Jane went to help, and as she returned she heard Crook say, “We could give it a go, I suppose. It would be a long shot, mind.”
“We can but try,” Lenox answered immediately, his voice optimistic.
Hearing those words, seeing his face—flushed with excitement at his plan—Jane, still a few steps away, felt a tremendous burst of love for her husband. It was strange: She saw him, just for a brief instant, from a very great distance, as he sat there by the fireplace, an aging spaniel curled at the rug near his feet, a scent of fall in the air when the door opened and a new customer entered. What an astonishing world, she thought during the fleeting moment before she set the plates down and joined the conversation again. And what happiness to share it with someone.
Also by Charles Finch
A Death in the Small Hours
A Burial at Sea
A Stranger in Mayfair
The Fleet Street Murders
The September Society
A Beautiful Blue Death
About the Author
CHARLES FINCH is the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Lenox mysteries. His first contemporary novel, The Last Enchantments, will be published in early 2014 by St. Martin’s Press. Finch is a graduate of Yale and Oxford and lives in Chicago.
www.facebook.com/charlesfinchauthor
www.twitter.com/CharlesFinch
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows: Finch, Charles (Charles B.)
An Old Betrayal: A Charles Lenox Mystery / Charles Finch.— First Edition.
p. cm.—([Seventh Chronicle of Charles Lenox]) ISBN 978-1-250-01161-9 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-25003839-5 (e-book) 1. Lenox, Charles (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Private investigators—England—London—Fiction. 3. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 4. London (England)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3606.I526A83 2013
813'.6—dc23
2013024711
e-ISBN 9781250038395
First Edition: November 2013