Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave - Stephanie Barron [115]
5 January 1803, cont.
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Before bidding adieu to the Horse Guards, I ENQUIRED of Colonel Buchanan where the Lieutenant's batman, Jack Lewis, might be found, and he had the fellow brought to his rooms—vacating them, in his goodness, when Eliza explained that we were about an errand of my lady's maid. That I had no lady's maid, she did not see fit to advise the Colonel; and so he remained in the dark as to our true purpose, as indeed he had been from the moment of our arrival.
“Miss Austen!” Jack Lewis cried, bouncing in the door with little ceremony; and turning to Eliza, had the grace to bow, though he permitted himself a low whistle. Had I not prepared her for his eccentric behaviour; she should assuredly have been disconcerted; but my cousin only smiled and inclined her head, and the batman looked tome.
“Jack at your service, miss, and ‘opin’ as you've a kind word for my mate Tom. Perishin’ with love, ‘e is,” he confided to Eliza with a wink.
“I am come to enquire about an errand I believe you did for the Lieutenant,” I told him, “in which I am concerned.”
“Ask away, miss,” said he merrily.
“It was you who retrieved the maid Marguerite's belongings from Lizzy Scratch, was it not?”
Whatever the batman had expected, it was hardly this. Jack Lewis appeared to have been struck a blow, and stepped back a pace, before recovering.
“I did,” he said, his jaw suddenly tight.
“And did you observe among her things a gold pendant locket, such as she might have worn about her neck?”
There was a silence, and Tom Hearst's man shuffled his feet.
“Lizzy Scratch has told me that she gave it to you, Jack, but when I received the maid's things from the Lieutenant for posting to the Barbadoes, the locket was not among them. Is it possible your master took it?”
“‘e'd never do such a thing!” the batman spat out, his expression gone from that of a cheerful monkey to a dangerous cat.
“Then I am left with only one possibility,” I said, “and that is that you took the locket yourself.”
He threw up his hands in an expression of disgust. “Lizzy Scratch don't know where ‘er brats are, of an evening, much less a bit of finery. Since when's ‘er word been worth so much?”
“Lizzy Scratch was especially careful in this case,” I replied, “because murder had been done. She believed that similar evil might befall her, did she keep any of the maid's things.”
He looked in desperation at Eliza, but received only her dazzling smile; and then something in his face changed. “I'll not have you thinking as it was the Lieutenant,” he said, “and I only took what was mine in the first place.”
“You'd given the locket to the girl?”
“When we was courtin’, last summer it was, in London. It was on account of me, and my past with the maid, that the Lieutenant thought to fetch up ‘er things the day she died.” For a moment only, Jack Lewis's voice broke; and then again he recovered. “Right afraid, old Tom was, that there'd be somethin’ as would lead the magistrate straight to me. My Lieutenant's a loyal man, I'll grant ‘im that.” He sat down upon one of Colonel Buchanan's chairs and put his head in his hands.
“Had you seen Marguerite since your arrival at Scargrave?” I asked the batman gently.
Jack Lewis raised a sober face and met my eyes unflinchingly. “I used to send a bit o’ note by ‘er, and we'd visit in the ‘ay-shed. But Lord bless me, I never slit ‘er throat, miss. I'd never a done that. Margie weren't a bad sort, for all ‘er ferrin’ ways; just lonely, like, and grateful for a bit'uv a cuddle.”
“So you hastened to Lizzy Scratch on the day of the maid's death, and made away with the locket.”
Jack Lewis nodded once and averted his gaze. “Could'a knocked me over with a feather when I sees it still among ‘er things, and my face clear as a candle inside. Thought they'd haul me up for murder, I did—so's I put it in me pocket, and said no more about it.”
“i must say,