“So you were friends?”
“Yes, that would not be too strong a word for it.”
He moved his chair a little closer to her.
“You ought to have told me this before,” he said, with what he hoped was a lover-like concern. “But I am glad you have told me now. And since I know that you were friends, I can see how it would offend you to think that Mr Rhodes might have fathered Abigail’s child.”
“It is offensive.”
“But if you had discovered something of the kind, how would you have felt, I wonder?
“What a strange question.”
“I know. Indulge me. If you had learnt something of that sort, what would you have done?”
“I would have imagined the girl was lying,” she said. “Mr Rhodes would not have taken advantage of anyone.”
“So why might she make up such a story?”
“To hurt me, I suppose.”
“Why would Abigail want to hurt you?” said Giles. “When you had done so much for her? When you had given her a sanctuary?”
“The girls do not always understand that,” said Miss Hilliard. “They cannot see that it is a sanctuary. The temptation to revert to the old life is strong. I suppose that is what happened with Abigail.”
“Perhaps she might have tried to charm Mr Rhodes? Given her background. She would know how to solicit even the most strong-minded man. These girls have all the tricks, I imagine.”
“It is possible, but I do not think Mr Rhodes would have given in,” she said. “Forgive me, Major, but I do not see what this has to do with the matter of Mrs Lepaige and these wretched herbs.”
“I am just trying to establish who fathered Abigail’s child.”
“But I do not see what that has to do with anything,” she said. “Surely you have all the information you need. You said Mrs Lepaige had confessed it all to you. Why must we rake over all this disagreeable information?”
“Because I am also investigating Mr Rhodes’ death, and if you were his friend you should care that I find who murdered him.”
“I see,” she said after a moment.
“Excellent. Then let us carry on. Tell me who you think fathered that child? What men have you allowed to have access to the establishment? Perhaps a joiner or a gardener? Someone like that? That would have been a likely scenario. After all, as you say, Mr Rhodes was too delicate and refined a man to find anything to interest him among those girls. That was not where his tastes lay. But then again a man will sometimes eat when he is not hungry, merely because the food is there.”
“Why do you want me to tell you it was Mr Rhodes?” she said. “You are very determined to damn him.”
“Because of Mrs Lepaige,” he said. “I think she was angry with him, that she believed he had preyed on your girls. She may have taken her revenge upon him. She had plenty of cause to be angry with the man already, and this business may have only been the straw to break the camel’s back, don’t you think?”
“You think Mrs Lepaige may be responsible for murdering Mr Rhodes?” she said after a long moment.
“It is a very strong possibility,” he said, pleased that she seemed to have taken his bait so readily. He thought he saw her shoulders relax a little. “Perhaps you can help me to prove it? Tell me if you think there was any chance that Abigail and Mr Rhodes were intimate.”
“Oh, but I do not... I cannot,” she said. “It is so... so very horrible to think of it.”
“And why? Because you were friends? It is very painful when we find out friends prove to be less than we want them to be.”
“Yes, it is,” she said. “I suppose that Abigail behaved very wickedly. She is a devious, nasty creature at heart. I imagine that he could not hold out against her. I do not for a moment blame him.”
“You are very forgiving,” he said. “A man always has a choice in such matters. He behaved badly by all accounts. You are allowed to be angry with him. Especially in the circumstances.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, this friendship, it was not quite so simple as that, was it? I think it was a great deal more than simple friendship. You are a warm-hearted, loving creature, Marian, I know that, of all men I know that. Mr Rhodes was more than a friend to you, was he not? He was a suitor. That is the plain truth, is it not? He promised you the life that every woman wants at heart. A comfortable house somewhere, a good income, children of your own, a position in the world that you richly deserve. It is the position I would give you myself if I could. If I were a single man I would be on my knees before you, begging you to be my wife. Is that what happened, Marian?”
He took her hand, but she did not answer. She looked carefully away.
“He offered you an end to your life at Brinklow, didn’t he? He tempted you with marriage. As Mrs Rhodes you would not be despised or looked at curiously. You would not be working with all those ungrateful, difficult girls who would as soon go back on the streets than listen to the good advice you had for them. Your reputation would not be tainted by the little whores who tried even to steal away the man to whom you had given your heart, the man to whom you have given up even more –”
“Major Vernon, please!”
He was sitting very close to her now. She had twisted away from him and he pulled her gently back to face him. But she hung her head as he spoke.
“I was not your first lover, was I?” he said, in almost a whisper. “Mr Rhodes had had that privilege, didn’t he?”
“Please, sir, do not speak of this.”
“I am sorry, but I must. And then you found he had not been true. That he had been plucking at all the ripe fruit in your orchard. You had given him everything, and it was not enough. And that it should be Abigail Prior, whom you had cared for and cherished, and forgiven a thousand times, and now she had done this terrible thing, with the man you loved.”
She pushed him away, got up from her chair and walked quickly across the room.
“I do not know what you think you are trying to do, sir,” she said. “And in front of these others!” She flung her hand out towards Barker and Inspector Roberts. “Do you care nothing for your own reputation? I would think a little discretion might be in order after your actions last night.”
