The Sans Pareil Mystery (The Detective Lavender Mysteries Book 2) by Karen Charlton Read Free Book Online Page A

won’t be the last. Your accent suggests to me that you’re from northern Spain, am I correct?’
    Lavender smiled. Caroline Clare was as sharp and intelligent as ever.
    ‘Yes, I’m from Oviedo, although I have lived a while in Madrid.’
    ‘A beautiful region, with a spectacular landscape and excellent light for artists,’ Lady Caroline declared. ‘I travelled the countryside of the Asturias with my first husband twenty years ago and he had to tear me away from your mountains. In fact, a painting of the Cantabrian Mountains still hangs in my drawing room. Would you like to see it sometime? It’s very amateurish of course, but I understand homesickness. It might give you some pleasure.’
    Magdalena’s neck and face flushed. ‘You’re most kind.’
    ‘Call on me one afternoon, preferably a Wednesday. I tend to have commissions on most other days.’
    ‘Thank you.’
    ‘Lady Caroline is often commissioned to paint portraits,’ Lavender explained. ‘I have seen your work, Lady Caroline, and you’re a talented artist. You do not do yourself justice.’
    She waved an elegant hand dismissively in the air. Her rings flashed in the light and he saw tiny flecks of oil paint on her fingers.
    ‘You’re charming as always, Lavender. Painting landscapes is my favourite occupation of course, but one has to go where the money is – and the money is definitely in portraits. Every wealthy man wants his dog, his horse or his children captured on canvas for prosperity. Besides which, I have a little trouble climbing the mountains these days.’ She tapped her left leg with her walking cane. ‘Lavender, I trust I can rely on you to give Doña Magdalena my address?’
    He bowed his head again. ‘Of course.’
    ‘Then I shall leave you now, my dear. I’m a little slow and it may take some time for me to get into my damned seat. Henry? Come here! Give me your arm.’
    A lanky young man stepped forward. He had hovered, unintroduced, behind Lady Caroline for the last few minutes. ‘Henry, this is the famous Detective Lavender from Bow Street Magistrates’ Court. I have told you about him before. This is his charming companion Doña Magdalena Morales. Lavender, meet Henry Duddles, nephew of Baron Lannister and my escort for tonight.’
    Both men bowed and a huge shock of blond curls fell forward over Duddles’s face. He hurriedly pushed them back into place and glanced sheepishly at Magdalena. Lavender smiled to himself. The lad was barely shaving. Caroline Clare always preferred them young.
    Once Lady Caroline and her companion had departed, Magdalena couldn’t contain her excitement. ‘What a charming woman! So kind! And she has visited my country! Do tell me more about her.’
    They were jostled by the crowd and Teresa yelped when someone stood on her foot. He motioned to the women to step further back.
    He leant closer to Magdalena closer and lowered his voice.
    ‘Lady Caroline was the younger daughter of the Earl of Kirkleven.’
    ‘An earl!’
    ‘Yes – an impoverished earl. The Kirklevens are an old Lancashire Catholic family who lost much of their fortune and influence after supporting the Jacobite cause.’
    ‘Catholics!’
    He smiled. That was an unexpected benefit for her, he realised – a commonality. ‘She was motherless from a young age—’
    ‘Like me. I barely remember my mother.’
    ‘I believe she was a wild young thing.’
    Magdalena’s eyebrow rose and she smiled.
    ‘Anyway, when she was eighteen she eloped with Victor Meyer Rothschild, a younger member of the great European banking family.’
    ‘The Rothschilds? They’re the Jewish bankers, yes?’ Her smile fell. ‘Such a marriage, across the religions, would not have suited their families, no?’
    Lavender hesitated while he considered what more to tell Magdalena and what to leave out. She was so excited about her new friend that he didn’t want to take the edge off her happiness. He wasn’t completely convinced that Lady Caroline