“Oh, I should not worry too much about how your daughter’s coping,” Commissioner Rhodes said, waving a piece of spiced and cured sausage at her. “She came and joined us a little while ago, didn’t she, old chap?”
Percy nodded and he was beaming with something very like relief. “She was full of life,” he said to Adelia. “Quite like her old self again. I hope it can last. Except...” His face fell. If her mind was unhinged, she was safe from the gallows. “Sir,” he said to Rhodes, “You must come to the castle and arrest Brodie!”
Adelia put her hand over his wrist. She tried to convey to him that other things were now coming to light by staring hard at him. “Brodie needs to be trapped into revealing his guilt and that can only happen if you come back tonight, and let the commissioner arrive tomorrow.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are new plans. But we shall prove her innocence,” Adelia said stoutly, not giving anything else away.
“Glad to hear it, glad to hear it,” said Rhodes, apparently oblivious to Adelia’s attempts to let Percy know that things were happening. “Nice girl like that, all banged up in a cell – well, you know what I mean – I personally don’t hold with it, but the law’s the law, and if I can’t trust my inspectors, who can I trust, what?”
You can overrule your inspectors, she thought sourly. “And where is she now?”
“She grew tired once she had eaten – and she can eat, can’t she! She’s gone off to bed again.”
Percy leaned over to Adelia. “She ate better than she had for a long time.”
“I hate to say it, but she’s in the very best place,” Adelia said slowly. “Commissioner Rhodes, we all thank you for your kindness. Lord Buckshaw, I am hoping you might escort me home now it has grown dark. At once, if you will.”
“Are you not staying here?”
“We have much to discuss,” she told him pointedly. “But rest assured that your wife is in very capable hands.”
As soon as they had taken their leave, and were climbing into the light gig that Percy had driven himself from Tavy Castle, they were able to speak freely to one another again. He said, as soon as they were settled, “I must say that I really am glad she’s there. She is a different woman. No, I tell a lie. She’s back to being the woman she always used to be. She’s the woman I married. Something’s going on, isn’t it? You were trying to tell me something. What cannot be said in front of Rhodes? Have you evidence at last? Why can’t Brodie be arrested at once?”
“Oh, Percy. I have some startling things to tell you.” She outlined everything as they began the rocking journey back to the castle.
He listened intently, his face contorting with horror.
“We must turn the carriage around,” he said at the end. “Poison! Dear God! Why didn’t you tell Rhodes this?”
“Theodore is looking for the evidence for the ongoing poisoning right now. And we have invited Captain Everard to stay because he can distract Oscar Brodie while we put the case together. We are all in danger from the young man now, but we must tread carefully – and quickly. It must come to court without a hitch and have no reason for Inspector Wilbred to doubt us.”
“I hate that thought,” he confessed as they raced back through the streets and out into open countryside, pale lamps swinging on the corners of the carriage. “But I must trust your husband, mustn’t I?”
“Yes.” She stopped talking then. He really ought to trust her, too. But she already knew that all the contributions she had made to the case were already being remembered, in people’s minds, as having come from the mouth of her husband and not her own.
It was ever the way of the world, after all.
THE RACE WAS ON – AT least, for the men. Adelia wandered through the castle that evening and it felt oddly empty. It was simply lacking Felicia; it had never felt this abandoned when Percy had been absent. She was the heart of the place though no one had realised it before.
Adelia was ill at ease, feeling that she ought to be doing more. She spoke to the servants, reassuring them that they were all perfectly safe. She heard that some of them had been approached by journalists from the town, and offered money as inducements to speak, but no one had accepted the offer except for one scullery maid who disappointed the hack by knowing absolutely nothing at all. Adelia could hardly blame her for trying her luck.
A policeman returned and stationed himself at the front door without speaking to anyone. She knew he was observing them as much as he was there for anyone’s protection. And, of course, the police needed to be seen to be doing something, even if Inspector Wilbred felt that the case was all sewn up with the arrest of Felicia. It was lucky that the circuit judge was a few weeks away, which bought them all a little more time. But more pressing, of course, was to discover evidence to tie Oscar to the poisoning before Oscar himself panicked and made a run for it – or worse. They had all vowed to keep the young man under very close observation but Adelia knew they needed to do more.
They needed to get into the gatehouse and search it.
They all dined together and Oscar was there
