“What do we think?” Adelia said to Theodore.
“Think? I rather fear that I am thinking in circles. I do want to believe him.”
“So do I. But he lied about the note.”
“You think so?”
“I am certain of it. He sent it, and so he does know of a mutual rival. But I think he is innocent of the murder.”
“I do too, but for more logical reasons,” he said with a smile. “Did you catch the mention of the gravy?”
“Yes. We’d said before that was the most likely way to poison someone with arsenic.”
“Indeed. Now, either Wiseman knew the gravy was risky and took just enough to be ill but not to die, or someone else wanted to kill either one or both of them. If Wiseman knew, how did he get the poison into the gravy? He was not at his own house. It would have been easier to invite Nettles to his house, although that would have thrown greater suspicion onto him.”
“I see. Whoever did it had to have inside help,” Adelia said. “If Wiseman was behind this deed, he had to have involved at least one member of staff in the kitchen. It’s interesting what he said about loyalties and servants and so on...”
“Perhaps but let us not be too hasty in assigning meaning to every comment. It’s more interesting to examine what he has not said.”
“Which is?”
“Well, I don’t know,” said Theodore. “Because he didn’t say it.”
Adelia frowned but Theodore bounced along with a spring in his step, and she wondered what else her own husband was not saying, the infuriating man.
Ten
Adelia planned to go up to their rooms when they got back to the London house. She needed to get out of her walking dress and her skin was dry from the cold air, though the exertion had made her feel invigorated and alive. She called for Smith to come and attend her. Halfway up the stairs, she was accosted by Charlotte, who was keen to hear about their discoveries at the house of William Wiseman. Adelia told her everything quickly as they walked up to the first floor landing, but when she mentioned the mysterious stranger who had been seen arguing, a flicker crossed her face.
Adelia backtracked. They stood together by the wooden bannisters, and Adelia said, “Robert has already told you about the figure that they saw, didn’t he?”
“Yes, of course he did. You mentioned it too, I am sure. There was a figure in a hooded cloak. But what did you just say about the hood in particular?”
“According to Theodore, it had a long point to it, like some jester. Didn’t we mention it before? Do you know the sort I mean? Is it a new London fashion?”
Charlotte smiled very brightly and far too incongruously. “Oh, no, mama, don’t be ridiculous! It just sounds very strange, that’s all.”
“Do you know anyone with a garment like that?”
She laughed dismissively. “No. What a silly idea.”
“Why so?”
Charlotte just kept on smiling, increasing Adelia’s suspicion with each passing moment. “It just is. Now, tell me, what else did Mr Wiseman say? Did you believe him? Was he a victim too or is it all an elaborate plot?”
Adelia knew she’d get nowhere in trying to press the truth out of Charlotte. All of her daughters were very different, but they were all identical in certain ways. They had each of them inherited an absolute stubbornness that only got worse if they were challenged. Adelia liked to imagine they got that tendency from Theodore, of course.
Adelia continued with her recount and she watched Charlotte carefully for any further reactions but there were none.
She did comment when Adelia talked about the proposal that the servants must be involved in some way.
“I can well believe it,” she said, a frown flitting over her face as she dropped her voice. “You know, I cannot keep good staff here above six months, or a year at the most.”
“How perfectly infuriating. You don’t treat them badly, as far as I can see. Why do they leave?”
“Oh, they head off to work in the factories – can you imagine? Why would you swap a nice safe job in a decent household to slog for fourteen hours a day in a dark, noisy mill? The pay is better, of course, but they don’t get the board and lodgings and all the perks that one gets here.”
“You could pay your servants more, perhaps? Give them more time off, or more say in what they do in their free time?”
“I pay as much as I can for a good worker but they still leave. They switch sides so very easily.”
“Well, it must be through the servants, whether they knew what they were doing or whether they were actually duped, that Digby Nettles was killed.”
Charlotte put her hand to her throat. “Goodness, now you put it like that, it’s rather alarming. I need to take care.”
“I doubt you’re at risk – or are you?” Adelia said.
“Oh, I’m just being dramatic.” Again she gave that false laugh. “Anyway, to the matter at hand. The problem is, mama, that you will want to go and speak to the servants again, won’t you? But they seemed somewhat obstinate the first time, by your report.”
“They were, and they would not take kindly to a second visit unless I were to bribe them very well. But that point is moot, for I doubt that any of them will now remain in that house. They will have taken as much as they could sneak past the police and the executors of the will, and moved on by now. The men were well turned out, and will have little problem in getting new positions. The women, without characters, might struggle but they will be resourceful, I am sure. And, as you say, there are always the factories.”
“Is there a will? Who will inherit?” Charlotte asked.
“That’s
