“Oh.”She stuck her bottom lip out in a pout.Had I been Crispin—or another bloke, any bloke—I might have thought it charming.As it was, I mostly wished I could slap the expression off her face.“No.His Grace had some business with Crispin, so I went upstairs to my room to freshen up.”
“Did you see or speak to anyone?Your brother?Your parents?”
But Laetitia said she hadn’t done, and furthermore, she objected to me interrogating her.“You’re not with the constabulary.You have no business asking me these questions.”
“That’s fine,” I said.“I just wanted to know whether you had an alibi or not.”
“I don’t need an alibi!I didn’t go to the village.There was no time for that.”
“I’m not worried about the village,” I said.“I meant an alibi for the footman’s murder.”
“The—” She staggered a bit, so on the face of it, at least, this was news.But of course you can’t always tell when someone’s pretending, and her reaction didn’t make me take her off the suspect list.Not that I had any reason to put her on the suspect list in the first place—she had no motive that I knew of; certainly not if she couldn’t tell Hugh and Alfie apart—but as far as I was concerned, everyone in the house was on the suspect list until I knew that they couldn’t have done it.
“Someone killed the footman?”
I nodded.“Bashed him over the head with the proverbial blunt instrument.”
“The same footman that I saw?”
“I assume it was the same footman.”How would I know, when she couldn’t describe him beyond the gray uniform?“Were they arguing when you saw them?Did either of the grooms look like he wanted to commit murder?”
“Of course not,” Laetitia said with another toss of her head.“It was a perfectly civil conversation.”
“Good for them.And when you came inside, Crispin went somewhere with his father, did you say?”
“To the study, I assumed.”
“And you went upstairs.By yourself.”
She nodded.
“That’s a shame,” I said.
She blinked.“Why?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?If Alfie was alive when you saw him, then he was killed after you went inside.And if you were alone in your room from then until luncheon, you have no alibi.”
She stared at me.I smiled sweetly.I had no reason to think she was involved, of course.I simply wanted to rattle her.But it seemed as good a place as any to end the conversation, so I gave her a nod and left her standing there in the hallway.
Francis’s roomwas empty when I reached it, so he and Constance must have gone back downstairs.I knocked, and then opened the door.
The east wing of Sutherland Hall faces the formal gardens, as well as the stable and carriage house.I made my way over to the window and peered out.
I only wanted to see whether the constables had arrived yet, or whether Crispin was still standing in front of the carriage house, shivering and flapping his arms like a chicken.
Instead, what I saw was him and Christopher on their way back to the Hall, just a glimpse of two fair heads, platinum and gilt, before they ducked around the corner of the conservatory.They had their heads together and their mouths were flapping.Christopher’s hands were flying, as well.He likes to express himself physically.
There was nothing else to see, the carriage house sat silent, so I pushed off from the window and hurried into the hallway and up to the central wing and the main staircase.
I was halfway down the stairs to the foyer when the two of them stepped through the front door.
“Thank you, Tidwell,” Crispin said, and looked up.“Darling.”
“St George.Christopher.”I finished my descent and handed Christopher the jacket he had lent me earlier.
He shrugged it on.“Thank you, Pippa.”
“Your Wellies are back in the boot room,” I informed Crispin.“Your fiancée is upstairs, or was, the last time I saw her.”
