Page 82 of Never a Duchess
“For the theft of a priceless figurine.”
“But I didn’t steal it!Hebroke it and made me clear up the mess.” Tears formed in the maid’s eyes, banishing her bravado.
Lillian crossed the room. “We mean to help you, but you must tell us what happened.” She held Anne’s arm, encouraging her to sit. “We have your bloodstained handkerchief. We know the major pressed a knife to your throat and forced you from the garden.”
It was mere speculation.
Anne’s brow furrowed, her gaze darting between them all. “It weren’t my handkerchief. I cut my finger on the broken ornament, got blood over his lordship’s fancy floor.”
Lillian’s heart skipped a beat. They were getting close to the truth. But her elation faded as quick as misty breath on a mirror.
Once they’d solved the case, Dounreay would have no cause to stay.
“Perhaps we should begin with why ye left Major Rowlands’ employ,” Dounreay said, keen to know if the major abused his position and mistreated his staff.
Anne dashed her tears away and wiped her runny nose with the back of her hand. “I ain’t staying in a house with a … a …”
“Philanderer?” Dounreay offered.
“With a murderer, sir. He killed the mistress good and proper.”
Mr Daventry sat forward. “Do you have any evidence to support your claim?”
“The major knew them men were sending her perfume. Fancy stuff that cost more than some women earn in a year. But he’s only got himself to blame, carrying on the way he does.” Anne paused for breath. “Then the mistress packed a valise and said she was leaving. Next thing she’s on the floor, her heart giving out.”
A hundred questions raced through Lillian’s mind. There had been no evidence to link the incident in the garden to the poisoning, not until now.
“Mr Valmary and Monsieur Baudelaire sent Mrs Rowlands perfume?” she asked.
Anne nodded. “Not just perfume. Tickets for the theatre. A fur stole. Silk stockings from Paris. A pretty ruby brooch from Woodcroft’s on Bond Street. But I saw Mrs Jarvis wearing that at Lord Kinver’s ball.”
“Is that why you argued with the major?”
Anne’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “That devil broke Mrs Rowlands’ heart long ago. It wasn’t enough that his threats killed her. No. He gave Mrs Jarvis that brooch before my mistress was cold in the grave.”
“And when you confronted him, the major broke the figurine?” Lillian attempted to clarify. “The one given by Madame Delafont as a wedding gift?”
The blood drained from Anne’s face, her eyes growing wide. “The major grabbed me so hard I’ve still got the bruises. He said if I told anyone he’d killed his wife, he would throw me in the Thames.”
Lillian considered what they had learned at the theatre. Madame Delafont claimed to have witnessed the argument but made no mention of the broken figurine or seeing the major.
“Did Mrs Jarvis nae intervene?” Dounreay said calmly, much to Lillian’s relief because he had sat there, practically seething, while the maid spoke of the adulterous major.
“Mrs Jarvis fled the study when the argument started.”
“Is that when Madame Delafont arrived?” Lillian wondered what business the opera singer had in the study. Unless she had been looking for Lord Sheridan.
Anne fell silent.
Having rambled off her story as keenly as a fishwife on market day, the maid’s sudden reticence raised suspicions.
“Madame Delafont gave you the handkerchief to clean up the blood,” Mr Daventry said, attempting to confirm whether the initials bore any real relevance. “She helped you clear away the broken fragments. That’s why you left the Kinver residence. You knew the major would blame you and ruin your prospects of further employment.”
A sob burst from the maid’s lips. “The major said he’d tell his lordship I stole the figurine. That I’d better stop spreading gossip, or he would make sure I swung from the gallows.”
While the maid had been quite forthcoming with information, a nagging doubt, an element of distrust, knotted in Lillian’s stomach.
She stood, looming over the servant girl, hoping it might intimidate her slightly. “Did you steal anything from the Kinver residence? This is your one and only chance to confess.”
