Murder at Mondial Castle

by Issy Brooke

  “If it were straightforward to investigate a crime, everyone would do it. This is the test,” she told him. “A true man can continue even when the darkness comes.”

  “You flatterer. But yes, I am determined to see this through, though if I press too hard, Mondial’s patience will snap. I am having to be careful and ... well. You know me.” He dropped his voice. “Taylor is involved; he might be guilty. But Mondial’s protecting him and I don’t know what Mondial knows, and this makes it all so very difficult. I feel for Mondial, and his sorrow seemed genuine, but he is not all that he seems to be. Most of the staff are either loyal to him or terrified of him and the result is the same anyway. They won’t talk. I’ve reached the limit of what I can find out from that girl Brody and I can’t get any further.”

  “I’ll see what I can do. But the main thing is that we are ruling out Sir Henry, aren’t we?”

  He grumbled again but said, “Yes. Very well. Though he needs to leave this place and never be seen near our daughter again.”

  “He is a good friend to her in spite of the error. And she needs friends.”

  “Why? She has a husband now.”

  Adelia bit her tongue. He would never understand. He was a self-contained sort of man who found all his emotional needs could be met in his wife.

  Theodore continued on his perambulations, sinking back into thought. Adelia was finding the hay bale uncomfortable. Her layers of skirts prevented the stalks from irritating her except around her ankles, even though she was taking care to keep her feet clear of the hay. Her nose was tickling and her eyes beginning to itch. The countryside was much better being appreciated from a distance, she realised. She was about to complain when Theodore spun around on his heel at the far end of the barn and began to stride back to her.

  He said, as he came, “We must speak to every member of staff again and you must work your magic with them. We must find where this Taylor has gone, find out his history, find out his secrets. Is he a gambler, a womaniser, a cheat, a fraud? Then we will have a motive! Yes.” The energy that rippled through him as a result of making some clear plans led him to jump up onto a hay bale dramatically and Adelia tittered.

  She was obliged to counsel caution in spite of the amusement of his sudden display of boyishness. “Theodore, remember your bad hip...”

  “It’s not a bad hip, it’s the state of our mattresses...” he began to say as he jumped down. But he misjudged how far he had to go to clear the edge of the bale, tried to correct himself, and grabbed onto a nearby pile of bales that were stacked four high.

  They fell.

  He yelled and she screamed.

  Bad hip or not, Theodore managed to twist away and the heavy bales fell to one side of him. Adelia was on her feet but frozen to the spot in case the falling bales sparked some kind of chain reaction.

  They settled in a haphazard array on the floor and nothing else happened. She laughed in sudden relief.

  But Theodore was not laughing. She thought he might have been injured or, worse, it had given him a shock to his heart. Then she realised he was not doubled over in pain but actually bending over one of the fallen bales and looking at something that lay on the floor beyond. She went over to his side and looked. A bundle of cloth had been dislodged. All manner of horrible things went through her head then and she didn’t want him to reach over and unwrap whatever was being hidden. She straightened up and turned away while he stepped around the bale to examine the bundle more closely.

  “Adelia,” he said in a grunt. “We have found the murder weapons. This was no passing robber. I knew it all along! I knew it! Ha! Who would have hidden them here but Tobias Taylor?”

  Her curiosity propelled her to look at what Theodore had found. Two short wooden pistols lay wrapped in brown sackcloth. Theodore picked one of them up and examined the butt of it.

  “Brass,” he said, a note of puzzlement coming into his voice.

  “Is that unusual?”

  “Generally, yes. These pistols were made for use at sea.”

  “But they work on land, too, don’t they?”

  He looked at her as if she’d said something ridiculous. “Of course. They work anywhere. They use brass to stop the salt corroding the metal, that’s all. I doubt Tobias Taylor ever saw the sea. Oh, perhaps he is cleverer than we have given him credit for...”

  “Taylor?”

