Death in the Dark Walk (19 page)

‘I see,' said the Duke and bleached of colour again, so rapidly that he looked almost ill. After a pause during which he swallowed several times, he added, ‘Am I under suspicion of this crime?'

‘No more and no less than any other man connected with the dead girl. However, you were seen striding away from The Dark Walk round about the time she was killed. A fact you omitted to tell Mr Fielding, I believe.'

‘Oh God!' exclaimed the Duke and rolled his eyes, showing a great deal of white, before slumping out of his chair and on to the floor, an act which happened so quickly that it caught John completely unawares. Just for a second the Apothecary sat staring at Midhurst's unconscious body before he shot to his feet, snatching his smelling salts from an innermost pocket and simultaneously pulling the bell rope. Then, heaving the slight figure into a sitting position, John pushed the nobleman's head between his knees. All this activity unseated the unfortunate Duke's wig and the Apothecary found himself gazing at a sad little head covered with long, straight fair hair, the whole effect somehow rather vulnerable and childlike.

‘Oh dear,' sighed John resignedly, thinking that the wretched young man hardly looked capable of choking a chicken, let alone a healthy female. ‘Not another innocent party!'

But the Duke was moaning and fluttering his lids which, after a deep inhalation of the salts, he finally opened. ‘What happened?' he gasped, pitifully clutching at his rescuer.

‘You fainted, Sir,' John stated tartly. ‘I was telling you that further evidence had been found regarding the murder of Lizzie Harper and you lost consciousness.'

The great blue eyes brimmed. ‘It was the shock,' answered Midhurst, starting to sob. ‘That, and the thought of her lying dead, a piece of material clutched in her lifeless hand.'

‘Did you then love her so greatly?' asked John in a kindlier tone.

‘On the contrary,' said the Duke surprisingly, attempting to struggle into his chair, ‘I didn't love her at all.'

‘Then why . . .?

At that moment, however, the door opened to reveal the footman.

‘His Grace has been taken ill,' said John, delighting in the look on the servant's superior face. ‘Fetch some brandy and ice and a towel, if you please.'

‘Yes, go along, Stokes,' the Duke added, nodding. ‘And don't stare, man.' He turned to John. ‘You seem very accomplished in medicine, if I may comment.

‘I am an apothecary, Sir,' John answered, and did not elaborate further. ‘Now, tell me what it was you were going to say.'

The nobleman's eyes welled again. ‘That I didn't care for her in the least, she was just someone to be seen with, a beautiful being who demanded nothing more of me than to provide her with clothes and money and luxuries.'

John frowned. ‘Do you mean she was just a kind of ornament?'

‘Precisely that,' Midhurst answered eagerly. He gulped. ‘If you must know the truth, I do not find women easy to get on with, particularly those of my own class.'

‘Are you saying that you prefer men?' the Apothecary asked levelly.

‘Yes . . . no,' the miserable boy replied. ‘The fact is that I feel easier in male company but yet I am not . . .' His voice died away and he added quietly, ‘At least, not as far as I know.'

‘So you took Lizzie as mistress in order to quell the gossips?'

‘Partly that, partly to reassure myself. Do you understand?'

‘I think I do. So there
was a
physical side to your liaison?'

Midhurst blushed violently. ‘Actually, I'm not really too keen on that sort of thing, probably because I'm not very good at it. But Lizzie was teaching me.'

‘Ah ha,' said John, putting on his physician's face. ‘I know of certain properties that might be able to help you there.'

The Duke brightened. ‘Really?'

‘Oh yes, there are various creams and tonics which can be most effective. But enough of that. What were relations like between you and Elizabeth? Obviously you had quarrelled with her that night. After all, she got up and left you.'

The Duke blew his nose. ‘The fact is that she said she was bored with me. That my lack of manly prowess was too much for her to cope with.'

‘Why in heaven's name did she do that? After all, you were keeping her.'

‘She'd clapped her eyes on some former lover of hers. A formidable Frenchman. I think she'd a fancy to go back to him.'

‘Oh, I see,' said John, and thought to himself that if the Comtesse
had
been present and had noticed Elizabeth's renewed interest in her husband, it might well have been the final factor in driving her to murder. He turned his attention back to the Duke. ‘So what were you doing in The Dark Walk if your lover had abandoned you?'

