by Rebecca Kent
Meredith nodded, then took hold of Essie’s arm. Pulling her along with her, she stepped into the library. Felicity followed her, quietly closing the doors behind her.
“Now what?” Felicity whispered.
“I want you to find Winnie and send her back here to talk to me.”
Felicity’s eyebrows rose. “Wouldn’t it be better for you to find her and talk to her wherever she’s at?”
“No, I need to be in here to talk to her. I can’t make her come back here with me, but if you tell her I have something of the utmost importance to say to her, I’m hoping curiosity will bring her to me.”
“You hope,” Felicity said grimly. “This all sounds very unpredictable.”
“That’s because it is.” Meredith gave her a wry smile. “I didn’t say the plan was perfect.”
“What about me?” Essie asked. She was actually shivering, though the room was quite warm.
Feeling sorry for her, Meredith placed her arm about her friend’s slim shoulders. “Keep looking out the door. If you see Smithers coming, go out to meet him. Try to lead him away from the library, perhaps suggesting he help you look for the parasol outside.”
Essie’s bottom lip quivered. “He won’t hurt me, will he?”
“No,” Meredith said, praying she was right. “You have nothing to fear from Smithers, other than his reporting our deplorable behavior to the constabulary.”
That didn’t seem to reassure her. Adding a few more instructions to them both, Meredith gave Essie a little push. “Go on, Essie. I have complete faith in you.”
“Lord have mercy,” Felicity muttered, and followed Essie to the door.
Meredith held her breath as Essie opened the door and peered outside. Pulling her head back in, she nodded at Felicity. “It’s all clear.”
Felicity held crossed fingers in the air for a few seconds, then disappeared into the hallway.
Meredith stayed by the windows, ready to slip through them should Smithers get past Essie’s guard and enter the room. Everything depended on getting Winnie into the library without anyone seeing her.
There were still no guarantees, of course. She had no way of knowing how Winnie would react to what she had to say. She could only hope that it all worked out as she had envisioned.
Chapter 19
It seemed that hours had passed since Felicity had left the room, yet looking at the clock, Meredith could see that only twenty minutes had gone by.
Essie still leaned in the doorway, though every now and then she pulled her head in to glance at Meredith, no doubt to assure herself that her friend was still there.
After another ten minutes or so, Meredith began to worry in earnest. Had something happened to Felicity? Had she found Winnie and run into trouble persuading the girl to come to the library? Had Smithers found them both and realized what was going on? Did—Her speculation ceased abruptly as Essie withdrew her head with a gasp.
“She’s coming,” she whispered, her eyes wide with apprehension.
“Winnie?” Meredith moved to the center of the room.
Essie nodded.
“Quick, Essie. Out the windows.”
Essie needed no second bidding. She leapt across the room, then paused at the French doors. “You will be all right?”
“Yes, yes.” Meredith waved a hand at her. “Go!”
Essie opened the doors and slipped through. She had barely escaped when Winnie tapped on the door, then opened it and walked in.
“Mrs. Llewellyn. You asked to see me?”
“Yes, Winnie, I did. I wanted to ask you another question or two.”
Winnie’s chin rose and a look of defiance crossed her face. “I’m done answering questions.”
“Not quite. I want you to tell me what really happened the night Lord Stalham died.”
“I told you what happened.” Winnie eyed the door. “I don’t know anything else.”
“Ah, but I think you do.” Meredith took a step toward her. “When I first asked you about that night, you told me you heard nothing until the arrival of the constables woke you up. Then later, you said you saw Lady Clara leaving by the back stairs, which would have been before the constables arrived.”
Winnie shrugged, though her expression had grown uneasy. “I forgot about Lady Clara the first time we talked. It’s been a few months since it all happened. I got confused.”
Meredith nodded. “So was I for the longest time. I knew that for James to be innocent, someone else must have shot Lord Stalham. Moreover, since the only fingerprints on the gun belonged to James, I thought at first that it meant the real killer wore gloves.”
