Page 61 of The Case of the Curate

Kate nodded. “And he was one of the people who left the drawing room after I came back from speaking to you. Lewis saw him go downstairs. But I’m not sure he’d bestir himself to lie in wait just to bother a maid, let alone kill her. And he seems much too good-natured.”

“Are ambitious politicians good-natured?” Rupert wondered.

He had a point. “Outwardly, they can be. They have to be, really, in public, though I suppose they could be quite different in private. They all know the importance of this conference, but I suppose Dinah’s beauty was out of the ordinary. Otteridge and Newman would both have noticed her in the London house, too.”

“Newman,” Rupert said thoughtfully. “Met him on Tuesday evening. Ladies’ man, isn’t he?”

“A bit, I think. Enough to make his wife jealous. But he’s a relative newcomer to the circle. He needs Chadbon’s support and should be keeping his nose clean.”

“What one should do is not always what one does, when temptation rears its charming head. What of Nye?”

“Ah, that’s something I wanted to tell you. I don’t know if it’s important, but according to your Mr. Bancroft, Nye grew up at Tetley Hall. He sold the place to Mr. Gibb when his father died.”

Rupert thought about that. “Interesting, though I can’t quite see how it helps us.”

“Neither can I,” Kate admitted.

“Perhaps we should be looking at this from Dinah’s point of view. She understood men. She knew how to discourage as well as entice. She could have misjudged, of course, but in the general way of things, who are maids most frightened of?”

“Those with the power to dismiss them,” Kate said slowly. “It should never even come to Lady Chadbon’s ears except as a by-the-way. Mrs. Thornfield would handle it. Or Kemp.”

“Dinah didn’t like Kemp.”

“Well, as you said, he’s a bit of a martinet. The house runs very smoothly and he takes the honor of the family very seriously. He—” She broke off suddenly, staring at Rupert. “Would he really murder a maid under his supervision? Because she was with child and embarrassed the household?”

“Wouldn’t do it myself,” Rupert said, “but there are a lot of strange people with very fixed, even obsessive ideas. Not saying Kemp’s one of them. I don’t know the man. He goes to church, but he’s not the confiding sort, or at least not to a mere curate.”

“He could certainly move easily about the house, and he kept a close eye on Dinah, who was apparently inclined to shirk. Or so he said… He heard you call out very quickly, didn’t he?” It set off another cascade of thought. “And oh, Rupert, Remington himself turned up too quickly, didn’t he? The boy caught him close by. What if he was the one lurking in wait for her?”

“Remington? Why would he?”

“Lewis implied she could have had more than one admirer outside the household. Or perhaps Remington was angry with her for turning him down.”

“That’s a big perhaps.”

“But not an impossible one.” She lowered herself to the floor, gathering her legs under her. Only then did Rupert sit on the floor of his cell and cross his long legs. What an odd courtesy, she thought irrelevantly. “He was very eager to have you blamed and locked up.”

“For Chadbon’s sake, I thought.”

“If Chadbon had left the drawing room, I would suspect him,” Kate admitted. “Sometimes I wonder if he isn’t too good to be true. His perfect public and private life, all the threads he holds together of various alliances for different purposes… And his son bothered the maids. What if he suspected Dinah’s child was Gerald Chadbon’s?”

“It wasn’t. And no one knew she was with child.”

“Is that true? She lived in a dormitory with other women, under strict supervision. I don’t know what they suspected or whom they told.”

“Dinah seemed sure she was undiscovered.”

“Christopher Carver claims he didn’t know. He also claims he was in bed, but he could have gone down to Chadbon Court and waited to meet her. So could Elizabeth Gibb. Elizabeth might not have known about the child, but she could well have known of Carver’s liaison with Dinah. And she is jealous by nature. She certainly looked askance at me, covered in mud and smelling of horse as I was.”

The corners of Rupert’s eyes crinkled. “Well, you’re not just in the common way, Katy. People do notice you, muddy or not.”

For some reason, she blushed and hurried into speech. “Her jealousy also gives Kit Carver a stronger motive not to be found out. She could make his life unendurable.”

“Do you believe that?”

She scowled. “I don’t know. He seemed really shocked and grieved by Dinah’s death, and yet… I was never sure he wasn’t acting.”

Rupert nodded, then shrugged. “Some people are like that. They play a part—or various parts—all through their lives. It can guide their behavior, even enliven their otherwise dull lives. A great but impossible love with a beautiful serving girl followed by an equally great sacrifice on the altar of duty. And settling down to be a contented husband and an excellent squire.”