Page 88 of Lies in Little Sutherland
“Well, don’t tell me,” Constance said, as the water turned on inside the lavatory.“I don’t want to know.”
“Safer for you that way, no doubt.”
Not that I thought Constance was in any danger whatsoever.I doubted that what was going on had anything to do with her.
She shook her head when I said so.“I don’t see how.Although if you’re looking for people with motive, I’m on the list, you know.”
I blinked.“What on earth are you talking about, Constance?”
“Well, you never even met Morrison, did you, Pippa?Nor did Francis or Christopher.Of course neither of you would kill her.But I knew her.And I didn’t like her very much.She was always nice to Mother and to Johanna, but she wasn’t nice to me.”
“Well…” I cast about for something to say.“I suppose, if you want to look at it that way.”
It seemed a poor motive for murder, though.Especially when Lady Peckham and her ward were both dead now, and neither of them by Constance’s hand.
For a second—just a second, I swear—I wondered whether it was possible that Gilbert Peckham had taken the blame for his sister, and it was in fact Constance who had murdered their mother as well as Johanna, and now she had murdered Morrison, too.
Then reason reared its head, and I shook off the delusion.“Don’t be silly, Constance.Nobody would take that seriously as a motive for murder.”
“Anything can be a motive for murder,” Constance said serenely.“It depends on the person doing the murdering.”
Yes, of course it did.“But you’d have to be mad to kill your mother’s maid over something like that.Especially when she was already miles and miles away and you didn’t have to deal with her ever again.”
Constance shrugged.“I’m merely mentioning it.You just never know.”
You didn’t.Although I was fairly certain that I didn’t have to lose sleep over this particular possibility.“Tom’s right, anyway.It’s none of our concern.The Bristol police are dealing with Hughes, and the Stow-on-the-Wold constabulary is dealing with Morrison, and Constable Daniels is dealing with Doctor Meadows and Alfie.None of them need our help to figure this out.”
“No,” Constance agreed.“You should stay out of it, Pippa.You’ll be much safer that way.”
Yes, indeed.And while that statement might have sounded like a threat to anyone who didn’t know Constance, I didn’t think she had threats in her, let alone murder.“I’ll do that.Do you want to go to your room while I wait for Laetitia, or would you prefer to stay here with me?”
“I’ll wait with you,” Constance said placidly, and leaned against the wall next to me with every appearance of someone settling in for the duration.
Laetitia emerged from the lavatory a minute or two later, trailing the scent of roses and her diaphanous negligee.As I ducked into the loo myself, I reflected that she really is unfairly attractive, even without a single speck of makeup on her face.I’m certainly not ugly—I was looking at myself in the mirror, so I could see the truth for myself—but the best thing that can be said about me is that I’m cute.Meanwhile, Laetitia is the sort of gorgeous that can launch ships and start wars, and that makes grown men trip over their own feet in the streets and lose track of their conversations.
For a moment, while I scooped cold cream out of the jar and slapped it on my face, I wondered whether Christopher might be right and Crispin really could have killed multiple people to preserve his future with her.
I didn’t think that Christopher was wrong about Crispin’s feelings for me.Not now that I had had some time to come to terms with the idea of them.But there was also the fact that he had never acted on those feelings, and had proposed to Laetitia instead of me.I liked to pity him for being trapped in an engagement with a woman he didn’t love, but the truth was that he had never once displayed any regrets for having made that decision.
So yes, he might imagine that he loved me.It might even be true.But when it came right down to it, he had chosen Laetitia over me.And having once made that choice, how far would he go to keep her?
She was gone by the time I came back out of the lavatory, and I don’t know why that should have come as a surprise.“Where’s Laetitia?Surely she didn’t leave you here alone?”
“I sent her back to her room,” Constance said.“She was being herself?—”
I translated ‘herself’ as ‘annoying and condescending.’
“—and she wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place, so I got rid of her.We didn’t need her.You and I do very well on our own.”
Constance tucked her hand through my arm as we headed down the hallway towards our respective doors.
“Of course we do.”I peeled my ears as we passed Laetitia’s door, but I couldn’t hear anything from within.“Are you worried, Constance?We can share tonight if you’d rather.”
We’d done it before, both at Godolphin as children, and more recently, at the Dower House in May.
But Constance shook her head.“I’m not worried.Even if there is a murderer on the loose, he has no reason to want to murderme.I don’t know anything.Although… wouldyoufeel better if we shared, Pippa?”
I shook my head.“I’m fine.Not at all worried.”
