Page 55 of Lies in Little Sutherland
“My father?”Crispin said.“It’s you, so on the one hand, I wouldn’t put it past him.”
No, I wouldn’t either.
“On the other, why would he want Doctor Meadows dead?And why now?We haven’t seen Doctor since my mother died.”
“He was here when Lady Peckham passed,” I pointed out.“Sorry, Constance.”
Constance waved her mother’s death away as if it didn’t matter.“Never mind, Pippa.”
“Weweren’t here when that happened,” Francis pointed out, and Crispin nodded.
“The last time I saw Doctor, was the morning Mum died.”
“Perhaps so,” I agreed, “but he must have attended Lady Peckham.Even if we were elsewhere when it happened.”
“He did do,” Tom agreed.After a moment he added, with a comprehensive glance around the table at us all, “What?Youmay have been at the Dower House, butIwas here.At least until I motored down to Dorset after you.Doctor Meadows was here.I spoke to him.”
“Did anything happen on that occasion that might have caused—” I lowered my voice, “His Grace to want to get rid of the doctor?”
Crispin shifted on his chair, and Tom eyed me as if he suspected me of having lost the plot.“If I thought so,” he asked me, “don’t you think I would have said something about it?”
I didn’t answer, since the answer was self-evident, and he added, “No, Pippa, nothing at all happened.Everyone was upset, but other than that, they behaved perfectly well.”
“Why would you suspect my father, anyway, Darling?”Crispin wanted to know.He kept his voice low enough that the Duke wouldn’t hear.I chanced a glance in the direction of Uncle Harold, and saw that he was talking to Lady Euphemia.
“I don’t,” I said, “necessarily.You were the one who brought him up, if you’ll recall.”
He looked chagrined at the reminder, and I added, “Although surely he makes for a better suspect than almost everyone else here.He and Doctor Meadows have lived less than a kilometer from one another for decades.The rest of us barely knew the man.”
“Kit and Francis knew him,” Crispin protested.“You did.Aunt Roz and Uncle Herbert certainly did?—”
“You did, too.”
He rolled his eyes.“If I had wanted Doctor Meadows dead, I wouldn’t have done it today, nor would I have tried to pin it on you.”
No, I knew that.
“If my father wanted Doctor dead,” Crispin continued, “he wouldn’t have done it when Laetitia and her family were visiting, either.As you said, they’ve known each other for decades.Practically any other day would have been better than today.It’s much easier to come and go unobserved when you don’t have a house full of guests.”
Yes, of course it was.“Nonetheless,” I said, “if your father killed Constance’s mother, and Doctor Meadows knew about it?—”
They both stared at me, open-mouthed.
“What?”I wanted to know.“Lady Peckham came here with the clear purpose of snagging the title of Duchess, either for herself or her ward.And if he didn’t want to get remarried, because it was only a week since Aunt Charlotte died, after all?—”
I stopped talking when Constance pushed her chair back.
“Connie?”Francis asked.
Constance looked at him, and then at me, and then she turned on her heel and headed for the door, but not before I—before all of us—had seen the tears gathering in her eyes.
“We’re going to talk about this, Pipsqueak,” Francis told me, before he bolted after her.Guilt curled through my stomach, but I stayed in my seat and watched as they disappeared through the door into the hallway, one after the other.At the speed Francis was going, he was likely to catch up just a meter or so down the hall, and even at this moment—perhaps especially at this moment—I knew that it would be better to let him deal with the situation.I would have to grovel later—and I would do—but not until Constance had calmed down.
“Bloody hell, Darling,” Crispin said.“Not your finest moment, was it?”
“Clearly not.”I shook my head.“I get going, and then I don’t think about what I’m saying.The same thing happens when I get angry.”
“You don’t say?”
