The main group of students had already left, and to Grace’s relief, the stairwell remained empty as Olivia’s troops headed her way. “You’re quite sure the dining room won’t catch on fire?” she muttered, as Olivia reached her. “It smells awfully smoky.”
“I’m sure. The fire is probably out by now. I made sure the waist was tucked out of the way of the lamps.” Olivia grabbed her arm and gave her a little push. “Come on, we have to get a move on. It’s going to take us at least an hour to walk into the village and we have to be there before they start the maypole dancing.”
“All right.” Reluctantly, Grace started down the stairs. She had to be bonkers to be doing this, she told herself as the girls clambered down after her. They were bound to get caught, no matter what Olivia said.
Reaching the bottom, she held up her hand. The girls halted, all whispering among themselves until Olivia hissed at them to shut up.
Grace could hear the commotion in the lobby. They were still evacuating the premises. She looked back at Olivia. “Shouldn’t we wait until they are all outside?”
Olivia shook her head. “There isn’t time. It took longer than I thought it would for someone to ring the fire bell. We should have done it ourselves instead of waiting for someone else to notice the fire.”
“You said it would look suspicious if we did it,” Grace reminded her.
Sophie Westchester, at her usual position at the head of the crowd, raised her voice. “Are you going to stand there arguing all day or are we going to leave? For pity’s sake, let’s get on with it!”
A faint chorus of agreement answered her and Olivia shot up her hand. “Be quiet, you silly twerps. Someone will hear us and come back to get us. Then we won’t be able to leave here at all.”
“Here! Who are you calling a silly twerp?”
“Yeah,” someone else called out. “You’ve got no right calling us silly twerps.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “All right, all right, let’s get moving. Just follow me, all of you, and flipping well keep your mouths shut.”
Grace stood aside and let Olivia squeeze past her, then followed her down the hallway to the back stairs. Shuffling feet behind her assured her the troops were following, and moments later they were all outside the building, huddled against the wall.
“How are we going to get down the driveway without anyone seeing us?” Sophie demanded. “Do you plan to make us all invisible or something?”
Olivia gave her a scathing glance. “We’re not going down the driveway, are we. We’re going behind the tennis courts to climb over the back wall.”
Shrieks and moans followed this announcement, and once again Olivia had to hold up her hand. “One more squeak out of any of you and you can stay here with the rest of the bloomin’ bunch. If you want to come with us you’ll have to be
quiet
!”
Sophie tilted her nose in the air. “All right, there’s no need to get testy.” She beckoned to her friends. “Come on, we can do this. It’ll be a lot more fun than being cooped up in our rooms for the rest of the day.”
Muttering in agreement, the girls lined up behind her. Sophie glared at Olivia. “All right, Sergeant Major. Lead the way.”
With a nod of approval, Olivia crept forward to the corner of the building. “Everyone’s out there in the courtyard,” she muttered, when she came back. “They won’t see us if we crouch over and hurry across the lawns to the tennis courts. We’ll all wait there for everyone to catch up and then we’ll climb over the wall. There’s a really big tree there to help us climb up and over.”
Grace sent a silent prayer skyward as she rushed across the lawn, bent nearly double in compliance with Olivia’s instructions, and expecting hoarse shouts to erupt any minute ordering them back to the courtyard.
She could hear faint giggles behind her, and lots of shushing, until they finally reached the tennis courts, all slightly out of breath. Crowding behind the fence, they waited for Olivia’s next orders.
Her face flushed with importance and exertion, Olivia waved her arm at the oak tree growing on the other side of the wall. “See that branch,” she said, her voice still low in spite of the fact that no one could possibly hear her with all the noise they were making in the courtyard. “That’s what we have to climb on to get over the wall.”
Grace stared at it in alarm. The lowest branches looked really high off the ground. Before she could say anything, however, Olivia was charging across the grass toward the wall, and all she could do was follow her, and pray that no one broke a leg or something worse.
Meredith peered out the window as Reggie halted the carriage in front of the Stalham mansion. She had caught sight of someone walking through the gardens as they had traveled up the driveway, and suspected it might be Winnie.
Sure enough, the maid turned the corner just as Meredith climbed out of the carriage. For a moment Winnie hesitated, then turned around and disappeared again.
