‘Is there something I can do?’ I asked. ‘I’m more than happy to help in whatever way I can.’
‘You’re most kind, Miss Armstrong, but we have strict standards at Codrington concerning the treatment of our guests and their servants. We endeavour to make everyone’s stay as comfortable as possible, no matter their station in life. “Do unto others . . .”, as the Good Lord said. One never knows when one might be a guest in someone else’s home and be grateful of a warm and comfortable welcome.’
I nodded and smiled.
‘And so, you see, we make it a rule never to ask anything unreasonable of those to whom we have extended our hospitality.’
‘What would you like me to do?’ I asked, trying to save the poor chap from having to dance around the subject any longer than he really needed to. ‘I’m entirely at your disposal.’
‘For his lordship’s sake, we must find out who was responsible for the terrible death of poor Mr Dawkins. And for his lordship’s sake, we must also avoid a scandal. I wonder . . .’
‘If Lady Hardcastle and I would be willing to employ our snooping skills to get to the bottom of things without involving the local bluebottles? We are nationally famous busybodies by now, after all.’
‘Well, I . . . er . . .’ he stammered.
‘I’m so sorry, Mr Spinney, I mustn’t tease. I should be glad to help, and I’m certain Lady Hardcastle shall be more than willing, too. Lord Riddlethorpe is one of her brother’s oldest friends, after all.’
‘Are you sure?’ he asked, with obvious relief. ‘You really don’t mind?’
‘Of course not,’ I said kindly. ‘It will be . . .’ – I was about to say ‘fun’, but I stopped myself in time; it would never do to suggest that the investigation of murder was fun – ‘. . . satisfying . . . to bring the culprit to book.’
‘To book?’ he said with slight alarm. ‘I was rather hoping we might deal with this without involving the courts. We must avoid a scandal at all costs.’
‘I’m afraid I can’t promise that,’ I said. ‘We might play fast and loose with the law on occasion, but we never break it.’ This last was something of a white lie – we had broken the laws of many lands in the pursuit of our former employment as agents of the Crown, but he didn’t need to know that. ‘If we can resolve matters to everyone’s satisfaction, however, while avoiding both scandal and the breaking of important laws, then we shall.’
‘That’s all I have a right to ask,’ he said at length.
‘Very well, then,’ I said with a smile. ‘Did you have anything specific in mind? Any ways in which you thought we might be better able to investigate things?’
‘Well,’ he said slowly. ‘That’s where we come to another rather presumptuous suggestion. I rather thought that if you were to spend more time below stairs, you might inveigle yourself into the confidence of the staff, and it would also grant you many opportunities to wander the house and observe the guests.’
It was all I could do not to laugh. ‘What a thoroughly splendid idea,’ I said. ‘But why the staff? Do you have any suspects already?’
‘One would hate to think that anyone on his lordship’s staff would do anything so black-hearted as to kill Mr Dawkins,’ he said gravely. ‘But . . . well . . . for all my efforts, Evan Gudger shows no signs of mending his ways.’
‘But he’s just a headstrong young lad,’ I said, ‘testing how far he can push the rules.’
‘I do hope so. And then there’s Morgan Coleman. He’s an ambitious young man.’
‘Surely you don’t think his ambition would push him to murder?’ I said.
‘Again, I do hope not. But that makes it all the more important that you be free to investigate, to observe, to question. You have the power to free these men from suspicion as soon as you catch the real culprit.’
‘You make a good case,’ I said. ‘How shall we explain my sudden enthusiasm for work when I’ve spent the past couple of days conspicuously avoiding you all and idling in my room?’
He thought for a moment. ‘Perhaps we might say that you have grown bored of indolence and would welcome some honest labour to keep your mind from dwelling on the tragedy?’
‘You’re a cunning and clever man, Mr Spinney. I shall leave it to you to introduce the idea to the others.’
Chapter Seven
Mr Spinney had worked his leadership magic upon the troops, and I had slipped into service with the staff without fuss or fanfare. I wasn’t at all sure I was completely trusted, but as I had said to Lady Hardcastle earlier, no one ever turns down the offer of an extra pair of hands below stairs, so I wasn’t going to be kicked out any time soon. I was also regarded as a potentially valuable source of gossip, which I think was the thing that really tipped the balance in my favour.
I had brought my best uniform ‘just in case’, and by the time dinner was served, I was shipshape and Bristol fashion and ready to play my part at dinner. I had helped the footmen with their preparations, and joined them in serving dinner. It most definitely wasn’t the done thing for a lady’s maid to be serving at table, but with guests for dinner and with Evan otherwise engaged – serving as valet to both Mr Waterford and Herr Kovacs – no one was going to refuse my offer of help.
Despite the shocking events of the afternoon, all the guests had assembled for pre-prandial drinks in the library, and the mood by the time they sat to eat was respectfully muted, but not sombre. Lord Riddlethorpe was quietest of all, but even he was a great deal more buoyant than he had been earlier in the afternoon.
Mr Spinney’s carefully thought-out seating plan had been completely ignored. The guests had simply seated themselves in the order in which they arrived in the dining room when dinner was announced, and this, to Mr Spinney’s evident disapproval, meant that the ladies were all on one side of the long dining table and the gentlemen on the other. Lady Hardcastle sat at one end, with Helen Titmus, Lady Lavinia, and Rosamund Beddows to her left. On the opposite side were Lord Riddlethorpe, Viktor Kovacs, Harry, Montague Waterford, and an elderly gentleman whom I assumed to be Lord Riddlethorpe’s Uncle Algy.
The table had been set with a selection of hors d’oeuvres on platters along the centre of the table, to which the diners helped themselves as they settled down. The sight of caviar and other delicate savouries seemed to be just what they all needed, and conversations sparked immediately up and down the table.