Winnie stared back at her, her eyes filled with fear. “What does all this have to do with me?”
Ignoring the question, Meredith continued, “At first I thought it might have been Miss Suchier who had fired the gun. She would certainly have been wearing gloves that night. Then I found out she left before the shot was fired, so that left Lady Clara, who would also have worn gloves. Especially since you said you saw and heard her here that night.”
Winnie nodded. “It could have been her. Or it could have been James, like everyone said.”
“It wasn’t James, Winnie. For a very simple reason. You told me about the gentleman who paid a visit to Lord Stalham the day before he was killed. Sir Gerald Mackleby, I believe you said.”
“That’s right.”
“Sir Gerald handled the gun, I believe, then Lord Stalham put it back in the case.”
“Yes, he did.”
“Obviously, if James’s fingerprints were still on the gun, he didn’t have time to clean it. Therefore, why weren’t Sir Gerald’s and your master’s fingerprints also on the gun?”
Winnie’s mouth opened and closed before muttering, “I don’t know. I don’t want to know. I have to go now—”
“Not yet!” Meredith’s voice cut across the room and the girl froze. “You’ll go when I’m finished speaking. Now, if James didn’t kill his father, then it seemed feasible that Lady Clara had shot her husband. But would a mother have allowed her son to be hanged for a crime she committed? A mother such as Lady Clara, who from all accounts is a decent, respected woman who loved her son? I seriously doubt it.”
Winnie shook her head. “I don’t know why you are telling me all this, m’m, but I—”
“You’ll find out in just a minute.” Meredith moved even closer. “The problem was, I couldn’t understand how someone could have shot Lord Stalham, cleaned the gun to remove the fingerprints, and escaped the room before James arrived on the scene. Then it occurred to me. I don’t know why it took so long to realize it. The answer is, of course, that the killer never left at all. He hid instead, and was still in this room when James discovered the body. It was the only way he could avoid being seen.”
Winnie’s bottom lip began to tremble, but she made no attempt to comment.
Meredith softened her tone. “Mrs. Parker told me that when she heard the dogs barking she came down the stairs. Smithers met her at the bottom of the stairs and told her to go back to her room. At that point the constables hadn’t yet arrived. Yet she saw you in the hallway.”
Tears began to glisten in Winnie’s eyes.
“You slipped out of the library, didn’t you, Winnie, right after James and Smithers left the room. You knew how important it was to clean the gun. Mrs. Parker told me you read the newspaper. I’m guessing you read the article on how fingerprints can now be used to catch a criminal. You knew you had to remove your fingerprints. You shot Lord Stalham—”
“No!” Winnie shook her head. “No, I didn’t!”
“—then cleaned the gun before hiding somewhere in the room when you heard James leave the parlor.”
“How can you say such a thing? I never would have done such a dreadful thing. I couldn’t.”
“But you did.” Meredith took a step closer to the girl. “I have the proof I need that you shot Lord Stalham that night, and I’m taking it to Inspector Dawson.”
>
“No! They’ll take my baby away!” All of the maid’s former timidity vanished. Her features grew desperate, and her eyes glittered with resolve. Turning swiftly, she grabbed a gun from the cabinet. “I won’t let them take the baby away from me. I won’t. It’s mine, and no one can take it from me.”
The gun shook in Winnie’s hand. Meredith stood quite still, a cold feeling of dread creeping over her as she stared at the barrel pointed directly at her chest. “Lord Stalham was the father of your baby, wasn’t he,” she said quietly.
Winnie gulped. “He forced himself on me, he did. When I told him I was having the baby, he told me to get out. He was going to throw me out on the street with nothing but the clothes on me back. He owed me, he did. I told him that.” She started to cry, huge, tearing sobs that shook her whole body. “I told him he had to pay for his baby, so it wouldn’t starve to death. He wouldn’t listen.”
“So you shot him.”
