to wash, but she showed it to Rosalind later, so Rosalind knew I’d been in the orchard before her.” Regina shared a smile with Penelope. “That’s why she wouldn’t let up until I’d told her the truth—all of it.”
“We and you,” Barnaby said, “should be very glad she did.”
Regina’s smile lit her face. “I am.” Then, her smile faded into a faint frown. “I now understand how the blackmailer knew so much about me, about the family and our lives. But knowing it was Mr. Underhill—it’s still a shock. I quite liked him.” The betrayal she felt echoed in the words. Then, her features hardened, and she looked at Stokes. “But I do know that he was at the Selbridge ball and at Lady Hamilton’s musicale. If that helps?”
Stokes nodded as he jotted. “Thank you. It does.”
