by Rebecca Kent
Dying to know what he had to say, Meredith said quickly, “Well, thank you, Mrs. Parker. I think we’ve seen enough for now. Though we might be back again for another look around in a day or two.”
The housekeeper nodded. “By all means, Mrs. Llewellyn. There’s not a lot to do nowadays, except keep the place clean and tidy and feed the staff. What’s left of them. We haven’t had anyone else even look at the place besides you. Makes a nice change to get out of the kitchen. I must say, I’ll be really pleased once it’s sold and I can go back to London.”
Felicity looked surprised. “You don’t like living in this grand house?”
“No, I don’t. Too quiet for me.” The housekeeper rubbed her arms as if she were cold. “This place gives me the willies now. I keep thinking I can see James walking around. He loved to play tricks, especially on poor Winnie. Used to creep up behind her and shout in her ear. It’s a wonder she hasn’t dropped dead of a heart attack before now. Sometimes I think I can still see him creeping along the hallways.”
Felicity exchanged a look with Meredith, while Essie clutched her upper arms and sent a frightened glance around the room.
“Well, we won’t take up any more of your time.” Meredith followed the scrawny woman to the door. “Thank you so much for showing us around. We’ll see ourselves out.”
The housekeeper appeared relieved. “Oh, would you? I know Mr. Smithers will be looking for me by now.” She hurried off, leaving the teachers alone.
“Certainly.” Out in the hallway, Meredith caught sight of Winnie hurrying down the stairs. “Both of you go on without me,” she said quickly, her voice hushed. “I’d like a quick word with the maid. I’ll catch up with you on the steps.”
Essie looked as if she was happy to get out of the mansion, though Felicity seemed reluctant to leave. Nevertheless, she followed Essie to the front door, while Meredith waited at the foot of the stairs.
Winnie’s footsteps slowed as she approached Meredith, until she finally halted on the bottom stair. Dropping a slight curtsey, she mumbled, “Is there something I can do for you, Mrs. Llewellyn?”
“I just wanted a word with you.” Meredith smiled in an attempt to put the girl at ease. “Mrs. Parker believes someone else was in the house the night of the shooting, despite what Smithers said on the stand. I was just wondering if you happened to see anyone here that night.”
Winnie looked as if she wanted to flee down the hallway. “I didn’t see nothing.”
Meredith looked into the frightened girl’s eyes. “Winnie, I think there’s a strong possibility that James Stalham might not be the person who shot Lord Howard. If that’s so, I think it’s only right that the real killer is found and punished, don’t you? If there’s anything at all that you can tell me that might help find this person, I’d very much like to hear it.”
Winnie’s bottom lip trembled, and tears formed in her eyes. “I did see someone,” she whispered. “Right before the constables arrived. At least, I think I did. I’m not exactly sure, which is why I didn’t say nothing before, but I think I saw her running down the back steps to the kitchen.”
Meredith felt a surge of triumph. “Who was it, Winnie? You can tell me. I promise you won’t get into trouble for it.”
Winnie gulped, then whispered again. “Well, I don’t know what she was doing on the kitchen stairs, I swear I don’t, but I thought I recognized her cloak and hat. I think I saw Lady Clara, m’m.”
Meredith stared at her for a moment, then nodded. “Thank you, Winnie.”
The maid looked about to say something else, then apparently thought better of it. Instead, she ducked her head, then ran down the hallway and out of sight.
Hurrying out of the front doors, Meredith found Felicity and Essie waiting for her at the top of the steps. Amid a barrage of furious barking from the dogs, she raised her voice. “Well, Essie, did Smithers tell you anything?”
Essie danced down the steps, forcing Meredith to hurry after her in order to hear what she had to say. “He didn’t tell me much,” she said, when they reached the bottom. “He’s not very good at holding a conversation.”
Above them, Felicity let out a short burst of laughter. “I doubt if he knows how. I knew if anyone could get him to talk, though, it would be you. You’re a positive genius when it comes to worming information out of someone.”
