Free A Traitor's Tears by Fiona Buckley Page B

as I asked, and I said: ‘Brockley has been arrested. If you know of anything that may help him – or if you can suggest anyone else who might have been responsible – please tell me. If you noticed any strangers on your land, or anything else that might help to uncover the truth, please, please tell me!’
    â€˜I didn’t,’ said Anthony sadly. ‘It was a perfectly ordinary day. There was nothing –
nothing
. I saw no strangers at any time that day. Do you suppose I haven’t been all over it in my mind, again and again? I can’t think of a single thing that might be of use. I did have ideas that I told to Sir Edward, but he proved them all to be impossible.’
    â€˜He has said that to me. He’s been here.’ Awkwardly, I added: ‘Please don’t think that I don’t feel for you and for Jane, too! And I do ask you to take some wine.’ Without waiting for an answer, I picked up the little bell that always stood on the Little Parlour’s one small table, and rang it. Wilder appeared immediately and had probably been nearby. I requested wine for three.
    â€˜You had reason to feel bitterness against my wife,’ Anthony said heavily, as Wilder disappeared. ‘I know that. Jane was a good woman, perhaps too good. She did not understand the … difficulties of your life. She herself never had many difficulties to face. For me, the fact that Her Majesty the Queen accepts you and your son and recognizes you as relations of hers is enough for me. But …’
    His voice tailed off, helplessly. It seemed as though he didn’t quite know what he had come to Hawkswood to say. Wilder came back with the wine, poured for us all and then withdrew. Dale, who had as usual taken a stool at a little distance from me, wrapped her hands round her glass as though she were trying to warm them on it. Anthony glanced at her and said: ‘Mistress Brockley, I know this is a wretched time for you. I am sorry for you and for your husband. I can only hope that things can be put right and that you will soon have your husband home.’
    â€˜He didn’t do it,’ said Dale miserably. ‘I know he didn’t.’
    â€˜I do have one idea,’ Anthony said. ‘It seems to be impossible, but I suppose the gardeners could be lying for some reason though I don’t know what. Maybe they were bribed. They’ve been questioned hard – I must give Sir Edward credit for that – and they swore they hadn’t been but I still wonder. In my opinion, that tenant of mine, Jack Jarvis, is the man. We don’t know much about him, but he had a grudge against the world, I can tell you that. It wasn’t his fault that he lost his livelihood when the land where he used to graze his sheep was enclosed; that’s true enough. But I always felt that because of that, he hated everyone, even Jane, who was so kind to him. That could have been it, you know. He always took charity just a little too willingly.’
    I nodded, having felt the same thing.
    Anthony sipped his wine. ‘He sometimes asked Jane for things, you know, things that I thought he could have provided for himself. He did quite well, selling eggs and vegetables and fowls for the table. But he has asked my wife to provide him with new garden tools, and two or three times said could he have a bag of corn for the hens, things like that, and a couple of months ago, he asked if she could buy him a donkey! And she did. Jane was so
very
generous, so
very
charitable.’
    He sounded heartbreakingly proud of her. ‘She always said that charity was a virtue she was in a position to practise and that she was glad to do so. I admired her for that.’ His voice broke. ‘Sometimes I can’t bear it, knowing she isn’t there. I keep expecting her to open a door and walk into the room I’m in … then I realize that she never will and it’s dreadful. The world seems so