there is rumour to be spoken, they’ll have heard it.”
“Yes. I doubt they’ll be able to help us with the maid or her brother, so we’ll have to pursue those strands ourselves.”
“Agreed. I have severe doubts she was asleep while Edward was digging and her reported version of events is sufficiently different to the others to warrant investigation.”
“I’ve also asked if anyone knows where the second maid, Matilda, can be found. The one who had charge of Edward the day he died.” Orlando kept his eyes on the fire, afraid that Jonty might penetrate his thoughts. “I’d like to talk to her.”
Jonty, after a pause, observed, “But you can’t say what about. Well, if I’m allowed to come along, I’ll find out soon enough.”
“Indeed you will. And now, I fear we must take to our blameless and solitary beds.”
“I fear you’re correct. It’ll be lovely to see you in the morning.”
Orlando smiled, watching his lover depart as regret mingled with pragmatism. If Jonty stayed longer, the risks to both the promise made to Beatrice and their guarding of their reputation would be too great.
***
Sunday morning, the original plan had been for Orlando and Jonty to make their departure after breakfast, with the intention of reporting back on their progress in a fortnight’s time. However, in the light of the fireside discussion, Orlando asked if they could accompany their hosts to the local service before departure, the attraction being less morning prayer than a chance to catch Atherton after he performed his choir duty.
The search for an address for Mary had proved fruitless but the hunt for Matilda’s whereabouts was still in progress, so they would have to wait patiently.
At the end of the church service, knowing what was in the wind, Lord and Lady Henry betook themselves to chat with other parishioners, while their guests lurked, trying not to look conspicuous. At the first sight of Atherton and son emerging from the vestry door, Jonty waved at young Gerry, who took his father’s arm and made a beeline for them.
“Did you enjoy the service, Dr Stewart?” he asked.
“I did indeed. Sweet singing in the choir. Let me introduce my fellow sleuth, Dr Coppersmith.” Handshakes all round were followed by, “Mr Atherton, might we ask you about Mary, who was your house maid when you were small?”
“Mary? Of course. She was very good at a cricket, you know. Taught me how to spin the ball.”
Orlando, not for the first time in an investigation, wondered if he was hearing things correctly, especially when Jonty asked his next question.
“A useful skill to have. I turn the old arm over myself. Where did she learn the knack?”
“From her brother, Jude or Judas I think his name was, who could bowl both fast and slow. Could have been a decent player if he’d not been such a wastrel. Big chap, a labourer on the Byrd estate at some point, I think, which is why he’d been bothering them when his pockets were empty. Your grandmother told me all about him, as an object lesson, Gerry.” Atherton ruffled his son’s hair. “Said he was always short of money because he drank it away. Led his sister an awful life, always trying to scrounge off her. He was banned from the Byrd estate, around the time the old lord died, for what amounted to begging.”
“So we were told,” Orlando said, eager to get the conversation back on track. “Is it possible Mary, who could have had a good idea of precisely where the treasure had turned up, told Herron where it was?”
“That’s possible. He definitely asked her about it, according to my mother. I asked her, you see, when I first began to have suspicions about where my uncle’s money came from.”
“He tried to bribe her, didn’t he, father?” Gerry said, eyes dancing with delight no doubt at the notion of such adult wickedness.
“He apparently did. I reckon that’s why he wanted her as a maid in the first place. So he could access her knowledge. Not that it did him much good at first, because she was reluctant to tell him, although she probably relented.”
“Probably or definitely?” Jonty asked.
Atherton shrugged. “I couldn’t say. My mother felt it to be the latter, given how he stopped talking about the Byrd hoard and became rather smug for a while.”
The circumstantial evidence was beginning to mount. “Lord Henry has been unable to provide an address for Mary. His housekeeper believes she has passed away.”
“I’m afraid that’s so. Nobody left