James, twisting a brandy glass between his fingers, was the first to speak. ‘If we can believe Campbell, and it seems a strange thing for him to make up, Inish Kumar visited Lord Tillingham on Friday. That fits in with Adrien’s account of an irregular connection of the family calling and Tillingham telling him something of it on Saturday. If Campbell is telling the truth, Kumar and the Viscount had an argument, with Kumar laying down an ultimatum of some kind. On the Saturday Tillingham made the codicil about the inheritance of the lands the Colonel had left to his son and took the opportunity to add the bequest for Adrien: presumably he had been impressed by his concern, or his tact, or both.
r /> ‘Clearly he was a meticulous man who left nothing to chance,’ he added. ‘A more careless or relaxed person would have put off updating their will until they next saw their solicitor. It must have been one of the last things that he did.’
‘Did he do it at knifepoint?’ I wondered. ‘Perhaps Kumar came to the window on Sunday and was let in. Tillingham wrote the document, then Kumar killed him?’
‘Why should he, if he had what he wanted, what was owed to him?’
‘True. And I can’t be right,’ I realised, seeing another flaw in my own argument. ‘The codicil reads as though Tillingham had not yet seen the documentary proof of Kumar’s parentage. If he had, surely he would be making notes about the transfer of the property, not updating his will? Besides, he is hardly likely to have thought about a bequest for Adrien if he had a knife at his throat.’
‘Or,’ Luc said slowly, ‘What if Kumar came again on the Sunday evening but still did not have all the proofs on him? He is standing there, large as life, physically so like the other men in the family that Tillingham could have had no doubt that Inish is a cousin, and yet Tillingham is being awkward about the surrender. He has written the codicil on the Saturday, before Kumar’s return, hence the careful wording and the bequest to Adrien. He was meticulous and fussy, we are told. What if he is unconvinced that Kumar is the only son of his Uncle Archibald? Perhaps Kumar doesn’t trust him and thinks Tillingham’s reluctance to confirm the inheritance is because he intends defrauding him?’
‘And Kumar, angry with him, stabs him,’ I said. ‘It seems extreme, although he may have been at the end of his tether. He has lost his father, he has had to travel across the globe to a completely strange country and is greeted with pettifogging caution. He has no reason to know that Tillingham is an honourable man who would not try and defraud him. We know, because the codicil was found, that Tillingham was not willing to release the property until he had seen the proofs.’
‘And another thing,’ Garrick said. ‘We know Tillingham had strict principles. He was harsh on Campbell because his offence was committed on a Sunday and he gave up his mistress because he believed a married man should not have irregular liaisons. What if he insulted Kumar’s mother, treated him to a lecture about his father’s immorality and association with what he termed a loose woman?’
‘That might well push a man to violence,’ Luc agreed. ‘We need a word with Mr Kumar. I wonder where he is lodging?’
‘Adrien will know, I imagine. And the solicitors. We can find out tomorrow,’ James said. He got up and poured out more brandy all round.
‘So we now have a stronger case against Campbell, in that he fled on seeing Garrick and clearly has a very uneasy conscience.’ I added to the evidence boards and stood back to consider the result. ‘And Kumar becomes, not so much a stronger suspect, as a more complex one. This seems more complicated the harder we look at it.’
‘I will take Campbell back to London tomorrow, if I may have the use of a carriage,’ Garrick said. ‘I’ll hand him over to Sir William.’
‘How long can he keep hold of him, just on suspicion?’ I asked, thinking about habeas corpus. ‘We are a long way from any evidence for a trial and we just can’t have him locked up indefinitely while we find out who the killer is.’
‘He attacked you,’ Garrick pointed out. ‘He held a knife to your throat and I imagine you have a few bruises to show for the way he seized you. If you write a statement – and James and Luc do as well – and I take that with me, then Sir William has every justification for charging him with assault, bringing him into court and detaining him. I am a witness, even if the rest of you are out of Town.’
‘It would be as well to check with the butler about Kumar’s visit to St James’s Square,’ Luc said thoughtfully. ‘We only have Campbell’s word for what happened. Even if it is entirely the truth, other servants may have overheard, or seen, something more.’
‘Then I’ll bid you all goodnight and go and speak to the head groom about a carriage for tomorrow, early,’ Garrick said, standing up. ‘I will break my fast on the road.’
I kissed his cheek. ‘Give my love to Carola.’
We all retired, worn out by a thoroughly uncomfortable day. ‘I could quite happily live without combining a wake and a fight ever again,’ I remarked to Luc as we fell into bed. By unspoken agreement we curled together comfortably and simply cuddled.
After a bit I wriggled up against the pillows, tired, but too full of adrenaline to sleep. ‘May I ask you something very personal? I’ll understand if you don’t want to talk about it.’
Luc came up on one elbow and narrowed his eyes at me in the candlelight. ‘Ask.’
‘I have trouble understanding about marriages in the ton,’ I said, not quite knowing what it was I wanted to ask, or how to put it. ‘In my time various cultures still arrange marriages, but it is not something within my experience, so I am struggling to understand the nuances. Now, here in this time, there seems to be this strange mixture of young ladies being out in Society and mixing with men, becoming acquainted with them – and yet they are not expected to fall in love. Instead their matches are made for family advancement – status, connections, land, wealth.’
‘Yes,’ Luc agreed. He seemed puzzled.
‘So what if a couple fall in love?’
‘They attempt to persuade her father, or they elope, or they resign themselves to being apart.’
I nodded. That was how I saw the possibilities. ‘But take Miss Jordan. No-one is suggesting that she loved Lord Tillingham. It was a suitable, arranged, marriage. Yes? But now he is dead, so she is available again. Her dowry receives a boost in the form of a generous bequest and, all of a sudden, two young men she has known from childhood perk up and take an interest.’
Luc still clearly had no idea what I was getting at. ‘So how does she feel?’ I persisted. ‘How does she react?’
He sat up, shoulder to shoulder with me, the better to shrug, it seemed. ‘I have no idea how she feels. I suppose the young men in question might have been interested before, but knew better than to set themselves up as rivals to the head of the family. Now they think they may have an opportunity of fixing their interest with her before the next Season when she will again be within the orbit of more eligible, titled men.’ He shifted to look at me. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘I’m not sure. It was just overhearing them at the funeral meats. The attitude of Adrien’s two older cousins jarred with me. They vaguely acknowledged that Arabella might be upset, but all they focused on was her prospects as a bride for themselves. And Jerald seems unhappy,’ I added, not certain what that had to do with any of this.
‘And why should I mind answering questions about the matter?’
‘Because your marriage was not a love match, was it? Did you really know your wife before you wed?’