Page 20 of Murder at Hambledon Hall
Poor Flossy. That must have been awful to hear. I wasn’t surprised at Mrs. Browning’s rudeness. I’d seen her cast a disgusted look at Flossy when she placed a second slice of cake on her plate one afternoon tea. Her standoffishness toward me didn’t bother me in the least, but Flossy’s skin wasn’t as thick as mine.
“I like their daughter, though,” she went on. “Janet’s marvelous company. We’ve always gotten along well when we’ve met at Hambledon Hall.”
“Is she excited to marry?” I asked.
“Oh, yes. She’ll be coming to London soon for her next dress fitting, and to select decorations and have invitations made… It’s all such fun.”
“And her future husband?” I prompted.
Flossy shrugged. “She didn’t say much about him.”
“What do you know about Esmond Shepherd?” I asked.
“Nothing, other than he was the gamekeeper,” Flossy said. “I never met him.”
“I spoke to him at the shoot,” Floyd said. “He was capable, which is understandable considering he learned everything from his father, the previous gamekeeper.”
“How were the family’s interactions with him?” At their blank looks, I added, “Were they formal? Friendly? Tense?”
Floyd shrugged, which could have meant he knew something and wasn’t going to tell me, or he’d noticed nothing out of the ordinary.
“I never saw him interact with the family,” Flossy said.
“Did Janet Browning mention him?”
Flossy wrinkled her nose again. “No. Why would she?”
My gaze connected with Floyd’s. He gave a slight shake of his head. I decided to ignore him. While Flossy could be silly at times, she wasn’t naïve. She was aware that not all men were gentlemen. Besides, awareness would give her a measure of protection against such men, too.
“Esmond Shepherd was a terrible scoundrel,” I told her. “He made a habit of seducing the young housemaids, then discarding them when he grew tired of them. I wondered if he ever looked beyond the staff and at the family for his…diversion.”
Flossy’s gasp filled the room. “Cleo! How could you suggest such a thing?”
“I’m sorry, but I had to ask. To eliminate Janet and her parents as suspects, you understand.”
My explanation appeased her a little. “I see. I suppose. Well, you can strike them off your list if that’s the reason for his murder. I never once saw Janet look at him, look for him, nor mention his name. She didn’t seem particularly upset after he died, either.”
I could vouch for that last observation myself. In the hours after the murder, I’d watched everyone closely. No one had been distressed. No one had acted happy or relieved, either. It was possible most were pretending, but not Janet. Like Flossy, Janet seemed to be the sort of girl who wore her emotions for everyone to see. If Shepherd had seduced her, and her father had shot him in retaliation, she would have displayedsomething. Yet she’d been indifferent.
I asked a few more questions about the gamekeeper, but neither could offer any insights about Esmond Shepherd and his history with the Wentworth family. If I wanted to know more, I needed to ask someone who’d been visiting Hambledon Hall for decades.
I finished my tea and thanked my cousins for their help.
Floyd followed me to the door. He opened it for me. “What will you do if you discover the murderer is one of Lord Kershaw’s family?”
“Do you think one of them did it?”
“No.”
“Then the question is moot, isn’t it?”
Not satisfied with my answer, he followed me all the way to Uncle Ronald’s office. “He won’t like that you’re investigating a murder, let alone adding the entire Wentworth family to your list of suspects.”
“I’ll interrogate him so subtly he won’t realize he’s being interrogated.”
“Like you did with Flossy and me? Ha! Good luck, Cleo. You’re going to need it.”
I hesitated, my fist poised to knock. How could I phrase my questions so as not to raise Uncle Ronald’s suspicions, let alone his ire?