“I didn’t mean to!” Her voice rose as she struggled to contain the sobs. “I took the gun out of the cabinet to frighten him. I told him I’d shoot him if he didn’t give me money to take care of the baby. He tried to take the gun from me and it went off.” Again the sobs overwhelmed her.
Meredith stepped closer, and stretched out her hand for the gun.
“No!” Winnie sprang back. “No one’s going to take my baby away from me. No one.”
“I’m sorry, Winnie. I don’t want you to lose your baby, but you let an innocent man die for something you did. You have to pay the price for that.”
“I couldn’t save James! I wanted to—I didn’t want him to die, but I couldn’t let them hang me. Who would take care of my baby?”
“I’ll find a good home for your baby. Just give me the gun.You already have two deaths on your conscience.” Meredith took another step toward her. “You surely don’t want a third? What good will that do? Everyone will know it was you who shot me. You will lose your baby anyway. Give me the gun and I promise your baby will have a good home with someone to love and care for it.”
With tears streaming down her face, Winnie waved the gun defiantly at Meredith as she took another step forward. For a moment she thought the maid would actually pull the trigger, but then Winnie collapsed, sinking to the floor with the gun cradled against her chest.
“I didn’t mean to kill him,” she moaned, over and over again, as Meredith gently pried the gun out of her fingers. “I didn’t mean to kill him.”
“I know you didn’t,” Meredith said softly, “but he’s dead, all the same. So is his son. I hope now that James can find his way home.”
“I don’t understand, Meredith,” Felicity said, seating herself by the fire in the teacher’s lounge. “When did you realize it was Winnie who shot Lord Stalham?”
Meredith sipped her tea before answering. “It was after the last time I saw James’s ghost. I remembered Winnie saying that both a visitor and Lord Stalham had handled the gun the day before he was shot. Since Smithers cleaned the gun only once a month, it occurred to me then that both his and the visitor’s fingerprints would have been on the gun, as well as those of James.”
Essie, seated across the room, looked confused. “I don’t understand. What does that have to do with Winnie?”
Meredith smiled. “It was a matter of elimination. I realized the killer must have cleaned the gun, then, having no time to escape from the room before James arrived on the scene, hid somewhere in the room until after James and Smithers had left.”
Felicity stared at her for a moment, then nodded. “Ah, I see.”
“I don’t.” Essie leaned forward. “Tell me how you knew it was Winnie.”
“Simple, really. I—”
Felicity raised her hand. “No, wait! Let me tell her. See if I got it right.” Meredith nodded, and Felicity continued, “If the killer was hidden in the room, then obviously it wasn’t Smithers, since he came in after James arrived. It couldn’t have been Mrs. Parker, since Smithers met her at the foot of the stairs. Mrs. Parker, however, saw Winnie in the hallway, presumably outside the library door, where she’d slipped out after James and Smithers had left.”
Essie still looked confused. “What about Lady Clara? Where does she fit in all this?”
“She doesn’t,” Meredith said. “I think once Winnie realized that I suspected James wasn’t the killer, she made up the story about Lady Clara to throw suspicion off herself.”
“Poor Mrs. Parker,” Essie murmured. “She was so shocked to find out Winnie had killed Lord Stalham.”
“As was Smithers. Neither of them had any idea it was Winnie.” Felicity shook her head. “You took a terrible chance, Meredith. How did you know she wouldn’t shoot you? We could have been planning your burial right now.”
Essie cried out in protest. “Oh, Felicity, don’t say such things. I have never been so frightened in my life, listening outside those doors to everything that was going on in the library. I was so sure she was going to shoot you, Meredith. I wanted to dash in there and rescue you.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.” Meredith smiled at her. “I might not have pried a confession out of Winnie if you had. Besides, I was in no real danger.”
“No real danger?” Felicity shook her head. “That girl is unstable and totally unpredictable. She could have shot you without really meaning to, the way she says she shot Lord Stalham.”
“She would not have done me any harm.”
“How can you possibly know that?”
Meredith shrugged. “There weren’t any bullets in the gun.”
