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“Someone has jimmied the door open by forcing something between the door and jamb around the lock. The door was half open when we got there. I don’t know if anything has been stolen. The only things we have removed are your clothing, the food, and the money in the housekeeping tin. Everything else should still be where you left it, Tuppence.” Isaac looked at his uncle. “Can she go to the farm to see if anything has been stolen?”
“I think that these are extenuating circumstances, Isaac. She must go. Have you reported the break-in to the police yet?” Sir Reginald replied.
“I don’t know if it is a good idea.”
“Why? If someone has broken in, doesn’t it prove Tuppence’s innocence? I mean, she was in jail at the time and couldn’t have done it,” Gertrude argued. “Besides, why would she break into her own house? Someone is obviously targeting her. We just don’t know why yet.”
Isaac was as surprised at his mother’s ready defence of Tuppence as Reginald evidently was.
“Is there any relevant paperwork in the house?” Sir Reginald asked Tuppence.
“Relevant paperwork?”
“The deeds to the house,” Isaac said. “I have brought the accounts book back here together with all the bills, paperwork, and personal correspondence I could find, but is there any more paperwork hidden somewhere, like in a safe?”
“The only items of value in the house are a few pieces of jewellery my mother used to own, and the house deeds, and they are hidden in a safe. I doubt either you or a burglar would be able to find them.” Tuppence felt sick at the thought that someone had been poring through her personal property. She wondered if it was the man who had taunted her the other night and shuddered at the thought that he could have broken into the house while she had been at home, or sitting in jail for the crime he had committed.
“I would suggest that you two go over there first thing in the morning,” Sir Reginald advised. “Just be discrete about it.”
“My men have secured the property. We will know if someone breaks in again,” Isaac assured them.
“Have you put a man up there to keep a guard over the place?” Gertrude asked.
“Not with a murderer in the area, no. I am not going to put any man’s life in danger by asking him to stay out there by himself in the dead of night. If Mr Lewis couldn’t fight this killer off then none of my men would be able to either,” Isaac warned, turning to glare pointedly at Tuppence. “And neither would you.”
“God, what is the world coming to? Is nobody safe in their homes anymore?” Gertrude hissed, tugging her bejewelled
shawl tighter around her.
Tuppence looked at Gertrude with watery eyes. “I am so sorry for bringing all of this to your door. It seems so wrong, despite your kindness. I don’t know how I shall ever repay you for your generosity.”
“It isn’t your fault, is it?” Gertrude replied crisply. “It is the killer’s fault. He has done this to everyone, and he shall pay for it, I can tell you.”
“I didn’t kill him,” Tuppence whispered, although why she should feel the need to say it was beyond her.
“Oh, we know that, or you wouldn’t be here.” Gertrude eyed her son somewhat balefully. “I know my son can be a little headstrong sometimes, and doesn’t always do as his mother wishes, but he is a wise man and unlikely to do anything that would put the family or its reputation in any real danger.”
Isaac accepted his mother’s pointed comment with a nod. He didn’t chide her over it because he was pleased that she was at least being hospitable to Tuppence, even if she was still determined to warn him against having any romantic intentions toward her. He could only hope that Gertrude recognised his lack of reaction to her warning as proof that he wasn’t going to pay his mother the slightest bit of attention.
“You are welcome to stay here for as long as you need to, Tuppence. I think that what my mother is trying to say is that as your neighbours, we cannot condone you returning to the farm until the current danger to you has been removed.” Isaac lifted his brows when Harman appeared in the doorway and coughed discretely.
“Dinner is served, sir,” the butler intoned, effectively bringing the conversation to an abrupt end.
CHAPTER NINE
The following day, Tuppence descended the stairs at Aldridge Manor, and wondered what she should be doing. The house seemed so deathly quiet that she could hear her own breathing.
“Ah, there you are,” Isaac called gently from within his study when she passed the door in a desperate search for company. He launched out of his seat and hurried around his desk to meet her in the doorway. “Did you sleep well?”
Tuppence had had a wonderful night’s sleep, her first in many months, and smiled at him. “I did, thank you,” she murmured, glancing behind him at the paper-strewn desk. “I am sorry to interrupt you.”
“I was just going through some paperwork. Sir Reginald is in the conservatory, poring through the particulars of another case he is working on. He said that he will come and speak with you later, but for now, we need to visit the farm to fetch the contents of the safe.”
Tuppence nodded and stepped back in astonishment when Isaac left his study and closed the door behind him. “Are we going now?”
Isaac hesitated. “Well, you can’t go up there alone and there is no time like the present. Is there a problem?”
Tuppence, a little overwhelmed by his proximity, stepped back. “Ah, no. Of course not.”
