Page 33 of The Case of the Curate

He eyed her uneasily. “How do you even know about such things? Your mother and mine would drag you screaming to the doctor.”

“I know the poor are desperate,” she said flatly.

“What, does Ambrose take you into the slums?” he asked, with something like shock.

“No, but I have charities there, and he knows that.” She lifted her chin, as much in challenge as in pride. “He is proud of me.”

Rupert nodded. “So he should be. I asked for such a parish, but they sent me here.”

“Miss, it’s heading for two,” Grissy said from her chair by the outside door.

Kate became suddenly aware that she was still holding Rupert’s hand through the bars of his cell and hastily snatched hers back. She hoped neither of them could see her blushing in the gloom.

“You should go,” Rupert said. “I can’t believe you came all the way out here.”

“There are things I need to know,” Kate said. “Look, is there anything else you can tell me? Was Dinah afraid of anyone? Had anyone threatened her for any reason? Had she annoyed anyone, by accident or design?”

“She was afraid of being cast out of the house without a character or any money, so in that sense she feared the Chadbons and the housekeeper. And she said the butler, Kemp, was something of a martinet. The younger menservants she could wrap round her little finger, I imagine.”

“That kind of power can breed ill feeling. Did she know of your idea about her marrying Jack the coachman?”

“I never got the chance to tell her.”

“But Jack himself knew? Did he speak to her about it?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

“What if she turned him down, laughed at his presumption or whatever?”

Rupert rubbed his forehead with one finger. “It’s a poor reason to kill someone. And she wasn’t really in a position to pick and choose. Unless she really disliked him, of course. I found nothing against him, but then, I didn’t need to marry him.”

“Hmm… Could she have resorted to blackmailing someone?”

He blinked. “Dinah? Lord, no.”

Kate grasped the bars of the cell and hauled herself upright. “Fair enough. You’ve given me some ideas. I’ll get on to it in the morning. How long will the magistrate keep you here before he sends you on to a proper prison?”

“I’ve no idea. Never been in prison before. Except a sponging house. Kate? You will be careful, won’t you? I wish I were out there with you.”

So do I. “Soon, I hope,” she said. “Goodnight, Rupert. I’ll try to come tomorrow, with or without the magistrate.”

Grissy had opened the door a crack and was peering outside. Kate relit the lantern from Rupert’s candle and gave him it back. She and Grissy slipped outside again. Her last glimpse of Rupert was his face pressed to the bars, watching her, a frown on his brow. Closing the door on him felt like abandoning him, betraying him, and she almost ran back and unlocked the cell.

She didn’t, of course. She turned the key in the outside door and hung it back on the hook. Then she and Grissy began the long, wet slog back to Chadbon Court.

Chapter Seven

Although Kate sprang into wakefulness at her usual time, she had to rise without her usual cup of tea in bed.

Grissy’s snores were still audible from the sofa at the foot of the bed. By the time they had returned last night, the maid had looked so cold, wet, exhausted, and ill that Kate had guiltily made her a comfortable couch on the broad sofa, so that she could sleep through the usual early-morning noise and bustle of the servants’ quarters.

Outside, the rain still poured down.

Kate slid out of bed and padded over to the sofa, where she laid her palm against the maid’s forehead. Relieved to find Grissy’s skin un-fevered, she left her to sleep and set about washing and dressing for her own day.

Rupert had, finally, disgorged several clues to Dinah’s murder, and she was in a hurry to look into all of them. In fact, when she considered how many of her suspects were about to leave the house, panic surged into her heart. How could she resolve this murder in the matter of hours left to her?

By setting to work immediately, of course.