“The letter.”
Myles froze and stared at him.
Isaac whirled around and glared at his uncle, his face a mix of confused emotions changed his classical features constantly between gut-wrenching grief to wild-eyed fury supported by a wary glaze of confusion.
“If someone has brought us all together to pick us off one by one then they are going to have a fight on their hands,” Isaac seethed. “How could anybody do this?”
“I don’t know,” Barnabas murmured, his voice hardening. “But we will find out.”
“Look at him! He has been murdered,” Isaac shouted. Suddenly, a thought popped into his hea
d. His eyes widened as he stared at his uncle. “They have to still be in this house somewhere, don’t they?” he whispered.
Myles opened his mouth to speak but was prevented from saying anything when Isaac turned spiteful eyes on Estelle. “You are a new face here.”
Myles stepped forward. “Now, it isn’t fair to cast aspersions without facts,” he snapped.
“I will damned well cast any aspersions I want to, cousin, especially seeing that nothing like this has ever happened to anyone in this house before. This woman turns up and suddenly one of us dies. It’s a bit of a coincidence, don’t you think?”
Estelle began to shake her head but didn’t get the chance to speak before Myles stepped in to defend her.
“Estelle was knocked over by me last night, Isaac. I ran her over with my curricle. She got chased out of the Whispering Woods by some people in cloaks,” Myles explained. “You know that.”
“Did you send the letters?” Barnabas interrupted.
Isaac glared at him, outraged at such a preposterous idea. “Of course I bloody didn’t. What the Hell do you take me for?”
“Well, someone sent them. I certainly didn’t, and neither did Myles seeing as he got drawn back here all the way from London. Beatrice had plans as well so she couldn’t have sent them,” Barnabas explained. “So did your father, so he wouldn’t have sent them either. That leaves you.”
“Estelle wasn’t anywhere near the house and has been injured herself. She is here because it isn’t safe for her to be in the village,” Myles said but was unsure who he was talking to because Isaac wasn’t listening, and Barnabas and Estelle knew that already.
“We have to assume that someone wanted Myles and Beatrice back for a reason, most probably the same reason they wanted Gerald here as well,” Barnabas warned. “Unfortunately, that makes you suspicious, Isaac. You knew what everyone’s plans were because we all talked about them the week before last as a matter of fact.”
“Don’t be so bloody ridiculous,” Isaac snorted, the contempt in his voice leaving nobody in any doubt as to his sentiments.
“I am not accusing you,” Barnabas hastened to add when the look in Isaac’s face became coldly furious. “I am just suggesting that everyone in this house could look suspicious if one considers them too closely. Now, I agree that Estelle’s appearance today does look convenient given what has happened but we need to look at everybody, including the servants, not just a few.”
Isaac opened his mouth to argue but knew his uncle was right. “He is my father,” he lamented after several moments of silence. “I don’t understand it.”
“We will find out who did this,” Myles assured him. “Storm or not they will go to Bodmin.”
Isaac glared at him with dazed eyes. “But how? How do we go about finding out who stabbed my father in the back? What a cowardly thing to do. I mean, fighting with someone is one thing. Doing something reckless with your own life is another. But to stab someone while their back is turned is the most cowardly act of spite I think I have ever known.”
“I agree, but there are more of us than them, and I use the term ‘them’ meaning one person as opposed to two or maybe three,” Barnabas warned.
“It is also safe to say that whoever did this could still be in the house,” Myles warned.
“We need to search it.” Isaac stormed across the room and almost reached the door, but Myles stopped him.
“You two go, I will stay here with the body,” Barnabas sighed. He wanted to stop them from going, just so he knew everyone was safe, but common sense prevailed. The house had to be searched and there were no fitter or more capable men that Isaac and Myles. “Just stay safe. I don’t want any more deaths in this house.”
“Lock yourself in and don’t answer the door to anybody,” Myles ordered.
Before he left both he and Isaac scoured the room for clues. Once he was assured there was nobody lurking beneath the bed or in the adjoining dressing room, Myles turned to leave. “You need to come with us,” he said to Estelle.
“Yes, stay with us,” Isaac murmured.
There was something in his eyes that warned Estelle he still didn’t believe she was innocent. She almost hoped they would find the killer because it would then prove her innocence. However, she also began to pray that they wouldn’t find anybody. She didn’t want to come face to face with someone that cold-blooded.