Brewster shrugged. “Damned if I know. A woman turned up one day for a basket of coal. Don’t know her name. I don’t think she was from around here. She started nosing around the yard, you know, petting the horses, that kind of thing.”
“What did she look like?”
Brewster frowned absently at the floor beneath his boots. “Well, she was about medium height with brown hair. There was nothing odd about her, if that is what you are about to ask. I had a barn empty and she asked if I rented it out. I don’t usually and didn’t want to rent it to her, if I am honest. I don’t want people coming and going from my yard at all hours, so I named her a sum that would shock you out of your boots.” He gave Mark a completely unrepentant grin and Mark smothered a smile. “To my shock, she handed the money over on the understanding that I house her horse in the field with mine. She moved the carriage in within the hour and now, each month, gives me the money to pay for the rent of the barn.”
“Same amount each month?”
Brewster nodded and named a sum that made Mark whistle.
“Did you get a name?”
“Nope. Didn’t ask, don’t care. I told her that if she didn’t pay the rent, I would sell the blasted carriage, and horse, but she has turned up each month with the cash as promised.” The man shrugged.
“Has she ever used it, as far as you know?”
Brewster shook his head. “It goes out sometimes but I am a busy man and don’t pay it that much attention.”
“Do you not live near the coal yard?” Mark knew that the nearest house to the coal yard was the general store across the road but, on a still night, it would be easy to get the carriage out of the yard without too much noise.
“There has been the odd day when it has been gone in the morning when I get there, and stayed out all day. From when I open up to when I close at the end of the day but not very often.”
“You live in Tipton Hollow?”
“Aye, near the riverside.”
Mark nodded. “So it is being used, you just don’t know when.”
“She doesn’t have to report to me.”
“You haven’t seen it arrive and leave? No sign of any occupiers, coachmen or anything?” Mark sighed. “I take it that the woman has a key to the yard?”
“Aye. That was the proviso for the huge amount of money. I can secure the coal because I lock it into the sheds at night. She insisted on having a key in case she needed the carriage for emergencies. For the amount that she is paying me I can hardly object, so I gave her a spare. Mr Thomas from the general store made her a new one for the lock.”
“I see that Miss Smethwick is one of your regular customers.”
“The entire village are my regular customers,” Brewster replied wryly.
“I need you to think carefully. Do you think that the woman who owns the carriage looks like any of the villagers?”
“A relation to one of them you think?” As sharp as a tack, the man turned curious eyes on Mark. “You mean like Miss Smethwick?”
Mark sighed and wondered if he had just handed over the latest juicy gossip to the locals and made his job considerably harder. He studied the dark frown on Brewster’s face as he considered the possibility, and sighed when the man slowly shook his head.
“I didn’t see any resemblance there at all. But I can’t say for sure if she looked like anyone else. There wasn’t anything striking about her, that’s for sure. Someone with cash like she has would stand out, if you know what I mean.”
Mark did. They could afford to travel in style and would dress far more finely than most of the villagers. If they blended in, they did so for a reason.
&nbs
p; “When was the last time you saw the carriage being used?”
“About last week, I think. On Sunday, I think. Dropped back at the yard on my way home from church and noticed it wasn’t there.”
“Sunday,” Mark replied wryly, and remembered of his sighting of the carriage in Great Tipton.
“Does Miss Smethwick come for her coal on a daily basis?”
Brewster sighed and shot Mark a wry look. “Damned woman is unnerving, I don’t mind admitting it.”