“One for which I am grateful,” Percival added. “Although I did not anticipate recent events.”
There was a general chuckle at that.
“What shall we do now?” Constable Brooks asked him. “Some ancient mysteries have been explained, and we now know a great deal that we did not know as recently as this morning.”
“I think,” Percival said, “That I would like to hear more about what happened the day that I was injured. We have interrupted Sophie’s account.”
Sophie twisted her fingers together, looking frightened and alone. Tiffany stood up, and went to her, placing an arm around her shoulders. “It will be all right,” she said. “Just tell us what happened.”
Chapter 62
Sophie swallowed hard and began to speak. “There isn’t much more to tell. I knew where Tiffany kept her knife. It was under her pillow, so it only took a minute to get it, and put it on the tea tray. Then I did what Lord Ronald and Jones told me to do. I went downstairs and told Tiffany that Lord Northbury wanted to see her. She was puzzled, of course, and took a minute to make herself presentable before going up. Next thing I knew, she was screaming fit to bring down the house. I am so sorry, Tiffany. I never meant nobody to get hurt.” Sophie then looked across the room to Lord Northbury. “I didn’t mean for you to get hurt, honest, I did not.”
“We believe you,” Lord Northbury said. “But the real question now becomes what happened between the time that Sophie left the room and Tiffany arrived.”
“Clearly, one of the guttersnipe’s cronies sneaked in, hit you over the head and tried to kill you,” Lord Ronald said firmly. “I told you from the outset that hiring criminals would bring you to a bad end. No doubt, she made some arrangement with Jones to balance out having taken over his job in the kitchen.”
At this, Jones began to make odd sounds. From her vantage point standing next to Sophie, Tiffany realized that Jones was laughing.
“I think you should allow Mr. Jones to speak,” she said.
“Why would we wish to listen to a criminal and a bad cook?” Lord Ronald asked. “Clearly, he suborned the maid. Who knows why he harmed my nephew?”
The tall watchman and the stocky one marched Jones to the front of the room. “Oh, no you don’t, Lord Ronald,” Jones snarled at him. “I’m already damned, but I’ll not go down alone. You were the one who directed me to cosh Lord Northbury and stab him with the knife I would find under the tea cloth. It is no fault of mine that the filthy thing had a tricky clasp and tried to fold up. But maybe that’s a good thing, else Lord Northbury would be singin’ with the angels now.”
“You admit to attacking Lord Northbury?” Constable Brooks asked.
“I admit to following orders,” Jones said. “I’d tried for two years to carry him off by natural means, but it just didn’t work. Then when that fool girl came in an’ started making bread an’ I don’t know what all, it just all came apart at the seams.”
“But why would you do that?” Lord Northbury seemed bewildered. “You were paid a good wage.”
“Oh, you have no idea. You paid me, Lord Ronald paid me, and I paid Miz Bentley cover up money to hide the girl. Imagine how surprised I was to find Tiffany in my kitchen after I thought she was lost and gone for good, two years agone. With her out of the way, and the younger son presumed dead, it was only a matter of time before that ragtag band of servants wouldn’t be able to pay the taxes, and Lord Ronald would be able to step in and claim it for a song.”
“You did what?” Tiffany exclaimed, her grip on Sophie tightening. She loosened her hold when she felt Sophie wince. “Why would Lord Ronald want it, anyway?”
“You heard me. Did you really think no one would know who you were?”
“Well, I certainly didn’t know,” Tiffany said. “How could anyone else know?”
Constable Brooks intervened. “As to that, please allow me to introduce Mr. Everette. He was Mr. Bentley’s solicitor, and had in his files a copy of the will that detailed the disposal of the bakery. It contains some interesting, but perhaps not entirely surprising, information.”
“Another commoner,” Lord Ronald scoffed. “Really, I need to get my nephew away from the influence of these people.” He made a move toward Lord Northbury, but found his way blocked by Lord Nevard.
“I would not if I were you,” Lord Nevard remonstrated gently. “I suggest we gain information from Mr. Bentley’s solicitor. Mr. Everette, will you please share your findings?”
The solicitor stepped to the front of the room, and opened the folder, holding it delicately. “Inasmuch as there are many persons here without a great understanding of legal vocabulary, I will summarize. Mr. Henry Bentley, realizing that he was gravely ill and that his wife had little understanding of business, came to me to make arrangements for her and for his adopted daughter. The girl was to have ownership of the bakery, and she was to care for her foster mother.”
“Mrs. Bentley, having no understanding of how to run a bakery or of legal matters, thought the girl to be a worthless apprentice who would run away at the first chance. When I learned that the woman’s property was being sold to pay her debts, I stepped in to claim the building for my client before it could be sold. Unfortunately, by that time most of the goods within it had been auctioned off. There being no money and no girl, I saw no choice but to allow the widow to be sent to the poorhouse.”
“The bakery was mine? That wasn’t just something Mrs. Bentley thought up when she was sick?”
At that Jones really began to laugh. “Oh, this is just too rich. Too, too rich. Which was what I was going to be, with all that Lord Ronald was paying me. Until you showed back up.”
Lord Northbury stood, and slowly approached Jones. “What did he pay you to do, Jones?”
“Say nothing, Jones,” Lord Ronald interjected. “My solicitor—”
“Will do nothing,” Mr. Everette said. “He is fully aware of the consequences of giving assistance, even to a peer, who has conspired to murder. He and I consulted this very morning, and he is appalled by the turn of events.”