  “No, Sir Henry Locksley.”

  “What?”

  “Yes. Sir Henry was a naval man, you know. And a clever one, too. What would a guilty man do to hide his guilt? Overlay the large secret with a small one, of course. When the detective discovers the smaller secret he is fooled into thinking he has discovered all that can be known about the man. We may be dupes, Adelia. Sir Henry is not out of suspicion yet.”

  “Surely...”

  “No. Do not let your finer feelings cloud the ultimate aim of objective rationality.” He bundled up the pistols and began to leave the barn.

  She followed, feeling a dark sense of foreboding about the weapons in her husband’s arms.

  Nineteen

  Theodore had to remind himself not to let the excitement that was bubbling through his veins influence him. It was all very well for him to reprimand Adelia, he thought, but he himself could easily fall victim himself to the allure of emotional responses. Sir Henry could yet be guilty. He had shown himself to be emotionally involved with Dido. What better motive, then, for him to shoot Mondial? Get the husband out of the way and swoop in to take the wife.

  In fact, that was a far clearer motive than anything they had come up with for Tobias Taylor. Taylor looked suspicious because of his movements but there was no earthly reason for him to wound his master. Mondial was a strict man but he was not cruel and he was far better a master than many a titled man often was. A little bit of discipline, they said, was good for the staff anyway. They needed to know where the boundaries were. It gave them a sense of reassurance. Theodore often thought that Adelia’s more hands-on approach of learning names and trying to be considerate to a servant’s private life was ill-advised. Some of them scented weakness and would only take advantage of Adelia’s kindness.

  Perhaps that was Taylor’s story. Perhaps he had taken liberties, bit by bit, until he had grown arrogant in his place, and knew too much of Mondial’s life, and blackmailed the Marquis. Mondial then would...

  Here was the stumbling block. Mondial would have simply shot the man himself or taken him to the magistrates or any number of other things to be rid of the troublesome valet. Theodore could not imagine Mondial submitting to blackmail. Perhaps he didn’t. Perhaps he refused Taylor. Then Taylor tried to shoot him.

  And that was a second stumbling block. Mondial would have known that the assailant was Taylor. So why keep him on in his position as valet?

  Aha! Theodore picked up his pace and took the stairs at an unseemly speed, leaving Adelia far behind. He vaguely heard her greet someone. Maybe Taylor was not “away on urgent business” at all. Had Mondial taken matters into his own hands at last? Had he killed the valet and had the body disposed of? It would tie it all up very neatly.

  And there Lord Mondial was as if Theodore had conjured him up by merely thinking about the man.

  He was standing at the top of the stairs alongside Theodore’s mother. She greeted him cheerfully but Mondial’s face was dark. Theodore found that he was a little out of breath as he reached the top and his mother tutted at his lack of physical condition before bidding them both farewell and moving off along the landing. Adelia had disappeared. Theodore was left alone with the Marquis, and the man was not happy.

  “What’s that you’ve got there?” Mondial demanded as soon as the ancient lady was well out of earshot.

  Theodore did not have time to come up with any kind of excuse or subterfuge and anyway, he thought that such tactics would only go wrong in the long run. There were too many lies floating around in this household. So he pulled back the cloth to reveal the pistols and while he did so,
he kept his attention firmly on Mondial’s reaction.

  Mondial did not react. And that, thought Theodore, was a reaction in itself. In fact Mondial went stiff and silent and still.

  “I found these in the hay barn,” Theodore offered, still watching Mondial. “They had been hidden.”

  “What on earth were you doing in the barn?” Mondial spat out.

  More interesting still, thought Theodore. That is his first question? “I was talking with my wife.”

  “In the barn?”

  “In the barn. I enjoy the company of horses.”

  Everyone knew that and Mondial could not argue further. So he reached out with his uninjured arm to the pistols and said, “I shall dispose of these. One cannot have weapons lying about the place, especially with the garden party fast approaching.”

