“That was hardly your fault,” he assured her.
“But I have offended your friends.”
“There are few at that table I would call a friend,” he said with an easy smile. “I care little for the opinions of slave owners, absentee landlords and philanderers. While I do not claim your knowledge of Ireland, I do know something about running an estate; I was born for the task after all, and have been trained for it since I was a boy. Landlords must keep an eye on their tenants and ensure that dealings are fair.”
Copley nodded to him, a small, proud smile on his face.
“You must be tired however, so if you would rather retire for the night, please feel free.”
“I am feeling tired actually, I think it best to get an early night.”
“Of course. Do not feel the need to arise too early, no one else in this house does, other than me. Breakfast is at ten.”
“I understand, Sir, thank you.”
“Good night, Thea.” He turned to Lord Copley. “And what of you, Sir, will you join me?” Cole asked.
“I believe I will.” He turned to his daughter and kissed her forehead. “Goodnight, dearest.”
“Goodnight, Papa, Goodnight, Cole.”
Both gentlemen watched as she walked away and up the main staircase then when she was out of sight, Cole led them to the library and poured two glasses from the decanter.
“Is brandy acceptable?”
“Sounds very good.”
He handed the drink over and they sat in the wingback armchairs by the fireplace.
“You have an exceptional daughter there, Sir.” Cole began the conversation.
“Indeed I do, almost as exceptional as my wife.” He sipped his brandy. “It is difficult to live with someone who possesses such extraordinary gifts, but the rewards are more than worth it for the gentleman who is up to the challenge.”
“I can imagine.”
“I’m just glad that only one daughter seems to have inherited her mother’s talents. I think if I was surrounded by women who were able to outwit me at every turn, our house would be a savage land.”
“Outwit?” he asked, unsure what Copley meant by that.
“Even as a child, Thea could outsmart her governesses. By age ten, she was devising means to escape the school room and by the time she was twelve, most windows were nailed closed. A year later a prank war broke out between Thea and her next two siblings. Just harmless larking around, nothing malicious in it, but Thea’s tricks were ingenious. Trip wires turned up everywhere, dyes were added to soap bars to colour the skin, perfume bottles were emptied and replaced with rather unpleasant scents.”
Cole smiled at the image.
“Don’t get me wrong, her sisters aren’t dim-witted at all, but it took two of them working together to fool Thea. Were she inclined to turn her mind to a life of crime, England would be bankrupt by now, I’m sure.”
“And the rewards?”
“Trust, loyalty, love and passion. The women in my family do nothing by halves, and that includes love.”
Cole smiled.
“Also, both Thea and her mother excel in mathematics, and I have not added up my own accounts since before Thea was born. She and her mother do a much faster and more accurate job than I ever could.”
Cole laughed, since it was said in a teasing lilt. “That is certainly a reward worth having.”
Chapter Five
Thea arose at eight the following morning, slightly later than usual for her but seemingly early by this house’s standards. Late rising had been common a few decades ago, under the rule of the decadent George IV, with the ruling classes taking their cue from him and staying up late into the night, drinking and gambling.
The practice was dying now though and most people took the running of their estates seriously, meaning that most people of Thea’s acquaintance were early risers. Perhaps not as early as their tenants and the working classes, but the practice of sleeping the morning away was unusual these days.
Thea intended to make the most of the peace and quiet however, so she dressed quickly and after checking in on her father, she made her way to Mrs Garwood’s bedroom again.
Something told her that what had happened in this room held the key to everything and by looking closer, she hoped that a solution would present itself.
Ann, Mrs Cole’s pug, was waiting patiently on the landing outside her door as she exited, and wagged her tail when she saw Thea, who bent down to pet the animal.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, scratching gently behind her ears. “I expected you to sleep with Mrs Cole given how spoilt you are. Go on now, hurry along, I have things to do.”
The pug followed her to Mrs Garwood’s room and she didn’t have the heart to shoo the animal away again.
She looked around from the doorway, taking in the whole room, then she went to the dressing room, looking around in there too.
The dressing room was relatively small by country house standards, clearly designed for a guest rather than a family member. It was perhaps half as wide as the bedroom and half as long, making it about a quarter of the size. The dressing table stood directly in front of the window and while she had looked for scuff marks on the floor yesterday, Thea hadn’t attempted to open the window behind. Now she did, seeing first if it was possible to get to the window without moving the table and mirror.
It wasn’t.
The little dog watched her closely and with curiosity as she worked.
She moved the table then, doing her best to lift it high so as not to damage the floor. It was exceptionally heavy but once she had made eight or so inches of space between the table and wall, she squeezed into the gap and attempted to open the window. The sill was perfectly clean, so there was no telling if someone had crossed it recently.
The sash was stiff but relented with the application of a little force, so she opened it a few inches. She closed an opened it again and this time it opened easily. She had obviously been the first to open it in a while. Still, assumptions led to wrong thinking, as her mother frequently said, so she opened the window once more and looked out. Not only was there a good twenty feet to the ground level, there was a level below that, adding another ten feet to the drop.
