Page 67 of One Wicked Secret
“I need you to think about those afternoons spent havingtea with my mother. Did she say anything about threats being made? Was she fearful for the future?”
Mrs Melville shook her head. “We spoke about mundane things. She was worried about your father and what would happen when she succumbed to the consumption. She was so frail in her final weeks.”
Elsa closed her eyes as if the memory was too hard to bear. “Did you discuss her favourite novels? I can list them if it helps refresh your memory.”
“There’s no need. I remember them clearly. Your father mentioned them often. We had a rather amusing pastime—comparing real people to characters in novels.”
“Can you recall any examples? You may speak freely.”
Mrs Melville thought for a moment. “Your father compared Mr Charmers to Ambrosio fromThe Monk. A man whose piety is a mask. He said Mr Charmers is good at hiding the truth.”
The whole theme ofThe Monkis one of betrayal. The villain is a deviant who cannot control his sinful desires.
“Lord Denby was Sir Edward inThe Fatal Revenge,” Mrs Melville continued, her expression turning grave. “I think your father was trying to tell me he didn’t want you to marry the lord.”
“How is that novel relevant?” Daniel said.
Elsa cleared her throat. “The story is about Helen, wronged by the wealthy Sir Edward, who betrays her by falsely promising to marry her.”
Had Lord Denby been seeking a way out of the marriage? Would he rather see Elsa on the scaffold than in his bed?
“Why the smoke and mirrors?” he demanded, irritated the Tylers had left Elsa to search for answers. “Why not share his concerns?”
Mrs Melville hesitated before asking, “Did Mr Tyler not explain it in his letter?”
Elsa stiffened. “His letter?”
“The one tucked inside the Bible. It was addressed to you, ma’am. Your father told me to give you the Bible after his passing, though I’m certain it belonged to your mother.”
“I never received a letter from my father, though Magnus gave me an old Bible. One dating back sixty years or more. My mother must have found it, as the inscription inside read,To Cynthia, with love.”
Mrs Melville blanched. “But Mr Tyler saw me with the Bible and said he would give it to you.”
“Magnus took the Bible?”
“Yes, though it was a month or two after your father passed.” Mrs Melville shifted in her chair, her hands twisting in her lap. “Perhaps he forgot the letter was meant for you. Emotions were high. Mr Carver had misplaced some of your father’s papers and spent hours locked in the study, sifting through the drawers.”
The comment roused Daniel’s suspicions. No doubt Carver was looking for the journal, not pointless papers. And Magnus must have opened the letter and read the private message.
“Did Magnus mention the letter to you?” Elsa asked him, looking puzzled and somewhat hurt.
“No. I would have told you.”
It seems Magnus kept many things to himself.
A sickening feeling settled in Daniel’s gut. Had Magnus sent the letters to The Grange, telling Clara about the two shillings? Was he really in Geneva? Or was he the nabob disguised as a vagrant who had stolen his mother’s books? More importantly, had Magnus killed Carver?
If the answer was yes to those questions, then why?
He wanted to ask the housekeeper if she had seen Carver and Magnus arguing the day Elsa went missing but couldn’t without rousing her suspicions.
“Have you seen Mr Carver since he left Edenberry?” he said, testing the housekeeper’s reaction. He was confident she had not met with a dead man.
“No, sir.”
“Have any of the staff heard from him?”
“No, sir.”
