'I fear, Bartholomew, that Fate gave all the courage in our family to my brother, Peter.'
'Not so, Miss… Anne. She gave a large packet of it to Peter's sister, Anne, as well.'
Hoare rode into Dorchester on the heels of another high wind. He had left Miss Felicia Hardcastle under the trustworthy supervision of her abigail, aunt, and coachman. All his work with her was ended; joyfully he sang, soundlessly, to himself. He knew that, by having undertaken this side jaunt among the ton and its intrigues, he had neglected his principal duty, so he was quite ready for the effect Thoday and Rabbett had on his inflamed conscience.
His two investigators, he learned, had made much of their stay in Dorchester. Thoday would not deliver his report in the comfort of the inn but insisted upon their proceeding to an open field nearby for their conference.
'The entire town is alive with listeners, sir,' he explained. 'It was wise of me to make that arrangement with Rabbett's mother.'
Not only had the missing head been recovered-the event that had so disturbed Rabbett's digestion. A swineherd had also discovered their Admiralty chaise overturned in a coppice near the hamlet of Abbotsbury, just inshore and only a few miles away. Its seat was heavily bloodstained, as Thoday had predicted.
'And,' Thoday continued, 'Mr. Spurrier, who disappeared for two days last week, informed me upon his return that his people had found two additional bodies which he thought might be those of the drivers. He offered to show them to us.
'They were in poor repair, I must say. Both were naked. One, like Captain Francis Getchell, had had his throat cut. The other had died of the entry of a pistol ball into the right side of his chest. His right arm must have been extended when the bullet struck him. That, of course, further confirms my deductions at the scene of the crime.'
Thoday's voice sounded self-satisfied.
'And I suppose you have identified them?'
'I did, sir,' Rabbett said with some pride. 'I knew the one with the throat myself. It was Jones, whom Mr. Patterson at Admiralty House retains-retained, I should say- to keep him and his chaise at the Admiralty's disposal.'
Evidently, Rabbett had learned to overcome his squeamishness.
'As to the other, sir,' he went on, 'a cousin of my father's sister-in-law had been bewailing the disappearance of Amos Swithin, her betrothed. 'Twas no great loss, from all I have heard, for the man had no good reputation in the neighborhood.
'I persuaded her to view the deceased, and she did not hesitate at all to identify him. By certain marks upon his privities,' he added with some relish. 'They had been preserved.'
'That is not amusing, Rabbett,' Hoare whispered coldly.
The clerk shrank into himself.
'What conclusions have you two drawn from these discoveries?' Hoare asked the two.
Rabbett looked blank, but Thoday's eyes brightened. 'From the chaise and Jones's body, sir, nothing,' Thoday said. 'Their condition was what I-we-expected. From Swithin's body, little was to be learned, although his identification made stronger the likelihood that the crime was planned, or at least executed, locally.'
'Because Swithin was a local man?' Hoare asked.
'Precisely. Very good.'
This tone would not do.
'Step this way, Thoday,' Hoare said. 'No, Rabbett, remain where you are.'
When he judged them out of Rabbett's sharp hearing, Hoare turned on Thoday.
'You were a schoolmaster at one time, I observe,' he said.
As Hoare had intended, his observation took Titus Thoday aback.
'Why, yes,' he said. 'How did you know?'
'Because of the supercilious and patronizing tone you habitually take to your interlocutors, including me-your commanding officer.'
Hoare drew breath and went on, using his command voice, feeble though it was.
'Mr. Thoday,' he grated, 'I am senior to you in years as well as in rank, and you shall not address me as though I were merely a promising pupil.'
His command whisper took all his strength. He paused again for breath, then continued at a tolerable level.
'This is not the first time I have had to caution you. I shall consider continued… disrespect of this kind as nothing short of insolence. If it does continue, I assure you, I shall not hesitate to deal with you accordingly. Do you understand?'
Thoday grew white about the lips.
'Answer me, man. Do you understand me?'
'Sir.'
'Again.'
'Aye aye, sir.'
'Very good. Now, let us proceed.'
'I believe, sir,' Thoday said as they strolled back to the waiting clerk, 'that Rabbett and I must focus more closely on the doings of Captain Spurrier.'
'Why?'
Hoare had to give Thoday credit. He did not sulk at his Commander's reprimand but instead adopted an attitude toward him that suggested he viewed Bartholomew Hoare as an equal instead of his promising pupil. Hoare hoped the change would be permanent, for the vision of having this dignified, proud, gentlemanly, clever, meticulous King's bad bargain of a sailor flogged at a grating aboard Royal Duke was simply absurd.
'Because Mr. Spurrier lords it in Dorchester,' Thoday said. 'Not a leaf blows in the wind, I discover, but Walter Spurrier knows of it. I could even suspect him of believing he gave the leaf permission to blow, if not having made it blow himself. In that, he is much like his master. The question, however, is not, sir, one of Spurrier's power in the district, but of his true master. For from whom does his power derive?'
'Why, from Sir Thomas Frobisher, of course,' Hoare whispered. 'Who else?'
'That is what must be determined, sir. You see, I hear nothing of Sir Thomas, nor does Rabbett.'
'That's so, sir,' said Rabbett. 'It used to be that folk hereabouts walked in fear of Sir Thomas. Why, in the inns of an evening, it was a common thing for a man to start a complaint-oh, about the latest enclosure of part of the commons hereabouts or about someone else's midnight catch of rabbits, for example-and then stop himself with a glance around the company and make some remark to the effect that one of Sir Thomas's people might be listening.
'And it might well have been so, too. I know of two men transported because they talked out of turn and someone carried the word back to Sir Thomas. But now, sir, if the common folk still walk in fear of Sir Thomas, they do so in silence. I hear nothing of him these days. His doings are quite another thing, perhaps.
'No, sir, the word may still pass to Mr. Spurrier, but it may go no further. Or it may go to another, as Mr. Thoday suggests.'
'This needs some thinking, then,' Hoare said, and at last, 'I agree. Your aim must be the disclosure of Spurrier's true master-Sir Thomas or another.'
Hoare paced up and down the field for a few more minutes, collecting his thoughts. If Spurrier was such a 'power in the district,' it would be disastrous if he were to discover that Hoare's men were on his scent. Thoday and Rabbett were, after all, mere seamen in a toy man-o'-war. In a turn-up, Spurrier could squash them like a pair of black beetles. In fact, Hoare felt doubts that he himself would have the weight to overbear the man in his own district.
'This is what I suggest,' Hoare said at last. 'Redirect your inquiries toward Spurrier, but under some pretext. You might revisit the Nine Stones Circle, for instance, letting it be known that you are on the track of a smuggling gang… No, that hardly rings true. The excisemen would be here instead of you. Think of a better excuse for remaining hereabouts, and proceed. For the present, that is the best advice I can give you.'
Advice? From a Commander to his men? Not 'orders'? Hoare wondered at his own choice of words. He caught his breath, made his excuses to his two men, clambered into the saddle, and departed for his ship.
