by Clare Jayne
“It would destroy his legal career and reputation were it to be known that he had an illegitimate daughter,” Miss Chiverton joined in. “That was how I knew he had a strong reason for the murder.”
“He has a cruel side to his personality that I never guessed at,” Ishbel said, remembering the apparent concern Lord Tain had shown over Morag’s death. His real fear must have been that he would be found out and, of course, having been alerted by them to their enquiry into the death, he probably had them watched from that point on. She shivered to think of someone following them for so long, ready to harm or perhaps even kill them if they got close to finding out the truth.
“He would have known plenty of criminals from his work that he could hire to attack us,” Ewan said, his thoughts moving in the same direction as hers.
Ishbel turned to Miss Chiverton with a smile. “You have found the explanation to the murder. This explains every detail.”
“Now,” Ewan said, “we just have to arrest him.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
THEY FOUND two members of the Town Guards to accompany them to Lord Tain’s home, getting the address from Jed Cassell. It was mid-evening by the time they arrived, late enough that he should be at home. The street was high up, looking over much of the city, and the house was in a secluded patch of countryside.
“So this is what a man will kill his own child to keep,” Ishbel said, looking up at the building. It resembled a small castle in size and because of its rounded turrets and medieval appearance. She imagined Lord Tain growing up poor but dreaming of becoming wealthy and powerful and, unlike many, he had put in the considerable amount of work necessary to turn a thought into reality. As a solicitor, he must have once cared about justice – how could he have lost his humanity to such a degree?
Ewan used the door knocker and a smartly dressed butler answered and invited them inside.
“We’ll wait here,” one of the guards said and the men hung back in the large hall.
She and Ewan were shown into a drawing room twice the size of her family’s where Lord and Lady Tain were sitting with three young children. Ishbel’s heart lurched at the sight of the innocent young faces – she had not considered that he might have children. It was like spotting a wolf amid a flock of lambs.
“Miss Campbell and Mr MacPherson, is that right?” Lord Tain said, his expression genial. “Are you here in connection with Morag Duncan?”
“We are, sir,” Ewan answered.
Lord Tain introduced his wife to them. She was younger than he by some years and had an attractive face that was marred by the haughtiness of her expression. She had a maid take the children away but made it clear that she hoped this visit would be a brief one. Ishbel supposed this was not surprising if she feared their evening being disrupted by a legal matter. It was Lord Tain’s attitude that was disconcerting to Ishbel – he seemed to have no fear of what their presence here meant.
They refused refreshments and, when they had all sat down, Lord Tain said, “Have you found any more about what happened to Morag Duncan?”
“We know everything,” Ishbel said and received only a raised eyebrow in reaction. “Morag was your daughter.” He started at this, his smile vanishing. “You only found out about her when she was twelve and came to see you with her parents. Her mother begged for your help, which you gave. You presumably imagined that you would never see Morag again, but she came to see you on the day she died.”
“A week before then actually,” Lord Tain said, surprising her with his willingness to discuss Morag. “She wasna sure if she was right about who I was and I confirmed I was her father. She had not had an easy life and there were things troubling her she would not tell me about, but it was a fond reunion nonetheless.”
“You claim you were happy that she found out you were her father?” Ewan said, exchanging a confused glance with Ishbel.
“Of course I was,” he said, with such a strong appearance of honesty that Ishbel began to wonder if they had solved the murder or been entirely wrong in the conclusions that had led them here. “We arranged to meet on the day of her death for a longer conversation as we both still had a great many questions for each other. I confessed everything to my wife.” He looked over at Lady Tain and Ishbel took in the lady’s pallor and pinched lips.
The puzzle pieces rearranged themselves and Ishbel said, “You told Lady Tain when you would see Morag next?”
Ewan shot her a perplexed look at this change in direction.
“Yes, of course,” Lord Tain said. “I wanted Morag to be a part of our lives.”
Ishbel heard Ewan’s intake of breath as he reached the same conclusion as her.
“Did you ever see Morag again?” she asked.
“Yes, she arrived as arranged and we talked for about an hour. I had to defend a client in court but I gave Morag a little money and she agreed to let me find her a small house to live in. It should have been the start of our relationship and instead it was the end. It’s haunted me that the money I gave her might have been the cause of her murder – that some thief wanted to steal it and killed her to get it. Is that what you think happened?”
He looked trustingly at them and, with all their notions altered, Ishbel’s heart ached for him. Her judgement of his character when she met him had been right after all: he truly was the good man he had always appeared to be.
“No,” she said quietly. “A thief did not kill her, did they, Lady Tain?”
Lord Tain followed Ishbel’s gaze to his wife. “Sophia?” he said.
Lady Tain’s mouth flattened into a thin line as she looked back at him. “I will not discuss this in front of strangers.”
“Aye, you will,” Lord Tain said firmly.
