03 - Murder at Sedgwick Court (12 page)

Cedric
was the first to regain his senses insomuch as he ran forward a stride or two
before stopping and calling out his sister’s name. 

‘Lavinia!’
There was an urgency in his voice that was not lost on anyone present. ‘Put
down that candlestick and come here.’

All the
time Cedric was speaking, he was walking very slowly towards his sister, his
arm outstretched, as if he feared that any sudden movement would scare her or make
her panic-stricken. There were those present who assumed she must be of unsound
mind. They held their breath, not certain what she would do, being cornered as
she was.

Lavinia
gave no indication that she had heard her brother, and remained transfixed by
the grim scene before her, swaying slightly. As soon as Cedric was standing
beside her, he snatched the candlestick from her and flung it away from them as
if it were diseased. Lavinia did not resist.

‘Rose,
take my sister back to the house and get her washed and cleaned up, please.’

He spoke
abruptly, not even bothering to turn his head to look at her. But Rose heard
the emotion in his voice that he was trying so hard to contain. They watched
with fascination as he produced a handkerchief from his breast pocket and
walked over to the discarded ornament. Bending down to kneel beside the candlestick,
Cedric then gingerly proceeded to wipe it.

‘Lord
Belvedere, I must protest,’ exclaimed Felix, running forward. ‘The police won’t
want us to touch anything. They will expect everything to be left just as it
is.’ He turned to address Theo. ‘That is right, isn’t it, Harrison? You’re a
medical man, aren’t you, you must have come across a suspicious death before?’

‘Rose, come
here quickly,’ said Cedric. He spoke as if he had not heard Felix and was
issuing a command; indeed, he was almost shouting. ‘Take my sister away from
here. Have her change her clothes and get one of the servants to burn what she’s
wearing.’

As if by
common accord the others, who all the time had been moving forward, turned and
studied Lavinia’s clothes. From where they stood, the clothes did not look
particularly blood spattered, although there were some light smears of blood on
them.

‘But my
lord – ’

‘Shut up,
Thistlewaite,’ Cedric shouted, ‘this doesn’t concern you. Rose, please do as I
say.’

‘Cedric,
no, whatever are you thinking of?’ Rose said, appalled.

Rose had
never seen Cedric like this. She had never heard him sound so insistent or
determined, and although she did not want to oppose him if she could possibly
avoid doing so, she could not bring herself to do as he asked.

As if
aware of her hesitation, Cedric turned and gave Rose a look of such desperation
that she felt his pain as if it were her own. He was beyond reason, she knew.
Later he would bitterly regret what he had done, but now he was resolute. She
could argue with him, but it would do no good. She hesitated for a moment
longer. She reasoned that whatever fingerprints there might have been on the
candlestick were not there now. The harm had already been done. Cedric had tampered
with the evidence and the police were certain to make no end of a fuss about it
all, and rightly so in her opinion. Cedric would have to deal with them later
and explain his actions the best he could.

What
decided Rose in the end was her own eagerness to remove Lavinia from the scene.
The girl looked quite ill with the shock of it all. There was no knowing how
long she had stood there, poised over the corpse. Rose shuddered at the
thought. She consoled herself that, although the damage had been done with
regard to the candlestick, there was nothing to stop her from disobeying
Cedric’s final request. She could keep the soiled clothes intact.

Rose
hurried over to Lavinia and put her arm around her shoulders. The girl was visibly
shaking now and offered no resistance at being guided out of the maze. Rose
only hoped that she would be able to retrace her steps without getting lost. Rose
threw one final glance over her shoulder before she left. Theo Harrison had now
collected himself sufficiently to examine the body and feel for a pulse. Felix Thistlewaite
meanwhile was continuing to protest at the destruction of evidence, and Cedric
was telling him to go to the devil. Jemima and Count Fernand were standing a
little removed from the others, the former clearly in shock and the count doing
his best to comfort her. It was a pitiful scene and she was glad to leave it
behind.

