Page 95 of Death at the Dower House
No, I didn’t either. Uncle Harold and Aunt Charlotte had never seemed to have a warm relationship—not like Uncle Herbert and Aunt Roz—but they’d been married for more than twenty-five years. You don’t just pick a new wife before your old one is even in the ground.
“But by then she had already hooked St George anyway.”
Constance nodded. “And Gilbert noticed. But I think she convinced him that it was just because she had to make things look good for Mother. Make them look realistic. Because Mother really did push Johanna to go after your cousin, you know. It wasn’t just her own idea.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t,” I said.
“And I think,” Constance continued, “that Gilbert thought, when we arrived back here, and Mother stayed behind at Sutherland Hall, that Johanna would stop making eyes at Lord St George.”
“But then Lady Laetitia was here, and it turned into a competition for St George’s attention.”
Constance nodded. “But before that, while we were still at Sutherland Hall, I think Gilbert made his way into Francis’s room, and took some of Francis’s Veronal, and put it in Mother’s medicine bottle. I think he hoped it would look like an accident, and I think he wanted her to die after we’d left for home, so we wouldn’t be blamed for anything. And then he’d be able to marry Johanna, and everyone would be happy.”
“And I suppose,” I said, “once we got here to the Dower House, he probably told Johanna what he’d done—for love of her, no less—and she decided she was better off with St George, who at least hadn’t killed anyone.”
“Or he didn’t tell her,” Francis added, “because if he told her, she might call Sutherland Hall and tell Lady Peckham, and then it would have been for nothing. Or worse than nothing: he would be arrested, and would lose his position, and his money,andthe girl. So he might not have dared to tell her.”
No, he might not. He might just have watched Johanna pursue Crispin that whole afternoon and evening, all the way up to the screaming match in the parlor between her and Lady Laetitia. And then he might have watched the girl he loved run into the garden after St George.
He might even have followed her, and heard her declare her love, and beg for marriage.
“He intercepted her when she came inside, and strangled her,” I said, and Constance nodded.
“I’m almost certain he did. He took her into Mother’s room because Lord Geoffrey was sharing his own room, and Lady Laetitia was in Johanna’s, and all the Astleys were in the spare room, and Dawson was downstairs. But Mother was gone and her room was empty, and he’d know that there was extra padding, just like between the upstairs and the downstairs. Mother didn’t like noise.”
“And then he strangled her,” I said, “and ripped her locket off, the one that he had given her for Christmas,” the one that might have contained a photograph of him, “and he left her there, and went to his own room and to sleep as if nothing had happened. And Marsden was already sleeping and didn’t notice…”
And the next morning Gilbert had taken his remaining cufflink, the one Johanna hadn’t ripped out in her fight for her life, and had put it, along with a note Johanna had once written to him, in the pocket of Crispin’s dinner jacket, during the time he left the dining room to, ostensibly, consult Dawson about the menu for luncheon.
“Lord Geoffrey was probably drugged, too,” Constance said. “Don’t you remember? He said he’d fallen asleep right away. That he took an aspirin for the hangover and went right to sleep.”
I nodded. Now that she mentioned it, I did remember that.
“Gilbert was mixing all the drinks again that night. Perhaps he used a few grains of the sleeping powder to put Lord Geoffrey out. He probably noticed what Geoffrey did to you, Pippa, and how your cousin looked like he’d like to murder him for it…”
“So he made sure Marsden wouldn’t get up to any more trouble,” Francis nodded. “Lady Peckham wasn’t a large woman, and Pippa isn’t, either. And Lady Laetitia gave him a little extra powder, anyway. Between the dose that killed your mother, and the one that didn’t kill Pippa but knocked Kit unconscious, there’d be a few grains left over to put Marsden out for the night.”
“I’d like to put Marsden out permanently,” I grumbled.
“You and every other woman he’s ever touched against her will,” Francis said. “And one of these days someone will.”
He looked past me into the dining room. “Looks like breakfast is on. Is anyone hungry?”
“I could eat,” I said. Supper last night hadn’t been anything to write home about, and we’d had rather a lot of excitement since then. And I should also go and relieve Crispin so that he could get something to eat, while I sat with Christopher.
“Let’s go.” Francis put out a hand and helped Constance to her feet. She looked less enthused about the idea of food than either of us, but when Francis put a hand against her back and nudged her forward towards the parlor doors, she went willingly.
He did the same to me; put a hand against my back and gave me a push. “Come along, Pipsqueak.”
“Coming,” I told him, and let him guide us both into the Dower House.
Twenty-Two
“Crispin,”Lady Laetitia’s voice said from inside the room where Christopher lay, and I slowed to a stop a few feet away from the door, hopefully before either of them noticed me being here. “Darling…”
It was thirty minutes or so later. I had sat in the dining room with Constance and Francis during that entire time, poking at a kipper and a boiled egg while we waited for someone else to appear. When no one did, I’d left the two of them alone and gone upstairs to relieve Crispin of duty so he could get something to eat.
And as I approached the door, I heard Laetitia’s voice. I had no idea how long she’d been in there, but her tone was exasperated, so I surmised I wasn’t listening to the beginning of a conversation.