Essie gasped, while Felicity seemed dumbfounded. “No bullets?” she said at last. “How did you know that?”
Meredith leaned back in her chair, rather enjoying the sensation she’d caused. “The first day I went to the estate, I saw Smithers and Mrs. Parker talking to Winnie at the
end of the hallway. I read Mrs. Parker’s lips. Apparently Winnie had told Smithers I was asking about the guns, and Mrs. Parker asked him if he’d removed all the bullets as he’d promised to do. Smithers must have said he had, since Mrs. Parker said she was glad he had taken care of it.”
Essie made a strangled sound in her throat.
“You could have told us that,” Felicity said crossly. “You frightened poor Essie to death.”
“I’m sorry. I’m afraid I just didn’t think of it at the time. I was worried that you would not find Winnie before Smithers found me.”
“Well, I wasn’t too happy having to go back to the carriage and send Reggie into town to bring back the inspector.” Felicity shook her head. “When I got back and Essie told me what had happened, I just . . .” Her voice trailed off as she rolled her eyes.
“Well, all’s well that ends well.” Meredith sighed. “I have to admit, I feel terribly sorry for Winnie. Though when I talked to Edward, he said he thought Winnie might have a chance of escaping the gallows. She didn’t mean to kill Lord Stalham, she was just trying to make sure her baby would survive. It was an accident, and if she’d confessed to it right away things might have been different.”
“But instead, she let James hang,” Felicity said. “What will happen to her now?”
“Edward said she will certainly have to serve time in prison.”
Essie uttered a choked sob. “What about the baby?”
“I don’t know.” Meredith sighed. “I suppose they will find a place for it in an orphanage somewhere. Perhaps, in time, if Winnie is released, she might be able to reclaim her child.”
“How sad.” Felicity shook her head. “It must be so hard for her to give up her baby. That’s punishment enough for any woman.”
Essie leapt to her feet as another sob erupted from her. Without a word she rushed to the door and disappeared.
Felicity stared at Meredith. “What on earth is the matter with her?”
Meredith hesitated. “I . . . have never told you this before,” she said at last. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you now, but I think it’s time you knew. It
will explain a lot about Essie, and it might help you understand why she is so emotional at times.”
Felicity looked intrigued. “Go on.”
“First, you must swear to me you won’t repeat this story to anyone else.”
Felicity held a hand over her heart. “I so swear.”
“Also, I want to be the one to tell Essie that I told you her story. I want her to understand why I did so.”
“Agreed.”
“Very well.” Meredith paused, trying to find the right words to begin. “Although Essie never talks of it, she comes from a highly regarded aristocratic family.”
“She does? How odd. What on earth is she doing teaching in a finishing school?”
“I’m coming to that. Five years ago, when Essie was seventeen, she became involved with a married man.”
Felicity raised her eyebrows. “I’ve always known she had a way with men, but I would have thought she had more sense than that.”
Meredith made a face. “Who has sense at seventeen?”
“Granted.” Felicity settled back. “Go on.”
“Well, unfortunately, Essie found out she was expecting a baby. In order to hide the shame and disgrace from her family, she sought help to rid herself of it. It was the wrong kind of help, and although she succeeded in losing the child, she almost died herself.”
Felicity’s face was now full of sympathy. “Poor child. What a terrible ordeal to go through.”
“When she recovered, her father strongly suggested that she find a line of work, since no man would want her now that she had disgraced herself and her family. I was looking for a tutor at the time, and Essie’s background made her a perfect choice to teach the finer points of etiquette and social behavior.”
Felicity nodded. “Having learned that cruel a lesson at such a young age, she would certainly be able to give others advice.”
“Precisely. Anyway, I felt you should know. Sometimes you are a little impatient with her. This might help you to be a little more tolerant.”
Felicity’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. “I am what I am, Meredith. I’ll always speak my mind. Which brings me to a point. Since when did you call our illustrious chief inspector, Edward?”