  “Do you recognise them?”

  Mondial exploded in anger. “Do I recognise them? No! Do I hell! Why would I recognise them? I am not in the habit of keeping such things scattered about. You’ve seen my gun room. You know it’s locked and secure. Who’d keep things like this in a barn? No. These were dropped there by the robber as he fled. This, Calaway, merely corroborates the very strong suggestion that the attacker was a passing highwayman or footpad. It is more evidence which simply supports the theory. Are you not yet convinced? I dine tonight in town with Judge Anderson and I shall be sure to inform him of this development. And I have absolutely no doubt that he will agree with me.”

  The implication was that Theodore was now on his own with his ideas and without the backing of the local judiciary, he was bound to get no further in his amateur investigation. They both knew that.

  Theodore had no choice but to hand the pistols over. He meekly apologised for any offence he might have caused in his eagerness to find someone to blame for Miss Lamb’s death.

  He walked sullenly on to his suite.

  Mondial was a difficult, stubborn, pig-headed man, convinced of his own rightness and secure in his own authority.

  Theodore was starting to doubt everything. The idea of giving up was galling to him, but he had to consider his own reputation and his family’s good name. If he pushed things too far – especially against the local great and good – he was going to see himself side-lined from society. As to that, he didn’t care too much.

  But it would also ostracise Adelia from polite company and she wouldn’t bear that. Nor would he. Adelia’s wellbeing was even more important to him than his own.

  TO THEODORE’S FRUSTRATION, he was unable to find Adelia. He found their suite empty and remembered he had heard her speak to someone when they had entered the castle after leaving the barn. He explored all the public rooms and knocked on the door of Dido’s usual day room but found everywhere, including the parlour and drawing room, to be empty. His mother was sitting in a patch of sunlight on the patio, just outside the open doors of the garden room, with solicitous servants hovering in the background. Everyone adored Lady Calaway, even the staff. She treated everyone generously if somewhat peremptorily. It was generally understood that her bark was far worse than her bite.

  So she was being waited on with careful attention and Theodore took the chance to speak to a few of the servants who lingered around. None of them, he found, were willing to tell him anything about Mondial or Tobias Taylor.

  He flopped down into a chair alongside his mother, who sipped at a cool mint drink. She dismissed all the remaining servants with a wave of her hand.

  “I was listening, of course,” she told him. “Just now as you spoke to the staff.”

  “I expect that you were.”

  “Your bedside manner has not improved.”

  “I wasn’t using my bedside manner.”

  “That’s probably for the best. Everyone seems to die once they’ve listened to you minister your medicine to them.”

  “Mother! That is harsh. They do not. My medical knowledge is unparalleled.”

  “Yes and much of it ought to be kept to yourself. You might well have a thoroughly enviable understanding of the intimate workings of a person’s internal organs, but much like those internal organs, no one wants to see them laid out in front of them on the dining table.”

  “I believe that honesty is important and, in fact, the more that a person knows about their own health and body, the more they can take control and ensure that they remain healthy. You should read what Doctor Beddoes says about the matter.”

  She shook her head and laughed at him. “No. A person who is ill wants to be told that they are going to get better.”

  “I would hate a physician to lie to me.”

  “But I would hate to hear the truth so you had better not come anywhere near me with your black bag of needles and potions. Now, on to this Tobias Taylor, a man of whom you have singularly failed to learn a single useful thing – am I right?”

  Mulishly he had to agree.

  “He is a good-looking man, don’t you think?”

  “I have absolutely no opinion on the matter. I actually thought that he looked like a heron.”

  That observation made his mother laugh. “He has a look in his eyes that makes a woman feel quite girlish. There is a dark smouldering. A hint of danger. A suggestion he might sweep one off one’s feet. One can overlook his knobbly shoulders if one feels smouldered at.”

  “Mother, must you be so ... earthy? I don’t know how to listen to you saying such things.”