Giles declined to be provoked.
“Major Vernon forced himself on me last night in the most outrageous manner. Write that in your book, Mr Clerk,” she said, tapping her finger on Barker’s writing desk. “Miss Hilliard considers Major Vernon’s actions towards her in the light of an assault. She was powerless in the face of such force. Furthermore his allegations concerning her relationship with Mr Rhodes are completely unfounded and that if Miss Hilliard has been ruined it is entirely Major Vernon’s responsibility!”
“Oh, only assault,” Giles said, as mildly as he could. “I’m surprised you don’t say rape.” She turned round and stared at him. “You thought I would care more for my reputation than the truth, didn’t you?” he went on, picking up her chair and put it in the centre of the room again, squaring it, so she must look into the light. He made a slight flourish over it. “Sit down again, please.”
“I would rather stand,” she said.
“You will sit,” he said.
“If you insist,” she said.
“Now then, about last night – it’s very interesting – and most convenient. You let me have you with such good grace. With not a shred of resistance, or fear, or ignorance. And of course I didn’t think much of it at the moment – what man would? You have read us right, ma’am, we men are mere animals when offered such recreation. But afterward, I found myself wondering at the timing of it. Because you sensed I was near to the truth. The truth you have been hiding from me all along, how things really stood between you and Stephen Rhodes. But it was a grave mistake you made – you betrayed the whole thing in the manner you tried to conceal it.”
“You are beyond outrageous,” she said, looking up at him. “That you dare to speak about me like this –”
“Whether he did or not has nothing to do with this business of Abigail Prior.”
“I think it has. Especially now that poor girl is dead.”
“Dear God, she is not...?” she said.
He nodded. “Mr Carswell is performing a post mortem as we speak,” he said. “There are few secrets that can survive that. Abigail will speak, even in death.”
“What do you mean?” she said.
“You were very angry with Abigail, and with everything she had done and said. You wanted to punish her and so you did not treat her with your usual kindness. Her condition was punishment for her sins against you and it did not stir your conscience that she did not seem to be recovering. You did not exert yourself to see to her comfort. Why should you when she had been so ungrateful? She did not deserve it, and if she died, then it was God’s will and so be it. Of course, you had not counted on Mr Carswell, who is as tenacious as a terrier. He would not leave her or you be, and you were forced to take drastic action when the girl seemed to be recovering.”
He took his chair and settled down close to her again, keeping his tone gentle.
“Now, why was it so important that Abigail was kept quiet? Because Abigail knew about you and Mr Rhodes. He told her. I think he boasted about it: ‘I have had your mistress. I have breached her citadel.’ Abigail made no secret of it and then she was discovered to be pregnant. I can only guess how that made you feel. When you had been thinking of marriage and a baby of your own. You had, hadn’t you, Marian? You had been dreaming of that, and then to learn of this betrayal – that he had slept with such a creature as that. It must have been dreadful for you.” He took her hand. “Tell me, Marian, tell me everything. I want to help you.”
“All men are predators,” she said, pushing his hand away. “You are no exception. I have nothing to say to you.”
She had seen his snares and neatly side-stepped them. He felt a profound sense of frustration, drying his throat with anger. It was not simply that she was resistant, like any common criminal anxious to disentangle themselves from the prospect of justice. It was worse than that.
She had played him for such a fool! It was not just his professional pride that was bruised, but his heart. He had felt far more for her than he had imagined.
And now, if he had fancied he might catch hold of some shred of feeling for him that existed in her, he knew he was badly mistaken. That was not going to work. He had been working on a false assumption. It was humiliatingly clear she had not felt anything at all for him at any moment. She had she only seen him as an opportunity, a strategy in her bigger game. After all, what better way was there to throw a man off the scent than seducing him?
There was a tap on the door and Constable Briscoe came in carrying a note which he handed to Giles. It was in Inspector Gough’s hand, and he glanced over its contents.
“I think we shall adjourn this conversation,” he said. He decided he would let her alone with her conscience, if she had such a thing. A good long wait might make her anxious, or at least angry, which would be better than nothing. In the mean time he would talk again to Mrs Fulwood who was now sitting downstairs. “You must be tired, ma’am. We will let you have some peace and some tea and then perhaps you will feel like speaking to me. Barker, perhaps you could arrange that for Miss Hilliard?”
Barker gathered up his papers and departed, with Inspector Roberts. All the while Miss Hilliard sat immobile and inscrutable, as if she was attempting to turn herself into a block of stone.
Giles closed the door and drew the bolt shut with noisy satisfaction. It was a petty act of revenge but it would have to do for the present.
Chapter Thirty-two
Felix was making some notes when there was a knock at the door. He went and opened it, expecting one of the constables, and found himself staring up at Major Vernon.
There was an excruciating moment and then Felix managed to say, “About last night sir, I was not myself, I should not have...”
“You were not very wide of the mark,” he said. “What have you turned up?”
“More Datura stramonium seeds.”
“So she was poisoned by that?”
