Page 34 of The Case of the Curate

She donned a walking dress, since she planned to rove the countryside that morning, brushed and pinned her own hair into a simple knot, and sallied forth in search of her host.

Breakfast was not yet set out, and the only people around seemed to be servants. However, when she knocked on Lord Chadbon’s study door, he bade her come in.

“Ah, Lady Ambrose,” he greeted her, rising from his desk chair. “Good morning. You are very bright and early. Do I take it you have decided to leave us after all? I’m sure Sir Gilbert must be missing you.”

“Oh, he is still about Your Lordship’s business too,” Kate said, advancing into the room and lowering her voice. Propriety dictated that she did not close the door, but she had no desire to be overheard. “No, I wanted to ask you about the dagger that was used to kill Dinah. I understand it was kept in here?”

She glanced around the room as she spoke, in search of the kind of glass cabinets in which collectors tended to display their treasures. Instead, she found two swords and an ancient-looking shield hung on the wall. Beneath the display was a repurposed bookcase, its top surface and its shelves used to display an array of weapons, including a set of ornate dueling pistols, a partial ax-head, and several daggers.

Chadbon moved instinctively toward his collection, almost as though protecting it. “This is it,” he said, indicating the long-bladed dagger lying across the top of the bookcase. “In its proper place.”

So it was already back in his possession. For a sickening moment, Kate recalled that exquisitely wrought hilt sticking out of Dinah’s breast and had to blink the image away in order to think. “Then it was the pride of your collection?”

“I bought it as a young man, during my grand tour in Italy. It is Florentine, sixteenth century, no fancy jewels, just fantastic workmanship, a deadly blade, this delightfully wrought hilt that allows a strong grip, and yet so intricate and pleasing to the eye.”

Kate forced herself to look at it. “The blade is long. It would be a difficult thing to hide in one’s pocket. Who could have taken it from here, my lord?”

He lifted his shoulders, spreading his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “Anyone. The door is not locked.”

“Who cleans this room?”

“The maids,” he said blankly. “They know to put everything back as it is, just as they know to leave my papers on the desk as they find them.”

From his desk, he would have a direct view of the collection. It would have been difficult for some visitor to purloin it while he was in the room.

“Which maids?” Kate asked, shying away from mentioning guests.

Chadbon looked as if he were about to bluster and deny any knowledge of what menial did what in his house. But in the end, he sighed and said, “Dinah, usually. The girl who died.”

“When did you notice the dagger was missing?”

“I didn’t. Until I saw it that night in—” He broke off, waving the words aside with something very like embarrassment.

“Did Dinah clean in here the day she died?”

He looked blank. “She must have. To be honest, I didn’t take much notice. I was receiving guests most of the day.”

“But you spoke to some of them in here. When you greeted me, you stepped out of this room with Mr. Newman and Mr. Otteridge.”

“Did I?” he said in vague surprise. “Yes, I believe you are right.”

“Was the dagger still in place then? Did you show it to Mr. Newman, for example, since it is his first visit to Chadbon Court?”

Chadbon thought. “Actually, no, it didn’t cross my mind. I was impressing on Newman the importance of Nye’s support—as you know, Newman can be a little…volatile and confrontational, and he has already sparred in the House with Nye. Even Otteridge arrived with doubts as to this alliance, so my mind was very focused. I don’t recall so much as glancing at the collection. I certainly didn’t notice the dagger was missing.”

“Did you return here at any point after that?”

“No, I never had the chance. I spoke to Nye in the library, and then it was teatime. Our informal discussions were outside. And later, after dinner, we came straight to the drawing room. I wasn’t going to allow huddles of discontent to form.”

“Of course not,” Kate said hurriedly. “What about earlier in the day? Did you receive anyone else in here? A messenger? A man of business?” Such people tended to arrive and depart quite frequently from Chadbon’s residences.

His eyebrows flew up. “No. But now I think of it, I did see a couple of my neighbors in here that morning. They told Kemp it was business, so he showed them in here—though it turned out to be nothing of the sort when I joined them.”

Kate’s heart gave a thud of excitement. “Then they were in here without you for some time?”

“No more than five minutes, and seriously, Lady Ambrose, my neighbors are gentlemen!”

“Which gentlemen?” she asked with a cajoling smile.