She laughed. ‘Are you the sinking ship in that comparison or the lifeboat?’
‘Definitely the ship.’ He leaned down and kissed her. ‘And I want you for my captain as I think you’ll be the one saving me from wrecking.’
* * *
The party headed back in a new formation. Arthur rode with Lady Alice and her father which left Jacob free to follow with Dora. They fell behind the others so they had everyone in their sight but could not be overheard.
‘What’s our next step?’ Dora asked.
‘We don’t know for certain that the two cases converge– the death of Leyburn and the matter of the manuscript and Barton. Moss being here suggests the government suspects a link to this group of friends, but we don’t know on what they based their belief.’
‘Surely there must be some intelligence, more than a hint of trouble before the murder? Moss appears to have wormed his way into the friendship group long before anyone died.’
‘True. I hadn’t thought of that. This nest of troublemakers was on their map and when Leyburn was murdered they knew exactly where to look first. They sent Moss on this holiday to be near the suspects– yes, that makes sense.’
‘I’ve been wondering which of them might be considered a danger to the country. The military men– Cooper and Crawford– might, I suppose, if they were fomenting rebellion in the ranks, but I would expect the action taken against them to come from within the army, not from the civilian authorities. Far easier to post them to some backwater where they can do no harm. Canada, for example. That led me to consider Mr Wright– everyone overlooks him. What do we know about him?’
‘Other than he drinks too much? True, we must investigate what he does in Colebrookdale. It’s the heartland of our industry, home to iron foundries. It would be considered key to the war effort.’
‘And Langhorne’s father used to have a gunpowder factory. Did Lord Furness take that over? Is that what Langhorne senior continues to manage for him?’
‘And the relevance of gunpowder is too obvious to state. I apologise for dismissing them as drones with no role of importance in society. I should’ve thought of their families.’
‘And Barton– his father is heavily invested in manufacturing, another vital industry. Strike a blow at the cotton mills in Manchester and you strike a blow at the roots of our national wealth.’
Her reasoning was leaving him standing in the dust. ‘Dora, may I say how very good at this you are?’
She grinned at him. ‘You may.’
‘Dora, you are very?—’
Laughing, she slapped his arm to cut him off. ‘Did Alex say if Leyburn had received any threats– or did the family know whom he was meeting?’
‘They didn’t mention anything of the kind and I’m sure they would’ve done when they engaged our services. Lady Leyburn thought he was at his club.’
‘So logically he met someone there who lured him out or received a message that drew him out.’
‘Or he lied about his true destination and never went there. I hope Alex has thought to follow that up. I expect he’ll write to us when he receives my letter about our findings in Cockermouth.’
‘The element that keeps dragging this back to Cumberland for me is the shepherd’s crook. It simply doesn’t fit in London whereas it would be right at home in the Lakes.’
‘No doubt Alex will explore that angle too.’
Dora frowned. The mist had come down and the riders ahead were vanishing into it, leaving the two of them alone. ‘What if?—’
Jacob raised a hand. ‘Best we keep our voices down. Sound carries in a mist.’
She nodded. ‘Of course. I forgot. It seems counter to our intuition, but it is so. I was going to say, let us accept for the sake of argument that there is a link and that we have two murders. The drowning is staged to recall a line from the missing poem. The London murder too feels staged– not disposing of the murder weapon, tying him to the dock to be discovered, shoving the crook into his mouth. There’s a lot of vicious anger in that death. Would that connect?’
Jacob rubbed his brow. ‘I’m not sure. I don’t have your formidable recall. But now you say it, there’s been a buzz in the back of my mind since I heard about the magistrate’s murder. There’s an association that has been wanting to land and I think it might be in that same poem or another by Wordsworth. I simply can’t remember.’
‘I think it’s important to find out. If there is a link, then our killer is using that poem as his prompt. He is being too clever by half.’
‘Exactly. As it is unpublished, the references are for his satisfaction only, or for a very limited audience if it does come out.’
‘Do you think he is trying to lay this before Wordsworth?’
‘You mean like a cat bringing in its prey to present it to its owner?’
