Chapter 24
While they waited for Jasper to return with the constable and coroner, Katherine went upstairs to change and Anne tended Dr. Finch’s head wound.
When she finished, he once again took her hand. “Thank you, Anne.”
“Of course.”
He kept hold of her hand, perhaps still addled by the injury and unaware he did so.
Katherine soon came back down, Louie at her heels, and poured herself a glass of brandy, her hand, so steady before, now shaking.
Anne asked, “Why did you chase me through the graveyard dressed like that? And with a knife yet!”
“I was not chasing you, exactly. I wanted to find you before Jude did. To warn you. The knife was to protect us both, if need be. I only risked calling out the once because I did not want anyone else to recognize my voice and realize it was me. Nor did I want Jude to confront me and find this in my possession.”
She held out a small bottle.
“I suspected Jude was behind Mamma’s death, so I took a knife from the kitchen for protection and searched his room.
I know all his hiding places. And sure enough, I found this bottle hidden in a cigar box at the back of a drawer.
I wanted to verify the bottle’s contents before I reported it.
No sense in causing another scandal for the family if it turned out to be whiskey or the dregs of some foul-smelling cologne. ”
Dr. Finch opened the bottle and sniffed, recoiling at the scent.
Katherine went on. “So I slipped away to ask Mr. Palling’s advice.
He agreed to consult an apothecary in Stroud confidentially to verify the contents.
Mr. Palling came here not long after you left the house tonight with the apothecary’s conclusion: poison hemlock and opium, with spices to mask the taste.
“I debated what to do. Report it straightaway? Try to force a confession from him? I wasn’t sure finding the bottle in his room would be enough to prove he’d poisoned Mamma.
I planned to talk it over with you when you returned.
” Katherine sat in one of the armchairs, and Louie curled up at her feet.
“You were late in coming, and I began to grow anxious,” she continued.
“I’d heard Jude accusing you of taking something from his room and feared he would harm you if he thought you had found this evidence of his crime.
I had not liked the look in his eye when he said he had something he must take care of.
“Jasper returned, and I sent him out to find you. Then I donned the costume and went out as well. I know it was strange and probably foolish of me, but I’ve come to feel safer venturing out at night when in disguise.
All the more tonight, knowing a murderer was in our midst. Two murderers as it turned out. ”
“Was it you I saw dressed as King Charles crossing the grounds one night a few weeks ago?”
“Probably.”
Anne thought back. “But . . . when Jude asked your mother who had given her the overdose, she answered, ‘Charles the First.’ I assumed she must be hallucinating, but now I wonder . . .”
“That was not me, I promise. I have never worn the disguise in Mamma’s room.
She would have seen right through it. But the day she died, I noticed the robe sticking out of the chest at the foot of my bed, where I keep it.
Jude knew I had the costume. My guess is he borrowed it to avoid being identified if you or Rosa came in while he was giving Mamma the poison. ”
“May I ask why you even possess such a costume?” Dr. Finch asked.
Katherine nodded. “It was Papa’s. He wore it for a performance with a group of local players many years ago, and then into a trunk in the attic it went. It has held up rather well. I came across it one day while I was going through his old things, missing him.
“Gave me an idea. A way to slip out at night without being recognized. Mamma insisted I always have a chaperone when I went out—a footman or her lady’s maid, Martine.
“And they were not the only ones to dog my steps. Dr. Marsland has a very jealous nature and seemed determined to discover if I had another suitor. So I had to avoid him as well.
“I grew rather desperate for freedom . . . and to spend time with a certain man I’ve come to admire.
Another man Mamma had forbidden me to see socially, let alone marry.
His were the letters Mamma confiscated. I pretended to go along with her decree as I had before, but I was not prepared to give him up.
“I only dared don the costume after dark, so no one could see my face well enough to recognize me. It became a private game between us. A way to meet. In the churchyard, or a lonely stretch of the mill stream, deserted after dark and sheltered by trees . . .”
A sudden realization struck Anne. “That story the old man told at the mill barn, about seeing Mr. Palling kiss the ghost of King Charles in the churchyard. He actually kissed you!”
Miss Fitzjohn blushed. “Mr. Palling told me about that. Please don’t think the worst. Our meetings have remained quite innocent. I love him, and he loves me, but we are biding our time. We still hope to marry.”