“Well, it is a much smaller dose than I found in Rhodes. But in her weakened condition it would not have taken much.” After a moment he said. “If I hadn’t done that procedure on her in the first place, then perhaps...”
“They would have just given her more,” Giles said.
“They?” Felix said.
“Marian Hilliard and Agnes Fulwood,” Major Vernon said. “Don’t reproach yourself for that. You have done all that you should.”
“Sir, are you saying that they killed her, and Rhodes?”
“Yes.”
“But why? And how do you know that?”
“Well, there is something you need to know – Miss Hilliard and I have been intimate.”
Felix wondered for a moment if he had heard aright.
“Sir, do you mean...?” he could not help asking. “You don’t mean, that, surely?”
“Yes, that is exactly what I mean. You were right – and I did not see what she was trying to do until it was too late. She counts on using this against me now. That is why she allowed it. She was trying to protect herself. There is no excuse for my conduct, but it showed me one important thing: she had not been virtuous previously.”
Nothing could have been more uncomfortable than this frankness, but Felix had to concede that he greatly admired the Major’s candour.
The Major went on: “Stephen Rhodes seduced her. Remember what John Rhodes said? Stephen never liked to pay when he could get something for free, and that he had a decided taste for seduction. Well, that’s what happened. He seduced Miss Hilliard, just as he seduced Miss Cley. Rhodes liked a challenge. That was all the pleasure in it for him. Breaching the citadel. But when that was done he lost interest. He certainly had no intention of honouring any agreements. We know he asked Miss Cley to marry him and that she let him seduce her on those grounds. I am certain this is what happened with Miss Hilliard, and that is what I will to get her to admit. The rest will follow.”
***
“Why I am here, sir?”
“You can probably answer that question yourself, Mrs Fulwood,” Giles said.
“Is Miss Marian here, sir?”
“Yes, she is.”
“You must take her away, sir. She should not be in a place like this.”
“You seem very sure of that, Mrs Fulwood.”
“Let her go.”
“Give me a good reason why I should?”
“Because she doesn’t know anything, sir. I told you that. This business is nothing to do with her.”
“I am afraid it is. Especially now Abigail Prior is dead.”
That seemed to have some effect on her. She could not conceal her discomfort.
“The best way to protect your mistress is to tell me the truth,” he said. “Yesterday you told me about the herbs Mrs Lepaige gave you. You told me she did not give you anything else. Do you stand by that?”
She paused. “No, sir, I do not.”
“There, that was not so hard, was it? So, what can you tell me? What else did she give you? Did she give you some seeds, like these, for example?” he said, bringing out the little enamel box and pushing it across the table. She picked it up and opened it.
“Yes, sir.”
“You’ve seen this type of seed before, then?”
“Mrs Lepaige gave them to us for the rats.”
“Rats?”
“We had rats in the cellar. And I spoke to Miss Marian about it and we discussed what we would do about them. Mrs Lepaige had told her about some seeds her brother had sent her that were the best rat poison she had found. So she asked her for some to deal with the rats. They were very good.”
&nbs
p; “Do you know where we found these, Mrs Fulwood?”
“No, sir.”
“We found these seeds in the stomachs of Mr Rhodes and Abigail Prior. The surgeon tells me that these seeds are what killed both of them.”
“I don’t know about that, sir,” she said avoiding his glance.
“Come now, Mrs Fulwood, I think you know a lot more than that. And you know you had better tell me sooner rather than later.”
“I don’t know what I should say, sir,” she said.
“Tell me exactly what happened. You are carrying a heavy burden, Mrs Fulwood, and it would be better to lay it down.”
“I cannot,” she said, in a strangled voice. “I promised.”
“Who did you promise?”
She wrapped her arms about her and twisted herself away from him, hiding her face in her shawl.
“Did you promise Miss Marian?” Giles said.
There was no answer.
“I understand,” Giles said. “I know how much you love your mistress. It is very good of you, but you cannot help her if you do not talk to me.”
“No, sir, I cannot, I really cannot,” she said.
He stood and considered. It felt as if he were dealing with a man and his wife, the bond between these women seemed to run so deep. Last night Marian had been very anxious that Fulwood should take no blame for her actions. She had defended her when it was against her interest to do so.
“You do not want Miss Marian to go to the gallows,” he said.
“She... she will not, sir, surely?”
“Not if you tell me the truth.”
“You cannot send her to the gallows,” she said, in agony. “She has done nothing, nothing.”
“I think we should go back to the beginning, Mrs Fulwood,” he said, sitting down. “Tell me about Miss Marian. You said last night that she was kind to you when you were young.”
“Yes, sir.”
“In what ways was she kind? Can you explain it to me?”
“She gave me things. She didn’t have much herself, but she gave me things. Like ribbons and such. Once she gave me her doll. I’d never had a doll, of course. I was sitting on the stairs crying because the cook had boxed my ears and I hated my place, and I wanted to go back home, not that there was anything much at home for me, but I missed my brothers and sisters, and she came out of the nursery and talked to me. Comforted me. Gave me the doll to keep me company when I was lonely at night.”
The Butchered Man Page 28
