The Circle of Sappho (4 page)

The remainder of the journey was undertaken in silence. The carriage made its way out of the city, up its steep northern slope and onto the expanse that was Lansdown. They drove past the former residence of Henry Gregor-Smith, the man whom Swann had saved from the gallows only a few months before. As good as his word, the author had subsequently moved to the continent and put his gothic novel-writing days behind him. He continued to look out of the carriage window as they travelled along the top of Lansdown and down the other side, into the valley beyond. As the carriage came round one corner, an estate with extensive grounds and a huge lake came into view. The main residence was impressive, but Swann's attention was immediately drawn to the small island situated in the centre of the lake. Instinctively, he knew this estate was where they were headed and that whatever the ‘incident' involved, it had occurred here.

‘I opened the school eleven years ago, Mr Swann. Each year we welcome girls from respectable and distinguished families from all across England and each year the authorities attempt ever more elaborate and ludicrous ways to try and close us down because they do not like what my school represents. As you can see they have not succeeded and I consider their attempts an indication that I must be doing something right in my educational outlook.'

Catherine Jennings looked exactly how she spoke: forthright, determined and readily prepared for an argument.

‘So why have they failed, if you do not mind my asking?' asked Swann. ‘My understanding of such men is that they are not the type easily defeated.'

‘I work hard to ensure we remain open, Mr Swann. Although I can always rely on help from acquaintances in high places,' she said, acknowledging Lady Harriet.

‘And is the crowd at the entrance when we arrived part of their attempts?'

On arriving at the front gates, Lady Harriet's carriage had been met by a small group, the majority of them male, who made a show of protest as they drove through. Although their words were lost between the wind and the carriage's wheels on the gravel, their gestures and expressions showed they were not advocating an endorsement of the school.

‘I have set ideas on the way to educate the girls here and one of those is that they should learn French. A pamphlet has recently been circulated by an author or authors unknown, although it is not hard to assume its origination, which suggests, given we are at war with Napoleon, this is unpatriotic and should be stopped immediately. It is this pamphlet which those outside have responded to with their protest. They call me a traitor. I am a patriot, Mr Swann, but first and foremost I am the guardian of my girls' education and one day this war will end and if the girls have not learnt French, their lives will be the poorer for it. I would be doing a disservice to their parents, who have entrusted their daughters' futures in my hands, if I did anything less. French is, after all, the language of Fénelon, Voltaire and Rousseau.'

‘I wholeheartedly agree with you, Miss Jennings, although I am not familiar with the first of those you mentioned.'

‘Fénelon? His most famous work is the book
Les Aventures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse
, which was published at the end of the seventeenth century. His views on education were ahead of its time and many of his principles I have adopted for my school.'

Swann remained silent for a few moments.

‘Is something wrong, Swann?' asked Lady Harriet.

‘It is just that I have heard of the book Miss Jennings mentioned, but could not remember its author. But as for the reason I am here,' said Swann, now addressing Miss Jennings, ‘Lady Harriet has told me there have been two deaths at the school.'

‘Yes, Miss Leigh, the school's classics teacher and one of the pupils under her tutorage, Miss Grace Templeton, were discovered yesterday afternoon.'

‘Where are their bodies now?'

‘They have been placed in our chapel. Lady Harriet said you might wish to view them before they are taken away.'

Lady Harriet acknowledged Swann's raised eyebrow as Miss Jennings led them through the maze of corridors that made up the main building of the school and outside into a small courtyard. Across the yard was a small chapel, outside of which sat a girl, sitting on a chair and reading. When she saw them, she stood up.

‘This is Elsa Timmins. She is head girl here at the school. The other girls are in lessons but I asked her to be here as a precaution, as the chapel is used for individual prayers if any of the girls so require it.'

Swann nodded his approval.

Miss Jennings addressed the girl. ‘Elsa, can you enquire of cook if the delivery of lamb has been made yet? With that mob outside, I want to make sure it has arrived safely.'

Elsa curtsied and left.

‘What have the girls been told about the deaths?' asked Swann as Miss Jennings opened the chapel door.

‘That it was a boating accident, which is what we also intend to tell the local authorities.'

‘They have not yet been informed?'

Miss Jennings looked towards Lady Harriet.

‘We wanted your opinion before we made any announcement,' said Lady Harriet.

Swann entered the chapel and immediately saw the two bodies laid out on makeshift tables. He moved closer. The teacher was thirty-four, Miss Jennings said, while the girl had turned sixteen the previous year. The latter – Grace – had a beautiful face, Swann observed, with classical features which seemed not to have diminished in death. The older woman, though clearly showing signs of aging, nevertheless retained a youthful exuberance about her person. Swann leaned in to take a better look at a bloodied mark on her forehead.

‘Do you know how this wound happened?' asked Swann.

‘From all indications,' replied Miss Jennings ‘it looks like Miss Leigh killed the girl by stabbing her in the heart, but in the struggle Miss Templeton inflicted that wound with a sharp stone. There are no other wounds on either of the bodies. Miss Leigh then killed herself by taking poison. This was found beside her.'

Miss Jennings handed Swann a small bottle, which had been on a shelf next to the bloodied knife and the stone used to inflict the wound to Miss Leigh's forehead. He took it and held it to his nose. ‘Am I to assume this held the poison?'

‘That is what we believe,' said Miss Jennings.

Swann finished his examination. ‘I cannot see anything which would disagree with what you have told me, but I would like to see the place where the bodies were found,' he said.

Ten minutes later, Swann, Miss Jennings and Lady Harriet were in the middle of the lake, being rowed towards the island by Thomas, the school gardener. Miss Jennings informed Swann that it had been Tom, as everyone called him, who had found the bodies on the island. The wooden boat was just about large enough to carry the four of them but it felt as if the boat might capsize; the motion of the oars moving the craft almost as much from side to side as it did forward. However, they reached the island's small jetty on the far side of the islet, dry and upright.