It seemed
a long way back to the house. Lavinia walked so slowly, and had to be
constantly encouraged to keep going. Left to her own devices, Rose thought the
girl would simply have stopped and slumped to the ground. She was concerned
that Lavinia had not uttered a word since they had discovered her standing over
Emmeline’s body. On reflection though, she thought that perhaps it was just as
well, for she had no wish to hear her confess to the crime. As they stumbled
along, Rose half dragging Lavinia, Rose did not allow herself to think of the
murdered body in the maze, or that the man she loved had so easily and
willingly taken the law into his own hands. There would be time enough for that
later. She would not let herself dwell on that now. Rose permitted herself only
to feel relief that she had been given something constructive to do, something
that would use all her energies and concentration.

She
realised later that Lavinia’s lady’s maid must have been watching from the
window, because Eliza came hurrying out long before they reached the house. She
took Lavinia from Rose and, without asking what had occurred, ushered her
mistress inside, leaving Rose to trail behind.

‘What has
happened? Is Emmeline all right?’

Unseen by
Rose, Vera too had come out of the house and was tugging at the sleeve of her
coat, a wild look in her eyes. Something distracted her for she let go of
Rose’s sleeve and stared across the gardens. Turning around Rose saw what had
caught the woman’s attention. For in the distance she saw the remnants of the
search party returning home. Although the party was still quite far away, it
was obvious even to the most casual observer that they were walking in a sombre
fashion, and that Emmeline was not among them.

‘There’s
been an accident, Vera. Emmeline’s dead.’

Rose
realised as soon as she had uttered the words that she had spoken too bluntly.
She should have softened it somehow, but she was too exhausted from the shock
of it all, and having to physically support Lavinia half way to the house, to
think properly.

‘Dead!’
All colour drained from Vera’s face and she clenched her hands. ‘No, she can’t
be. She can’t be dead. Ah my God, what have I done? I never meant to – ’

But Vera never
finished her sentence for, as Rose turned to stare at her, trying to take in
what she was saying, the woman slumped to the ground. Vera had evidently fainted.

‘Leave me
alone, Eliza,’ Lavinia said wearily, her voice barely above a whisper.

Her
lady’s maid, regarding her with concern, hesitated a moment before carrying out
her instructions. In her opinion, her mistress was in no fit state to be left
alone.

‘It’s all
right, Eliza’, Lavinia said sighing. ‘I want to see Miss Simpson. Get her for
me now, will you?’

Rose was
waiting on the landing not far from Lavinia’s door. As she passed Eliza she
noticed that the lady’s maid was carrying the clothes Lavinia had been wearing.

‘Miss
Denning, let me have those please.’ Rose made to take them from her but Eliza
snatched them back.

‘No,
miss. They’re going for the wash at once, so they are,’ answered Eliza. Her
manner was hard and unyielding, verging on impertinence. ‘Otherwise there’ll be
no getting out the stains. This fabric here marks something rotten.’

‘No, you can’t
…’

Rose’s
sentence faltered as Eliza hurried away from her, and out through the green
baize door leading to the backstairs. She would have followed her into the
servants’ territory and wrestled the clothes from her had Lavinia not chosen
that very moment to become distressed, calling out as if she feared to be
alone. The matter having been decided for her, Rose reluctantly went instead into
Lavinia’s bedroom, closing the door firmly behind her.

‘Is she
really dead, Emmeline, I mean?’ asked Lavinia.

There
were tears in Lavinia’s eyes as she clutched at her gold chintz bedspread, and
to Rose she sounded exhausted.

‘Yes, at
least I think so.’ Rose sat down on the bed beside Lavinia and held her hand.
‘Theo was checking for a pulse when we left, to make absolutely certain.’

Almost to
herself Lavinia said: ‘Poor Theo, it must be awful for him. I didn’t consider
him at all.’ She turned to Rose and spoke slowly, almost reluctantly, as if she
feared the answer to her question. ‘Do they all think I did it? Do they think I-I
killed Emmeline?’

