Epilogue
Beyond the brickfields to the south, the city had laid out a new cemetery, portentously named the District Necropolis. Giles arranged for Abigail Prior to be buried in a plot facing southwest and overlooking the open country.
Lambert Fforde read the rites over her, and it was decently, soberly done, with only Carswell and Giles in attendance. However, Mrs Lepaige sent a bouquet of exotic greenery from her precious collection of specimens which Giles felt must have cost her something to gather. For his part, Carswell threw a bundle of rosemary into the grave.
Lambert left in his carriage directly after the service for another appointment, but Giles and Carswell remained by the grave for some minutes, watching the workmen fill it with earth.
“Thank you for arranging this,” he said to Giles, breaking the silence between them.
“It was the least I could do,” said Giles. “We should get back. That sky does not look promising.”
They left the graveside and turned towards Northminster, where the chimney stacks were belching out their black plumes into a gunmetal-grey sky. The wind lashed them as they made their way along the newly-made paths of Northminster’s City of the Dead and returned to the land of the living beyond the gates.
“So how did you find Holbroke?” Giles asked, for Carswell had been delivered in one of the Rothborough carriages.
“I was very glad to have an excuse to get away,” said Carswell after a moment. “It was not to my taste. It is a palace, and how can any man be comfortable in a palace?”
“Unless that is what he is accustomed to,” Giles said.
“I will never get used to it!” said Carswell. “The worst of it was the servants. They were contemptuous, but my Lord never notices that, of course.”
“I shall be very sparing with your leave, then,” said Giles with a smile.
“Thank you, I would appreciate that,” said Carswell.
They came out of the gates and Carswell glanced back.
“Where will she be buried, I wonder?” he asked.
“Miss Hilliard?”
Carswell nodded.
“She left instructions in her will, as a matter of fact. She wanted to be buried in her family vault in Westmorland, but I wonder if the priest in charge will assent to that.”
“He ought not to,” said Carswell. “How much money did she leave?”
“Not a great deal – and all of it to Agnes Fulwood. It will pay for her defence.”
“That is why I did not go into the law. How can one be expected to get up and defend a person like that?”
“For money,” said Giles, “and the challenge of it. To defend the apparently indefensible – well, it makes for a stimulating problem, don’t you think?”
“Surely you don’t consider what she did excusable?”
“Excusable – no; understandable – perhaps,” Giles said. “Rhodes broke her heart when he stole Miss Hilliard away from her. In France I believe that would be considered a crime of passion and subject to different considerations.”
“Then thank the Lord we do not live in France!” exclaimed Carswell.
***
Returning to his rooms, Felix took up his letters and settled himself in the seat in the oriel window. He was glad to be back in the familiar surroundings of The Unicorn. It surprised him to find how comforting it was, as if he had been resident there far longer. The two nights away at Holbroke had been intolerable. It had been a wretched humiliation being fussed over by Lord Rothborough.
He shuffled through the letters without opening any them, until his eye fell on one that was addressed in a neat, child-like script and postmarked Edinburgh. With nervous fingers he opened the fashionable blue-lined envelope and drew out the letter. It was mercifully brief.
“Dear Mr Carswell,
I am writing to inform you of my forthcoming marriage to Commander Henry Lewis RN. I have discussed at length what passed between us with Commander Lewis and it was our feeling that I should write to you. With the light of experience I can now see clearly that whatever feelings I had for you were trifles – you were correct. We were not at all well suited, and we would not have found enduring happiness.
I wish to make it plain that I bear no ill will towards you, and can only hope that you will find happiness of the kind that God has so graciously granted to me.
Commander Lewis has suggested to my father that he repay you the money.
With the sincerest wishes for your health and prosperity,
Isabella Logan.”
Felix had just finished this startling letter and was crossing the room to pour himself a glass of whisky, when Major Vernon came in.
“Bad news?”
“No, quite the opposite,” he said and handed him the letter. “It has been on my conscience, not telling you this – this is why I had to leave Edinburgh. I broke off our engagement.”
Major Vernon scanned the letter.
“You’ll have to send them a pair of silver candlesticks at least,” he said.“Do you think you will see the money again?”
“I doubt it,” said Felix. “Not even an admiral of the Fleet could persuade Professor Logan to open his pocket book unnecessarily.”
“All credit to Commander Lewis for the attempt. She’s a lucky girl and you’re a lucky man.”
“I’ll drink to that,” said Felix, opening the bottle. “And you, sir? Will you have a dram?” Major Vernon looked a little dubiously as Felix poured out the whisky into a tin cup. “It’s not as rough as you think.”
“Very well, a small one.”
Felix found the only glass he had to hand and poured out a small dram for him. The Major sipped it, tentatively at first.
“You’ll find it grows on you,” said Felix.
“Like you, Mr Carswell,” said Major Vernon, raising his glass to him.
