Page 70 of Murder at Madame Chambon's
So, now the truth had been revealed.
Evelina—or Lady Evelina as she should be known—had been targeted for her high birth.For the fact she was legitimate, not a bastard as he, and Lady Bradden, had thought.
And Grimshaw was prepared to kill her for disrupting the succession of whom he saw as Lord Craddock’s rightful heir—and, Mr.Grimshaw’s godson—Lord Rupert.
Catching his breath, he decided to set his course for Highgate Cemetery rather than try to locate Grimshaw.
Something his lordship had said kept niggling.Highgate Cemetery was, as Lord Ravenswood had said, the final resting place of all members of the Ravenswood family.
Of the daughter he’d believed dead.Evelina.
And if Evelina had stepped into Grimshaw’s carriage yesterday at Highgate Cemetery, it would be the easiest place for Grimshaw to dispose of her.
The sun was low on the horizon by the time William crested the hill and saw the village of Highgate below him.
The large iron gates loomed up before him and he urged his horse through, not knowing where to turn until a grave-digger stabbed his finger in the direction of a copse of moss-covered trees, telling him with a lop-sided grin that it was where the Ravenswoods were buried.
He was breathing heavily as he dismounted outside, noticing the freshly churned gravel indentations just outside the heavy door to what he now realized was the family crypt.Someone had been here not too long before.
And it hadn’t been the earl himself.The crypt was not on the main pathway, so whoever had visited had made a special detour.
“Evelina!”he shouted as he pounded upon the thick iron door before realizing with dismay that no one inside would hear him
Nevertheless, he had to try.“Evelina!”he shouted again, louder, as he pounded more insistently, his disappointment acute when he received no response.
Desperately, he looked about him and spied in the far distance a couple of grave diggers shoveling dirt into a large pit.
He leaped astride his mount once more and spurred it over the uneven ground.“Have you seen anyone in this area at all today?Or yesterday?”he shouted when he was within hearing.
The closer man raised his head, focusing on him a myopic stare but not answering as he scratched his grizzled thatch of salt and pepper.
William knew he must look wild and odd.He was not dressed for riding and his fine London coat was spattered with mud.“A man, perhaps?A carriage, even?Did anyone visit that crypt over there?”He pointed at the crypt.If he was correct and Evelina had been incarcerated there since the funeral, she might be unconscious from the cold, or lack of food and water.
“See anything, Bert?”the one grave-digger asked his companion, who put down his shovel, his interest sparking when William fished in his pockets for some coins.“Ah, now, I think me memory serves me better.Yes, there were a carriage there a day or two ago.Were it yesterday?”
“After Lord Dunstable’s funeral?”
“For the cove wot were done in?”surmised Bert, and William nodded.
“Aye, there were a carriage.Didn’t fink too much about it, but there were a carriage indeed.”He sent a contemplative look in the direction of the crypt.“Not there now, is it?”he remarked.
“No, but maybe it came back.Did a man in a carriage return to the cemetery today?”
The two men exchanged glances, then swiveled their heads about them.“We get carriages that come by and we don’t take note.Maybe there was, and maybe there wasn’t.What do you reckon, Tom?”
His companion chewed his lip and screwed up his forehead.“I’m thinking perhaps I saw a carriage at the Ravenswood crypt this morning,” he said, then stopped, staring meaningfully at William’s coat pocket.
William had given away his smaller coins and had only a gold sovereign.If it really would buy the information he needed, he’d pay a small fortune.Though of course the man might be stringing him along.
Still, of course, he’d take that chance.
“Saw a carriage heading in that direction, guvnor only this morning,” Tom said, stabbing his thumb towards some trees in the distance.“But that be where the paupers get put and his were a fine carriage.We be fillin’ it in next.”
“Did the carriage return?”William wheeled his horse around, looking over his shoulder for an answer.
“Don’t rightly recall, guvnor.”Tom shrugged, then added thoughtfully, “Don’t reckon it did, now you come to mention it.”
William barely heard the last of his words.He was urging the horse in the direction of the paupers’ grave on a slight chance and not expecting to see a carriage of any sort.
