headaches. And, just now, she would gladly forgo comprehension for the sake of only getting the french doors closed before the drawing room was quite filled with evening air. Henry Lansdale and Clara Neville were engaged to drink tea with them and she did not wish to receive them in a damp room.
But Dido was too restless to remain within doors and was gone out to pace about on the veranda while they awaited their guests. ‘It is Trump Loy,’ she repeated. ‘Or, if you will insist upon the French being spoken correctly, “trompe l’oeil” – an appearance of reality that is entirely false. You see, Flora, for the last few weeks I have been supposing that what I saw at Knaresborough House was either murder or accident. But, the fact is, it was neither.’
Flora decided that she must, after all, expose herself to the risk of headache and her drawing room to the risk of damp. She went to stand beside the door and watched the figure of her cousin moving ceaselessly in the slanting light of the setting sun. ‘Do you mean that Mr Vane is lying?’ she asked hopefully. ‘That it was not by taking too much medicine that Mrs Lansdale died?’
‘Oh no. I am sure he is telling the truth – as far as he knows it. But he too has been deceived – deceived into seeing something which is not there.’
‘Deceived by whom? Who has been lying?’
‘No one has been lying. That is the remarkable thing. There have certainly been truths left unsaid, but, since Miss Neville has confessed that she left the house on the night of her cousin’s death, I do not think I have detected lies in anyone. I have had before me all the details of the case – but the picture they have made has been false. False through and through! It is all a matter of perspective. A change of perspective can make those details form an entirely different picture. Do you understand?’
‘No! I am sure I do not!’
Dido sighed. ‘Well, I have told you about the marriage licence, have I not?’
‘Yes.’
‘That, you see, is what changed my perspective. Mr Lansdale made a joke of it – he laughed about just happening to have such a convenient document to hand. But I could not help but wonder why he should have it. Such a thing can only be obtained with some difficulty – and expense. He cannot have got it in a day. And only a day had passed since he was summoned to the court – and decided that he must marry Miss Bevan immediately.’
‘Why then, when did he get it?’
‘That is the great question! It is extremely unlikely that he would have risked getting it in the last few weeks while he has been under such suspicion. In short, I am sure that he has had it “to hand” since before his aunt’s death. It was, in fact, the document which Mr Morgan wished him to destroy.’
‘But why had he got it?’
‘Well, when I turned to that question, I remembered something which has been puzzling me ever since I recalled it in Mrs Midgely’s garden this morning. Do you remember, on the first occasion of our visiting Miss Prentice, she spoke of Mary going away to be a governess – and she said that she had had her gowns packed and her travelling dress prepared for a week.’
‘Yes, yes, I do remember it! That she should be so very… resigned! I was so moved by it!’
‘Yes,’ said Dido, ‘and so was I. But, you see, I was also moved a few days later when I heard her talking to you about going away. It was in the garden at Brooke, do you remember? “I knew that it must happen,” she said, “but I have been trying not to think about it and I find that it takes me quite by surprise.” And those – I think you will agree – do not sound at all like the words of a woman so resigned that she had already packed her boxes.’
‘Oh, well… How very strange! I had not thought to put the two things together.’
‘No, no more had I. But I have been remarkably stupid! There have been so many things which I have not put together – or simply not noticed at all.’ Dido’s restlessness was returned now and she must take another short turn upon the veranda before she could continue. ‘There were things that you told me, Flora, which I failed to see the importance of: things about Mrs Lansdale’s character. You told me that she enjoyed dramatic scenes and arguments, but that she also enjoyed forgiving her nephew; do you remember telling me that?’
‘Yes, but…’
‘And then there were the books she chose from the library,’ Dido hurried on, too impatient, too full of her own thoughts to listen long. ‘Or rather the books which her nephew chose for her. Novels and poems about love. And, do you remember what it was that he chose for her just before she died?
‘But why?’
‘Because, my dear cousin, at that time he was, in Mary’s words “working upon her”. He had a plan by which he meant to marry the woman he loved and secure his inheritance.’
‘A plan? Dido, you are not, I hope, going to say that he harmed his aunt. For I give you warning: I will not listen to you if you do.’
‘No, no, Henry Lansdale is not a murderer! The plan he had hit upon was entirely in keeping with his character: a merry, daring plan. Just such a plan as a man who can laugh even at his own danger might be expected to devise.’
‘And what was it that he meant to do?’
Dido came to the end of the terrace and seized her cousin’s hands. ‘Flora, we know that Miss Bevan was not prepared to go out as a governess. And yet, about two weeks ago, she had begun to make preparations for a journey. Miss Prentice had noticed those preparations – and entirely misunderstood their purpose. So what was this journey she was preparing for? Well, can you not guess?’
Flora only stared.
‘My dear cousin,’ cried Dido giving their joined hands a little shake, ‘she was preparing to elope!’
‘Elope?’ echoed Flora in bewilderment. ‘But I do not understand. Mrs Lansdale would have been so angry…’
‘Yes, but Mr Lansdale had decided that he must take the chance of her anger being followed by reconciliation. He had prepared her mind by reading to her the most heart-rending love story in literature. And I don’t doubt that he planned to make his own marriage appear as romantic as he could, and to throw himself upon his aunt’s mercy with a great many fine speeches and heroic words. He meant, in short, to make of it such a story, such an event, as she could not help but enjoy. This was his plan; and if it seems a desperate one, then we must remember that his situation was desperate too, for Mary’s guardian had determined upon her humiliation and what else could he do to save her?’
Flora smiled. ‘Yes,’ she cried, ‘I can imagine Mr Lansdale forming such a plan! And I believe it might well have succeeded. For of course he knew his aunt better than anyone else did. And so it is folly to suggest that he wished the poor lady dead, is it not? You must agree?’ She paused as she saw the look on her cousin’s face. ‘It is folly is it not, Dido? You do agree?’
Dido thought for a moment, then looked down at her hands which were still holding Flora’s. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I am quite sure that he did not wish her dead. I cannot help but have the highest regard for Mr Lansdale after our conversation of this afternoon. A man who is willing to further endanger his own life – as he must do by marrying before he faces the magistrate – a man who is prepared to run such a risk in order to provide for the woman he loves, deserves the highest respect. And such a man, I believe, may be excused for having made…an error of judgement. Even though that error has had dreadful consequences. At least he should not have to forfeit his life for it…’
‘Dido?’ said Flora, snatching away her hands and beginning to look uneasy. ‘What are you saying? You seem to be suggesting that he is guilty after all…guilty of something.’
But, before Dido could make a reply, the door opened and the maid announced that their visitors were come.
Dido had sought this meeting with Mr Lansdale and Miss Neville – she had asked Flora to send the invitation – in order that she might explain the things which she had discovered. But, for the first half-hour of their being in the house, she had very little opportunity to speak at all. For she had done little more than prepare the guests for the discussion of serious subjects, before Flora, very full of everything she had just heard and anxious to have it all confirmed, cried out, ‘Well, Mr Lansdale! Now we know everything. We have found out your secret!’ and began upon her own, rambling account of the meditated elopement.
However, it suited Dido rather well to be silent a while and to give all her attention to watching the listeners.
