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‘Because, Lady Northam, it is obvious that I am not a monk, nor am I blind, and Runcorn is looking for a lover in this case. I would be, in his shoes.’
‘And he will think that you and I… That we are – It isn’t just a risk of spiteful Society gossip, the Coroner would believe it as well?’
‘Ridiculous, is it not?’ His smile was rueful, but his eyes held something more than amusement at such a thing. ‘Or perhaps not. I am going to leave now. Give me your lawyer’s direction and I will send him to you and meanwhile you should change, put on mourning and think of your grief, not your fear.’
Guin sat staring at the door for long minutes after it had closed behind Jared. When Faith spoke from the corner of the room she jumped so violently that she dropped her handkerchief. ‘Oh, Faith. I had quite forgotten you were there.’
‘Mr Hunt had not,’ the maid said shrewdly. ‘He meant me to hear what he said to you, which means he trusts me, and I hope you do too, my lady. Shall you get dressed now, before that Coroner comes pestering you with questions again?’
Mr Foster, Augustus’s lawyer, arrived as Guin re-emerged from her apartments dressed in unrelieved plain black. She had met him once or twice before, a man in middle age with a head of greying red hair and wire-rimmed spectacles perched on the end of his nose. He had always seemed thoughtful and yet active and she had some confidence in him.
They met in the hallway as Mr Runcorn came down the stairs, Doctor Felbrigg behind him. ‘Ah, Foster, bad business this.’
‘Indeed, Runcorn. I have this moment arrived so I will need time to speak to Lady Northam in private.’
‘No.’ All three men started, as though a statue had spoken instead of the woman they were discussing. ‘Mr Runcorn wishes to have all the facts as soon as possible and I certainly want him to have them. Whoever did this must be found without delay. Let us go into the drawing room, gentlemen.’
Guin sat down on the sofa and gestured to Faith to sit beside her. She kept the handkerchief in her hand for the tears, it seemed, ran down her cheeks however much she tried to control them. She had no need of Jared’s advice to demonstrate her grief.
‘Firstly, Foster, can you outline how Lady Northam is left provided for after this sad event?’
‘That depends on circumstances.’ The lawyer adjusted his spectacles and cleared his throat.
‘Indeed? What circumstances might those be?’
‘The usual ones,’ the lawyer said drily. ‘Whether or not Lady Northam is, shall we say, in expectation of a happy event.’
Guin could feel herself blushing. The words Of course I am not were trembling on her lips when Faith jumped up and went to whisper in the lawyer’s ear, then did the same to the Coroner. Both men shuffled their feet and their papers while Faith came back and sat down beside her again.
She leaned close and murmured, ‘I told them your courses started four days ago.’
They hadn’t. That was a bare-faced lie, but Faith was thinking faster than she was – or perhaps simply had a more devious mind, thank goodness. If the men knew she and Augustus did not have a physical relationship they would surely be more likely to suspect the existence of a lover. It was much safer to pretend that the reason she knew she was not with child was because her body told her so.
‘Thank you for explaining, Faith,’ Guin said in a whisper loud enough for the men to hear. ‘I would have been too embarrassed to say that.’
‘That simplifies matters, although naturally one cannot help but regret that Lady Northam’s grief is not mitigated by the tangible evidence of his lordship’s affections,’ Mr Foster said.
Guin buried her face in her handkerchief, unable to find a suitable response. This was a bad dream and, it seemed, one without the hope of an awakening. I want Jared, she thought. He was brutally frank, uncompromisingly practical, but she knew where she was with him and he, it seemed, was on her side. She pushed aside the disconcerting recollection of the warmth in his eyes during that brief exchange about lovers. I haven’t even known him a week and yet I feel his absence as a physical thing.
Mr Foster was going through the provisions of Augustus’s will and it seemed that she had remembered correctly when she had told Jared how matters stood.
‘That appears to be clear enough.’ The Coroner was making notes in a book considerably larger than Jared’s pocket book. He detailed his understanding of the inheritance of the title and had that confirmed by the lawyer, then tapped the pencil on the hard cover of the book while he thought. ‘Who had access to the house yesterday morning after the box of confectionary was delivered?’ he asked suddenly, making Guin jump.
‘Only the household. Mr Hunt had escorted me to the dressmaker and brought me back, but he saw me to the door and did not come inside. Oh, and my husband’s nephew, Mr Theo Quenten, was with my husband in his study when I returned home. I did not see him and he did not stay for luncheon.’ Augustus had only grunted when she had asked him later about Theo. She knew he had told the young man the week before that he would not pay his debts any longer, so she supposed Theo had come back to plead for a change of mind. Experience had taught him that persistence plus charm usually got him what he wanted.
‘Unless anyone has anything to add I will now interview the domestic staff. Doctor Felbrigg, Doctor Strang will be in touch with you very shortly about that other matter we discussed.’ He glanced at Guin and away again. ‘I hope to summon a jury and hold the inquest within the next few days.’ He rose. ‘Good day to you, ma’am.’
‘What other matter?’ Guin demanded as soon as the door closed behind the Coroner.
‘I am afraid that in the event of a suspicious death it is necessary to hold an examination of the deceased.’
‘You mean a post-mortem.’ Guin found her tears had dried. This was not some ghastly dream, this was ghastly reality and she was not going to get through it by becoming a watering pot. Augustus had been very dear to her and she was going to find out who killed him if it was the last thing she did. A cold finger trailed down her spine at the thought that if the truth was not
discovered then that failure might be the last thing.
‘Yes,’ Doctor Felbrigg agreed. ‘Carried out by me and a Doctor Strang with the greatest possible respect for the deceased. I am afraid we must remove Lord Northam’s body from this house and the Coroner will require it to be seen by the jury at the inquest. He will then release it to you for burial.’
‘I will make all the arrangements, Lady Northam, and write to your brother-in-law with the sad intelligence that he is to inherit the title,’ Mr Foster said.
