Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Sebastian removed his gloves and handed them to a footman, conscious that Bennet waited at the bottom of the stairs, hopping from one foot to the other.
‘Is something troubling you?’ he enquired of his batman.
‘May I have a word in private?’ Bennet’s eyes darted towards the footman.
‘Can it wait? It’s been a long journey and I would love a cup of tea.’
He would have liked an ale but he was learning.
Bennet didn’t answer and Sebastian sighed. ‘Very well. In my study, Bennet.’
Bennet closed the door behind them after a quick glance up and down the corridor. This nervousness in his long-time comrade made Sebastian uneasy.
‘What is it?’ he asked.
Bennet swallowed. ‘You know as how we think his late lordship was murdered? Well, I think there may have been another murder, before his.’
Sebastian straightened. ‘Good God, who?’
‘Thompson, the groom… His girl, Amy.’
‘Didn’t she take her own life? Drowned herself in the lake?’
‘Not according to Thompson. He said when they pulled her from the lake she had a head wound like she’d been hit on the back of the head. He told me she was happy. The man who was the father of her child was going to see her right. She didn’t have a reason to take her own life.’
Sebastian turned and walked over to the window. He stood looking out over the gardens to the lake, his hands behind his back. Two possible murders within a few short months of each other. Coincidental? He thought not.
His reverie was short lived as the door burst open and Fanny came flying in with cries of, ‘Cousin Sebastian, you’re back! It’s a disaster.’
Sebastian turned to face the girl who stood sniffing in the middle of the room, her eyes red-rimmed from weeping. She twisted a sodden kerchief in her hand, her full lips trembling.
‘What’s a disaster?’ he enquired.
Fanny gave a shuddering sob and subsided against the shoulder of her brother, who had followed her into the room.
‘The musicians we had booked to play at the ball have cancelled,’ Freddy said.
‘What are we going to do?’ Fanny sobbed into her brother’s coat.
Sebastian found himself unable to formulate a coherent response.
He snorted and stomped from the room.