Chapter 19 #2
“And now,” Beatrice added, “strangers somehow know exactly where Sophie will be playing.”
The room fell quiet.
“It is too much,” Eleanor said at last. “One coincidence might be explained away. Two perhaps. But all of it together…”
“It forms a pattern,” the dowager finished. “Someone must be telling him.”
“A servant?” Eleanor suggested.
“Possibly, or anyone else with free movement through the house,” the dowager said. “There are more people passing through Ravenscourt than one notices until one is forced to think about it.”
“It is an unpleasant thing to suspect.” Beatrice sighed.
Eleanor stared absently at the papers upon the table, but she was no longer seeing them.
Instead, another image came back to her; a dark corridor, the clock striking somewhere in the distance, and Faulks seated alone at Gabriel’s study desk in the small hours of the morning.
She remembered the candlelight falling across scattered correspondence.
She remembered asking what he was doing there, and how calmly he had answered.
At the time the explanation had seemed perfectly reasonable. William had been desperately ill, everyone in the house had been exhausted, and he was writing to the physician. She had thought no more of it, but looking back she recalled the letters—several of them.
A cold unease settled over her.
“What is it?” Beatrice asked quietly.
Eleanor looked up.
“I have just remembered something. I do not know whether it means anything, but the night William became so ill, I found Faulks alone in Gabriel’s study after midnight.
He told me he was sending for the physician and gathering papers needed for William’s care, and at the time I thought nothing of it.
Now I cannot remember why I believed him so easily. ”
Sophie sat on the rug surrounded by her toys, her curls falling untidily around her face as she arranged a collection of wooden animals.
Eleanor sat beside her, watching with a smile.
She needed to be near her daughter for a while, and while she wished they could discuss lighter topics and the mention of Faulks being suspicious sent a chill down her spine, she knew it had to be done. They could not trust anyone completely.
“And who is this?” she asked.
“The fox,” Sophie explained seriously, placing the small wooden figure beside a painted cottage. “He is visiting because he has lost his way.”
“How unfortunate.”
“He is not worried,” Sophie said. “It is alright if you are lost. Faulks told me that sometimes it is good because you find somewhere better.”
Eleanor paused. “Faulks told you that?”
Sophie nodded happily. “He was in the garden.”
“When?”
The question came too quickly, and Sophie looked up at her mother with mild curiosity.
“Yesterday.”
Eleanor softened her tone at once. She did not want to frighten her daughter into not saying anything more.
“I see. And what else did Mr. Faulks say?”
The child returned her attention to the wooden animals.
“He was talking to a gentleman. He was by the gate.”
Eleanor tried to keep her voice calm. “What were they doing?”
“Faulks gave him a paper.”
The room seemed suddenly quieter. Sophie continued to play, entirely unaware of the importance of what she had just said. Eleanor forced herself to breathe.
“Did Mr. Faulks say what it was?”
“No,” Sophie continued as she arranged her toys. “Faulks is kind. He always gives me biscuits when you say I have eaten enough.”
The innocent affection in her voice made Eleanor’s unease worse rather than better, because that kindness was precisely why she had never suspected him.
He had been part of Ravenscourt for years. He knew the household better than almost anyone. He knew Gabriel’s habits, the family’s movements, the servants’ routines, and every piece of private information that passed through the estate.
If someone inside the house was feeding Julian information, Faulks was exactly the sort of person who would know it.
***
That night, after the household had fallen quiet, Eleanor remained awake. She needed to know whether the suspicion had any foundation before troubling Gabriel with it, but she had no doubt that he was sleeping soundly.
Then, when the clock struck one, she heard movement.
Eleanor rose quietly, slipping from her room and following the faint sound through the darkened corridor. She kept enough distance to avoid being noticed, her pulse quickening as she reached the back passage that led toward the gardens. A figure moved ahead of her.
It was Faulks.
He carried something in one hand, a folded paper. Eleanor stopped in the shadows and watched as he opened the side door and stepped out into the cold night air. He looked entirely at ease, as though this was something he had done before.
Eleanor remained still, watching as he crossed the garden path toward the gate. A moment later, another figure emerged from the darkness beyond the wall. Faulks looked around once before extending his hand. The folded paper passed between them, and Eleanor felt the last of her doubts disappear.
Whatever explanation Faulks had given before, whatever innocent reason she had tried to find, she could no longer pretend she had seen nothing.
Someone inside Ravenscourt was speaking to Julian, and now she had seen who.