Murder at Mansfield Park - Lynn Shepherd [72]
O’Hara gave him a look he could not at first decipher. ‘You could say that, I suppose.When she was wit’ her family she was like a different person. Then it was all “Yes Sir Thomas”, “No, Sir Thomas”, “Three bags full, Sir Thomas”. Eyes always down, that prim mouth of hers set in plaits.’
‘Indeed?’ said Maddox, wondering, not for the first time, at the verbal ingenuity of the Irish. ‘How very interesting, Hannah. And which, would you say, was the real Miss Fanny?’
O’Hara gave a short laugh. ‘Mine, to be sure! She might ’a looked as if butter wouldn’t melt, but I’ve seen the looks she gave Miss Maria, when she thought she’d stole that Mr Rushworth from her. We all thought as it were him she ran off with, but it seems it must ‘a been someone else entirely.’
‘You have no suspicion of who that might have been?’
O‘Hara drained her glass, and put it down; her cheeks were somewhat flushed. ‘If it ’a been me, I’d ’a gone off with that Mr Crawford as soon as look at him. He’s a fine gentleman, and no mistake.’
‘But since Mr Crawford was not in the neighbourhood at the time—’
O’Hara shrugged her shoulders. ‘All I can say is she definitely meant to meet someone that morning. That pelisse she was wearing? It was the best she had, and she had some beautiful things. She wouldn’t ’a worn that for a walk in a muddy garden with no-one round to see.’
Maddox nodded thoughtfully; Mary Crawford had made a similar observation, but it had taken this girl’s rude simplicity to make its full meaning manifest. He decided it was time to question her more minutely on the matter in hand.
‘Do you know of anyone who might have wished Miss Fanny harm?’
O’Hara’s eyes widened in alarm. ‘Killed her, you mean? I can’t tell you any thing about that—I don’t know nothing about it, and that’s God’s honest truth.’
Maddox cursed himself; terror would only petrify her into silence. ‘No, no, do not fret about that. I only wish to know the real state of things between Miss Fanny and her relations.’
O’Hara gave him a narrow look. ‘I suppose there’s no harm in telling what everyone here knows—’
‘No, indeed, Hannah, and especially when it is what everyone knows, but no-one will say. No-one in the family, that is.’
O’Hara gave him a penetrating glance. ‘They didn’t know the half of it. Not Sir Thomas and her ladyship, anyways. It always looked peaceful and good humoured enough on the surface, but underneath it was a different story, make no mistake about it. At least as far as the young ladies was concerned. Miss Fanny had a cunning way of her own of causing quarrels without seeming to, if you take my meaning. And as soon as Miss Maria set her cap at Mr Rushworth, well, you can just imagine what Miss Fanny thought ’a that—I think it truly was the first time in the whole course of her life that she’d ever wanted some thing and not got it at the first time of asking. The bickerings that man caused! Miss Maria did what she could to stand her ground, but she never had cat’s chance—Miss Fanny would bawl at her like a trollop when they were out of hearing of the rest of the family, however dainty and demure she made sure to look in the drawing-room.’
O’Hara sat back in her chair, and eyed Maddox in a conspiratorial manner. ‘If you ask me, some thing happened on that jaunt to Compton. I can’t tell you as to what, but every thing changed after that and it weren’t just the news about Sir Thomas.You see if I’m not wrong.’
Maddox did not rise to the bait. ‘And what about Mr Norris—how did he feel about all this?’ he continued.
O’Hara did not appear to be particularly interested in Mr Norris. ‘Oh, you never could tell, with him. He’s a deep one—keeps his feelings to hisself. But one of the footmen saw what happened when he got back from Cumberland the first time and caught Miss Fanny and Mr Rushworth at that play rehearsal. She was in his arms, so Williams said. Almost kissing, he said. Not at all what a man like Mr Norris would have