Chapter Twenty-One #4
Benjamin worked quickly to lift the ring from Miss Cassandra’s bony finger and dropped it into his pocket before wiping his fingers on a clean handkerchief. “Anything else for which I should search?” he asked.
“Yes. Red stockings. I made them for her as a gift. Cassandra said they were soft when she had to walk to faraway places.”
Benjamin again bent over the casket where it rested on the ground beside the open grave site and lifted the girl’s leg and wiggled the boot from her foot.
Upon the bones and decaying flesh was a red wool stocking.
He immediately dropped the leg back where it belonged and was on his feet and striding towards Miss Whitchurch when he noted how she clung to Graham.
“I am so sorry, sweetheart,” he said as she fell into his waiting arms.
Behind him he heard Graham instructing the others.
“Please close up the box again, but do not rebury it. Do you have an out of the way place where you might move it until Monday? Lord Thompson will send men from Kent to retrieve it. The lady will be buried on his estate. This should cover your inconvenience.” Graham handed each of the men a bag of coins, and Benjamin would see that they were paid more for their trouble by Mr. Froschele.
“We are beholden, my lords,” Braun said from somewhere behind where Benjamin still held the lady. “By the way, I forgot to tell you that the coroner said the lady had recently given birth.”
“The child is with us,” Graham explained, “and safe, as well as deeply loved.”
“Excellent,” Braun declared. “I am pleased the lady will rest with family. There are too many who do not.”
Benjamin led Miss Whitchurch back to where Graham’s coach was waiting for them.
He assisted her in and followed her inside, leaving the door open while they waited for Graham to finish providing instructions to the trio.
With her head resting on Benjamin’s thigh, Miss Whitchurch curled herself up in a small ball, and Benjamin braced her as best he could on the seat.
They remained in silence. She grieved for her sister, while he postulated on how best to protect her and the boy.
Her parents must be told of their youngest daughter’s passing, though Benjamin was not happy how they had responded to their eldest daughter’s plight.
Then there was the issue of Mr. Jonas Betts.
How did Betts know of Miss Cassandra’s death?
Had the man killed the girl? Despite his lack of respect for both Lord Betts and the baron’s son, Benjamin could not imagine either would kill Miss Cassandra Whitchurch.
Lord Betts had already ruined the girl’s family.
“Yet, if not the Bettses, who had killed the girl and why?”
Graham returned to the coach. “I am grieved, Miss Whitchurch,” he said as he tapped on the roof to set the coach in motion.
“Did Mr. Betts commit this heinous act?” she asked as she uncurled and made herself sit upright.
Graham spoke the words Benjamin already knew. Though Benjamin worried extensively for Miss Whitchurch’s turmoil, he would celebrate being of a like mind with Lord Aaran Graham.
“Though Betts appears the most likely perpetrator, I do not believe him to be the murderous type. At least, not a purposeful murder, which your sister’s demise appears to have been.
Jonas Betts is a strutting peacock, equipped with the shriek of a crow.
Yet, he is not intelligent enough to overcome your sister in an alley on a customarily busy street and area in midday.
For, think upon it. Why would your sister be in an alley in the first place?
From what I know of the area, The Red Rooster would be within sight of the alley.
The person who killed Miss Cassandra did so for reasons beyond robbery or assault.
I believe it is more likely your sister held knowledge of a more dangerous element on London’s streets, and she likely did not realize she was in danger until it was too late. ”
Miss Whitchurch sat straighter and listened closely to Graham’s suppositions.
“Both Mrs. Dove-Lyon and Cassandra said a woman my sister encountered at the Lyon’s Den had found Cass a position in a great house before her employer realized my sister was with child.
Could it have been someone in that household? ”
Graham told her, “I cannot say with confidence. We also heard from Mrs. Dove-Lyon today of your sister being offered a position in one of London’s more affluent homes.
We must still learn something about that particular home and ask the necessary questions of those within, but my gut says that no one inside was involved in your sister’s murder.
She could have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Likely, robbery was the intent. Perhaps her screams drew attention and drove her attacker away.
Such is true for many on the streets of London.
From what Thompson has told me, you often practiced caution in returning home from your workplace by waiting until dawn to depart the shop before you came to live with him.
For now, when we return to Macalhey House, with your permission, I would like to read that letter.
It may be something important that we should explore or another loose end, but we must examine every possibility.
When he is older, the child must know assurances that we executed all we could to learn of Miss Cassandra’s desire to provide for him and how we searched honestly for his mother. ”