“Forgive me for saying so, Miss Fitzjohn,” Dr. Finch said, “but your mother standing between the two of you gives you a strong motive for wanting her gone.”
Tears filled her eyes. “That is where Jude had it wrong. He thought I would be glad if Mamma died, and that I would be eager to marry him once she was gone.”
She shook her head. “He wanted the inheritance, you see. The estate is not entailed and I am the primary beneficiary. Marrying me would have given him control of the money. It’s part of the reason Mamma was overprotective.
She was afraid I would fall prey to fortune hunters.
She never stopped seeing me as the weak, timid girl I once was.
But as Jude often said, I am stronger than I appear. ”
Still refusing to believe Jasper had been the one to put bees in that vase, Anne said, “Can you explain something to me? The night I found you searching your mother’s room, I heard you tell her you were sorry. May I ask what you were apologizing for?”
“Oh. Many things. For not being the daughter she wanted. For sneaking around behind her back. For dismissing her lady’s maid—her favorite companion of many years.
Mamma refused to let Mr. Palling call on me or to give me his letters, and her maid enforced her edicts.
Martine followed me around and made it very difficult to slip away to see him or to have any freedom at all.
It’s one of the reasons I found a way to dismiss her, spy that she was.
I told you about that, remember? I knew she was stealing trifles from us, yet I also knew Mamma would refuse to let her go without evidence, so I entrapped her with that little shopping errand.
Martine truly did take the extra money, though it was only a few shillings.
I still feel guilty about it. I was relieved when Mamma grew fond of Rosa in her place, but that doesn’t make it right. ”
Katherine’s chin trembled. “I don’t deny my mother was a difficult woman, and that I resented her controlling interference. Even so, I am deeply sorry she is gone. I loved her and shall miss her the rest of my life.”
Yes, Anne thought. She probably would. The mother-daughter bond ran deep, with or without regrets, as she knew from firsthand experience.
The constable and Colonel Paine returned to Painswick Court at last, arriving midmorning.
The coroner had been called away on another case, so it had taken longer than expected for Jasper to find him and report Mr. Dalby’s suspicious death.
The man promised to come as soon as he could gather a jury.
In the meantime, Katherine led the rest of them down to the cells. Dr. Marsland claimed innocence, insisting the others were in league against him. Katherine calmly stated her version of events, and Anne and Dr. Finch gave evidence as well.
Colonel Paine added his voice to the others’, saying that upon his return from London, he had seen Dr. Marsland enter the woodshed, where the archery equipment was kept, and had wondered why.
Now he knew. He had not waited to see him emerge, but the man would have no other reason for going in there.
In the end, the constable believed them and led Dr. Marsland away to the local lockup.
He also accepted their account that Miss Fitzjohn had wounded Dr. Marsland to prevent him from killing the other two and perhaps even herself.
The magistrate would have his say, of course, but it was unlikely Miss Fitzjohn would face any legal consequences for her actions.
When the constable left with Marsland, the four remaining—Anne, Katherine, Jasper, and Dr. Finch—sat down together for a respite of relative calm before the coroner’s jury arrived. Anne took advantage of the quiet time to ask Jasper the question that had been weighing on her mind.
“The scullery maid, Kezia, told me you recently brought down a small blue vase of flowers for your aunt’s tray? As a surprise for her?”
Katherine’s gaze sharpened at this, but Jasper shrugged, seemingly unconcerned.
“That’s right. Why do you ask?”
“That vase held three bees, in a stupor due to the cold, that came to active life in Lady Celia’s room.”
“What?!”
“Thankfully, I was able to move the vase outside before any of them stung her.”
His mouth hung loose as he stared at Anne, clearly dumbfounded.
Then he said, “I had no idea. Jude handed me the vase of flowers and asked me to run it down to the larder for him, as he was expected at the mill. A little surprise for Aunt Celia’s tray, he said.
I assumed you’d picked them, Kat. I delivered them and thought no more about it.
Bees? When he knew of Aunt Celia’s reactions? ‘Little surprise’ indeed.”
Katherine said, “And he used the vase I’d made as a girl, knowing how hurt I was when she threw it away. Probably so she wouldn’t guess the ‘surprise’ was from him.”
Jasper’s lip curled in disgust. “Why would he do that?”
Katherine said, “I imagine he did it out of spite when she kept refusing to give him money, although I don’t know for certain. And now, I suppose we never shall.”