She looked as if she would refuse to respond, but finally she seemed to make up her mind, addressing her words to her husband. “She was a common little wretch who strode into your life and, instantly, you would have let her destroy the life we had created.” Her voice shook with emotion. “Did you think no one else would find out about her? You would not listen to my fears and so I had to protect my family from that woman.”
“What did you do?” Lord Tain was looking at his wife as if he did not know her.
“I took a knife with me and waited while you and the girl talked. When she left I followed her. The route she took around the back of the law courts was perfect – there was no one else in the alley and it meant I could wipe my hands clean and return to my coach with no one seeing a thing. There were spots of blood down the front of my dress but I made up an excuse to the servants about a fight breaking out between two criminals. That should have ended it, but then the two of you began asking questions,” she said, looking coldly at Ishbel and Ewan, “and I realised at a ball recently, when someone else mentioned it, that you would not give up. I had one of my footmen hire men to scare you off, hurt you if they had to, but you would not listen. What will it take? Money?”
“Do you actually think you will not have to pay for such an evil crime?” Lord Tain asked her and the look she gave him said just that.
“I did it for our family,” she said to him, as if that excuse would make everything all right.
“Morag was my daughter,” he said in an anguished tone. “Our family could have survived anything except this.”
Ewan got up and brought the two guards into the room. Lady Tain looked from them to her husband as if she could not believe what was happening. “Robert, stop this. It is your duty to help me.”
“You have committed murder, Sophia. No one can help you.”
Lady Tain was still protesting as she was taken away by the guards, clearly horrified that she would be held accountable for the murder.
When she and the guards were gone, silence descended.
“I am so sorry that you have to suffer this,” Ishbel said to Lord Tain, who was like a faded shadow of the man he had been just minutes ago.
“I never understood her at all,” he said, more to himself than them.
“I never imagined she could harm anyone, let alone...” He broke off.
Ewan patted his shoulder. “You still have your children to be of comfort to you.”
“Not all of them,” Lord Tain said.
Epilogue
Five Months Later
“NO MATTER what one might say about her character, Miss Campbell does make a lovely bride,” Lady Selman conceded as she and her husband sat and watched the lady in question walk beside Lord Huntly to the front of the church to join Mr MacPherson and the vicar.
“One wonders why they were in such haste to wed,” her husband said.
“Indeed! And now they have had another member of the peerage arrested and, after we have suffered the indignity of seeing one of our own in court, Lady Tain is to be hanged. Their actions are unpardonable.”
“But slightly less so than Lady Tain’s,” her husband commented, which she felt was beside the point.
“One does not expect the people one meets in society to run about chasing murderers.”
“Quite.”
“Lady Huntly must be delighted to finally get Miss Campbell off her hands, when the lady looked sure to stay a spinster for life.” She craned her head to see Lady Huntly, who was wearing a breathtaking blue gown and seemed to be wiping her eyes. “It astonishes me that Mr MacPherson did not choose better for himself, though: such a woman! Such a blemished reputation!” She nudged her husband, who had been looking with a smile at Miss Campbell, who did look uncommonly beautiful in a gown that had flowers embroidered across it. Lady Selman did not normally find red-hair flattering but there was no doubt that both Miss Campbell and Lady Huntly came from a handsome family. Mr MacPherson was – had been until now – one of Edinburgh’s most attractive bachelors, so the pair would undoubtedly have striking offspring. Perhaps that was the appeal of the match to him, as Miss Campbell was known to have little inheritance.
The vicar asked the usual questions and it seemed as if everyone in the church held their breaths in anticipation when he came to the line, “If anyone has reason why these two should not be joined in matrimony may they speak now or forever hold their peace.”
Would Lady Picton object? Would Mr MacPherson change his mind? Lady Selman strained forward, trying to look in every direction at once, but alas, there was no objection to enliven the day.
The ceremony came to an end and Lady Selman gasped as Mr MacPherson and his new bride kissed each other in public with a most indecent display of passion. Miss Campbell – Mrs MacPherson now – should have been told that one did not show such affection for one’s own husband.
Lady Selman got to her feet as the married couple passed by, not wanting to be the last out of the church. She put a hand over her eyes as she stepped out into the sunshine, Lord Selman at her side, and saw Mr and Mrs MacPherson exchange embraces and comments with their friends – of whom there were surprisingly many – and family.
The couple waved as they got into an open-topped carriage and then they were leaving, off on an exciting journey, no doubt. Not that Lady Selman in any way envied them for having such adventurous lives.
The crowd began to disperse, although she noticed that Lady Huntly and Lady Picton stood arm-in-arm watching until the carriage was out of sight. Who would have expected two such different ladies to find common ground?
“I suppose we shall have to find something else to do now,” Lord Selman remarked with a frown. “How tedious.”
Look out for the fourth Campbell & MacPherson novel coming in 2019 or join my newsletter below to make sure you don’t miss the new release. In the novel, Miss Chiverton and McDonald find themselves at the scene of a murder and have to turn to their newly married friends for assistance.
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