Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave - Stephanie Barron [32]
“She is a very foolish girl,” I finished lamely.
“Aha. So you say,” the magistrate muttered dubiously, and folded the paper away in his waistcoat. “You were present at the Earl's death, I believe?”
“Not at the moment of his passing, but I observed some part of his illness.”
“And what did you conclude?”
I hesitated, and the pause revealed me as less certain of matters than I would wish.
“Come, come, Jane!” Sir William chided. “You are not a blushing girl, given to airs and sighs; you have your wits about you, as I've always approved, and are readier than any I know to form a judgment when the facts stare you in the face. Was it a death you could ascribe to natural causes?” “In truth, sir, I must own it was not, though the physician would have it otherwise,” I told him. “The violence of the Earl's illness was Such as I had never witnessed, except under the influence of a deadly purgative.”
“Indeed,” Sir William said softly. “Indeed. And yet they called it dyspepsia. I had a few bad moments myself in hearing the news of Frederick's death; I swore off claret for a twelvemonth, though my resolve lasted but two days. The suddenness of his passing shook me. It disturbed you as well?”
“I cannot deny it, though I alone of the Scargrave household felt apprehension.”
“That is hardly to be remarked, my dear,” Sir William said dryly. “You alone had nothing to inherit.”
I STOPPED IN SIR WILLIAMS HOUSEHOLD LONG ENOUGH TO greet his dear lady, to hear her news of three daughters and four sons long claimed by marriage and profession, exclaim over the domestic arrangements of her new home, and offer what intelligence of my circle in Bath it was in my power to convey. Then Sir William very kindly ordered his carriage to the door once more, against the protests of his wife, who would have had me stop the night rather than venture out again in such weather.
“It takes more than snow to hinder our Jane,” Sir William said fondly, as he handed me into the carriage. “I shall communicate with you directly I receive the letter.”
The last sight of his bare white head, starred with falling flakes like a Saint Nicholas of old, was to be my comfort the length of that solitary return to Scargrave. It is much, indeed, to have a friend down the lane, when a murderer may be among the household.
1. This letter, presumably the one in which Jane imparted the news of the Earl's death to her sister, is no longer contained in the journal.—Editor's note.
2. Three London courts heard common-law cases—King's Bench, the Exchequer, and Common Pleas. A King's Bench barrister would try criminal cases; an Exchequer barrister, disputes over money (customs duties, taxes, fines) owed the Crown, and a Common Pleas barrister, small claims.—Editor's note.
3. Because solicitors brought cases to barristers for trial, and collected the fee as a “gratuity” in thanks for the barristers’ efforts, solicitors were considered tradesmen while barristers preserved their status as gentlemen. The same distinction prevailed between physicians—educated professionals who could be received at Court—and surgeons, village doctors who could not.—Editor's note.
16 December 1802
˜
I WAS ENGAGED BY MY JOURNAL WELL INTO THE EVENING last night, tucked up in my sombre room with the fire burned low and all the house, as I thought, abed; but sleep remained elusive, though the great clock in the hall below would chime eleven, and then the quarter- and the half-hour. I determined at the last to snuff out my candle and attempt to find some rest, though the doubts and fears that have occupied my waking hours would fill my head with a riotous clamour.
I had consigned the room to dark, and placed my head upon the pillow, when the clock struck midnight; and as the final toll died away, I heard a rhythmic creaking, as of a measured pacing, commence along the floorboards of the gallery beyond my door. The sound—unremarkable in daylight—caused me now to stiffen with apprehension and bate my breath. It was the very height of the witching hour, when dread comes easy