Page 59 of Murder at Hambledon Hall
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
“They both went out of their way to avoid him. If they saw him approaching, they changed direction and disappeared. Lord Kershaw must have had meetings with him, of course, to arrange shoots and so forth. Even so, he always looked as though it was a chore. I thought it was odd. Esmond wassocharming.”
Her brother grunted. “Until he got what he wanted. Then he changed his tune and the man’s real character was revealed.”
Miss Crippen pressed her lips together in an effort to stop them trembling. She failed.
Harry handed her his handkerchief. “What about other members of the family? For example, Lady Elizabeth. Did she dislike Shepherd, too?”
Miss Crippen accepted the handkerchief with a light blush infusing her cheeks. “Thank you, Mr. Armitage.” She dabbed the corner of her eye. “I’m not sure what Lady Elizabeth thought of him.” She suddenly lowered the handkerchief to her lap. “But Mrs. Browning loathed him.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I overheard them arguing once, her and Esmond, in his cottage. I was meeting him there, but didn’t enter when I heard their voices. I could hear them clear as a bell. They probably thought they couldn’t be overheard there.”
“What were they arguing about?”
She frowned in thought. “At the time, I assumed it was me. But now, in light of his…wandering eye, it makes more sense that they were arguing about Miss Browning.”
“Janet!” I had a terrible feeling about this.
Miss Crippen nodded. “I heard Esmond say something like, ‘You’re jealous of her?’ Since I believed I was the only one in his affections, I thought he meant me. I presumed Mrs. Browning was infatuated with him and became upset to discover his feelings were engaged elsewhere. I think they were lovers, once, a long time ago.”
It seemed logical to me. To have confronted him so boldly meant Mrs. Browning had more than feelings for him. It meant her feelings had been returned at some point, otherwise she would have suffered in silence, too embarrassed to admit she liked him.
“Esmond called her pathetic,” Miss Crippen went on. “She retaliated by telling him he was awful, that she was too young.”
“Too young?” Harry echoed.
“Again, I thought she was referring to me. To someone of Mrs. Browning’s age, I am young, but I’m twenty. Old enough. Janet Browning is just nineteen. She’s also old enough, but a mother must worry about her daughter’s heart being lost to a man much older than her.”
“Her heartandher reputation,” Mr. Crippen added. “The Brownings would want a good marriage for their daughter, and no man of good breeding will—” He cut himself off with a cough.
Miss Crippen lowered her head again and sniffed.
I agreed with her that it made more sense for Mrs. Browning to be worried about Janet, not the nanny who’d been there less than a year, nor any other servant. It made even more sense for her to worry if she knew Esmond Shepherd was the sort of man who would take advantage of Janet then set her aside when he tired of her.
“What did Shepherd say in response to Mrs. Browning?” Harry asked.
“He said she revolted him now.”
“Now? Are you sure that’s the word he used?”
“Quite sure. That’s why I presumed they were lovers once, when they were both younger. Also, he called her Cicely.”
For a gamekeeper to call the sister of his employer by her first name implied they were very close indeed. I was inclined to agree with Miss Crippen. Mrs. Browning and Shepherdhadbeen lovers. She discovered he was pursuing Janet and confronted him. Instead of agreeing to stop his pursuit, he accused her of jealousy. That must have been galling for Mrs. Browning, a mother worried about her daughter.
It meant she had a strong motive to murder him.
I was still considering the implications, but Harry had moved on. “Did you notice anything in the house go missing?” he asked.
Miss Crippen looked taken aback. “No.”
We rose to leave, but Harry hadn’t quite finished. He directed his question to Mr. Crippen, however, not Phyllida. “You discovered Shepherd was the father of the baby three days before you traveled to Morcombe to confront him. Why the delay?”
“Phyllida didn’t want me to talk to him. She begged me not to, and I agreed to let sleeping dogs lie. But I couldn’t. After three days of stewing in my anger, I decided to go. That was Monday. I made a reservation for two nights at the inn, as I wanted to stay long enough to make plans with him for the baby’s future, but then I heard about his death.”
“Why not stay and see if your sister could make a claim for an inheritance?”
