Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave - Stephanie Barron [105]
3 January 1803
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I SENT FOR MR. CRANLEY EARLY THIS MORNING, AND WAS gratified to see that gentleman arrive with alacrity not an hour later. To stem his apparent disappointment at Fanny Delahoussaye's absence—she was even then standing before Madame Henri, the Bond Street modiste—I bent myself briskly to business.
“Let us talk, Mr. Cranley, of evidence,” I began, closing the study door behind us, the better to guard against a servant's ears. “The presence near the paddock gate of Isobel's handkerchief, we may count as nothing. Any person desiring to throw blame upon the Countess, might readily have obtained her linen, monogrammed as it is, for the purpose; access to her apartments is not even necessary. I myself have observed Isobel leave her kerchiefs behind her wherever she goes.”
Mr. Cranley nodded. “I had assumed as much.”
“And what of Fitzroy Payne? Have you intelligence of his writing habits?” I perched on the edge of a chair, and Mr. Cranley did the same, leaning towards me in his eagerness.
“Your excellent understanding, Miss Austen, is cause for rejoicing,” he began.
“Capital!” I cried, clasping my hands together. “You have learned something to their advantage!”
The barrister nodded. “As you are no doubt aware, Fitzroy Payne was engrossed in resolving the business affairs of his uncle at the time of the maid's murder. He remained closeted in the library for days on end, over a quantity of papers, and much correspondence passed between Lord Scargrave and his London solicitors,”
“Well I remember it. The solicitors appeared at Scargrave immediately upon the Earl's death, but stayed only a few hours; thereafter all matters were conducted by post. And what a quantity of post! Madame Delahoussaye undertook several times to tidy the Earl's library, and was all agog at the mess.”
“According to Lord Scargrave, he never varies from routine in matters of business. In writing a letter, he painstakingly draws up a draft, and then copies it for clarity's sake onto another sheet of paper. It is the final copy which he sends to the recipient.”
“He has copies of all his correspondence?”
“He does. I think it possible that the phrase in question was torn from just such a draft—left lying about the Earl's library desk, to which everyone might have access—and the rest of the sheet destroyed.” The barrister slapped his knees in excitement, and sat back in his chair.
“But how to find the very letter?”
“I am directed to Fitzroy Payne's valet,” Mr. Cranley said, looking about him as though the man were hiding in one of the corners, “who retains a list of the Earl's correspondence, as well as his personal papers. If the draft of a letter is missing, we may discover to whom the final copy was sent, and search for the incriminating phrase in its text.”
I wished to partake of the barrister's evident satisfaction, but a doubt assailed me. “Do we look among the Manor household as you suggest, Mr. Cranley—where any might have access to the Earl's library and his drafts—or must we consider that the letter's recipient might also be the murderer?”
The barrister looked thoughtful at this, and rose restlessly from his chair. “If the maid's murderer received a letter from the Earl containing the incriminating language, he should have no need of a draft; it required only to tear the phrase from the letter itself and send it to the maid. If that is the case, we cannot hope to locate the damaged letter itself.” “But we may learn the murderer's identity, from finding the phrase of the maid's note in a draft of the letter in Danson's possession,” I observed.
Mr. Cranley beamed at me in approval. “If, however, the murderer is a member of the household—who searched among the Earl's drafts, and tore the incriminating phrase from the page—then the draft itself should be absent from Danson's collection.”
“This cannot show the Earl's innocence,” I mused, “but it may demonstrate that anyone familiar with the household—and Fitzroy Payne's habits of correspondence—might readily have secured a sample of his handwriting,