The Duke of Midhurst looked so desperately uncomfortable that John wondered if he might be about to faint again. However, the poor fellow was saved by the arrival of the footman bearing a decanter and glasses and the various other items ordered. Wrapping some ice in the towel, John rapidly strapped the makeshift cooler round Midhurst's head, and saw to it that the servant poured his master a generous tot. Then the Apothecary sat patiently, waiting until they were alone once more.

‘You were saying, Sir,' he prompted as the door closed quietly.

‘Well, I may be a Molly Milksop but the girl's remarks had stung me. I intended to follow her into The Dark Walk and . . . er . . .'

‘Take her by force? Show her who was master?'

‘Precisely,' said the Duke in a muffled voice, and gulped his brandy.

‘Then why didn't you?'

‘Because, Mr Rawlings, she laughed at me. I caught up with her, tried to be rough, and she just giggled at my pathetic efforts. If ever a man were given motive for murder, it was I. But I didn't lay a finger on her, I swear it before God.'

John sighed deeply. ‘I am beginning to think that no one committed this crime. Everyone I question seems alarmingly innocent.'

‘
Cherchez la femme
,' said Midhurst meaningfully.

‘What makes you say that?'

‘Woman are traitorous beasts, all of them.'

‘That is a very sweeping statement, your Grace, if I may make so bold. Yet perhaps you may be right in believing there is a female hand behind all this. Tell me what you know of the Comtesse de Vignolles.'

‘Very little really. I believe I met her once or twice in the distant past but, of course, Lizzie told me of her illness when she moved into my town house and out of her apartment in Vigo Lane. Yet surely, Mr Rawlings, you cannot equate such a feeble creature as the Comtesse with murder?'

‘I have still to make up my mind as to exactly how feeble she really is. I suppose you did not see her when you were in The Dark Walk by any chance? Or anyone else for that matter?'

Midhurst bit his lip in concentration. ‘I saw Richmond and the pretty Miss Rigby. I also saw several people who were strangers to me. Oh, and of course, there was young Leagrave.'

‘Young Leagrave?'

‘A youth of my acquaintance. I thought I saw him there and wondered what he was doing out so late without the Squire.'

The Apothecary stared at him. ‘And who
is
young Leagrave?'

‘His father's a local landowner. The family has been prominent in this area for centuries. He has a son of about fifteen and I thought at the time that that was who it was. Yet now I'm not so sure.'

‘Why?'

‘There was something not quite right about the boy.'

‘What?'

But the Duke would not be drawn further, shaking his head and saying he was not certain, to the point where John was forced to change his line of questioning.

‘Tell me if you will, Sir, how long you were acquainted with the dead woman.'

‘Three months. I saw her at the theatre and was greatly smitten with her beauty. Shortly afterwards I offered to put her under my protection. Why do you ask?'

‘Because she came from the mill just outside the very town from which you derive your title. In other words she was a local girl, your Grace, and because of that I wondered if you and she had had a friendship that went back into the past.'

The Duke stared at the Apothecary, wide-eyed. ‘Lizzie came from round here?'

‘Yes.'

‘Well, let me assure you this is the first I've heard of it. I had no idea at all.'

John nodded, not certain whether to believe him, and Midhurst continued to speak.

‘Do you mean she came from Miller Benbow's place? Where there was a suicide? Are you telling me that Elizabeth was one of his daughters?'

‘I believe so, yes.'

‘To think,' said the Duke reflectively, ‘I could have had a tumble with her all those years ago. It might have done me the world of good.'

John smiled. ‘Indeed, it might.' The shadows were beginning to lengthen in that comfortable room as he asked his final question. ‘Is it possible, even if
you
did not know her, that the Leagrave family did?'

‘I would have thought it more than likely. The mill stood on Leagrave land and was rented off the Squire.'

‘And this boy in The Dark Walk reminded you of his son?'

‘Mr Rawlings,' answered the Duke, just a trifle tetchily, ‘there was a similarity, yes. Yet I simply would not go so far as to say that they were one and the same. I hope that is clear.'