“Like Northminster,” said Felix.
“For all its travails?”
“For all that. I am glad I came. I confess I did not want to be here at first, but it turns out I have been fortunate in my misfortune.”
“We can only hope things are a little quieter for you from now on,” said Major Vernon. “At least until you have had a chance to finish unpacking. No more murders, at any rate.”
Felix swirled his whisky around the cup and turned to Major Vernon.
“Will Mrs Fulwood hang, do you think?” he said.
“I don’t know.”
“I was thinking of what you said earlier. Perhaps I was harsh. Perhaps she had no choice. Perhaps Miss Hilliard had no choice either. He used her so badly, and because of who she was, she had to act upon it. In a sense it is all as much Rhodes’ fault as anyone’s. Do you believe in fate?”
Major Vernon smiled and said, “I believe in considering fate from the safe distance of hindsight, Mr Carswell. Perhaps everything in the past looks like fate, simply because we can imagine no other version of events. The animal nature that closed off the possibilities that Marian believed were available to her, limits all our perspectives. It certainly limited mine.” He swallowed down the rest of his dram, seeming to relish it a little more. “All we can do now is recover our energy and senses sufficiently to do justice to the next case that our strange and unpredictable species throws in our direction – please God, let us have a chance to get some sleep first!”
Also by Harriet Smart
I hope you enjoyed this book. If so, please consider writing a review. You may also enjoy my other books, including:
The Dead Songbird: Northminster Mystery 2
“Death is too good for a whore like you. But He may show you mercy yet. BE PREPARED”
Celebrated singer Anna Morgan has come to Northminster to escape a troubled past and sing at the city’s Handel Festival. But when she continues to receive the poisonous letters that have been plaguing her, she turns to Chief Constable Major Giles Vernon and Police Surgeon Felix Carswell to find her persecutor, drawing the two men into her charismatic orbit.
At the same time, a talented young tenor is found dead in curious circumstances in a locked chapel, and the hunt for a murderer is on. Together, Vernon and Carswell must untangle the web of secrets that surround the dead man, uncovering a Northminster that throbs with clandestine passions and thwarted desires, a world of illegal pornographic books and risqué theatricals.
However, Felix finds himself bedevilled by romantic feelings for the beautiful Anna, who may or may not be his father’s mistress, while Giles must face the tragedy of his own marriage before he is able to determine the truth behind the mystery of The Dead Songbird.
The Dead Songbird is the second Northminster Mystery featuring early-Victorian detectives Vernon and Carswell.
The Shadowcutter: Northminster Mystery 3
Police surgeon Felix Carswell has joined Major Giles Vernon and his convalescent wife, Laura, for a few days in the elegant spa town of Stanegate – it’s a welcome holiday from the summer stench of Northminster. But no sooner has he arrived than a Spanish colonial gentleman, dying of consumption, requires his urgent care, while Major Vernon is called away to Lord Rothborough’s country house, where a lady’s maid has been found drowned in a secluded pool.
Major Vernon investigates above and below stairs in the great house, assisted by Lord Rothborough’s eldest daughter, Lady Charlotte. When a quantity of valuable jewellery is found missing, the cause of the dead maid’s death only becomes more mysterious.
Meanwhile, when his patient dies in his arms after confiding a secret, Carswell is drawn into baffling intrigues involving the government-in-exile of the dead man’s homeland, the Caribbean island of Santa Magdalena. And strangest of all, Dona Blanca, the widow of the president, seems to know exactly who Felix is.
Over the course of the summer, Vernon and Carswell together doggedly search for the truth behind these troubling events, but their determination leads to a shocking personal tragedy for both of them, one which that will force them to reassess their lives and their careers, and leave them changed forever.
From the grand hotels of a fashionable spa town to a sordid illegal dog fight; from back-stair intrigues in a great country house to political conspiracies and fencing matches, The Shadowcutter sees the welcome return of early Victorian detectives, Major Giles Vernon and Felix Carswell.
The Daughters of Blane
Three young ladies with more beauty and charm than Isobel, Leonora and Vivien Buchanan, daughters of the laird of Blane, would be hard to find; their marriage prospects are exceptional. Indeed, in the summer of 1890, Isobel is already engaged to a duke. But Isobel is secretly uncertain about the man she is to marry. When another, utterly unsuitable candidate presents himself, she is stunned by the strength of her feelings. Suddenly she must make a decision that could have devastating consequences. Younger and more independent, Vivien has always resisted the destiny allotted to women of her class. Marriage to a radical politician seems to offer her the deep and close relationship she seeks; but time and changing ideals can temper the deepest passion. Only Leonora, spoiled and extravagant, is ready to settle for a conventional marriage. But a rich and titled husband is no guarantee of happiness, especially against the pull of true but illicit love.
