Page 67 of Lady Edith and the Registry Office
“Poor Agnes,” the sobbing maid who stood over the body managed to get out on a ragged breath.
An older woman stepped forward and took the crying maid by the arm to draw her away. As she passed him, the woman asked, “Who are you?”
“Lord Nathaniel Harbury. I had an appointment with Lady Sandhurst.”
“I’m the housekeeper, my lord. One of the footmen has already departed for Bow Street. Let me take this young woman and see to her.”
The butler appeared. “Go with Mrs. Simpson, dear.”
The young maid nodded and allowed herself to be escorted from the room by the housekeeper.
“The victim is a maid named Agnes?” He asked the butler. With the extensive damage to the victim’s face, he wondered how anyone could tell which maid it was.
“Oh yes, she is, was, the scullery maid. Her uniform is never as clean as the other maids. Her hair is always untidy as well.”
He briefly glanced at the body again. The young woman had a copious amount of black hair, most of it spilling out from under her cap. “The runners should be here any moment.”
The butler nodded. “I will speak to the mistress.”
“Before you go, was this maid involved in preparing the card party supper in any way?” It was worth asking.
“Normally, she wouldn’t have been, but we were short of hands that day. She not only helped with preparing the meal, she went to the market for several items.”
He’d suspected as much. “And there was no reason for Agnes to be in this room?”
“None, my lord.”
He thought a moment. “To help disperse the crowd, we should close the door. I will wait with the body until the runners arrive.”
The butler looked unsure but nodded. “Very good, my lord.”
Nathaniel shut and locked the door behind the other man. He could hear the butler asking the other servants to return to their duties.
He took a moment to look around the music room, which held a pianoforte, a harp, a settee, and several hard-baked chairs. The candlestick next to the body looked to be one of a matched set, its twin residing on the pianoforte. There was a pair of French doors, and one of the doors was ajar.
Nathaniel opened the door wider and looked out onto a small terrace. Stepping out into the back garden, he noticed another pair of French doors along the outside wall of the house. He looked through the closed doors; the room was a study with no one inside. Turning, he spied the mews at the garden's edge beyond an iron gate.
He needed to unlock the music room when the runners arrived, so investigating the mews could wait.
Back inside the house, he studied the body, attempting to stay detached. Although he was used to death, he'd never seen a female body in such a horrific state.
The young woman had pockets in her apron, and he searched them, finding nothing. He noticed a torn piece of vellum clutched in Agnes's right hand and opened her fingers to remove the scrap.
You failed. Harbury-
Would the RA have poisoned all the food at the supper merely to kill or injure him? He remembered something odd from that night. His sister had fixed him a plate of food with a surfeit of green beans, his favorite dish. He’d been too distracted by Edith and the missing veterans to eat; Alicia commented that the dish had disappeared from the buffet, so he suggested she eat his portion.
If the scullery maid had helped with the buffet, he wondered if she’d put something in the dish of green beans.
After looking about the room again, Nathaniel unlocked the music room door and deposited the vellum fragment in a trouser pocket. A few moments later, he heard voices in the corridor and opened the door to see Black Jack, a uniformed runner in his wake.
“Harbury!” Black Jack brushed by him. “Interesting to find you here.”
“I had an appointment with Lady Sandhurst. I heard the screams of the maid who found the body and remained to make sure nothing in the room was disturbed.”
Jack walked to stand over the body. “The butler informs me the victim is a scullery maid named Agnes.”
“That is my understanding.”
