Silence in Hanover Close - Anne Perry [125]
Five minutes later they were curled up, feet under them, on Emily’s bed, sharing the biscuits and sipping hot cocoa. Emily began to gossip.
It took ten minutes before she could bring up the subject of Dulcie’s death.
“Whatever was she doing leaning out of the window?” she said, eating the last biscuit. “Do you suppose she was calling to someone?”
“Nah!” Fanny said scornfully. “If’n there’d bin anybody there, they’d ’a said, wouldn’t they? I mean, nobody saw ’er fall! Anyway, she weren’t like that.”
“What do you mean?” Emily affected innocence.
“Well ...” Fanny hunched her shoulders in a shrug. “She weren’t a flirt. She were sort o’—proper. Quiet like.”
“And nobody saw her at all?” Emily said incredulously.
“It were dark! She fell out some time in the evening. We was all inside.”
Emily gazed at her. “How do you know? Do you know where everyone was?”
Fanny screwed up her face. “Well, we would be, wouldn’t we? Where else would anyone be on a wet night in the middle o’ winter?”
“Oh.” Emily sat back against the thin pillow. “I thought maybe you actually knew where everyone was: at supper in the kitchen, or in the servants hall.”
“No one knows when she fell out,” Fanny explained patiently. “Any’ow, she were there at supper wiv us ’erself.”
“You mean—” Emily opened her eyes wider. “You mean she fell during the night? What was the last time anyone saw her?”
“Edith said good night to ’er ’baht ’alf nine,” Fanny replied, thinking hard. “Me an’ Prim was playin’ cards. Dulcie weren’t feelin’ that special, so it must ’a bin after that, mustn’t it?”
“But that doesn’t make sense!” Emily persisted. “Why should she be leaning out of a window during the night? You don’t think—” She took a deep bream and waited. “You don’t think she had someone climbing in?”
“Oh no!” Fanny’s shock was genuine and profound. “Not Dulcie! You mean a—a follower? Never! Not ’er, she weren’t...” Her little face set in practical lines. “Any’ow, if’n yer was going to ’ave a follower in the ’ouse, yer wouldn’t ’ave the poor soul climb up no drainpipe to an attic winder; yer’d creep down an’ let ’im in the scullery door, wouldn’t yer? She weren’t daft! But she weren’t loose neither.” She finished the last of the cocoa and looked at Emily over the rim of her cup, then automatically pushed her hair out of her eyes. “Know what I reckon, Amelia?”
Emily was agog, leaning forward to urge her on. “What?”
Fanny’s voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “I reckon as she saw summink the night Mr. Robert were murdered, and someone came back an’ murdered ’er, in case she told that rozzer as was ’ere askin’!”
Emily breathed out in a careful sigh of amazement. “Oh Fanny! You could be right! You think there was a break-in?”
Fanny shook her head vigorously. “No, there weren’t—we’d ’a known. Mr. Redditch is most partic’lar, ’specially after there were that terrible robbery when Mr. Robert were murdered. All the doors and winders is looked ter special every night afore ’e goes ter bed ’isself. ’Im or Albert goes over every one.”
“Well, could anyone have got in before that?” Emily asked eagerly.
“Nah!” Fanny smiled at her innocence. “ ’Ow? There’s only the front door, an’ yer can’t come in that ’less someone opens it for yer; and the back door’d mean ’e ’ad ter come through the kitchen, and there’s always people there, Cook or Mary at least, an’ on a night wiv guests, near all of us.”
“Who were the guests that night? Do you know?”
“The two Danver gentlemen and the ladies, Miss ’arriet and the old Miss Danver, an’ Mr. and Mrs. Asherson. ’E’s ever so ’andsome, Mr. Asherson, in a sort o’ broodin’ way. I know Nora’s always on about ’im. I reckon as she’s got a fancy for ’im rotten!” She sniffed, unconsciously imitating the housekeeper’s tone. “Silly little article! What’d she get out of it, ’ceptin’ misery?”
“Then it must have been someone already in