She had observed as much yesterday from the bedroom windows, hence she had ruled those out as an escape route. This one clearly had to be ruled out as well. Someone could have jumped but they would surely have been injured. She rang the bell by the door for a servant and began to look through the rest of the belongings here.
She had considered that a rope might have been used but if it was secured to something in the room, then it would surely have been discovered along with the body.
That sparked another thought, that a rope could have been tied off and lowered from a room above. It wouldn’t explain why the windows were closed when the guests broke into the bedroom, but it might be possible to close a window, at least mostly, from the outside, especially with practice. She opened a bedroom window as wide as it would go then sat on the sill and gripping the frame tightly, leaned back to look above.
There was a window directly above but it was small, clearly not a sash, although it could be a casement window that opened on a hinge. She would have to check the attic rooms.
“M- ma’am, are you all right?”
Thea jumped with fright and for a moment, feared she might fall, but she managed to regain her grip on the window frame and slipped back into the room.
By the door stood a youngish woman, her hands clasped in front of her.
“Forgive me,” Thea smiled. “I was just checking for something.” She pushed the window almost closed, then placed her open handkerchief over the frame, then closed the window on it.
“Can I help you with something, Ma’am?” the servant asked hesitantly.
“I hope so. Are you Mrs Garwood’s maid or one of the housemaids?”
“A housemaid, ma’am.”
“Your name?”
; “Ella Fisher.”
“Nice to meet you, Ella, I’m Lady Thea. I need to ask you some questions, if I may.”
“Of course you may, ma’am.”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “First, is Mrs Garwood’s lady’s maid still here?”
“No, she had to leave and seek employment elsewhere.”
“Did she not receive any severance?”
“No Ma’am, Mr Garwood said he had no use of her now, so she may as well go sooner than later. Mr Black, he’s the butler, allowed her to stay for a few days while she wrote to a family member in London and asked to stay with them while as she looked for a new position.”
“How very heartless,” Thea exclaimed.
“Oh no, Ma’am, Mr Black said she could stay as long as she needed, he even offered to give her a reference, but she left when she heard back from her uncle, said it’d be easier to find a new situation in London.”
“Forgive me, I meant Mr Garwood, not Mr Black.”
“Oh, yes…”
“Do you have a name and address for the lady’s maid?”
“Her name was Mrs McCall, and Mr Black has an address for her. She was intent on finding a new position as soon as she could though, so she may have moved on already.”
“Had she been with Mrs Garwood for long?”
“Since Mrs Garwood first came out. She were something broken up when it happened, inconsolable.”
“Did she say anything about her employer, or why this might have happened?”
“She said that she’d bet good money her husband were involved. He couldn’t have been of course, he were with the others all evening, and Mr Black were serving and he swears Mr Garwood never even left the room after his wife retired for the night.”
“But there was no love lost between husband and wife?”
“I’d say that were a fair statement.”
“Who cleaned this room?” Thea asked, getting to her feet.
“I did, Ma’am, me or Laura. And we lit the fires and turned down the beds each day.”
“So you are familiar with Mrs Garwood’s possessions?”
“I s’pose.”
“Good. I wonder if you would take a look around with me and tell me if anything looks out of place.”
“Yes, Ma’am. Where would you like to start?”
“By the writing bureau.”
Thea crossed the room, the maid joining her.
“The ink well was on the floor, do you know why it was out of the desk set?”
“No, Ma’am, it was always put away properly when we came in.”
“Did she ever leave letters out?”
“No, they had always been put away.”
“So she must have been interrupted while writing,” Thea mused. “What about the paper knife, where did that sit?”
“She always placed it in front of the desk set, handle to the right.”
“She was probably right handed,” Thea guessed, as the desk set was also positioned to the right of center. She began opening drawers.
“We never looked in there,” Elle said.
“I don’t doubt it,” Thea assured her. She looked in every drawer but saw nothing untoward. She also looked in the bedside drawers and a dresser, but there were few personal effects in here.
“Has anything been removed from this room?”
“There was a book, we returned it to the library.”
“Do you know the name?”
Ella blushed and looked away.
“Can you read?”
Ella shook her head. “Not well. They tried to teach me, all servants here must be able to read a little but… Please don’t say anything, I don’t want to get fired.”
“I won’t, Ella, I have no interest in getting you fired. In fact, if you’d like, I might be able to teach you.”
Ella raised a hand to her lips and bit her fingernail.
“I promise, it will be our secret. Wouldn’t you like to work your way up to a lady’s maid or housekeeper some day?”
“People have tried, Ma’am, I just can’t… get it.”
“If all maids have to read, how do you disguise it?”
Ella shrugged. “I cheat.”
“How?”
“Depends. Some things I recognise because the markings on the labels are distinctive, others I mark with coloured chalk, like the things we use to clean with, so I know them by the chalk colour, or three chalk lines is bleach, while two is bicarbonate of soda. Some things I get Missy, she’s another housemaid, to read to me and I memorise it, like new prayers or hymns in church.”