Set against the turbulent events of the 1890s and moving from the Western Isles of Scotland to London society, from slum life in Edinburgh to a palazzo in Venice, and finally to the battlefields of the Boer war, The Daughters of Blane is the passionate and ultimately triumphant story of three women who refuse to fit the mould society has made for them.
Green Grow the Rushes
In the summer of 1900, a group of young people are brought together in the decaying splendour of the Quarro, a Scottish country house owned by the down-at-heel Lennox family. As their lives touch, new alliances are formed – some doomed to failure and bitter despair, others that will endure against the odds to bring lasting happiness.
A sweeping, panoramic survey of turn-of-the-century Scottish society – from country house to industrial slums, bohemian free-thinking to High Tory Politics – Green Grow the Rushes is peopled with a cast of memorable and vividly realised characters.
“Smart’s characters have a feel of authentic life and move in and out of a backdrop which cunningly incorporates political change, trade union rebellion, suffragette noise and good food” – The Sunday Times
The Wild Garden
Kate Mackenzie is on the brink of success as an artist when she meets Gabriel Erskine, twenty-two years her senior. She’s not looking for a relationship, but Gabriel’s understanding of paintings and his outlook, so different from that of her friends, captivate her. Six months later, she moves into Allansfield, the beautiful house in rambling gardens on Gabriel’s estate in Fife. She doesn’t know him well, but what better way to change that than by living with him?
Touching, involving and honest, The Wild Garden is an utterly contemporary novel about life’s choices, love’s different aspects, and second chances.
The Lark Ascending
When Chris Adam receives a proposal from wealthy young Guy Lindsay, her family are delighted – this would be a fine match indeed for a daughter of the Manse. Chris is tempted, for she is attracted to Guy, but her vocation is to be a composer, and instead of marriage she chooses to study music in Edinburgh.
There Chris meets Angus Bretton, who has been sent down from medical school in disgrace. Though he seems strangely restrained after the passionate Guy, Chris falls deeply in love with him, and it is Angus who comes to her rescue when events conspire against her and all her dreams are in ruins. But Angus is not all that Chris imagines him to be and their happiness is shortlived. A chance meeting with Guy gives Chris a glimpse of the fulfilling life she might have had – but now Guy is married to one of Chris’s friends.
As war breaks out across Europe in 1914, tragedy, betrayal and scandal lie ahead before Chris can fulfil her musical destiny and stand by the side of the man she loves.
Reckless Griselda
On an impetuous journey to stop her father making an unsuitable marriage, Griselda Farqharson meets dashing Tom Thorpe. They fall instantly in love and into trouble. After she indulges in a sensual clandestine encounter with him, Griselda is forced to face the consequences of her reckless disregard for the rules of society. For this is England in 1816 and Tom is a wealthy baronet, caught up in a net of emotional entanglements and family conflicts. Determined to do the right thing and preserve Griselda’s reputation, he must face the ruin of his own. As a whirlwind of scandal engulfs them, will Griselda and Tom be able to transform their passionate attraction into a true and lasting happiness or will their love be destroyed by it?
Moving from the Norfolk countryside to the fashionable drawing rooms of London, Reckless Griselda is a hot-blooded regency romantic comedy that asks the question: should you let your heart rule your head?
A Tempting Proposal
Adela Ross is reduced to singing in Macreadies’ sordid supper club in Edinburgh to keep bread on the table and a roof over her head.
Sir William Urquhart must marry within a month or forfeit the estates and fortune left to him by his uncle.
When Adela faulters on stage in front of a rough crowd, Will intervenes and rescues her. Impressed by her determination and spirit in the face of adversity, Will decides that she may be the solution to his awkward problem. He asks her to marry him: purely for convenience. It is to be a business arrangement so that they can both save their families from misery and poverty.
Adela says yes, although her sisters chide her for it, fearing for her happiness. But how can she refuse such a tempting proposal? She will be an independent woman of means, while Will goes away to Rome, a husband in name only.
But after their hasty marriage they go to Balnagowan, Will’s enchanting Highland estate, and the trouble begins. Obliged by circumstances to pretend it is a love match, Adela finds her resolve to stay aloof from Will crumbling fast. The game of playing happy husband and wife is seductive enough and Will is dange
rously attractive. But there are a hundred question marks about his past and no satisfactory answers. Can Adela resist a man who looks likely to break her heart? Is it such a tempting proposal after all?
About the Author
Harriet Smart was born and brought up in Birmingham. She attended the University of St Andrews, where she read History of Art, and then married a fellow student. She now lives with her family in Edinburgh.
Harriet has published nine novels as well as co-designing the innovative creative writing software Writer’s Café.
She is presently working on The Northminster Mysteries, a series of crime novels set in early Victorian England. Her research for the books included wearing stays and hand-sewing a man’s shirt.
Harriet blogs at www.harrietsmart.com and can be found on Twitter @fictionwitch.
The Butchered Man Page 31