“I think I’ll go in the back entrance,” Meredith announced, as Reggie closed the door with a loud thud.
He looked at her in surprise. “Pardon me, m’m, but isn’t that a little unusual?”
“Perhaps, but I have my reasons.”
Reggie’s expression changed. “Pardon me for asking, m’m, and correct me if I’m wrong, but you are after a murderer, aren’t you?”
Meredith avoided looking at him. “Perhaps.”
“Then I don’t think you should go in there alone, m’m. Remember the last time you took it upon yourself to go after a killer? You almost ended up getting killed yourself. I think, since you’re going in the back entrance, that I should come with you.”
“It will be more difficult to find out what I need to know if I have someone with me.” Meredith gave him a reassuring smile. “Besides, it would be even more difficult to explain your presence. Just wait for me here, and if I haven’t returned after a reasonable amount of time, then you have my permission to come and look for me.”
Reggie swiped a lock of his fair hair away from his eyes.
“Well, if you say so, m’m, but if anything happened to you, I’ll never forgive meself. So help me, I won’t.”
Meredith touched his arm. “Thank you, Reggie. I deeply appreciate your concern. Rest assured I shall take pains to return unscathed. Now make yourself comfortable and I shall be as quick as I can be. We have to be at the police station in Witcheston and back again before two o’clock this afternoon. I’m supposed to be meeting Miss Cross and Miss Pickard at the village green. We plan to watch the dancing.”
Reggie’s eyes lit up. “The maypole dancing. That’s good. I’d like to see that meself.”
“Good. Then we have something to look forward to, don’t we.”
Leaving him, she hurried around the corner and made her way across the yard to the tradesmen’s entrance. To her relief, Winnie answered the door to her knock.
The maid’s eyes widened, and she looked nervously over her shoulder before exclaiming, “Mrs. Llewellyn! Whatever are you doing at this door?”
“I came to have a word with you.” Without being asked, Meredith stepped through the door and into the kitchen. Mrs. Parker stood at the stove, busily stirring something in a large pot that smelled wonderful.
Meredith made a mental note to have a bite to eat once she arrived in Witcheston. No doubt Reggie would be happy, too, with a sandwich from his favorite pub.
“It’s Mrs. Llewellyn,” Winnie announced, as the housekeeper glanced over her shoulder.
Mrs. Parker uttered an exclamation and spun around to stare at Meredith. “Mrs. Llewellyn! Whatever are you doing in the kitchen?”
“I came to have a quick word with Winnie,” Meredith explained. “I shan’t keep her long.”
The housekeeper frowned. “What do you want to talk to her about, if I may ask?”
“Just a few questions about her work in the house. I’ll need to know if I’m to hire a new maid.”
“Well, pardon me, m’m, but why on earth didn’t you use the front entrance?”
Meredith smiled. “To be perfectly honest, I was hoping to avoid Smithers. I find him rather intimidating.”
“He’ll be even more nasty if he sees you in here.” She sent a nervous glance over her shoulder. “I hope you’re not here to ask more questions about the murder. Mr. Smithers said if you came back asking questions I was to go straight to him so he could throw you out.”
Meredith decided that the time for pretense was over. “Mrs. Parker, I’m sorry I misled you in the beginning, but the truth is, I am acquainted with a very close friend of James Stalham. He has sent me to find out what I can about the night his father died. He is convinced, as I know both of you must be, that James did not kill his father. I’m trying to find out who did, so I can clear James Stalham’s name.”
For a long moment the housekeeper stared at her, her eyes wide with shock and fear. “We don’t know nothing other than what we told you. Besides, anything you want to ask Winnie, you can ask her right here in front of me.”
Meredith thought fast. “The longer I’m in the kitchen, Mrs. Parker, the more chance there is that Smithers will come in and find me. However, if you want to take that chance, it’s entirely up to you.”
“Can’t you just leave? I told you we don’t know anything else.”
Meredith walked over to the table and sat down. “Nevertheless, I’d like to ask Winnie a few more questions. I don’t intend to leave until I have done so.”
Mrs. Parker aimed a desperate look at the clock on the wall, then nodded at Winnie. “Take Mrs. Llewellyn to my room. She can talk to you there. And be quick about it. I need you to peel some potatoes for me.”
