Free Murder at Locke Abbey by Catherine Winchester Page A

feel uncomfortable?”
    “Mr Garwood. We all soon learned to mind his hands and give him a wide berth, or else we girls would go about in pairs.”
    “And what about the rest of the party, any unusual behaviour?”
    “I’m not sure it’s my place to say, ma’am.”
    “Please, Ella, anything you can tell me might help me discover who did this.”
    “You, Ma’am?”
    “Yes. Why do you think I’ve been searching these rooms?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Then why were you helping me?”
    “Master William told us to do everything we could to accommodate you.”
    “Master William? Oh, you mean Cole.”
    “Yes, that’s what his friends call him but until his father dies, we’ve to call him Master William. I thought you were here to help your father investigate these strange goings on.”
    “We’re both here to investigate. Contrary to what you may have been told, women are as capable as men, especially in matters of reason and logic.”
    “If you say so, Ma’am.”
    “I do,” Thea assured her with a playful grin. “Tell me, Ella, did you know Mary Potter at all?”
    “Not well. She’d only been here a few years but she wasn’t well liked.”
    “Oh?”
    “She’s the daughter of a school teacher, see, only she’s illegitimate. Her Pa used to come see her often though and put ideas in her head. Mr Black calls them, delusions of grandness.”
    “Grandeur.”
    “That’s right, delusions of grandeur. Anyway, her Pa died when she was ten and his legitimate family wanted nothing to do with her and her Mam. And anyway, he was only a school teacher, respected maybe but not rich, so they probably had a bit of a hand to mouth existence themselves. Mary’s Mam finally got married and then the babies started coming, one a year. He felt he had done Mary’s Mam a great favour in marrying her, and he wasn’t inclined to be kind, especially to Mary. Her mother sent her here when she was old enough and she began as laundry maid. She’d worked her way up to chambermaid by the time…” Her words were suddenly choked off.
    “I’m sorry, Ella, it’s insensitive of me to ask these things.”
    “No.” Ella sniffed into her handkerchief. “It’s not your fault. Truth is, I was remembering some of the things I used to say to her. She had such big dreams, and we kept bursting her bubble. Now she’s gone, I can't help but think, what was the harm in dreaming, if it made her happy?”
    “Tell me abou t her dreams?” Thea asked.
    “S he had all sorts. One was that she would save up enough to go to London and become an actress on the stage. Another was that one of Mrs Cole’s guests would fall in love with her and whisk her away, either to be a kept woman or his wife, depending on her sentiment at the time. Another had her saving up enough to book passage to the Americas, where she would claim some land and find gold, or marry a farmer and become rich.”
    “She had quite an imagination.”
    “That’s one word for it.”
    “Do you think it possible she… well, was having relations with someone in the house?”
    “Oh no, Ma’am, she wasn’t allowed to talk to the family, only upper maids can do that.”
    “Then what do you think she was doing in the family rooms?”
    “Some of us wondered if she was living out a dream as best she could, pretending to be rich by sitting in the parlour or something.”
    “You sound dubious.”
    “Well, it’s a big risk, isn’t it? If she was discovered, she’d have been out on her ear.”
    “Sometimes I wish I understood human behaviour,” Thea lamented as she returned to her search, looking through the drawers until she discovered a journal. She flicked through the pages and aided by Mrs Garwood’s excellent penmanship, was able to read it exceptionally quickly.
    “Ah, Lady Thea.”
    She jumped, wondering what the fluttering in her stomach was. Perhaps she was coming down with something.
    “Cole, you surprised me.”
    “I apologise for interrupting you, I saw