happier days. One glance into her mother’s bedroom had been all that she managed before she was overwhelmed by a tidal wave of loss and regret. One of the things that made her pain so hard to bear was that it was patently not shared by her brother. Over breakfast that morning, she taxed him with his lack of sympathy.
‘You’re not even pretending to mourn,’ she said.
‘That time will come, Eve,’ he promised her. ‘At the moment, I have to keep my mind clear to defend our rights.’
‘Mr Everett can do that. He’s a lawyer.’
‘He’s no match for someone like the rector. A decision needed to be reached about the funerals. The inquest into Mother’s death is on Monday. As soon as that’s over, we can take possession of the body and have a joint funeral at St Andrew’s.’
She was dubious. ‘Did the rector actually agree to that?’
‘I gave him no chance to disagree.’
‘So all you’ve done is to antagonise him further.’
‘I simply put him in his place,’ said Tarleton through a mouthful of food. ‘Trust me, Eve. When we go to church tomorrow, he’ll be ready to accede to our wishes.’
‘I think that’s highly unlikely,’ she said. ‘Besides, it would be very unwise of you to attend the service. It would be like red rag to a bull.’
‘You can’t go to church on your own.’
‘I won’t have to, Adam. Mrs Withers will come with me. There’s even a chance that my husband will join us. Lawrence is due back in England today. When he realises what’s been happening while he was abroad, he’ll catch the first train here.’
‘I need to be there as well,’ said Tarleton, ‘to discuss the details of the funerals with the rector.’
‘There’s no point. He won’t budge. After the way you confronted him, he’ll be even more determined to prevent our stepfather’s body from being buried in the churchyard. Inspector Colbeck made the best suggestion. We must appeal to the archbishop.’
‘That could take time.’
‘Not if you write a letter and deliver it by hand today.’
‘I’ll do it my way, Eve,’ he insisted. ‘I showed the rector that we won’t be pushed about by him. He’s bound to capitulate.’
Eve was about to reply but she saw Lottie hovering at the door, waiting to clear away the breakfast things. She beckoned the servant over and the girl entered hastily, gathering up the plates with a clatter then backing out with a string of mumbled apologies.
‘Where on earth did they find that useless creature?’ complained Tarleton. ‘Why couldn’t they hire someone more efficient?’
‘Lottie is cheap.’
‘She’s a liability. I’ve never seen anyone so nervous.’
‘That’s because of you, Adam. You scare her. She’s terrified to make a mistake in case you punish her.’
‘Well, she made a mistake yesterday. I heard Mrs Withers scolding her in the kitchen. The girl was sent to get two dozen eggs from Rock Farm. She managed to break three of them on her way back here. She’s a ditherer and I can’t tolerate that.’
‘Coming back to tomorrow,’ she said, ‘I don’t think it would be wise for you to go to church.’
‘Of course I’ll go,’ he asserted. ‘It will be expected of me.’
‘I find that ironic. When we lived here, the one thing we could expect was that you wouldn’t go to church. You did everything you could to get out of it.’
‘The services were so tedious. Once he gets into that pulpit, the rector can spout for hours. It was like purgatory sometimes,’ he recalled. ‘Tomorrow is different. People will want to commiserate with us. Family friends will be there.’
‘That’s why I don’t want any unpleasantness.’
‘I’ll be as good as gold, Eve.’
‘The rector is bound to talk about the tragedies we’ve had to endure. He’ll ask everyone to pray for us. What if he refuses in public to accept one of the bodies for burial?’
‘In that case,’ said Tarleton, grinding his teeth, ‘he’ll get a lot more than mere unpleasantness. I can vouch for that.’
Madeleine couldn’t believe her good fortune. After doing some chores in the house, she’d intended to visit a friend in Highgate. Instead of that, Colbeck had arrived out of nowhere, told her to change into her best dress, then helped her into a cab that took them to King’s Cross. The two of them now had a first-class carriage to themselves in a train that was thundering north. She was still dizzied by the turn of events.
‘What am I to tell Father?’ she asked.
‘Tell him that you were abducted by a handsome stranger.’
‘He’ll worry about me, Robert.’
‘You’ll be safely back home long before he finishes work,’ said Colbeck. ‘I’m only taking you as far as Peterborough. You can catch the next train back to London from there.’ He indicated the book she’d brought. ‘You can finish Cranford on the return journey.’
‘Father will hate the fact that I travelled on the Great Northern Railway. You know how much he complained when you took me on the GWR. He called that an act of treason. According to him,’ she said, ‘the only company who should be allowed to take passengers is the London and North Western.’
‘I admire his loyalty to the LNWR,’ said Colbeck with a grin, ‘but it’s not as faultless as he thinks. Captain Huish, the general manager, has stooped to all kinds of machinations to keep rivals at bay. Take this very line, for instance. Huish had wanted to preserve the LNWR’s monopoly between London and Edinburgh. He did all he could to starve this eastern route of traffic. Every company touched by the Great Northern was coerced into the so-called Euston Confederacy whose sole aim was to undermine the GNR. I’m pleased to say that his skulduggery failed,’ he went on. ‘Four years ago, Huish got a royal slap in the face when Her Majesty abandoned his company’s route to Scotland and went to Balmoral by means of the GNR instead.’
‘I wouldn’t dare say that to Father. He idolises Captain Huish.’
‘Then he’s worshipping a false god, Madeleine.’ He squeezed her arm and pulled her closer. ‘But why are we talking about railways when we have so many other things to discuss?’
‘You haven’t even mentioned the investigation yet.’
‘I was enjoying this short-lived break from it.’
‘How much longer will you be away, Robert?’
‘Ideally, the murder will be solved by Monday.’
‘That’s wonderful!’ she cried, nestling closer. ‘Are you so near to making an arrest?’
‘The truth is that I don’t know, Madeleine. Ideally, everything will become clear in the next two days. If it doesn’t, Superintendent Tallis will resume control and that will slow the whole process down.’ He pulled a face. ‘I want to avoid that at all costs.’
‘Is he really the ogre that Sergeant Leeming says he is?’
‘No, he’s a dedicated man with a firm belief in the importance of law and order. Everything else in his life is subordinate to his work.’
‘Is that why he disapproves of marriage?’
‘I’d rather not go into that now, Madeleine.’
‘You haven’t told him, have you?’
He took a deep breath. ‘No, I haven’t.’
‘It’s not like you to be afraid, Robert.’
‘It’s a question of being diplomatic. At the moment, he’s so caught up in the horrors of this case that he can think about nothing else. I have to take matters slowly.’
She searched his eyes. ‘Is that the real explanation?’
‘What other explanation is there?’
‘Some people might say that you’re too ashamed of me to tell the superintendent that we’re engaged to be married.’
‘That’s absurd!’ he said, enfolding her in his arms. ‘And you must never think that, Madeleine. I love you and
