Page 44 of Evidence of Evil
Constance widened her eyes. “Like when she took you with her to see Lady Maule the night she died. And then sent you home. Do you think she went to see a lover after leaving Lady Maule?”
“I do,” Bingham said with odd reluctance. “And it would explain the nightgown.”
“About the nightgown,” Constance said. “Did you recognize it? The one they brought her body home in?”
Bingham nodded. “I did. But I hadn’t seen it for some time.”
“When was the last time you saw it?”
“About two or three months ago.”
“Did you ask her about it?”
Bingham regarded her with irritation. “Of course I didn’t.”
“So was it common for her to disappear all night on one of her—er…walks?” Solomon asked.
“It wasn’t unheard of.”
“Did she always head off in the same direction?”
“Not that I noticed. I didn’t want to know. I wanted out of that house.”
“And you were trapped,” Constance said.
Solomon turned his head and looked at her thoughtfully, as if comparing her own situation to the maid’s. He probably wanted to believe that Constance too was trapped in the life she led, but he knew too that she had the means to leave it. She merely lacked the desire to do so. That was what he couldn’t understand.
But another thought clearly struck him, directing his attention back to Bingham. “What happened to the maid who looked after Miss Frances before she went to India? Did she go with them? Do you know?”
“Mr. Worcester says she were let go with most of the other servants when they left England.”
“Did she mention a maid in India to you?”
“She made fun of the way the servant girls there talked. I don’t know if she was imitating her personal maid. She mentioned an older woman, too. I didn’t know if she was servant or companion. Or guard.”
Constance pounced. “Why would they guard her?”
“Look, I don’t want to gossip, but it strikes me that they left so suddenly before some scandal broke over her head. I think her father took her away to teach her discipline.”
“But it didn’t work?”
“Not once she came home again.”
“Who do youthinkher lover was?” Constance asked. Then, as the maid began to look outraged, she added quickly, “I’m not looking for gossip, but we need to know, and in many ways, you knew her better than anyone else.”
“Hmmm. Well, I doubt it was Lance in the stables. She might have teased him a bit, just for the fun of it, but I think she’d have gone for someone more refined. Like Sir Humphrey, if you want the truth. She wanted him before, so they say, and she was always interested in any word of him. Took special care in dressing when he was invited or when they went to The Willows.”
“And if Sir Humphrey would not play?” Constance asked, hiding any dismay very creditably.
“The vicar’s son’s a handsome man. So’s young Mr. Darby over at Shelton Hall.”
Darby. The name of the Nialls’ relations who had held a ball to welcome the family home from India.
“Shelton Hall? That’s ten miles away, isn’t it?” Solomon said.
“Not impossible for a young man.”
“Did she get many letters from this Mr. Darby?”