‘Perfectly,' John answered calmly, ‘but none the less, Sir, you must realise that this is the strongest indication I have had so far as to the identity of a young man who might well prove to be a vital witness.'

‘Just so,' said Midhurst, but would make no further comment.

Riding back through the summer's evening, listening to Blade's measured breathing, his nostrils full of the reassuring smell of horseflesh, John cleared his mind of all thoughts and allowed himself the luxury of revelling in the loveliness of the night. High above his head, the moon was full in a rook-dark sky, its radiant circle filled with shadows and mysterious patches of shade. And to accompany its piercing silver light, it seemed as if every star in the firmament was glittering crystal. The landscape through which he rode was bleached to the point where it looked almost blue, and the mysterious outlines of the great trees threw deep pools of purple on the ground around their feet. It was a night for dreaming, for dwelling on the beauties of nature, and it was almost with reluctance that John finally turned into the yard of The Spread Eagle, Blade's hooves clattering on the cobbles, then dismounted somewhat stiffly, not used to riding quite so energetically or for so many hours.

This time he supped late and alone, sitting solitary in the parlour, trying to assemble his thoughts into some sort of order, though with no particular success. Constantly flitting through his mind, like half-glimpsed ghosts or creatures from a dream, were the shadowy figures of the dead Jemmy Groves, the vanished Eleanor Benbow and the mysterious young Master Leagrave. Feeling certain that the key to the death of Elizabeth Harper lay somewhere amongst all the people he had met or heard about, and was not the work of a mindless' assassin, the Apothecary eventually retired to bed.

Sleep would not come, though, and he spent a wretched night tossing and turning and dreaming wildly on the odd occasion when he managed to drift off. Yet strangely, despite his lack of rest, John woke feeling cheerful and alert and ready for anything that might come his way. His high spirits were lifted even further by the arrival of a letter from Samuel, brought by the post boy who rode into the inn yard with a bulging sack.

‘My dear Friend,' John read as he tackled a large dish of ham. ‘I have done as you bid Me at our Last Meeting and written to you at your Lodging in Midhurst in the Hope that you were able to find suitable Accommodation at The Spread Eagle.

‘First let Me Apprise you of the fact that I have Acted on your Behalf as best I can. I did call at the House in Leicester Fields as you wished and There saw Diana.' There was a slight smudge round the word ‘saw' which made John chortle. ‘She informed Me that the Comte de Vignolles has Appeared, most Suspiciously She did add, amongst the Patrons. She wondered – and so do I – why He Should do so after his Argument with the Madames but added that, strangely, all now appeared Peaceable Between Them. Could It be, John, that He is there to Spy upon Someone? Diana did Say that he asked Questions about You. Who you Really Were and So On.

‘You will Remember that I told You of the New Servant who has Come There? Well, I have Spoken with Her and a Pretty Little Spark She is. Fresh from the Country and as Fair as Day. She is Sore Afraid of Being Forced into a Life of Degradation and I have a Mind to Rescue her from This by asking Someone of Influence if they would take her for Maid. She really is Quite a Beauty in her Rustic Way.'

‘Oh Samuel!' said John, laughing to himself. ‘Not smitten again!' And then he remembered his own fixation about the Masked Lady and stopped smiling.

‘As for the Others,' his friend continued, ‘there is Not a Great Deal of News. Matt Tyler, who lives near Hanover Square, tells Me that the Comtesse has been Seen sitting Most Feebly in the Gardens, too Exhausted even to Read, or so it Appeared to the Onlooker. Meanwhile, the Masked Lady was Observed Playing Deep at White's where She lost a Considerable Sum, so it is Said. A Rumour now Sweeps Town that she Is a Bastard of the Duke of Devonshire. Business at Vaux Hall is Picking Up but has not Restored to what it was before the Killing, much to the Chagrin of the Redoubtable Mr Tyers. I fear that I have Seen Neither Sir Gabriel nor Mr Fielding so Cannot Report on their Welfare.

‘If All Fails I had thought of Approaching Your Father as to whether he might Require another Servant, on Behalf of Little Millie, the Girl mentioned Above. Would You Consider that Sir Gabriel would Consider this a Great Imposition? Her Case is Truly a Sad One.