Ernest Finch spoke up. “Dr. Marsland said Mr. Dalby was also responsible for the incident with the soup and the digitalis overdose.”
Jasper shook his head, anger and revulsion etched on his face. “I wish I couldn’t believe it of him, but I can.” He looked at Anne, expression softening. “I am sorry I doubted you even for a moment.”
“So am I,” Katherine said. “Mamma was right to trust you.”
Dr. Finch nodded his agreement. He held Anne’s gaze, brown eyes alight. “Lady Celia lived longer than she would have thanks to your quick actions after his earlier attempts on her life. Never doubt it.”
Over a lump in her throat, Anne whispered, “Thank you.”
Later that cool and dreary day, the coroner and a jury of twelve men—Mr. Palling among them—convened at Painswick Court to view Mr. Dalby’s body.
Anne and Katherine stood some distance from the gathering, nearer the house, arm in arm. On his way to join the men, Colonel Paine laid one of Lady Celia’s wool shawls over Katherine’s shoulders and the library blanket over Anne’s. Only then did Anne realize she was shivering.
The coroner asked Dr. Finch for his medical opinion.
From where they stood, Anne heard Dr. Finch point out evidence of poisoning, based on the state of Mr. Dalby’s eyes, the regurgitated stomach contents, and the relatively small amount of blood present, concluding that Mr. Dalby had likely been dead or nearly so before the arrow entered his body.
Colonel Paine concurred and pointed out that the angle at which the arrow had entered Mr. Dalby’s neck was all wrong.
With the woodshed where it was, and the trees where they were, there was no place to stand to make that shot.
And if Mr. Dalby had been shot with a bow, the arrow would have gone in farther.
He concluded by saying, “I believe the assailant used the arrow rather like a spear or knife and stabbed him with it by hand.”
The coroner seemed to agree with their assessments, although an inquest would follow and likely an autopsy as well.
When the initial viewing had concluded, several men lifted the body onto a litter and carried it away to the office of local surgeon Mr. Humpage, who would conduct a postmortem if requested.
When Mr. Dalby had been taken away, Albert Palling walked tentatively over to Miss Fitzjohn, hat in hand. “I’m very sorry for your loss.”
The tears, which Katherine had kept at bay, now filled her large brown eyes and flowed down her cheeks. In a hoarse whisper, she replied, “Thank you, Mr. Palling.”
She took a half step forward, as if she would go to him, but Mr. Palling just stood there, compassionate gaze on her, rooted to the spot. Then Katherine glanced to the others gathered and stepped back.
Mr. Palling swallowed and said, “If there is anything I can do—anything at all—please let me know.” With a final poignant glance at Katherine, he turned and walked away.
An inquest was quickly organized at the Falcon Inn. Jasper and Dr. Finch attended at the coroner’s request. Anne stayed with Miss Fitzjohn to await the outcome.
Less than an hour later, Jasper and Dr. Finch returned and let them know a verdict of willful murder had been brought.
Anne retrieved her valise and case, which were still in the hall, and bid farewell to Miss Fitzjohn, gently refusing her request to stay on longer.
Now that the danger was past, and Jasper had returned, Anne felt released to leave.
The new mistress of Painswick Court had Jasper’s support, and Mr. Palling’s as well. She had her staff, and she had Louie.
Anne was more than ready to leave Painswick Court. She’d had enough fear and accusations and craved the comfort and companionship awaiting her at Yew Cottage.
Dr. Finch walked with her across the churchyard, the silence between them heavy. Passing under one of the yew arches over the path, he stopped and pulled her into his arms. “Oh, Anne. I thank God you are safe. When Marsland pulled that pistol . . .”
“I know. I know.”
He pressed a hard kiss to her lips—a firm, fervent kiss of relief and endearment. Then he held her close, arms around her back, while Anne let her hands rest on his shoulders.
After a few moments, he released her but held her hand for the remainder of the way.
At the cottage, Miss Lotty welcomed her with open arms and a long embrace.
She invited Dr. Finch to stay and take tea with them, but he excused himself, wanting to make sure all was well with Rosa and Robbie at home.
Ursula joined them from next door again, and the three women sat together for hours, Anne telling them all that had transpired. When Miss Lotty learned all that her physician-friend had done, tears brightened her eyes, but she resolutely blinked them away. “Foolish, foolish Richard. How could you?”