Page 99 of A Debt Inherited

“Good.”

Weller’s shoulders lowered a little.

“Warm yourself.”

Weller accepted a mug and moved beside Dawes. Their heads nearly touched as they whispered.

Bennet consulted his watch. The hands had moved past four. Hill had not returned. Perkins had yet to report.

He wrote both names beneath the last line and left the space beside them blank.

The kitchen settled again. The fire gave a low shift in the grate. Cook took Dawes’s empty mug and filled it without asking. Mrs Hill stood near the dresser with her hands clasped before her, her keys still.

Then came the sound of horses in the yard.

Not the slow approach of a man returning from a common errand. The hoofs came hard to the stones, checked sharply, and stopped.

Mrs Hill turned towards the door.

Bennet did not rise.

The latch lifted.

Hill entered first. His coat was open, his cravat loosened, and dust lay across one cheek where he had wiped at sweat with a dirty hand. Perkins came behind him, bareheaded, broad shoulders bent as if the lintel had struck him.

Perkins held something in both hands.

Mrs Hill made one sound, very small, and pressed it back with her fingers.

Bennet looked at the object before he looked at the man.

A bonnet. Elizabeth’s bonnet. The crown had been crushed in, and one ribbon hung torn and darkened where dust had taken the silk. A thorn still clung to the other ribbon, caught in the knot.

Perkins came no farther than the flagstones inside the door.

“Sir.”

Bennet closed the journal.

“Where?”

“By the lower lane, sir. Not on the road. Deep in the hedge. I saw it only when the light came. In the hedge, where the bramble turns before the old ash.”

Weller set down his mug.

Bennet’s hand remained upon the closed journal. “Near the cart marks?”

Perkins looked once at Hill.

“Say it,” Bennet said.

“Yes, sir. Near enough.”

Hill stepped forward. “There was scuffed ground beside it. Two men, I think. One pair of boots heavier than the other. A woman’s print, half overrun. Grass dragged towards where Weller found the cart stood.”

Mrs Hill gripped the dresser.

Bennet looked at the bonnet again.