“You are obviously bright to invent such schemes. Let me try and teach you, please.”
“My Mam, Pa and Sunday school all tried. It just doesn’t take, no matter how hard I worked. Words just seem to jumble.”
“My methods are slightly different. My mother taught me what she calls speed reading, which is quite different from what most children are taught. Perhaps a different method would work.”
Ella shook her head.
“Well, if you change your mind, just say so.” Thea wanted to help the girl, after all, she couldn’t progress her career without being able to read. She didn’t want to force the girl into it however, especially not if she was fearful of losing her position.
“Come.”
Ella followed her into the dressing room and Thea looked through the trunks. Most of their contents had been unpacked but there was a sewing kit still in there, probably used by the lady’s maid for repairs and alterations, and a few personal hygiene items, such as scented soap, creams and the ingredients to make more if necessary.
The dressing table held the most personal items, such as hair brushes and ribbons, all neatly laid out.
“What’s this?” Thea picked up a bottle of Le Mort's elixir.
“Mrs McCall said it were an elixir. Mrs Garwood had a summer cold and took that every night before bed, to ease the cough.”
Thea looked at the label, which gave the dose as one to two tea spoons. She opened the bottle to sniff the contents but could smell little other than liquorice and aniseed, which she knew were used to flavour the mixture. She had been given small doses of Le Mort's elixir as a child and had always hated it since she disliked liquorice but this wasn’t as bad as she remembered, and she wondered if the recipe had changed slightly.
She replaced it and opened a jewellery box, but it held nothing of value.
“Is this all her jewellery?” she asked, Ella.
The girl stepped forward. “I don’t think so. I don’t remember everything she had, but I know she had some pearls ‘cos I admired them one evening.”
“If her pearls are gone, we must wonder what else is missing.”
“The staff haven’t been allowed in here since that night, Ma’am.”
“Did you see her body?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Was she dressed for bed?”
“She was.”
“So where are her pearls?” Thea wondered.
“I don’t know, Ma’am.”
Thea turned to her and smiled. “Sorry, that was a rhetorical question.”
“Wot?”
“A question that isn’t meant to be answered; I was thinking out loud.”
“Oh.”
“Tell me, Ella, has anyone been inappropriate with you at this gathering?”
“Inappropriate?”
“Yes, I know that some men view maids as sport. Have they been suggestive towards you or anyone else, or perhaps made you feel uncomfortable?”
“Mr Garwood. We all soon learned to mind his hands and give him a wide berth, or else we girls would go about in pairs.”
“And what about the rest of the party, any unusual behaviour?”
“I’m not sure it’s my place to say, ma’am.”
“Please, Ella, anything you can tell me might help me discover who did this.”
“You, Ma’am?”
“Yes. Why do you think I’ve been searching the
se rooms?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why were you helping me?”
“Master William told us to do everything we could to accommodate you.”
“Master William? Oh, you mean Cole.”
“Yes, that’s what his friends call him but until his father dies, we’ve to call him Master William. I thought you were here to help your father investigate these strange goings on.”
“We’re both here to investigate. Contrary to what you may have been told, women are as capable as men, especially in matters of reason and logic.”
“If you say so, Ma’am.”
“I do,” Thea assured her with a playful grin. “Tell me, Ella, did you know Mary Potter at all?”
“Not well. She’d only been here a few years but she wasn’t well liked.”
“Oh?”
“She’s the daughter of a school teacher, see, only she’s illegitimate. Her Pa used to come see her often though and put ideas in her head. Mr Black calls them, delusions of grandness.”
“Grandeur.”
“That’s right, delusions of grandeur. Anyway, her Pa died when she was ten and his legitimate family wanted nothing to do with her and her Mam. And anyway, he was only a school teacher, respected maybe but not rich, so they probably had a bit of a hand to mouth existence themselves. Mary’s Mam finally got married and then the babies started coming, one a year. He felt he had done Mary’s Mam a great favour in marrying her, and he wasn’t inclined to be kind, especially to Mary. Her mother sent her here when she was old enough and she began as laundry maid. She’d worked her way up to chambermaid by the time…” Her words were suddenly choked off.
“I’m sorry, Ella, it’s insensitive of me to ask these things.”
“No.” Ella sniffed into her handkerchief. “It’s not your fault. Truth is, I was remembering some of the things I used to say to her. She had such big dreams, and we kept bursting her bubble. Now she’s gone, I can't help but think, what was the harm in dreaming, if it made her happy?”
“Tell me about her dreams?” Thea asked.
“She had all sorts. One was that she would save up enough to go to London and become an actress on the stage. Another was that one of Mrs Cole’s guests would fall in love with her and whisk her away, either to be a kept woman or his wife, depending on her sentiment at the time. Another had her saving up enough to book passage to the Americas, where she would claim some land and find gold, or marry a farmer and become rich.”
Murder at Locke Abbey Page 6