She took the pot and squinted into it. After a moment or two, she shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t have the knack for it, Mina. All I see is a teapot that needs washing.” She looked up. “What do you see?”
“A wolf. And I don’t see howthatcan bode well after last night.”
She looked again into the pot, frowning. “Now you mention it, that clump near the bottom does look like the head of a dog.” She tipped the pot in her hands, studying the outside. “I don’t recall who—”
“Mr. Tregarrick.”
Her gaze came up, mouth forming anOh.
I folded my arms across my chest, gnawing my lip.
Setting the pot beside the washbasin, she said, “I only exchanged a word or two with him. What wasyourimpression?”
“Well”—I stared into the tub of cooling, soapy water—“by his dress and manner, he’s a well-to-do gentleman, which he would be, born on that estate.”
“Was hewell mannered?”
“He was polite and courteous, though awfully serious. I did think it odd that he seemed to know I walk alone to the tearoom, when I’ve never seen him before in my life. And I’m wondering why he chose to come here for the first time today of all days.”
“Maybe the same reason as the rest—hoping for information about the death. Mr. Hilliard may have told him that someone from The Magpie found his solicitor.”
“Aye, he said as much.”
“As for him knowing your habits”—she lifted an eyebrow—“you do pass by his estate most days,twice. Just because you haven’t noticedhimdoesn’t mean he hasn’t noticedyou.”
Heat crept into my cheeks. “I suppose.”
Mrs. Moyle emptied the leaves from the blackberry pot and dunked it first in the soapy water, then in the rinse water.
“What about the wolf?” I said. “What do you think it could mean?”
“I wish I could say. The obvious thing is that he, too, is in danger. Or maybe he is dangerous himself; we know nothing about him, after all. But it could simply be that Mr. Hilliard saying an animal attacked the solicitor—”
“Put an animal into my head.”
She gave me a kindly nod. “It’s something to consider. I’m sorry I haven’t been much help. And I wish Jack didn’t leave you alone so much. I think it’s best you go on home now and stay there until tomorrow. Maybe consider staying there until there’s some resolution to all this.”
“I’m sure I’ll be all right. There are always other people coming and going during the day.”
“Well, you keep your door bolted when you get there.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I picked up my basket, checking under the cloth to make sure the knife was still there.
The day had turned dark, with low, leaden clouds and patches of fog drifting like ghosts over the heath, and my thoughts took a morbid turn. Though talking to Mrs. Moyle had helped, I couldn’t stop thinking about shapes in teapots. How the magpie and dagger had seemed to warn me of Mr. Roscoe’s death, yet I’d been helpless to prevent it. What if Mrs. Moyle was right that the wolf in Mr. Tregarrick’s pot might mean he, too, was in danger? The killing had happened on his estate, or as good as. What if I said nothing, and he was the next one they found on the heath?
But what if the wolf meansheis the danger?
I pictured him again in my mind. The dark lips and eyes, the smoky spectacles and ash-brown hair. Mrs. Moyle didn’t seem to find it very surprising that he’d come to The Magpie today. And, indeed, it wasn’t every day someone was killed in the village of Roche. It hadeveryonestirred up. But I couldn’t help thinking that if he had questions about the killing, he might easily have sent again for Mr. Hilliard rather than visit a busy tearoom after so many years hidden away on his estate.
All of it made me uneasy. “Raised my hackles,” as Jack would say.
“Miss Penrose?” I had been so much in my thoughts that I hadn’t seen Mr. Hilliard himself approaching, on horseback, from the direction of my cottage. And now I noticed two riders crossing the heath below Roche Rock.
I recalled that the constable was one of the chorus of people who wished me not to walk alone on the road. “Good day to you, sir,” I said sheepishly. “I’m just on my way home.”
He nodded. “I think you’re safe enough. The danger seems to have passed.”
I knit my brows. “Have you found something?”
