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‘Your notebook,’ Aaron repeated. ‘And in this notebook was?—?’
‘My early conclusions. Addresses and personal details for you all. Notes of my conversations with Prue and Aaron and Hugo before I came to Oxford. Nothing after I met Miss Keele. I had started to feel unhappy about committing anything to paper.’
‘Thank God for that,’ Ella said. ‘What exactly are you saying?’
‘Let me put this fairly. Person A burgled my room and took my notebook, and I assume what he read in it made him unhappy enough to put oil on the stairs. Then Hugo made a jolly good stab at telling me and others I was going mad, and I didn’t take up his offer to go away and be quiet. Then Person B attacked me.’
Ella’s brows drew together. ‘And you think A equals B equals Hugo.’
Aaron cleared his throat. He had both his large hands clasped round the mug, almost hiding it. ‘I couldn’t say anything for certain, and I would not be prepared to swear it in court. I was coming in a hurry through Bascomb Wood in the dark and fog, responding to a scream. But I saw a man running away, and I ran with Hugo almost daily for three years. And when I saw the attacker fleeing, the thought in my mind was,He runs like Hugo.’
‘Good God,’ Nicky said. ‘But why?’
‘That’s the question.’ Jem poured more tea. ‘Ella, why did Hugo propose to you?’
‘I have no idea. It was unprovoked, believe me.’
‘And it was hardly the most ardent proposal. You refused, and I remember him saying something to Toby like,Well, I tried.And when Nicky confronted Toby the, uh, the last time, he was still talking about Hugo marrying Ella.’
She frowned. ‘Do you mean Toby somehow pressed Hugo into proposing? I can see why Toby would have liked a wealthy, and white, brother-in-law, but why would Hugo do it?’
‘Consider Toby’s new hobby,’ Nicky said. ‘Blackmail. Is that what you mean, Jem?’
‘Yes. I think he knew something about Hugo that he used, and when Hugo got my letter, he concluded I knew it too. I think it was Hugo who burgled my room and spilled the oil. And when I wouldn’t accept the padded cell on his country estate, he attacked me in person.’
‘But are we to understand that Hugo was harbouring a dark secret alongside and separate to mine and Aaron’s? Is that entirely likely?’ Nicky said.
‘I don’t think it was separate,’ Jem said. ‘Prue told Toby about Aaron’s secret, didn’t she? Suppose she told him about Hugo in the same conversation?’
‘Told himwhatabout Hugo?’ Aaron demanded. ‘What in heaven’s name is in this notebook?’
‘About the only thing I found out,’ Jem said. ‘That Prue learned she was expecting not long before Toby’s murder.’
The others glanced at one another. ‘That’s not illegal,’ Aaron said at last. ‘It might not even be considered particularly shameful for the man involved.’
‘Did Prue tell you who the father was?’ Jem asked Ella.
‘No. She wouldn’t talk about it, only that she was expecting and didn’t want to be.’
‘And you, uh, recommended Aaron?’
Ella’s face tightened. ‘She was talking wildly about how she couldn’t bear to have the child, the shame to her parents. I was afraid of what she might do, what sort of quack she might go to. Aaron had told me stories and it was awful. I told her, in strictest confidence, that Aaron knew people who could help.’
‘You didn’t tell me any of this,’ Aaron said.
‘Of course I didn’t,’ Ella snapped. ‘Prue had sworn me to secrecy. I respected that. I trusted her with Aaron’s secret in return, and she ran straight to Toby with it. I have never understood why.’
‘She did adore him,’ Nicky said. ‘All the adoration he could have wanted.’
Ella blinked slowly. ‘Are you suggesting Toby was responsible for her predicament?’
‘I’m not,’ Jem said. ‘I think it was Hugo. I think he got Prue with child, and she went to Toby to ask for his help.’
‘What help couldheoffer?’ Aaron asked.
‘And why would Hugo worry about that being revealed?’ Nicky said. ‘It’s not a crime.’
‘It could have been a crime.’ Ella’s eyes were on Jem’s, as vividly blue as Toby’s had been, and much, much harder. ‘Is that what you mean?’
