“Could it have been an accident?”
“We are not sure. Perhaps, but Oscar did push him, and there was poison involved. Oscar can tell us when he wakes up.”
“Dear Lord. And then – the valet?”
“It is still a puzzle,” Adelia said. “For we do suspect that Lord Buckshaw was the intended victim.”
“My own brother! Why would Oscar kill his uncle?” And then Lady Katherine went still, and her eyes flickered as she gazed out of the window. “Oh...”
“You have an idea?”
“Yes.” Lady Katharine’s voice was low. She bent her head again, and whispered, “He adored Percy, he really did. But when you and your husband arrived, he paid all his attention instead to him. Every night at dinner, he spoke of nothing but ‘Lord Calaway this’ and ‘Lord Calaway’ that. And when Percy returned, he snubbed Oscar.”
“I saw that Oscar crowded around with everyone else and Percy did not see him. But there were so many people here. He wasn’t snubbed.”
“He felt as if he had been. Oscar has always been very fixed in his ideas of who he likes and who he does not like. And Percy’s increasing time away from home has been upsetting Oscar. He felt abandoned, and supplanted by his new wife in Percy’s heart. Once Percy finally fell from favour, he could never regain his position in Oscar’s heart. Percy disappointed him, and that would be it. Oscar would cut him out of his affections. He has always been like this.” Lady Katharine’s voice wobbled. “I liked to see it as a good thing, his determination, you know?”
“Hmm,” was all Adelia could say to that. “Does that also explain why he has taken against Lady Buckshaw?”
“Your Felicia? Oh, heavens, I am so sorry, but yes. It is the same reason. He adored Percy so much that when he was married...” A tear dropped from her face.
Adelia nodded. “I see. Felicia supplanted Oscar in Percy’s affections, as you say. And he wanted her to suffer for it.”
“Why would he suddenly go after his own grandmother though?” Lady Katharine asked. “She has done nothing different.”
“Because I suspect that he overheard some discussion between the men as they worked out what was going on, and has realised that her actions, many years ago, lay at the root of many problems but even then I don’t think he worked out the whole reason. Perhaps he hoped to get it out of her, somehow. He may not have meant her harm, but he certainly intended to force the truth from her.”
“How repellent,” Lady Katharine said in a hiss.
Adelia wanted to soothe her, reassure her and offer her some explanation or comfort. But she could not. Lady Katharine was realising the depths of her son’s depravity, and that was a journey no one could accompany her on.
Adelia crossed to the window, letting Lady Katharine absorb the revelations. She spotted three carriages rolling up the driveway. They were dark and official-looking. There was a tap at their own door and Lady Agnes slipped in. She looked carefully at Lady Katharine before raising her eyebrows at Adelia.
Lady Katharine caught the look, and the meaning. “Yes. Lady Calaway has told me everything.”
“And do you believe her?”
Lady Katharine paused for only a split second. “Yes, I do. What is happening now?”
“The police are here. They will ... do what they need to do.”
Adelia nodded, grateful for Lady Agnes’s reticence. “How is your mother?” she asked.
Lady Agnes’s lip curled in distaste. “We’ve put her to bed to rest. A maid is with her. I cannot bear to look at her. Apparently she has suffered sprains and bruises to her bones but no fractures. Imagine, at her age! That woman is not cursed and never has been. She is blessed but cannot see it.”
Lady Katharine said, “I cannot believe she married me to that man for her own conscience’s sake.” Her voice rose, growing firmer and more angry. “I cannot believe I hid away in the gatehouse, scared of society, scared of the world, ashamed of my own weakness, ashamed of my history and my son and my marriage and my widowhood, when all the while it was her! She told me it was all my fault my husband became as he did, and that I had failed and was no longer welcome here. But it was her doing, her fault, her ridiculous secrets. And I know why she kept them, too.”
“Why?” said Adelia and Lady Agnes at the same time.
“The same reason I have kept myself to myself,” she replied. “When you are so utterly powerless in the world, all one has left is the control over one’s own voice. One speaks or does not speak at one’s own choice. Secrets are power. We don’t have any other in this world, do we? I have had no power in my life. No say at all over a single solitary aspect of my own being.”
Adelia nodded, impressed and saddened.
Lady Katharine surged to her feet. She was like a woman reborn. Rather than cowed and distraught at her son’s fate, she rose like a phoenix, burning with furious passion and righteous anger. “But I will have no more of my life stolen from me!” she declared. “I am going to do something about this.”
“What?” Adelia said, jumping up.
“I am taking my own life back,” Lady Katharine said, and she strode out of the room.
Twenty-nine
Theodore felt a strange twist of glee in his belly as he watched Inspector Wilbred scurry along beside Commissioner Rhodes. Uniformed policemen were swarming out of the carriages and rippling towards them like a sea of very dark blue. Alongside the mountainous bulk of Rhodes, Inspector Wilbred looked like a pale ginger rat in his manner and his movements. Theodore had to stop himself from smiling smugly in greeting.
Then Theodore found himself elbowed to one side.
He coughed in surprise as Percy finally