“Yes, Mrs. Parker.”
“There’s just one question I’d like to ask you before I go.” Meredith got up and moved toward the door. “Why didn’t you mention that the stable boy, Edward, is your son?”
The housekeeper’s face turned red, and she dropped her gaze. “I didn’t want you to go thinking he’d come back to seek revenge on the master.” She looked up again. “He’d never do such a thing. I swear it!”
Meredith nodded. “I’m sure you’re right.” Leaving the distraught woman watching after her, she followed Winnie out the door.
Winnie’s face seemed pinched with anxiety as she led the way down the hallway. Once inside the cozy room, she stood by the door, her fingers twisting in her apron while Meredith seated herself on one of the comfortable chairs.
“Winnie,” she began, “I’d like to know exactly what you saw and heard the night Lord Stalham was shot.”
Winnie looked as if she was about to be sick. “I told you everything I know, m’m. I didn’t see nothing until the constables got here and after a while I saw them taking away Mr. James.”
“Mrs. Parker said she saw you in the hallway when she came down the stairs that night. So you must have arrived there before she did.”
“Oh, yes, m’m. I did.” Winnie sent a hunted look at the door, as if she was about to dash through it.
“That was after you thought you saw Lady Clara on the back stairs, I presume?”
“Yes, m’m. It were.” Winnie nodded so hard her cap slipped over her eyes. Pushing it back, she added, “It was right after that.”
“I see.” Meredith kept her gaze on the maid’s face. “But you didn’t tell anyone that you thought you saw Lady Clara that night.”
“No, m’m, I didn’t.” Winnie shifted from one foot to the other. “I didn’t want to get her into trouble, that’s what. I didn’t want to be the one what got her taken away for shooting her husband.”
Meredith raised her eyebrows. “Are you saying you think Lady Clara shot Lord Stalham?”
“Oh, no, m’m, I’m not saying that at all.” Winnie edged closer to the door. “I’m just saying that Lady Clara was always angry at Lord Stalham. Always shouting at him, she was. I was afraid if I’d told on her the constables might have thought she’d done it.”
Meredith stood and walked toward the maid, her gaze fixed firmly on Winnie’s face. “Do you have any idea at all who shot Lord Stalham, Winnie?”
The maid backed away, one hand reaching for the door handle. “No, m’m, I don’t. But whoever it was, he did us all a favor. Lord Stalham was a horrible man. Horrible.” Bursting into tears, she pulled the door open and rushed outside.
Meredith heard her footsteps pounding down the hallway, then all was silent. Shaking her head, she headed for the door. Outside in the hallway she paused, her mind occupied with her conversation with Winnie. She had the feeling again that she was missing something important. Something that Winnie had said. If only she could remember. . . .
“Mrs. Lewellyn!”
She jerked up her head at the sound of the harsh voice. She hadn’t heard the footsteps come up behind her, yet there he was, as dark and menacing as ever, his face a mask of disdain. “Why, Smithers, you gave me quite a start.” She smiled at him, and received a cold stare for her trouble.
“Mrs. Llewellyn, I don’t know why you persist in intruding on us, but I think you should know that I’m aware that your interest in purchasing this property is pure fabrication. You are, in fact, a tutor, employed at the Bellehaven Finishing School, and you most certainly do not have the means to purchase this estate. I can’t imagine why you are indulging in this masquerade, but I suggest you leave now.”
She nodded. “Have no fear, I am leaving. In fact, I was just on my way out.”
This seemed to have little effect on his irritation. “Just in case you are tempted to return, madam, I should warn you that should you attempt to do so, I shall have you prosecuted for trespassing.”
Meredith thinned her lips. “I don’t like threats, Mr. Smithers. Particularly from a servant.”
His eyes darkened with indignation. “I might be a servant, madam, as you so ungraciously put it, but I am in charge of this residence and have the authority to throw you out if such a need should arrive.”
Meredith raised her chin. “There is no need to be uncivil. As I said, I was on the point of leaving when you rudely accosted me. However, there is a question I should like answered before I leave, and I believe it’s in your best interest to give me a satisfactory answer.”