Page 6 of Evidence of Evil
“The night she died?” Solomon asked, resting his hip on the window seat and watching Elizabeth’s perambulations.
“No, a few days before that, when they dined here. But on Wednesday she sent me a note of apology, saying she regretted her hasty words, and would I like to go for a walk to clear the air between us. I agreed, and she came over that evening. Which was not entirely convenient, for it was already dusk. However, I felt I should appear willing, so we walked around the lake for a little, said pleasant and forgiving things to each other, and then parted.”
“Where did she go?” Constance asked.
Elizabeth shrugged. “Home to Fairfield Grange, I suppose. It’s an easy twenty-minute walk. The path is well trodden, and she had a lantern.”
“Was she alone?” Solomon asked mildly.
“Yes. Well, she arrived with her maid, then once we were both outdoors, she sent Bingham back to the Grange and said she would follow in just a little. So she left the lakeside alone.”
“In the direction of Fairfield Grange?” Constance pursued.
“Yes.”
“Then what happened to her?”
“I don’t know. But apparently she never reached home. Neither her family nor her maid, nor any other servant, saw her alive again. Our gardener pulled her body out of the lake in the morning.” Elizabeth shuddered, swallowing hard.
“That must have been awful,” Constance said sympathetically, although, like her, Elizabeth had probably seen her share of bodies in London’s less salubrious back streets.
“It wasn’t pleasant. So terrible for her family. Colonel Niall is devastated. So is John. And the servants. Humph is still quite shocked.”
Despite the seriousness of the discussion, Constance almost smiled to hear the endearment of a pet name on Elizabeth’s lips. It seemed there was hope for their marriage.
“Did you see her body?” Solomon asked.
Elizabeth blinked rapidly. “No, thank God. My husband did. He helped the gardener drag her out, but she had clearly been dead for hours. The doctor came and confirmed that she had drowned, and by then Colonel Niall was here… It was dreadful.”
“Was the magistrate informed?”
Elizabeth gave a watery smile. “Humphreyisthe magistrate. Like everyone else, he thought it was a tragic accident and Frances drowned by falling in the lake in the dark. Although we have no idea what she was doing back there…”
“I thought she had a lantern with her,” Solomon said.
“She did when she left me,” Elizabeth confirmed, “but there was no sign of it when they found her body.”
“So she might well have fallen into the lake in the dark,” Constance said. “I doubt lights from the house, if there were any, would reach through these trees.”
“That’s what we thought. What we all wanted to think, I suppose, because the only real alternative was suicide, and no one wants to believe such a thing.”
“So why has opinion changed to murder?” Solomon asked.
“Because Colonel Niall insisted on an autopsy. He seemed to blame me even then. And Dr. Laing discovered…” Elizabeth swallowed hard, and Constance pressed her hand encouragingly. “He discovered that she had not breathed in any water. She was dead before she entered the lake.”
“Couldn’t she have hit her head on the way in?” Constance suggested.
“Or on a tree branch or something earlier,” Solomon agreed. “Head wounds are strange. She might have keeled over quite suddenly some time after taking a knock.”
“Apparently there were no injuries to her body, no signs of heart disease or any other illness, no poison in her stomach. Yet still she is dead, and not by drowning.”
“How very strange,” Constance said slowly. “But…why would Colonel Niall blame you?”
“Because I am the stranger here. Because I quarreled with her. Because I saw her last. And because he is grief-stricken and lashing out.” Elizabeth drew in a breath and smiled with false brightness. “So that is my trouble, and one reason I am so pleased to see friendly faces! You will meet Humphrey and the children at tea, so I will leave you for now to settle in. Tea is in the drawing room.”
She marched so decisively toward the door that Constance panicked. She was not ready to be left alone with Solomon in the apparently marital bedchamber.
“Oh, can’t you give me a tour of your house, first?” she suggested, hurrying after her friend. “Solomon will be glad of five minutes’ peace after my chattering in his ear for two days…”