Essie blushed. “I just ask questions, and hope I’ll get some answers, that’s all.”
“Ah, but it’s in the way you ask them.” Felicity marched down the steps. “You are a born coquette, Essie dear, and your charm is in the fact that you have absolutely no idea of the disarming effect you have on the male population.”
Essie pouted. “You make me sound like a harlot.”
“Do I? I certainly don’t mean to offend.”
Having run out of patience, Meredith grasped Essie’s arm. “I refuse to let you go another step until you’ve told me what Smithers told you.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Essie gave her an apologetic smile. “Well, he told me he heard the shot and rushed to the library, where he found Lord Stalham lying on the carpet and James standing over him, holding the gun. He’s absolutely certain James killed his father. Smithers said anyone else would not have had time to leave before he got there. In any case, he said, the dogs would have barked if anyone had come close to the house, and the only time he heard the dogs barking was when the constables arrived, and again when they left with James.”
Meredith wrinkled her brow. “That’s not what Mrs. Parker told us. She said she heard them barking before the constables arrived.”
“Twice,” Felicity said, nodding her head.
Essie looked surprised. “Why would Smithers lie about that?”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Meredith murmured. “He also lied about Miss Suchier’s relationship with Lord Stalham. I believe he might have been protecting someone.”
She started walking away from the mansion’s steps with Felicity hot on her heels. “Protecting who? That Suchier woman? Was that why he lied about her?”
“No, not Pauline Suchier.” Meredith paused again. “Winnie told me she thought she saw Lady Clara that night, running down the back stairs to the kitchen. I think both lies were to protect her.”
Felicity’s eyes widened. “Oh, my. That complicates things, doesn’t it.”
“What complicates things?” Essie asked, catching up with them.
Meredith told her about Winnie’s revelation. “You know,” she added, as they all began walking again, “Mrs. Parker could be lying, of course. Also to protect Lady Clara. She took care to let us know the stable boy saw Pauline Suchier that night.”
“Or thought he did,” Felicity put in. “He could have been mistaken. After all, didn’t he say he only saw her face for an instant?”
“I need to have a word with him.” Meredith nodded her head at the side of the building. “I believe Reggie took the carriage around to the stables to wait for us. While you and Essie are getting into the carriage, I’ll see if I can spot the stable boy and ask him a question or two. Perhaps we’ll learn something useful from him.”
“I hope so.” Felicity frowned. “So far everything we’ve heard has only raised more questions.”
“ I tell you, Meredith,” Essie put in, “your ghost is not going to cross over, or whatever it’s called, unless you can find someone who really knows what happened in the library that night.”
“You’re right.” Meredith sighed. “But I’m afraid that the only one who knows what really happened is the person who shot Lord Stalham, and something tells me that person is not about to come up to me and confess.”
Essie gave her a worried smile. “I do fear that you might be haunted by James forever.”
Chapter 11
Meredith led the way around the corner to where Reggie had left the carriage. Spirit tossed his head impatiently as she approached, but she could see no sign of Reggie. “He must be in the stables,” she said as Felicity
and Essie joined her. “That will give me an excuse to talk to the stable boy. Both of you wait here for me. I shan’t be long.”
“Why can’t we come along?”
Essie pouted, and Felicity nudged her with her elbow. “Do you really want to go in that nasty, smelly place, with your skirts sweeping through God knows what hidden in the filthy straw?”
Essie’s frown disappeared. “Well, now that you mention it, I think I’ll wait in here.” With a nod at Meredith she lifted her skirts and stepped up into the carriage.
“I didn’t think so.” Looking smug, Felicity added, “Try not to be too long. I’m starving to death.”
“I’ll be as fast as I can.” Holding up the hem of her own skirt, Meredith hurried toward the stable.
Just as she got there, Reggie appeared in the entrance, looking flustered. “Sorry, m’m. Didn’t realize you were done talking, did I. I’ll be right along.”
“That’s all right, Reggie.” Meredith smiled. “I just want a quick word with the stable boy. Is he in there?”
