He looked at me in some exasperation.
I said: “I knew you’d take it like this. I thought you might help me.”
“I’ll help,” he said.
“But I don’t think it is going to get anywhere.
Simon, it seems, was jealous of the other two. He killed one in a rage, and was caught by the other. That’s it. As for the sailor, I think you may be right. The child wanted a father so she took up with the dead man who had no relations around. “
“She cut the head gardener’s prize roses to put on his grave.”
“There you are. That bears it out.”
“All the same …”
“All the same …” he repeated, smiling at me quizzically.
“If we are going to investigate, we have to pick up the most likely point and there is a faint possibility that something might be lurking behind the untimely death of the sailor. At least that is something we could start with.”
“How?”
“Find out something about him. Who was he? Who was his wife? Then if she should happen to be the present Lady Perrivale it might begin to
look as though we were on to something. And if someone actually got rid of the sailor because he was making a nuisance of himself … well, there is a possibility that that person, having successfully accomplished one crime, might try another.”
“I knew you’d help me, Lucas.”
“So we begin to unravel the skein,” he said dramatically.
“How?”
“Go to London. Look up records. What a pity Dick Duvane isn’t here. He would throw himself into this with enthusiasm.”
“Oh Lucas … I’m so grateful.”
“I’m grateful, too,” he said.
“It relieves the monotony of the days.”
I went back to Perrivale Court in a state of euphoria.
I knew I was right to have taken Lucas into my confidence.
Lucas was away for three weeks. Each day I looked for a message from him. Kate and I had settled into a routine. She still had her difficult moments, but she made no attempts to play truant. We read together, discussed what we read, and I made no reference to the sailor’s grave which she continued to visit. She did not take any more flowers from the garden but contented herself with wild ones.
A few days after Lucas had left for London, Maria, the Dowager Lady Perrivale’s maid, sought me out and said that her mistress would like to have a chat with me.
Maria was one of those servants who, having been in the service of a master or mistress for a long time, feel themselves to be especially privileged. Moreover, they are usually too useful to their employers to be denied what they expect. They look upon themselves as ‘one of the family’, and I could see that, as far as Maria was concerned, this might be to my advantage.
It was the first time I had been in that part of the house which, when I looked from my own window, I could see across the courtyard.
Maria greeted me, putting her finger to her lips.
“She’s fast asleep,” she said.
“That’s just like her. She’ll ask someone to come and see her and when they come she’s dead to the world.”
She beckoned me and opened a door. There, sitting in a big armchair, was Lady Perrivale. Her head had fallen to one side and she was fast asleep.
“We won’t disturb her for a bit. She had a bad night. Gets them sometimes. Having nightmares about that Sir Edward. He was a bit of a tartar. Eee … but you know naught about that. She’s up and down.
Quite her old self sometimes. Then her mind goes wandering. “
“Shall I come back later?”
She shook her head.
“Sit you down here for a bit. When she wakes she’ll ring or bang her stick. Oh dear me, she’s not what she was.”
“I suppose that happens to us all in time.”
“Reckon. But she went down when Sir Edward passed away.”
“Well, I suppose they’d been married for a long time.”
She nodded.
“I was with her when she came south. Sorry to leave Yorkshire, I was. Ever been, Miss Cranleigh?”
“No, I’m afraid not.”
“The dales have to be seen to be believed … and the moors.
“Tis a gradeley place, Yorkshire.”
“I am sure it is.”
“Here? Well … I don’t know. I could never get used to these folks.
Full of fancies. Now that’s something you couldn’t accuse us of. “
She looked at me in a somewhat bellicose manner which I thought was undeserved as I had no intention of accusing her of being fanciful.
“A spade’s a spade up there, Miss Cranleigh. None of this fancy stuff.
Airy-fairy . people walked out of their graves . little men in the mines . and goblins and things sinking the boats. I don’t know. Seems a funny way of going on to me. “
“It certainly does,” I agreed.
“Mind you, in a house like this, some people might get the creeps.”
“But not a Yorkshire woman.”
She grinned at me. I could see she was regarding me as . well, not quite as a kindred spirit. but, coming from London, at least I was not one of the fanciful Cornish.
“So you came here with Lady Perrivale when she married,” I said.
“Well, I was with her before that. And what a to-do it was. Marrying a title. He had the brass, old Arkwright did … rolling in it. But brass ain’t everything. And when she became ” my lady”, she was on clouds of glory. This house … what she did to it. It was in a right old mess. This house … and her ladyship too, if you please. Of course, she had to take Sir Edward with it.”
“Was that such an ordeal?”
“He was a strange sort, he was. You never got to know him. She was used to having her own way. Old Arkwright adored her. Good-looking, she was, and all that brass of course. Only child … heiress. You could see what Sir Edward was after.”
“How was he such a strange one?”
“He didn’t say much. He was always so very proper. My goodness, he was strict.”
“I’ve heard that.”
“At church every Sunday… morning and evening. Everyone had to go even the tenants … or it was a black mark against them. He was making sure of his place in Heaven … and then that boy …”
“Yes?” I said eagerly, for she had paused.
“Bringing him in like that. If it was anyone else’s you would have said … you know what I mean … men being what they are. But you wouldn’t believe it with Sir Edward. I often wondered who that boy was. Her ladyship hated the sight of him. Well, you could understand it. Old Nanny Crockett used to stick up for him.
I wondered her ladyship didn’t get rid of her . but Sir Edward wouldn’t have had that. He’d have put his foot down hard about that . though mostly he didn’t interfere about the house . as long as they all went to church and attended the prayer meetings every morning in the hall. I’ve heard her ladyship storm and rage, say she wouldn’t have the little bastard in the house . yes, she went as far as that. Well, you could understand it. I heard everything, me being her personal maid and all that, having been with her when we was in Yorkshire. She wanted her own maid and she settled on me. There’s not much I haven’t seen. Here, why am I talking to you like this? Well, I look on her as my child, really. It’s like talking about myself. And you’re here . one of the family, you know. You must have seen a bit of life with that Miss Kate . “
She pressed her lips together and I had the impression that she was reproaching herself for having talked of such intimate matters to me, almost a stranger.
“You must have seen a great many changes here,” I said.
She nodded.
“I was always one for a bit of gossip,” she said, still excusing herself.
“And I don’t get much chance of that up here all day. It gets a bit lonely. You’ve got one of them sympathetic natures.