His wife smiled fondly at him and took up the story. ‘I decided the only answer was to sell my necklace.’
Eleanor caught her breath. Straitened circumstances indeed! ‘Isn’t that the one…?’
Lady Langham nodded slowly, her chin on her chest. ‘Yes, the one Harold gave to me on our wedding day.’
Lord Langham’s face flushed. ‘I feel dreadful that we’re in this bally awful position. Poor Augusta shouldn’t be troubled by nonsense like this. Couldn’t let her send the old sparkles to auction and then have to face the rah-rah set looking down their sniffy noses, gossiping behind our backs. So I told her there was no way we were going to sell it.’
Eleanor waited for one of them to continue. But finding only silence, she spoke first. ‘Please do excuse my fluffy brain. I don’t quite understand the connection with your unfortunate situation and Lancelot’s current predicament?’
Lady Langham accepted another cup of tea from Clifford with a nod. ‘Well, that’s just the wretched point, you see. We can only imagine he heard us twittering on about what a ridiculous ghastly mess it all is with the finances and… and if we held a ball we might strike lucky, as it were… with a burglar.’
‘And not just any burglar. The best!’ said Lord Langham. ‘You know, that fiendishly brilliant safecracker who’s been looting the Home Counties for the past goodness knows how many months.’
Eleanor looked blank.
‘Oh, come on, old fruit, you can’t play the new girl in town over this. Even you must have heard about it. He’s got away with literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, of pounds’ worth of shiny trinkets.’
Ah! That explains why the inspector arrested Lancelot on suspicion of similar burglaries, Ellie. He must think he’s this thief.
Lady Langham tutted. ‘They’re far from trinkets. This man knows his jewels. He only targets the best. I’m sure Clifford is aware of this burglar’s crime roll so far.’
Clifford nodded. ‘I have read the reports, my lady. The rogue in question seems to be most accomplished indeed.’
‘Hence you believing he would be tempted to… steal yours?’ Eleanor finally felt she had caught up.
‘Precisely!’ Lady Langham pointed at her. ‘Do you see why we presumed there was a fair chance he might target us if we held a masked ball and, well, advertised?’
Eleanor sat back in her seat. ‘I’m clearly missing something most pertinent. I get that Lancelot possibly heard you planning that the ball might be a target for this jewel thief, but you’d have lost your jewels. How would that have helped?’
‘The insurance, my lady,’ Clifford said.
‘Ah, of course, silly me.’
Lord Langham sighed. ‘Well, it wouldn’t have been fraud, you see. The necklace would have been stolen, that was the supposed genius of it all. Of course, putting on the ball cost us a packet of money we never had, but we hoped the insurance money would cover that as well.’
‘Very neat,’ Eleanor mused. ‘But supposing the thief hadn’t shown up?’
‘That was a possibility,’ Lady Langham said. ‘But it would appear he never got the chance. Lancelot seems to have taken it upon himself to beat the thief to the punch, the poor, silly darling.’
Something in her sadness pulled at Eleanor’s chest. ‘Look, I’m struggling to grasp all this, but one thing I’m sure of: Lancelot might have planned to take your jewels to help you out, but he’d never have… hurt the colonel. He simply wouldn’t.’
Everyone concurred on this point except Clifford, who busied himself with the tea.
Eleanor remembered that Lord Langham had been a friend of the colonel’s. ‘And my sincere condolences, Lord, er… Harold. He was a most extraordinary gentleman.’
Lord Langham sighed. ‘Thank you, my dear. Truth be told, he was a total pain in the rump most of the time, silly old fool. But he was a decent sort beneath it all. Not his fault you know, never found a good wife like I did to shake some sense into him.’
Lady Langham rubbed his shoulder. ‘It’s such a tragedy. And it was supposed to be a party. Even if it was one planned with an ulterior motive.’
‘You really mustn’t blame yourselves for any of it,’ Eleanor said. ‘Honestly, I don’t even believe Lancelot did steal your jewels.’
The Langhams shared a quick look.
‘How so, my dear?’ Lady Langham said quietly.
‘I was in the room.’ She glanced at Lord Langham, and hurried on, ‘You know, after the poor colonel had been killed. And the safe, well, it was swinging wide open. I didn’t notice until the police thundered in and the inspector declared the safe empty and the jewels gone. The point is, they searched Lancelot on the spot and no one passed me on my way to the room. Furthermore, despite the inspector’s boorish insinuation, I know I am not Lancelot’s accomplice.’
Lady Langham’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘He didn’t! You mean he actually accused you of being involved? Oh, the mess we’ve caused. I am so sorry, my dear.’
‘You don’t have to apologise, Augusta. The point I’m trying to make is this: Lancelot didn’t get a chance to steal the jewels. Someone else must have beaten him to it. And… and I believe that someone else also killed the colonel.’ She thought back to DCI Seldon’s words. There’s no way anyone entered the room between the time of the colonel’s death and my men arriving. She groaned inwardly.
Clifford cleared his throat. ‘Forgive my interjection, but one thing stands out as being most irregular. If I might enquire, how was it that the chief inspector and his men happened to be at the ball? They were not guests, but on duty I understand.’
Lady Langham sprang up, stepped to the window and stared out. Everyone waited. ‘It was the dratted invitations! You appreciate how it is. When you hold a ball, you have to invite all the right people. It would have been a dreadful faux pas not to have done so. But if we’d just not sent… that one.’ She sniffed again. Gladstone stole over and nuzzled her hand. Her fingers hung limply against his cheek.
Lord Langham picked up the reins. ‘My bish totally, didn’t think about it at all. I included Lord Cavendish-Wraith in the guest list, naturally.’
‘Er… naturally,’ Eleanor said. Who the devil is Lord Cavendish?
As if he read her thoughts Lord Langham continued, ‘Cavendish is the bally Chief of Police, old girl. So naturally he tells Inspector Seldon to set up a sting for these wretched jewel thieves at the ball. Messed up the entire plan and got our boy cuffed into the bargain.’
Clifford nodded. ‘Lord Cavendish would have been aware that Chief Inspector Seldon had been after this jewel thief for some months. I imagine they both agreed with Lord and Lady Fenwick-Langham that the thief would not be able to pass up the opportunity to steal such a prize as Lady Fenwick-Langham’s necklace.’
‘Exactly, Clifford!’ Lady Langham turned, her eyes rimmed red. ‘We decided all we could do was plough on with the ball. We just hoped that the burglar would be as clever as he had been at the other events and that he’d elude the police and escape with the necklace.’ She put down her cup. ‘Please excuse us, dear Eleanor, but there’s really nothing more we can tell you. We must be going. This business has caused such great upset, we really aren’t ourselves.’