Anne Perry - Half Moon Street

“Your son. .” Pitt began to ask, then he looked at Cecily, at Bellmaine, and at Orlando, and saw it in their faces. Orlando had his mother’s hair and eyes, but there was a resemblance to Bellmaine also. And acknowledgment was in Cecily’s silence.

Orlando had not known. That also was only too apparent.

“How did you know Orlando had gone there?” Pitt asked.

Bellmaine shrugged. “Does it matter now? I knew he was greatly distressed the evening before. I did not know why. Then on the day of his death, Cathcart sent me a message to tell me not to go to his house to pay my usual monthly dues to him because he had a new client coming, someone who had made the appointment that day. A young man called Richard Larch.”

“Who is Richard Larch?” Cecily demanded, but there was no anger in her, no spirit. The fire inside her was quenched.

“The first role Orlando ever played,” Bellmaine answered. “Don’t you even remember? I knew then-at least, I feared. I’ve seen the Ophelia picture as well. That’s why I dressed him. .” He swallowed and seemed to stagger a little. He regained his balance with difficulty. “That’s why I dressed him that way and sat him in the boat. He was still alive, but I knew he wouldn’t last in the cold. . and the water. There was. .” He gasped. “There was a kind of symmetry in it. I was a good Hamlet myself, thirty years ago. Not as good as Orlando. Cecily was my Ophelia then.”

Pitt saw the sweat break out in his gray face and understood. He was glad he had had no time to prevent it.

Bellmaine fell forward onto his knees.

“ ‘O, I die, Horatio,’ ” he said hoarsely. “ ‘The potent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit. . The rest is. . is. .’ ” He did not finish.

Cecily closed her eyes and the tears ran down her white cheeks.

Orlando did not go to her. He looked at Pitt for a moment, then bent over the motionless body of his father.

“ ‘Good night, sweet prince,’ ” he whispered. “May flights. .”

But he too could not complete his line. This cut the heart too deep.

Silently Pitt turned and left, Tellman behind him, his face wet with tears.