‘I was seventeen.’
‘Still far too young, mind you. Not the choice I should have expected someone in Lady Hardcastle’s position to take.’
‘People have incurred substantial losses betting on things they expected Lady Hardcastle to do.’
He didn’t even look up. ‘You arrived on Monday, I believe,’ he said.
‘That’s right.’
‘You were billeted in the servants’ quarters with Miss Buffrey?’
‘I was.’
‘And yet last night you were sleeping in Lady Hardcastle’s room.’
‘I was. I slipped and bumped my head while I was drawing her a bath. She let me stay in her room rather than moving me. Lady Lavinia arranged for another room to be prepared for her.’
‘So I gather. That means you were on the same corridor as Herr Kovacs. Did you see or hear anything last night?’
‘I was awakened by the sound of a door closing,’ I said. ‘I thought I heard footsteps in the passage.’
‘And what time would this have been?’
‘I’ve no idea, I’m afraid. I don’t own a watch, and I couldn’t see the clock in the dark.’
‘It was still dark, though?’
‘Pitch black, as far as I could make out.’
‘So it was certainly before five,’ he said as he made another note. ‘Possibly before four if it really was pitch black. Could you tell which door it was?’
‘It was only once I was properly awake that I worked out it had been a door at all.’
‘And what about the footsteps. A man, would you say?’
‘Impossible to tell, Inspector. I heard the creak of a loose floorboard – nothing more telling than that.’
‘And you went back to sleep? You didn’t get up to investigate these strange noises?’
‘I was still feeling a little groggy, I’m afraid, so I wouldn’t have felt up to it, even if I did consider it worth the effort.’
‘Not worth the effort?’ he said. ‘I’m given to understand that you and your mistress fancy yourselves as amateur sleuths.’
‘In my fifteen years as a household servant, Inspector, I’ve learned a few things about the lives of our “betters”. Comings and goings in the middle of the night are nothing out of the ordinary. The unspoken rule is that as long as everyone is back in their own room by daybreak, everyone else will pretend that nothing untoward has happened. To poke one’s beak out of the door and catch someone in the act of slipping into someone else’s room would be the height of bad manners.’
‘I see,’ he said disapprovingly. ‘But if it were something of that nature, surely you would have heard another door once the sinner had reached his destination.’
He was right, of course. I already knew full well that I might easily have heard Herr Kovacs slipping out to his fatal rendezvous, but the inspector’s observation made it more certain. If someone had left their room for what Betty referred to as ‘night manoeuvres’, I would probably have heard the click of the door at their destination. Unless . . .
‘It’s possible that his destination was in another part of the house,’ I said. ‘Perhaps he wasn’t on his way to another guest’s room.’
He turned back a few pages in his notebook. ‘That would make it Mr Featherstonhaugh visiting Lady Lavinia in the family’s part of the house,’ he said, his tone reaching a level of puritanical disapproval I’d not heard outside the chapel in Aberdare.
‘I can’t rule it out, Inspector,’ I said. ‘But I’ve known Mr Featherstonhaugh for many years and honestly doubt it would be him. I rather think his intentions are more romantic than lust-filled.’
The inspector grunted. ‘To be honest,’ he said, ‘I rather think you’re right.’
‘Which means I probably heard Herr Kovacs on his way to meet his unpleasant end,’ I said.
‘I’m afraid you probably did.’
‘Unless I’m lying,’ I said. ‘I might have heard nothing. I might have been the one who lured him to the coach house and bludgeoned him to death.’
‘It’s true, miss, you might,’ he said, smiling for the first time. ‘It would have been a risky strategy to involve yourself in the discovery of the body, though. And your own concussion was real – several people have confirmed it. I don’t believe you were capable of getting out of bed, much less wielding a wrench. Why do you say “lured”, though? Is it not more likely that he was caught in the act of interfering with his lordship’s motor cars?’
Had he not already searched Herr Kovacs’s room? Had he not seen the note? I decided to say nothing about it. ‘You’re right, Inspector, of course. Just a maid’s romantic fancy.’
He nodded, and made another note.
‘Did you hear anything further?’ he asked. ‘Did anything else awaken you?’
‘Nothing definite,’ I said. ‘I fancied I heard a door twice more, but I didn’t wake properly, so I might have dreamed it.’
‘I see,’ he said. ‘And you discovered the body this morning?’
‘Not quite, Inspector,’ I said. ‘I was with Lady Hardcastle and Miss Titmus. We passed the coach house just as Morgan was opening it up. He discovered the body.’
‘So he did, so he did. What happened then?’
I recounted the events as concisely as I could while he carried on writing. At length, he finished making his notes and looked up. ‘Thank you for your help, Miss Armstrong,’ he said. ‘I think I have enough to be going on with now. Would you be good enough to send Miss Betty Buffrey to me, please?’
‘Of course,’ I said, and stood to leave.
Back in Lady Hardcastle’s room, I recounted my brief interview with the inspector.
‘He doesn’t waste any time on chit-chat, does he?’ said Lady Hardcastle when I’d finished. ‘I thought we’d be stuck in there for hours while he delved into every aspect of life here.’
‘I was in and out before I’d had a chance to become uncomfortable in that dining chair,’ I said.
‘Nice touch, that: sit the victim in an awkward chair. Puts them at a disadvantage while he lounges in an armchair. Did you get the feeling he had any idea what’s going on?’
‘None at all,’ I said. ‘Although he might just be being cagey – he had no reason to let me in on the results of his deliberations.’
‘No, you’re right. Inspector Sunderland would have told us, mind you. Did he ask you anything about the crash?’
‘Not as such,’ I said. ‘He suggested that Herr Kovacs might have been clubbed while he was interfering with the motor cars, that was all.’
‘Ah, yes,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘And he made no mention of the note. Do you think he even saw it?’
‘He wouldn’t have pulled me up on my “lured” comment if he had. How could he have missed it?’
‘He couldn’t,’ she said. ‘Not a man who leaves notes all over the scene of the crime for his assistants to follow up.’ She sat for a moment in thought. ‘Keep cave for me for a moment, would you? I’m going to nip into Viktor’s room again.’
I followed her out into the passage and loitered awkwardly while she slipped into the still-unlocked bedroom. She emerged scant moments later and waved me back into her own room.