tutorial scrutiny, she felt a bit like a student petitioning a don.
"Mr. Greenwood, al home I have been speaking with people who knew my mother. I have some questions about events at the end of her life. You knew her too, and your name came up several times. There are others who have suggested you may be able to help me."
"Others?"
"Friends of hers. Women who have helped me piece together who attended my mother's salons and such."
"I will aid in any way I can, but I was not a close friend. My duties al university meant that I saw her infrequently."
"I understand. However, it is your relative distance that may have enabled you to see more clearly than her closest intimates did."
He appeared skeptical, but willing. "What information do you seek?"
"You may find my questions a little bold."
He laughed. "I would be disappointed if they were not. If you are searching the world for answers I hope the questions are not the middling sort."
His good humor made it easier. She decided to start with the boldest question of all. "Did you ever suspect that my mother had a new lover the last years of her life?"
For all his demands for boldness, the question embarrassed him a little. The chiseled angles of his face softened into something approaching chagrin. "I had no real cause to think that. However ... well, Drury was ever-present when I first met your mother, and much less present the last year or so."
"Do you know who the other man was?"
His eyes warmed with sympathy. His small smile was that of an uncle for a favored niece. "I do not even know there was one. Are you so certain there was?"
"My father thought there was."
"Men can be wrong about such things. Passion cools, distance grows—he could have misunderstood."
She knew that was possible. Matthias was not the only one who had said as much. Several of Her mother's friends had suggested the same explanation. She rather hoped that was the answer herself.
"Was there anyone whom you considered a likely possibility?"
He shook his head. "Is it so important to know the name, or even if the suspicion is correct?"
"If it had been a normal affair, I would say not."
He wailed patiently for her to continue, neither encouraging nor discouraging further revelations with his comforting demeanor. She understood why Elliot liked this man. There was something to Matthias Greenwood that inspired confidences and trust. He possessed a solid openness that refused even slight dissembling.
"My mother bequeathed me a cameo" she said. "Her will said it came from Pompeii. She intended it to provide me with some security, and I always assumed it would as well. However, before my father died he claimed it was a fraud, sold to her by this other lover."
A frown formed. Concern entered his eyes. "Are you dependent on the value of this cameo?"
"My financial situation has become more complicated of late. I might need to sell it. However, if it is a fake—"
"It will be worth a mere fraction of what she thought and probably what she paid. Nor can you sell it at all unless you know for certain, unless you want to risk being a party to fraud yourself."
"Exactly."
"I see your dilemma. I am dismayed that your legacy is in question. If an admirer took such ruthless advantage of Artemis, the scoundrel should be hung. She was nothing but generous to all whom she met, but—well, perhaps too trusting and too slow to see that there were those who would use her."
He glanced an apology for this mild criticism.
"She did perhaps trust to a fault, Mr. Greenwood. And her generosity means that she left little besides that cameo. I suppose I could keep it as a memento, but if it symbolizes the theft of both her affection and her funds it will have no sentimental value for me."
"I would ask to see the cameo in an attempt to lay your concerns to rest, but I regret that I cannot claim
expertise in such things. We could show it to Whitmarsh, of course. He is better schooled in gents than I am. However, it
"Mr. Greenwood, al home I have been speaking with people who knew my mother. I have some questions about events at the end of her life. You knew her too, and your name came up several times. There are others who have suggested you may be able to help me."
"Others?"
"Friends of hers. Women who have helped me piece together who attended my mother's salons and such."
"I will aid in any way I can, but I was not a close friend. My duties al university meant that I saw her infrequently."
"I understand. However, it is your relative distance that may have enabled you to see more clearly than her closest intimates did."
He appeared skeptical, but willing. "What information do you seek?"
"You may find my questions a little bold."
He laughed. "I would be disappointed if they were not. If you are searching the world for answers I hope the questions are not the middling sort."
His good humor made it easier. She decided to start with the boldest question of all. "Did you ever suspect that my mother had a new lover the last years of her life?"
For all his demands for boldness, the question embarrassed him a little. The chiseled angles of his face softened into something approaching chagrin. "I had no real cause to think that. However ... well, Drury was ever-present when I first met your mother, and much less present the last year or so."
"Do you know who the other man was?"
His eyes warmed with sympathy. His small smile was that of an uncle for a favored niece. "I do not even know there was one. Are you so certain there was?"
"My father thought there was."
"Men can be wrong about such things. Passion cools, distance grows—he could have misunderstood."
She knew that was possible. Matthias was not the only one who had said as much. Several of Her mother's friends had suggested the same explanation. She rather hoped that was the answer herself.
"Was there anyone whom you considered a likely possibility?"
He shook his head. "Is it so important to know the name, or even if the suspicion is correct?"
"If it had been a normal affair, I would say not."
He wailed patiently for her to continue, neither encouraging nor discouraging further revelations with his comforting demeanor. She understood why Elliot liked this man. There was something to Matthias Greenwood that inspired confidences and trust. He possessed a solid openness that refused even slight dissembling.
"My mother bequeathed me a cameo" she said. "Her will said it came from Pompeii. She intended it to provide me with some security, and I always assumed it would as well. However, before my father died he claimed it was a fraud, sold to her by this other lover."
A frown formed. Concern entered his eyes. "Are you dependent on the value of this cameo?"
"My financial situation has become more complicated of late. I might need to sell it. However, if it is a fake—"
"It will be worth a mere fraction of what she thought and probably what she paid. Nor can you sell it at all unless you know for certain, unless you want to risk being a party to fraud yourself."
"Exactly."
"I see your dilemma. I am dismayed that your legacy is in question. If an admirer took such ruthless advantage of Artemis, the scoundrel should be hung. She was nothing but generous to all whom she met, but—well, perhaps too trusting and too slow to see that there were those who would use her."
He glanced an apology for this mild criticism.
"She did perhaps trust to a fault, Mr. Greenwood. And her generosity means that she left little besides that cameo. I suppose I could keep it as a memento, but if it symbolizes the theft of both her affection and her funds it will have no sentimental value for me."
"I would ask to see the cameo in an attempt to lay your concerns to rest, but I regret that I cannot claim
expertise in such things. We could show it to Whitmarsh, of course. He is better schooled in gents than I am. However, it
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