Page 76 of Corpse in the Canal

“See those young trees that stick out from the rest? I saw him just there.”

“Did you get a sense of which direction he was moving in?” Solomon asked. “Across the wood toward Larchford?”

“Maybe,” Joshua said, clearly reluctant to disagree with a gentleman. “But looked to me he were heading straight up the hill. Just over the rise, there’s a path that leads to Dare Hall. Can’t see it from here.”

“You think he was calling on Mrs. Jenkins?” Constance said.

Joshua snorted. “She won’t give him the time of day. Didn’t stop him watching her, though.”

“Was he on foot?” Solomon asked. “Did you see his horse?”

“Never saw any horse.” Joshua thought some more. “Might have heard one, though.”

So Percy could have ridden straight here, fortunate not to have been seen by anyone other than the old woman, and left his horse in the wood while he approached Dare Hall—with what purpose? To annoy Adelaide? Just to watch her? To propose marriage? Or enforce her submission?

“Did you see anyone else that afternoon?” Constance asked. “Mrs. Jenkins or her little boy?”

“Nope. Though I could hear the lad laughing sometimes. Drifts over from the big house on the breeze. Good-natured little fellow.”

“What about any other gentlemen?” Solomon asked. “Someone told us they saw a gentleman on this side of the canal.”

“Not apart from Percy. But then I went inside for a nap about three. Rain had come on.”

“You didn’t by any chance hear a shot that afternoon?” Solomon asked.

Joshua stroked his bristly chin. “No.”

“You don’t sound very certain,” Constance pointed out.

“I was asleep,” Joshua protested. “Sometimes I dream I hear the church bell, or the house falling down, but I still wake up to silence and a roof over my head.”

“But you dreamed that afternoon of a gunshot?” Solomon pursued.

“It was a loud crack. Might have been anything. Woke up to silence apart from the girls squabbling in the kitchen. I went back to sleep.”

“Do you know what time this dream woke you?” Constance asked, with more hope than expectation.

“Probably not long after three,” Joshua said, after some rumination. “I hadn’t nodded off for long.”

“Then you didn’t see or hear anything go into the canal that afternoon?” Constance asked.

Joshua shook his head.

“I didn’t,” the boy volunteered. “And I was working outside while me da slept.”

Constance turned and gazed down to the canal. Some of the view toward Larchford was blocked by the wood.

“Thank you,” Solomon said. “You’ve both been very helpful.” He offered Constance his arm, and as one they walked back up the hill as far as the place Joshua claimed to have glimpsed Percy before he darted back into the trees.

“He was up to no good,” Constance said. “Perhaps Adelaide had to shoot him? And yet I don’t think she did.”

“Someone could have shot him for her,” Solomon said.

A servant? That would explain Adelaide’s silence on the matter. She would never give up someone who had rescued her, especially not someone who was likely to pay far more than a person with standing and money…

“I got no sense of a conspiracy of silence,” Solomon said. “Which doesn’t mean there isn’t one. And you’re right. There’s something she isn’t telling us…”

They began to search upward, along tracks and amongst the trees and undergrowth. They scoured the ground with their eyes, and poked bushes and stones with sticks Solomon shaped for the purpose.