Page 59 of Lies in Little Sutherland
“Surely you don’t think that I killed anyone, Constance?”
“Of course not,” Constance said.“But it still can’t be comfortable to have everyone’s suspicions cling to you like this.It’s no wonder if you’re tetchy.”
“I’m not—” I bit back the rest of the denial, since I was only proving her point.“Well played, Constance.”
She smirked at me, and I added, “And yes, I suppose I’m a bit upset.Not so much because I’m afraid that I’ll be arrested.I had no motive, and moreover, Christopher and I really were together when Doctor Meadows was killed.He was alive and well when we left the village.”
“Or at least when we left the infirmary,” Christopher supplied.“Who knows what happened once we walked out?”
“I know what happened,” I said.“Someone else walked in and killed him.”
Nobody said anything, and I added, “But as I was saying, yes, it is a bit upsetting that someone has gone out of their way to accuse me of murder.Someone obviously dislikes me quite a bit to be willing to do that.”
“Unless you were just handy,” Christopher said.
“If so, you were just as handy.”
He nodded.“But I’m the Duke of Sutherland’s nephew.You’re the poor relation.It’s a lot less risky to accuse you.”
I gave him a look.“Thanks ever so, Christopher.”
“In that case,” Constance said, “all we have to do is figure out who dislikes you enough to want to frame you for murder.”
Her fiancé snorted.“In this household?It could be practically anyone.”
I rolled my eyes.“And thanks ever so to you too, Francis.”
He sniggered.“Present company excepted, of course.But there’s the fair Laetitia, her parents—or at least her mother; I suppose her father isn’t so bad?—”
“Uncle Maury is quite nice, really,” Constance agreed.“Certainly too nice to frame anyone for murder.”
“I wouldn’t put it past Geoffrey, either,” Christopher added.“You did have a hand in his spending two months in jail, Pippa.”
I nodded.I had already considered this, and yes, small wonder if Geoffrey wanted a bit of his own back.“Does either of you have any idea what Geoffrey was doing between breakfast and lunch?Would he have been able to get to the village and back?”
“We saw Francis’s parents off,” Constance said, “and then we went upstairs to pack our own belongings so we could leave once the two of you came back.I didn’t see anyone else during that time.”
“Francis?”
He shook his head.“Uncle Harold went to his study after breakfast.I have no idea how much time he spent there.It might have been the entire morning.Laetitia and Crispin started out in the hedge maze, although I can’t imagine that that would have been comfortable for too long.I didn’t see the earl and countess until luncheon, nor Lord Geoffrey.”
“Perhaps we should inquire of the maids,” I suggested, and Christopher made a sound that was half snort, half giggle.
“Surely he must have learned something from what happened in September, don’t you imagine?”
“I wouldn’t be too sure,” I said.“He got away with it.There’s no reason why he wouldn’t do it again.”Especially as I suspected that Geoffrey’s womanizing ways were more of a compulsion than something he actively chose to do, not something he could simply stop.“Although I expect he might be a bit more careful in future about who he gets in the family way.If it’s a maid, that’s one thing.He can pay them off.If it’s a highly born young lady who expects marriage, that’s something else entirely.”
“At any rate,” Christopher said, “it sounds like no one knows where Geoffrey was between breakfast and luncheon.He might have been in the village framing Pippa for murder.”
“Would he kill Doctor Meadows simply so that I’d be arrested for it, though?That seems excessive.”I glanced at Constance, who might reasonably be expected to know Geoffrey better than the rest of us.
“It would be excessive,” she agreed, “although I’m not certain Geoffrey always thinks things through, you know?”
“Or he might have had his own reasons for wanting Doctor Meadows dead,” Francis supplied.“Say, for instance, that Geoffrey misbehaved with one of the local girls.He has visited Little Sutherland before.He might have gone home with someone after a pint at the pub.”
He might very well have done.It sounded quite like something he would do.
“And she might have found herself in the family way,” Francis continued.“And he might have petitioned Doctor Meadows to do something about it.He wouldn’t have wanted to risk it again himself, I imagine.”