Reggie turned his head and glanced behind him. “What, Jimmy? No, he’s not . . .”
His voice trailed off as a tall, lanky lad strolled out into the sunshine. “Someone asking for me?”
Reggie looked even more flustered. The reason was obvious, since Jimmy held a pack of playing cards in one hand, and some pound notes in the other. “Oh, you are there, then.” Reggie looked back at Meredith with a sickly grin. “Didn’t see him there in the glare of the sun.”
Meredith decided the question of Reggie’s gambling could be postponed. “Wait for me in the carriage,” she ordered.
With a last look at Jimmy, Reggie bolted across the yard.
“My name is Mrs. Llewellyn,” Meredith began, and Jimmy nodded.
“Yes, I know. Reggie told me all about you.”
“Oh?” Though sorely tempted, Meredith decided that it might be wiser not to ask. “Well, I was wondering if you could tell me about the night Lord Stalham was shot.”
Jimmy looked over his shoulder, then frowned at her. “Why should I, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Again Meredith wondered just what Reggie had told the young man. She’d had to rely on her maintenance man’s discretion more than once, and Reggie had been sworn to secrecy about her activities concerning certain nefarious events. Just how far she could trust him remained to be seen.
“Let us just say I have a vested interest in what happened that night.”
Jimmy’s brow wrinkled even further. “Vested?”
Meredith sighed. She hated the falsehood she had perpetrated, but it seemed she had no choice. She could only hope the end justified the means. “I’m thinking of purchasing this property, and I’d rather there weren’t any secrets about this place.”
Jimmy’s brow cleared. “Oh, well, it ain’t no secret, m’m. It were all in the newspaper so I don’t see no harm in speaking up about it now. Lord Stalham, James, that is—he was a lord such a short time it don’t seem right to call him one. He didn’t become a lord, you see, until his father died, and then he died himself shortly afterward so it were sort of wasted on him, weren’t it. Now his father, that was a different matter. Everyone called him Lord Stalham, which is why it were hard to call James that, ’cos we were so used to—”
“You were going to tell me about that night,” Meredith cut in, a little desperately. It seemed that Jimmy liked the sound of his own voice, and his steady stream of words seemed unstoppable.
Jimmy looked offended. “Well, I was just coming to that, wasn’t I. It was like this. I was half asleep, upstairs on me bed, when I heard the sound of horse hooves. The dogs started barking and carrying on and I thought, blimey, who’s this coming in here so bleeding late at night?” He slapped a hand over his mouth. “Sorry, m’m. Didn’t mean to swear. It just sort of slipped out, it did.”
“That’s quite all right, Jimmy,” Meredith murmured. “Please, do go on.”
“Yes, well.” Jimmy tucked the pound notes into his back pocket then, without even looking at them, he started flipping the cards back and forth through his fingers.
No wonder Reggie lost his money, Meredith thought. He should have known better. This young man was obviously an expert with the playing cards.
“Well,” Jimmy said, “at first I thought I’d pretend I didn’t hear anything so as I could go back to sleep. I was comfortable, you see, and I didn’t want to have to get up and get dressed and go downstairs and stable the horse and than have to wait for whoever it was to be done with their business, and then I’d just get settled again and I’d have to go down and get the horse out again and see them off before I could go back to bed. It didn’t make no sense to me at all. I mean, I’d been working all day and—”
“So then you must have changed your mind,” Meredith said firmly.
Jimmy clamped his mouth shut and for a moment she was afraid he wouldn’t say anything else. She was about to apologize for interrupting when he said abruptly, “Well, yes, I did. I got up and looked out of the window.”
Meredith let out her breath. “Did you recognize the visitor?”
Jimmy hesitated, and she could tell he was keeping her in suspense, no doubt to punish her for being so impatient with him.
At long last, just as she was ready to give up, he muttered, “Well, I could see she was a woman. She was walking fast and by the time I looked out she was at the corner of the house.”
“But did you recognize her?”
Jimmy shrugged. “Well, it were dark, weren’t it, with only a sliver of a moon. Didn’t give out too much light. You need a full moon to see properly across this yard. Besides, she were quite far away and she had her back to me. It was really hard to see from here.”
