“He usually eats nuncheon at this hour.” Andrew shrugged. “He’s probably in his shed at the back. You can go round and see if you wish.”
Mr. Burnham nodded to the hired men, who slid down from their horses and went to find the gardener.
“Do you recall what time you last saw Allerton yesterday afternoon?” Mr. Langford asked.
“My gardener?” Andrew repeated stupidly for the third time, and Diana winced for him. “I have no idea of his comings and goings. Why would I?”
“Would the rest of your staff know?”
“The maid is normally indoors. There’s no one else.”
The constables looked at one another.
“How’s that in a place this size, Lord Birks?”
“I’m just back from India,” Andrew said irritably. “I’ve had no time to spend on domestics. I was expecting to get married and have my wife arrange such things.”
“Not a question of money?”
“How dare you, Sir!” Andrew shouted. “You come to my house, you make wild accusations, and you insult my honour with slurs about my financial situation!”
“John McCready, Jim Sutton, Harry Bluefield,” Jacob named three of the very serious men to whom Lord Birks owed very serious money.
Edmund added the names of the institutions and money lenders holding the mortgages on the Birks’s properties.
Ashen-faced, Andrew fell silent.
“What do you want?” he asked hoarsely. “You know I can’t pay them. Especially not without her money.” A jerk of his head indicated Diana.
Suddenly, Lady Birks appeared in the doorway, her appearance, as always, making Diana’s heart fall and guilt rise in her throat.
“Andrew? What’s going on out there? Who are these people?”
Looking quickly over the group and seeing Edmund, Jacob, and Diana amongst them, she made herself smile in welcome.
“I think you’d better come in.”
ChapterSeventeen
Ordering their maid to make a large tray of tea, Lady Birks brought the party into the library, suggesting that it would also be the best place for them to interrogate Allerton. Her son followed her back into the house, his face sulky and full of resentful glances towards Diana.
Apologizing briefly for the distress he might cause, Mr. Langford stated the facts in the case including Lord Birks’s debts and the sighting of the armed gardener at the lakeside.
“Oh, dear Andrew! Of course I knew that he had a weakness for gambling, but I never knew that it was this bad. My main hope has been that the love of a good woman might save him. When he marries Diana—”
“The wedding’s off, Mater,” Andrew interrupted gruffly. “Percy’s cancelled it. They all think I had something to do with his accident.”
Now, Henrietta looked stunned. She shot Diana the worst expression of betrayed sympathy and violated trust.
“No! You can’t possibly do that to my poor boy. Not when he needs you so much. Not after all that I’ve done for you…”
As Allerton was marched into the library between the hired men, Lady Birks fell silent, pulling herself back together in front of them.
“Well, Allerton, I hope you have something to say for yourself. The constables report that you were at the lake on the Fernside estate yesterday afternoon and that you shot Lord Greene, causing a bad accident.”
“I wasn’t there, My lady,” Allerton said.
“I say you were,” Edmund snapped, looking the man in the eye. “You were wearing the same clothes and carrying a rifle. I saw you myself.”