‘I don’t
think anyone knows quite what to think,’ Rose replied truthfully. She might have
reassured Lavinia that everyone considered her innocent but, had she done so,
she knew she would have been lying.

‘Cedric
thinks I did it, doesn’t he?’ Lavinia said, bursting into tears and mopping at
her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘That’s why he asked you to take me away,
isn’t it? Oh, how could he think it of me, how could he?’

‘He was
just concerned about you, as we all are,’ said Rose, choosing her words
carefully, and passing Lavinia a handkerchief.

Rose was
pleased that the girl was at last showing signs of emotion, and made no move to
comfort her. She felt certain Lavinia would feel better after a good cry.
Perhaps they all would.

‘You’ve
had a great shock. It must have been awful for you.’

‘It was.
I can’t tell you how awful it was, Rose. I just couldn’t believe what I was
seeing. I couldn’t believe it was Emmeline. She was so bright and always
laughing, and so full of life. And th-that thing on the ground, it was so
d-dead and not like a real person at all. It certainly wasn’t like Emmeline. I
couldn’t believe it was her at first, I couldn’t. I just went on staring and
staring at it, and then I saw the blood and …’

To Rose’s
relief Lavinia faltered in the middle of her sentence, her voice having risen
hysterically during her account, which had alarmed Rose considerably. She moved
now and put her arm around the trembling girl.

‘Ssh, it’s
all right. Try not to think about it anymore. Try and put the image out of your
mind.’

Of
course, Rose thought, it was easier said than done, having herself had recent
experience of being alone with a murdered corpse.

‘
Y-you
don’t think I killed her, do you, Rose?’ Lavinia asked, urgently. There was a
desperate look in her eyes, and she clutched at Rose’s hand so tightly that the
girl winced.

‘No, I
don’t. Of course I don’t,’ Rose said quickly, trying to sound more confident
than she felt.

‘She’s
dead,’ said Theo, crouched over Emmeline’s body, and telling them what they
already knew all too well. ‘Oh my God, how could anyone …’

The
doctor broke down, covering his face with his hands. Cedric and Felix stopped
their arguing and both looked uncomfortable. It was not often, if ever, that either
of them had witnessed a man cry, and certainly not under such tragic
circumstances.

‘There,
there, old chap’, said Cedric, awkwardly. ‘This is dashed distressing for you.
Let’s get you back to the house, there’s nothing more you can do here. The poor
girl’s beyond all help now.’

He bent
down and, taking Theo by the elbow, began to steer him out of the maze, all the
time thinking how inadequate his words of condolence sounded even to his own
ears.

‘We can’t
just leave her here,’ protested Theo, struggling to free himself from the
surprisingly firm grip Cedric had on his arm.

‘No, we
can’t,’ agreed Jemima, rushing forward. ‘I’m going to stay with her.’ Her eyes
were red-rimmed from crying, and her skin blotchy, but other than that she
appeared remarkably composed.

‘You’ll
do no such thing,’ said Cedric firmly, and addressing Count Fernand none too
politely he added: ‘Take Miss Wentmore and Dr Harrison out of the maze and wait
for us at the entrance will you?’

‘I’ll do
that,’ offered Felix, keen to be by Jemima’s side.

‘No, the count
can. I want you to stay here with me. We need to check the rest of the maze.
For all we know the murderer may still be here lurking behind one of the
hedges.’

With
that, Cedric proceeded to explain to Felix the various paths that made up the
maze so that they could decide between them who should search which areas.

‘I say,’ said
Felix, as soon as the others had turned the corner and were out of earshot. ‘Why
wouldn’t you let me escort Jemima out of the maze? A fat lot of good our count
will be. And Harrison is not much better, poor devil; he’s quite done in by it
all.’

‘I don’t
trust that fellow,’ answered Cedric frankly, ‘the count, I mean, not Harrison.
And besides, he’d no doubt get himself lost in the maze.’