There was one thick file which he took out and laid on the floor and opened. In it was Lord Hedley’s medical file and also correspondence between Dr. Jenner and a Dr. Palverston in London. Harry let out a soundless whistle. The correspondence between the two men discussed the use of arsenic to counteract the effects of syphilis. And in Lord Hedley’s file, he found Dr. Jenner had started to treat Lord Hedley for syphilis last summer.
He carefully replaced everything and locked the safe. In order to give Kerridge this information, he would need to cover up the fact that he had broken into the surgery.
He went downstairs and put the keys back in the drawer, being careful to lay them back in the order he had found them.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he locked the kitchen door behind him and hurried off towards where he had left the others in the car.
Daisy and Becket were excited at his news, but Rose seemed a trifle disappointed.
“It all seems so easy,” she complained. “I had imagined you having to behave like a real burglar.”
Harry had carried that bright image of Rose singing in his car. It popped like a balloon and disappeared. She was really a very silly little girl.
♦
Harry called on Kerridge first thing in the morning with his new information.
“Where did you get this?” demanded the superintendent.
“I can’t really tell you.”
“You must.”
“Superintendent, I know you pay informers and you do not demand where they got their information from and drag them into court.”
Kerridge drummed his fingers on the desk. “I can confront Hedley. Even if he admits he has syphilis, he will deny having anything to do with Mary Gore-Desmond. We will then need to approach her parents for further proof – was she sleeping with anyone else? – and that will shake them rigid. But it shows Hedley has arsenic at his disposal.
“Still, I’ll need to interview him. You may yet be forced to tell me how you came by this information.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Harry.
∨ Snobbery with Violence ∧
Eleven
I had grown weary of him; of his breath And hands and features I was sick to death. Each day I heard the same dull voice and tread; I did not hate him:but I wished him dead.
– G.K. CHESTERTON
Rose had to endure a row from her furious mother. Why had she sent her guard away? Was she misbehaving herself with one of the gentlemen?
Rose protested that the policeman must have misunderstood her. Lady Polly said that they had all been told that they could leave on the following morning.
“I am glad of it. Hedley is not what we had been led to believe. I do not like this extremely vulgar castle and I do not like his guests. That Fairfax woman is atrocious. None of the young men are suitable. We are opening up the town house and the servants have been told to get it ready for our arrival. There will be a few balls and parties before Christmas and, with any luck, you will meet someone suitable there.”
“I have decided I do not wish to get married,” said Rose.
“What else is there for you to do?”
“I can type. I could get a job.”
“Are you out of your mind? Work? YOU would be a laughingstock. We do not work!”
And with that, Lady Polly slammed out of her daughter’s room in a fury.
Rose felt tears welling up in her eyes and brushed them angrily away. The attempt on her Ufe on the roof was at last beginning to affect her with a bout of delayed shock. She felt weak and useless. Tomorrow they would leave and she would never know what really happened.
Daisy came into the room. “I couldn’t help hearing Lady Polly going on at you. So we’re going to London.”
“It looks like that,” said Rose. “I wish I knew who murdered Mary.”
“Maybe Miss Bryce-Cuddlestone knows something,” said Daisy.
“She won’t speak to me.”
“Worth a try. Better than doing nothing.”
Rose paced up and down and then looked out of the window. “It’s a fine, crisp day. I could suggest a walk. Would you take a message to her? If she is agreeable, I will meet her in the hall, in, say, half an hour?”
Rose did not have much hope that Margaret would accept the invitation, but to her surprise Daisy came back and said Margaret had agreed.
♦
Kerridge had summoned Harry. “Not much good,” he said.
“His lordship was in a fine taking, threatening to have my job.”
“Does he admit to having syphilis and possessing arsenic?”
“Not him. ‘Prove it, you common little runt’ were his last words to me.”
“Get a search-warrant.”
“I’m trying,” said Kerridge bitterly. “Fve had orders to release all the guests. I sent a constable to check Dr. Perriman’s surgery. No sign of a break-in. How did you do it?”
“I had information from someone.”
“You went there yesterday with Lady Rose. Town’s still talking about it. Lady Rose and that maid of hers were singing like street balladeers.”
“Just a bit of fun.”
“Just a bit of distraction while you got up to God knows what. If only something would break. Fve more or less been ordered to get out and forget it. The press have given up and gone, so the pressure’s off.”
“And it’s back to hushing the whole thing up?”
“That’s it. At least Lord Hedley hasn’t stopped repairing the village houses.”
“Not yet,” said Harry cynically. “I wonder what he’ll do when we’re all gone.”
♦
Rose and Margaret walked in the castle gardens, which were situated to the left of the castle, on the other side from where the tradesmen’s entrance was situated.
They had talked generally of fads and fashions, with Daisy and the footman, John, following at a discreet distance behind.
A small pale disk of a sun shone down on the rose garden. Frost still lay on the earth in the shadowy patches which the sun did not reach. Rose half-turned and gave a prearranged signal to Daisy to keep well back and then said in a low voice, “Have you any idea, Miss Bryce-Cuddlestone, who could have committed murder?”
“I don’t think it was murder, Lady Rose. I think Mary was a silly girl who just took too much arsenic.”
“Then why did your maid end up in the moat?”
“Why should I know?”
“Miss Bryce-Cuddlestone – may I call you Margaret?”
“No.”
“Well, then, when you slept with Lord Hedley, did you know he had syphilis?”
“You little bitch! You nasty, snooping little bitch.”
“I would like to help. Why? Why did you allow such a man favours?”
“Favours. How old-fashioned.” Margaret began to cry, great gulping sobs. Rose put an arm round her and led her to a marble bench. A marble statue of Niobe, shedding marble tears, stared down at them from behind the bench.
Daisy pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to Margaret. She waited patiently until Margaret had gulped and sobbed herself into silence.
“I couldn’t bear the idea of another season,” said Margaret, in such a low voice that Rose had to bend her head to hear her. “My mother jeers at me a lot. She still fancies herself as a beauty. She is furious with me for already turning down proposals.
“Hedley was fun, not like those dreadful young men. He courted me. He told me that Lady Hedley had a terminal illness and was not expected to live long. He said we would be married and I would be a marchioness and outrank my mother. I slept with him one night, that was all.