Page 45 of Evidence of Evil
“A few,” Bingham said. “They were given to me by a message boy and I had to give them directly into her hand. Which I did.”
“I don’t suppose you read any of them first?” Solomon asked without obvious hope.
“God, no. Nor any of hers to him, though to be fair, I think she only wrote him the one. Unless she had poor old Mr. Worcester doing her bidding too.”
“Is that likely?”
“Course it is. She had him wrapped round her little finger. He’d do anything for her.”
“Had there been a recent letter from or to this Mr. Darby when she died?”
Bingham thought. “Couple of days before, maybe. She laughed when she read it.”
“Did she say why it was funny?”
“No.”
“But she might have gone to meet him when she left Lady Maule on the evening she died? Can you think of anywhere nearby they might have met? It would have to be somewhere discreet.”
“I’ve no idea. I’m from London and I don’t know the area.”
“Fair enough,” Solomon said. “Is there anything else, however insignificant it might seem, that you can tell us about Miss Niall and the night she died?”
Bingham shook her head. “Not that I can think of.”
“Well, thank you for coming over here,” Constance said. “You have given us much to think about. Oh, and thank Mr. Niall for allowing you to come.”
“I will. He’s a decent gent. Doesn’t deserve a sister like her.”
“Well,” Solomon murmured, as Bingham retreated to the kitchen to say farewell to the staff there, “he doesn’t have her anymore.”
*
“I thought youdidn’t like the railway,” Constance said as they strolled outside to await Sir Humphrey’s carriage, which had been ordered first thing to take Solomon to the railway station.
“I don’t like being dependent on my hosts for transporttothe railway while I’m trapped in their house. I never denied it was the quickest way to travel. Should you go alone to call on this Darby?”
“Elizabeth is coming with me, and he has a wife who is the Niall connection.”
The plan was to take Solomon to the nearest railway station, then drive on to the Darbys’ residence, Shelton Hall, where Constance would endeavor to ask questions that might reveal whether or not Mr. Darby had been Frances’s lover. After that, she hoped to speak to Fairfield stable’s Lothario, Lance Godden. Though how one asked a groom if he had been rolling in the hay with the daughter of the house, she hadn’t quite worked out.
“How long will you be gone?” she asked.
“I should be back tomorrow. Just when tomorrow depends on whether I can see Dunne tonight or if I have to wait for the morning.” He looked at her so carefully that she guessed he was hiding unease. “You will be careful? Don’t go riling possible murderers.”
She patted her jacket pocket. “Don’t worry. I still have my own protection.”
This did not appear to comfort him. “Yes, well, I don’t want to have to spring you from a murder charge either.”
“I wonder how I managed all these years without you.”
“So do I.”
Fortunately, Elizabeth emerged from the front door to join them, and the carriage and horses were rumbling around from the stables, so Constance didn’t have to think of a response.
The perfect gentleman as always, Solomon handed both ladies into the carriage and joined them with his back to the horses.
“It’s really very good of you to do all this running about the country on my behalf,” Elizabeth said, a shade nervously. “What is it you hope to learn in London?”
