Chapter Six #3
Even as she feared he was pulling away from her, his hand turned beneath her fingers and grasped them. “I didn’t kill Dinah, and I’m not the father of her child. I didn’t love her, but I did like her a lot and I wanted to help.”
She tightened her fingers around his. “Then help me find her killer. Who is the father of her child?”
In the candlelight, his eyes seemed luminescent as they stared into hers. “No one must know.”
“Unless he killed her.”
Rupert nodded, as though it were a deal. “Christoper Carver, the squire’s son.”
Kate raised her head from the bars and whistled in an unladylike fashion. “No, he wouldn’t marry her, would he? Did he know about the child?”
“She said not, that there was no point telling him because his family wouldn’t let him marry her anyway.
He’s engaged already to the daughter of another wealthy farmer—Elizabeth Gibb over at Tetley Hall.
None of that really helps us, though, does it?
Neither the Carvers nor the Gibbs were anywhere near Chadbon Court, and I’m dashed if I can see a way—or a reason—for any of them to kill Dinah. ”
“That’s another thing,” Kate said. “Since the dagger was Chadbon’s, whoever killed her must have had taken it from his study at some point.
I suppose I should talk to him about anyone other than his current guests who were in there recently.
I’ve also been trying to work out which of the guests left the drawing room after you did and might have had time to kill Dinah. ”
“Who did?” he asked.
“Nye. Otteridge. Newman. Nye’s sister. I haven’t been able to speak to them alone yet—I’ll need to nab them at breakfast, for they’re all due to leave tomorrow morning.”
“So are you, aren’t you?”
“Oh, no. I’ve agreed with Lord Chadbon that I’m allowed to stay on and make discreet inquiries—on the understanding that I don’t make matters worse for him and his guests. I don’t suppose you’ve met Chadbon’s son?”
“No, I don’t think so. Why?”
“He bothered the maids when he lived with his parents. I’m wondering if Dinah was one of them, and if she tried to threaten him, or Lord or Lady Chadbon through him…”
He eyed her uneasily. “How do you even know about such things? Your mother and mine would drag you screaming to the doctor.”
“I know the poor are desperate,” she said flatly.
“What, does Ambrose take you into the slums?” he asked, with something like shock.
“No, but I have charities there, and he knows that.” She lifted her chin, as much in challenge as in pride. “He is proud of me.”
Rupert nodded. “So he should be. I asked for such a parish, but they sent me here.”
“Miss, it’s heading for two,” Grissy said from her chair by the outside door.
Kate became suddenly aware that she was still holding Rupert’s hand through the bars of his cell and hastily snatched hers back. She hoped neither of them could see her blushing in the gloom.
“You should go,” Rupert said. “I can’t believe you came all the way out here.”
“There are things I need to know,” Kate said. “Look, is there anything else you can tell me? Was Dinah afraid of anyone? Had anyone threatened her for any reason? Had she annoyed anyone, by accident or design?”
“She was afraid of being cast out of the house without a character or any money, so in that sense she feared the Chadbons and the housekeeper. And she said the butler, Kemp, was something of a martinet. The younger menservants she could wrap round her little finger, I imagine.”
“That kind of power can breed ill feeling. Did she know of your idea about her marrying Jack the coachman?”
“I never got the chance to tell her.”
“But Jack himself knew? Did he speak to her about it?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“What if she turned him down, laughed at his presumption or whatever?”
Rupert rubbed his forehead with one finger. “It’s a poor reason to kill someone. And she wasn’t really in a position to pick and choose. Unless she really disliked him, of course. I found nothing against him, but then, I didn’t need to marry him.”
“Hmm… Could she have resorted to blackmailing someone?”
He blinked. “Dinah? Lord, no.”
Kate grasped the bars of the cell and hauled herself upright. “Fair enough. You’ve given me some ideas. I’ll get on to it in the morning. How long will the magistrate keep you here before he sends you on to a proper prison?”
“I’ve no idea. Never been in prison before. Except a sponging house. Kate? You will be careful, won’t you? I wish I were out there with you.”
So do I. “Soon, I hope,” she said. “Goodnight, Rupert. I’ll try to come tomorrow, with or without the magistrate.”
Grissy had opened the door a crack and was peering outside.
Kate relit the lantern from Rupert’s candle and gave him it back.
She and Grissy slipped outside again. Her last glimpse of Rupert was his face pressed to the bars, watching her, a frown on his brow.
Closing the door on him felt like abandoning him, betraying him, and she almost ran back and unlocked the cell.
She didn’t, of course. She turned the key in the outside door and hung it back on the hook. Then she and Grissy began the long, wet slog back to Chadbon Court.