“I was working in the garden here as you well know, My lady.”
“How should I know?” Lady Birks said distastefully. “I do not keep an inventory of your comings and goings. All I know is that His Grace saw you at the lake and that my son’s life may now be ruined because you have brought this house into disrepute for some unknown reason.”
“I was here, My lady, all afternoon and all evening,” the man insisted sullenly.
“I say you’re lying,” Edmund pressed again. “You know you were there. You saw me as clearly as I saw you, and I’m willing to swear that in a court of law, Mr. Allerton.”
“Christ!” Andrew muttered, and everyone turned to see him helping himself from a decanter behind the large globe in the corner. “If Allerton was seen there and has no alibi, why doesn’t he damned well say so and put an end to this? It’s pointless denying it, man!”
“My son is quite right, Mr. Allerton.” Lady Birks went to Andrew’s side and put the decanter back in the cupboard. Her hand delved into her pocket for something, presumably the cabinet key to lock away alcohol from her son. “You should speak up, or it will go worse for you. Perhaps it’s all a misunderstanding and you were there to fish without asking permission?”
Edmund made a scornful sound as Lady Birks filled a small silver sugar bowl from a plain brown paper packet in readiness for the tea.
“That’s hardly the most obvious use for a rifle,” he noted as the maid brought in a fully equipped tea tray with shaking hands and set it down by Lady Birks, leaving quickly at her mistress’s nod.
“I was here all afternoon,” Allerton maintained. “I do what I’m paid for, don’t I?”
“What’s that then?” Mr. Burnham asked. “I am curious about what you are paid for, given the state of the gardens.”
Allerton looked at him tight-lipped and then glanced almost fearfully towards where Lord Birks and his mother stood.
“What do you pay him for, Lord Birks?” Mr. Burnham directed his question towards the employer rather than the employee.
“My gardener?!” Andrew reiterated blankly.
“Oh, take him away, Constables,” Lady Birks said irritably now. “Whatever Allerton’s reasons for firing that gun at the lakeside yesterday, it has nothing to do with my son. You’d have more chance of understanding his reasons than I.”
Edmund, Mr. Langford, and Mr. Burnham conferred quietly together for a few moments before Mr. Burnham and the hired men removed Allerton from the room, presumably away to the town jail.
Lady Birks poured tea for Andrew and the others in the room, adding milk or sugar as requested. She left Diana until last, adding a large spoon of sugar from the silver bowl and passing the drink to her with a martyred smile.
Diana did not like sweet drinks but thanked her aunt and took the cup.
“I do not blame you, Diana,” Lady Birks murmured with great sorrow and sympathy. “Doubtless you and Percy really believe that wild story of Andrew somehow conspiring with a man like Allerton…”
She watched Diana intently as she spoke, but her stare and her certainty failed to have their usual paralyzing effects this time.
“I am only saddened that you could not talk to me or even wait for the investigation before abandoning us,” she continued. “We have always been there for your family, through thick and thin. Now I see that I was duped in the return of our affection.”
“There are too many things unexplained, Aunt Henrietta,” Diana said. “If you knew anything about Andrew’s debts, why didn’t you tell me or my family? Neither of you should have kept this secret.”
“Oh you ungrateful child!” her aunt admonished, her face now becoming tearful and her voice weakening. “Do you think you’d be the only woman to marry a man with a few secrets? Every man has a past, but his wife ensures his future. Andrew’s future should have been brilliant, and you should have been a part of it. But now, that’s all over for both of you.”
As Henrietta hid her face in her handkerchief, her son put a comforting hand on her shoulder and looked angrily at Diana.
“Now look what you’ve done! You have no idea how upset Mater has been since yesterday.”
“The least you can do is drink your tea,” her aunt said before the handkerchief came up again. “Or is that not good enough for you either?”
Edmund’s hand came swiftly to Diana’s aid before she could raise the cup to her lips. He poured the over-sweetened tea into a pot plant and replaced the cup on her saucer without a word. His hand caressed her shoulder briefly.
When Lady Birks’s handkerchief came down again, she at least seemed satisfied by the empty cup, although there was also new anger in her eyes. Diana suspected she had seen Edmund’s hand on her shoulder and guessed at its meaning.
“Where’s Kitty?” Diana asked as the others drank their tea.
“You won’t see Kitty again,” Lady Birks snapped. “If you reject Andrew, you reject all of us. You should know that.”
“Then I’d like to say goodbye to her before I go,” Diana said.