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“It is,” Barnabas retorted flatly, as though upset anybody could doubt it.
Estelle pointed to the wet patch on the floor. “Who has that come from then?”
Everyone crept forward.
“Good Lord, it’s a footstep,” Barnabas snorted.
Myles squatted down beside the clear print of a booted foot on the highly polished floor. It was still wet. “It is recent,” he murmured.
“Something like that stands out on a floor like this,” Estelle reasoned. “It looks as though someone has been outside and come in with their muddy boots on.”
“But they can’t have done. This house is secure,” Barnabas replied.
“Well, someone made this,” Myles retorted flatly. “If the staff have all been inside like they were instructed and, as far as everyone is aware, the house is locked up tight, someone in this house has let an outsider in.”
“But I thought you said they cannot get across the moat?” Estelle interjected.
“They can’t,” Myles replied darkly.
“They might have stood outside while the body was found and the house was searched,” Isaac warned. “But who, and why?”
“This house is so blasted big anybody could hide in any one of the spare rooms and never been found. We can’t search the entire property on the hour, you know. If they waited outside while the house was searched they would know when everyone was instructed to remain inside. Therefore, they wouldn’t be seen,” Barnabas reasoned.
“So someone is back in this house and hiding again?” Beatrice cried with a very dramatic shiver. “I hate to say it but the accommodation you provide for your guests is sadly lacking, brother.”
“Well, nobody asked you to come here,” Barnabas retorted flatly.
Myles sighed heavily, but was ignored by the bickering siblings.
“I only came because I thought you were dying,” Beatrice snapped.
“What? So you could claim an inheritance?” Barnabas retorted.
“Look, can we just stop this now, children?” Isaac interrupted. “I think it is more important we find out who is hiding in this house.”
“Quite right,” Myles said. He issued Barnabas and Beatrice a dark glare in warning and turned his attention back to the boot print.
“It is too small to be a man’s boot,” he said. He placed his own foot beside it to demonstrate the size difference.
“I don’t know,” Barnabas added. “It isn’t much smaller than my own. This could be a shorter man’s footprint, you know.” He placed his foot beside it and proved a point to all of them.
“We are no further forward, really, are we? I mean, that could be from either a woman or a small man,” Estelle reasoned.
Nobody argued so she assumed she had everyone’s agreement.
“I don’t like this at all,” Beatrice whispered with a shiver.
As far as Estelle could see that ruled out Isaac, Myles, Barnabas, Beatrice, and herself, because their feet were either too big or too small.
“It is a pity the whole household couldn’t put their feet against it. You know, to check for size,” she murmured thoughtfully.
“We can measure it,” Isaac sighed. “This is drying quickly so won’t be more than a smudge soon. We don’t have the time to round everyone up.”
Barnabas took off his cravat and positioned it on the floor next to the boot mark. Myles cut the fabric to size and lay it over the wet footprint. While it wasn’t perfect, it did leave an imprint on the fabric and gave them all a good idea of the size.
“Cut it out while it is still wet, and then we can keep the cravat as proof of the size.”
Myles did as his father instructed, and then folded up the cravat and placed it carefully in his jacket pocket.