Tom stepped off the boat and then tied it to a small wooden pillar. Swann followed him onto the jetty and the two men helped the women ashore. Tom requested to stay with the boat, to which Miss Jennings agreed. Swann and the two women made their way to the spot where the bodies had been discovered. It was at the end of one of the many paths and trails that crisscrossed the relatively large island, which was otherwise covered in trees, now starting to bud in the spring air.

They reached the end of the trail and in front of them stood a stone structure. It was about twenty feet high and the same wide, with a pair of Doric columns adorning the entrance.

‘I believe it is a temple dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite,' said Miss Jennings.

‘It cannot be seen from the house,' observed Swann.

‘That is correct. For whatever reason the builder designed it that way. The island is completely isolated and can only be reached by the boat on which we just arrived. One could swim across but the edges of the island are too steep to climb out onto and there are many sharp rocks, deliberately placed, just under the surface of the water. The builder certainly took steps to ensure that the island was difficult to access.'

‘I do not understand,' said Swann. ‘If Miss Leigh had already brought the boat across to the island, how did Tom gain access to it?'

‘He swam across, pulled himself up onto the boat and then stepped onto the jetty and island that way.'

Swann nodded as they went inside the temple. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the change of light but once he became accustomed to it he could see that the interior went back about twice the length of its height and width.

‘Do any of the other teachers or girls come over here?'

‘No, Mr Swann, the island is out of bounds to everyone in the school.'

‘Why do you think Miss Leigh went against your orders and came across?'

‘I assume she wished privacy to carry out her abominable crime, although I still cannot understand why she wanted to kill Grace. On the occasions we discussed the girl's progress, Miss Leigh spoke of her with great regard.'

‘Do you know any reason why anyone else would want them dead?'

‘No one else was involved; of that I am certain.'

‘Miss Jennings,' said Swann, ‘if it was that simple, I am sure my services would not have been engaged to investigate. I would suggest that either you or Lady Harriet believe it to be something else or otherwise …'

‘Swann, if I may,' interrupted Lady Harriet. ‘I asked you here today for your expert judgement in asserting it was as described by Catherine. I am sorry if I misled you to think it was anything else.'

Swann immediately realised Lady Harriet was lying but for the moment remained silent on the matter. Instead he glanced around the temple's interior and said: ‘If I may, I would like a few minutes to look around on my own.'

Lady Harriet nodded.

‘Catherine and I will be at the jetty, once you have finished.'

‘Thank you, Lady Harriet,' replied Swann.

As soon as Lady Harriet and Miss Jennings left the temple, Swann positioned himself in the middle of the room and closed his eyes. He began to imagine the sequence of tragic events, as he had been told them, which had unfolded within it. He could see the two female figures, perhaps sitting or kneeling upon the woven mat that had been used to cover part of the uneven earthen floor. On what pretext had the girl come across to the island with her teacher, knowing it was forbidden. For the moment Swann had to imagine it was through her own free will. It was therefore a harmonious scene, or had at least started that way. Perhaps an argument or a disagreement had taken place and they began to fight. The girl had grabbed one of the stones that lay about the temple and hit out at her teacher, making the cut Swann had observed in the chapel. The teacher then stabbed the girl, killing her instantly. Possibly out of remorse or through the realisation that she would no doubt hang for the crime, she took out the bottle of poison and drank it. There was no suicide note, so he assumed it was not premeditated. Swann opened his eyes and began to apply his ‘system' to the scene; a method of investigation which relied on a series of ‘givens' and the ‘assumptions' deduced through them.

‘I shall begin from here,' Swann said to himself as he stepped outside.

Given that the island could not be accessed by swimming and the boat Tom rowed them across in was the only one in the grounds, or so he had been told, it had to be assumed that no one else was involved. And yet, despite the difficulties and danger swimming entailed, Tom had done exactly that to enable him to discover the bodies. After searching the grounds for the two missing women and finding the boat missing from its usual mooring, on the house side, he had been ordered across by Miss Jennings on her return, with the rest of the school, from church. He had swum across and then managed to haul himself up into the boat, to get onto the jetty. If someone else other than Tom had swum over though, why had they not returned in the boat?

It was still a possibility that someone else was involved in the deaths, but given that a knife and a bottle of poison had been found near the bodies, the assumption had to be made that, whether or not Miss Leigh had decided to kill the girl before coming across to the island, she was certainly prepared for that eventuality. Given that there was no note, Swann was left to assume it had been a spontaneous act. He went back inside the temple and crouched down to look more closely at the bloodstains on the floor and surrounding rocks. They seemed to be conducive with the sequence of events he imagined had occurred. Only one bloodstain seemed out of place. This was near the back of the temple, upon a large rock. It appeared to Swann to be a bloodied handprint, or at least part of one. From what he could determine from its size, it belonged to the girl. Perhaps she had not died straight away but had staggered to the back of the temple before succumbing to her wound. The bodies had been found together on the mat, according to Tom, but perhaps the teacher had brought the girl back there, before killing herself.

Swann's attention was now caught by an object near to where the bodies had been found. It lay discarded, in the shadows. As he picked it up he saw it was a small wooden cup. Had the teacher used it to drink the poison? He lifted the cup to his nose and thought he smelt a familiar aroma of almonds. If it had been used for that purpose, she had sweetened its bitterness with red wine. He placed the cup in his pocket, took another look around the interior and then went to go outside. As he passed through the opening, he saw there was an inscription above the doorway. It was in Latin and he recognised it as being from Virgil's
Aeneid
. It read
Procul, o procul este, profani
– ‘Be gone, be gone you who are uninitiated'.