Chapter 12 #5
William kissed his niece’s cheek. “I see that you are happy, Tulip. I pray it shall always be this way,” he said quietly in her ear.
She tipped her chin up. “You will soon find out what a marvel he is. Rest assured, my husband is the best of men.”
They climbed back in their carriage and made haste toward Thornwycke before they were caught in a downpour.
Tulip was full of questions for him during the ride back. “What was all that about? Were you investigating Mr. Carver and Mrs. Granger? You had Aunt Perty going on and on about them.”
“Why should I not know more about them? They are in our employ and in important positions within our household.”
“Do you think one of them is a murderer?”
Alex did not immediately answer.
Tulip gasped. “You think one of them might have killed your predecessors?”
“Their deaths were ruled accidental, and there is nothing to contradict those findings.”
“Nothing but your unfailing instincts,” she said.
“You do believe those deaths were intentional, don’t you?
That’s why you wanted us to visit my aunt and uncle, and why you were asking all those questions.
You choked on your tea at the mention of Mrs. Granger’s mother and aunt.
What have they to do with anything? Or Mr. Carver for that matter.
I shall never believe Mr. Carver is capable of murder. ”
“Nor do I believe it, frankly. But his daughter died of a mysterious illness shortly after my grandfather’s death. She might have seen something and the killer was afraid the truth would come out.”
“What truth? And need I point out that she did not die instantly? She had weeks to tell someone about what she saw, assuming she had discovered anything.”
“Carver’s daughter might not have realized the significance of what she had noticed.
My grandfather was on his deathbed and none of the successor dukes had passed away yet.
But the killer knew he or she had been caught doing something suspicious.
They had to dispose of Martha before she could put it all together and report her finding to Mr. Carver or the authorities. ”
“Well, Mr. Carver would never hurt his own daughter. That rules him out.”
Alex rubbed a hand across the nape of his neck. “Maybe.”
“Alex, he would never harm his own daughter. He adored her. She was the light of his life.”
“Fine,” he said, knowing Tulip was probably right. “Then that leaves Mrs. Granger.”
“Why her?”
He quickly told her of what he had read about Elspeth in his grandfather’s journal.
“Together with what your aunt told us this afternoon, how can we not believe something sinister happened? I doubt Elspeth eloped. She was murdered…well, possibly an accidental death that was covered up. Then her parents were bribed to keep their mouths shut and go along with the rumor that Elspeth had run off with a naval officer.”
“You think Mrs. Granger learned the truth and is now here to seek vengeance on every Davenport duke?”
“Why would she come back here unless it was to avenge her aunt’s disappearance?
Who knows what her own mother told her about the goings on at Thornwycke?
What if Elspeth had been held captive in the tower room?
Who would know? Who would ever hear her cries for help while locked away in there?
What if she were held there bound and gagged? ”
“You are giving me the shivers.”
“Sorry, love. But my grandfather could have got away with just about anything with the cooperation of a few loyal household retainers. His old housekeeper for one.”
“Mrs. Dodge? How is it possible? Surely, word would have gotten around, even in a big house like Thornwycke. A butler or footman would have seen Elspeth go in but not come out.”
“Was Ernfield in service as a butler at the time? He merely needed to be the one duty when Elspeth went missing. Does he seem like a chatty fellow to you?”
“Being quiet does not mean he would keep silent about an innocent girl’s abduction.
And there had to be maids going in and out of the upstairs bedchambers.
They would have heard scuffling sounds above their heads, or cries for help, or wondered at the extra food brought up to the duke.
You found nothing in the tower room when you searched it yesterday. ”
“Doesn’t mean there was nothing in there back in my grandfather’s time. The furniture and a body could have been moved at any time.”
“And where would they have carried a young woman’s body? Or buried it?”
Alex thought of the salt marshes and how barren they were. It would be easy enough to bury a body in the mud, or not bury it at all and let it wash out to sea with the tide.
He could not reveal this thought to Tulip, for it would upset her even further.
Tulip frowned. “Someone would talk, especially if it was Elspeth’s body being moved.”
“Not necessarily. Dukes are powerful. Sometimes, it is easier to pretend to see nothing.”
“But she was known in Burnham, had friends who would worry about her. Do you really think she was murdered by your grandfather? Did he have it in him to commit that depraved act?”
“I have no idea, Tulip. Truly, I know nothing about him other than he was someone my mother risked everything to avoid.” Perhaps his mother had been there when Elspeth suddenly went missing and knew more than she had ever let on.
Is this what had prompted her to leave Thornwycke Hall with him and never return?
Had his grandfather and father allowed her to live apart from them in return for her silence? Perhaps the money he had inherited upon her death was not from her or her own family but from his father and grandfather, bribes to buy her silence.
He raked a hand through his hair.
And he, an eight-year-old boy at the time, had been oblivious to it all.
This was all conjecture.
He would have to dig deeper and determine an accurate time line of events.
Tulip cleared her throat, drawing him out of his thoughts. “Do you think your grandfather knew of Mrs. Granger’s connection to Elspeth when he hired her?”
“I expect she hid that bit of information from him. He was already ill and dying when he hired her. It is also possible he confessed his secret to her, never realizing her connection to Elspeth.”
“And Mrs. Granger was so enraged by his confession that she sped up his death?”
Alex nodded. “It is quite possible.”
“But why harm the succeeding dukes?”
“Perhaps because they were as depraved and lecherous as the old man. Or I am wrong about all of it and each died accidental deaths because they drank too much and were sinful, reckless idiots.”
He thought about Harold Havers and his idiot brothers.
He had suspected them at first glance of bettering their odds by doing away with the next heirs in the Davenport line.
But this was too sophisticated for Harold and his brothers.
If anything, they would be next in line to die unless Alex figured out what was going on and how to stop it.
Tulip had been drugged last night, he was certain of it now.
This meant the vengeance against his family was not going to stop.
He really needed to get that brandy bottle in his bedchamber tested. After all, he was the one the killer was after.
But the testing would have to wait, for he doubted anyone in Burnham had the capability to run tests at this level of sophistication. Otherwise, wouldn’t the local coroner have found something when examining the bodies?
Alex had read the coroner’s reports and knew they were thorough…but obviously not thorough enough.
He would have to take his brandy bottle to Bath or Taunton, have it tested in a true laboratory.
Unfortunately, he did not have the time to attend to it just now.
Even if tested, would anything turn up?
His own amateur testing had turned up nothing when he’d taken a sip of Tulip’s cocoa and sniffed it.
If the drug was in the cocoa, then it was odorless and not discernable by taste, either.
But if the drug wasn’t in the cocoa, then how had Tulip ingested it?