  “I thought you prized honesty? Anyway. Let me tell you that the female staff in this household, when they are young and new, fall easily prey to this man. This has made him arrogant and over-confident.”

  “Ah, I see. And his status gives him the pick of them. But how does this help us? Unless – no, surely not! Are you suggesting that he made advances to Miss Lamb? Surely he would not shoot so high above his station. A parlour-maid is one thing, though it risks dismissal for them both, but Miss Lamb is quite another. That is utterly unthinkable and the penalties would be far higher.”

  “You are right,” his mother agreed. “It is unthinkable and I do not suggest that it happened. He would have been a fool to try and I doubt that he did. However, have you not also noticed that the man is less intelligent than a potted plant?”

  “I admit he is not blessed...”

  “Not blessed? He has been completely cursed with the intellectual abilities of a politician but without any insight into his condition.”

  “Your brother is a politician. Uncle Charles would be mortified to hear you say such a thing.”

  “Charles is fully aware of the shortcomings that prevented him from entering the church or taking up a profession such as the law. Parliament is his last refuge from the real world. As for this Taylor chap, consider that Mondial Castle is his refuge.”

  “From?”

  “From earning his living in the real world. Here, he is a king. He would do anything to remain here, I would wager.”

  Theodore sighed. “This is all very well, but does any of it connect him to the murder and the wounding of his master?”

  “Well, that’s for you to find out, isn’t it?”

  “Has there been any hint that he has taken things too far with the female staff?”

  “As far as I understand it, they have mostly fought back and the housekeeper is something of a Valkyrie in that regard. She watches over her charges and she knows of his menaces. Taylor may try his hand – but Taylor generally won’t succeed.”

  “That is of some comfort. Does Mondial know of his valet’s indulgences?”

  “I am sure he is fully aware of everything that happens in this house.” Lady Calaway glanced around. “It would not surprise me to now see him rise from the middle of that aspidistra and declare he has heard everything we have said.”

  Theodore could not stop himself. He took his leave from his mother and on his way back into the house, he examined the potted plant very closely. Just in case.

  “IT’S A BIT OFF OF LORD Mondial to leave us all without a host toni
ght,” Adelia remarked to Theodore as they headed down the main stairs. “Not really done, you know.”

  “I rather think he has business with the magistrate or judge or someone of that ilk,” Theodore told her. “May I say how stunning you look tonight?”

  “Hush! You may not. Our daughter is in mourning even if the house is not.”

  He smiled at her. “Diamonds and pearls look better on you than any grey sapphire.”

  She winced as he spoke and he wondered if he had said the wrong thing. But she didn’t reprimand him so it couldn’t have been anything important. He offered her his arm and she took it willingly. She glanced down at his feet as they descended.

  “Did you hurt yourself when you fell off the bale of hay?”

  “No. Only my pride has been wounded.”

  “Oh look – there is Lord Mondial now.”

  They were halfway down the stairs, going slowly on account of Adelia’s dresses. Her train was fashionably long and the front of her dress snug and narrow. Mondial was in full evening wear and they saw him crossing the hallway. His injured arm was no longer in a sling but Theodore knew it would be tightly bound and Mondial was keeping it relatively still while the muscles healed. The Marquis glanced up and paused when he saw them.

  “I am so sorry to be leaving you in this manner but I have no doubt that my dear wife will preside over a small and intimate meal with utmost aplomb,” he said. “If she can tear herself out of the nursery, that is.”

  Theodore wondered if the children were ill again. He was aware that Mondial’s statement made Adelia hiss under her breath but he wasn’t sure if it was because Mondial was going to be absent this evening, or for some other reason to do with the children. Theodore said, “I am sure we will have a very pleasant time and I wish the same for you.”

  “I hear the judge’s cook is an absolute miracle worker with a syllabub,” Adelia said, astonishing Theodore all over again. From where would his wife hear such things? He shook his head in wonder and pride.