Foul deeds have been done under the most hospitable roofs

Guess what! It's time for more Lady Audley's Secret! I say this with exclamation points, well, one because it's awesome. And two because I am all messed up this week and keep forgetting what day it is. See what happens if I alter my weekly routine in the slightest? I can't decide if today (Weds) is Monday or Sunday or Friday. Those aren't even close. And clearly causing me to ramble, so back to the point.

Thanks Alice for hosting this. Good times!

Heads up, I also mixed up the chapters we were supposed to have read by today (Thurs, writing for the future is hard) because I am winning at life right now. I thought we were supposed to have read through chapter 26 instead of 24. I'll just pretend I don't know things. Don't worry, it won't be too hard for me to do.

Alicia gets a non-incesty marriage offer, which she declines. Obv. Although this guy Sir Harry says something about Rob being a sneaky lawyer and hmmm. Is he really sneaky? Should we be concerned about him? Or is he just jealous because Rob is Alicia's love? (Prob the later BUT STILL.)

Rob gets kicked out of Audley Court right after Christmas. Lady Audley just reeeeeeaaally wants to be rid of him. I wonder why?

Re-enactment of George's last moments

Not cool, Sir Audley, telling him how he could stay as long as he wants and that he's like a son to you, only to turn around and kick him out within the hour because your really suspicious wife tells you to.

So now Rob decides he still has more sleuthing to do and he stays at the inn that Phoebe and Luke own. DUN DUN DUN. Phoebe warns Lady Audley via what I assume are orphan children (the Victorian method of texting) that Rob is staying there. Rob and Phoebe chat and Rob keeps commenting that Phoebe is clearly GREAT at keeping secrets.

Let's assume she has big hair

Luke is not great at keeping secrets or taking hints. Phoebe keeps trying to shut him up and he will have none of it, so that's pretty funny. Rob not-so-subtly hints that he knows all about the blackmailing of Lady Audley, and I wonder how he figured that out. But then the next day Lady Audley shows up to find out what Rob's up to and also because it seems both Rob and Lady Audley feel this need to update each other on how the whole cat and mouse game is going.

Lady Audley: Didn't Mr. Talboy go to Australia
Rob: I have reason to believe he did not.
LA: What reason is that?
R: I'm not going to tell you.
LA: Fine, whatever.
R: So here's why I think he never went to Australia...

Rob gets back to his apartment in London and finds that a locksmith had been to his place apparently poking around. He said he went there by mistake until Rob points out he stayed there a really long time for someone that made a mistake. Suspicious.

Rob muses on his love of George, ("Who would have thought that I could have grown so fond of the fellow...or feel so lonely without him?") and starts spewing action hero-y lines ("Justice to the dead first...mercy to the living afterward.") which suggests he's about to start kicking ass soon.

He then goes to visit little Georgey and we get some more suspicious behavior. George's father-in-law is a drunk but a drunk that really does seem to care for Georgy and Georgy loves him, so even though it is for the best I was still sort of sad to see the old man lose the boy. But of course we have all the suspicious behavior around Mrs. Plowman trying to keep Georgey from talking. Hmmmm. Of course Rob doesn't actually take the kid in. That would get in the way of all the avengin' he has planned. Instead he sends him off to a school. So, no one kept their kids around, right?

George's father is terrible, but in an entertaining way. "I wish [George] no ill. He's simply dead to me." And Rob points out that George is more literally dead. Harcourt says that George is just faking it to get back at him because the world revolves around Harcourt. Poor guy. I'm going to assume this is his way of dealing with the death of his son. Jumping right to denial.

But Rob does meet George's sister Clara when he goes to visit Harcourt and falls for her because hey, female George. She stayed quiet while her dad was going on about how George was dead to him (and then later claiming that he's totally not dead) but runs after Rob and begs him to keep trying to solve the case and find out what happened to her brother. I like Clara. And hopefully this means that Rob and Alicia won't end up together.

Though I'm sure George Michael would prefer an Alicia-Rob pairing.

QUESTIONS!
Why was the locksmith poking around Rob's apartment?
How messed up do you think Georgey is going to be?
Are Clara and Rob going to end up together? And will they team up and become vigilante super heroes?
What is Lady Audley's secret already?

Till next week.

Title quote from page 97 location 1857

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Lady Audley's Secret. Amazon Digital Services. Originally published 1862.