With a supreme effort Meredith held on to her tongue and waited.
Finally Jimmy relented. “Then, just as the lady reached the corner, she turned sideways and the moon lit up her face. Her hat put part of it in shadow, but I saw enough to recognize her. It were Miss Pauline Suchier. Lord Howard’s paramour, so they say.”
“I see.” Meredith strained to keep the triumph out of her voice. “Did you see her leave?”
Jimmy’s eyebrows lifted. “Leave? No, I didn’t.” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “I heard the bobbies come, and then I heard them leave again with Lord Stalham—James, that is. But I don’t remember hearing Miss Suchier leave. Though her horse was gone when I went down to see what all the fuss was about with the bobbies. I must have been asleep when she left.”
“Well, thank you, Jimmy. You have been most helpful.” Meredith turned away, but Jimmy’s next words halted her.
“Did you by any chance talk to Mrs. Parker about what happened that night?”
“Yes, I did.” She looked over her shoulder at him. “Why do you ask?”
Jimmy shrugged. “I was just wondering, that’s all. She wasn’t exactly cut up over the master’s death, you know. Lord Howard Stalham, that is.”
Very slowly, Meredith twisted around to face him. “Mrs. Parker disliked Lord Stalham?”
Jimmy made a face. “Not disliked, m’m. Hated him, she did. For what he did to her son.”
“Her son?”
“Yes, m’m. Her son, Edward. He was the stable lad before me. Lord Stalham gave him a terrible beating one day. It took Edward three days before he could walk and the minute he got on his feet he scarpered.”
Meredith frowned. “Scarpered?”
Jimmy nodded. “Vamoosed. You know. Ran away. I don’t think Mrs. Parker will ever forget that.”
Casting her mind back, Meredith recalled her conversation with the housekeeper. Of course. She should have realized. Mrs. Parker had said that the stable boy still had the scars of that beating. How would she know that, months later, unless she had seen him? Why didn’t she mention that he was her son?
Meredith sighed. There were more twists and turns to this mystery than she could fathom. After thanking Jimmy again, she made her way over to the c
arriage, where Felicity and Essie waited for her. Reggie sat on his seat in the carriage, reins in his hand.
“I was just coming to look for you,” Felicity said, her voice short with impatience. “Essie and I are just about ready to faint from hunger.”
“I could use something to eat meself,” Reggie put in, as he jumped down to open the carriage door. “How about us all going down to the Dog and Duck for a pint and a sandwich?”
Felicity’s eyes lit up, but Meredith shook her head. “Mrs. Wilkins has supper ready for us in the kitchen,” she said, as she climbed up onto her seat. “We can’t possibly let such good food go to waste.”
“Right ho. Perhaps another time.” With a cheerful grin, Reggie slammed the door.
“Does he know why we are visiting the estate?” Felicity asked in a whisper. “He hasn’t asked, but he must wonder what we are doing here.”
“I’ve just told him we’re looking over the property, but I think he’s guessed I’m working on an investigation.” Meredith settled her back against the seat with another sigh. It had been a long day.
Felicity gave her a sharp look. “Are you quite sure that’s wise?”
“He’s fully aware that now and then, I have reason to make enquiries about certain . . . ah . . . delicate matters. He’s always been quite willing to go along without asking too many questions. If you remember, he was most helpful the last time we were involved in similar circumstances.”
“Well, then, tell us what you found out from the stable boy.”
Meredith recounted everything she’d learned.
“Lord Howard sounds like an ogre,” Essie said, “though we shouldn’t speak ill of the dead. Still, it seems there were a lot of people who had reason to despise him.”
“It does indeed,” Meredith agreed.
“So, there were two visitors there that night.” Felicity’s eyes sparkled with intrigue. “The paramour and the wife. How very interesting.”
Meredith frowned. “Mrs. Parker, however, insisted the dogs barked only twice before the constables arrived, which would mean only one person came and went.”
