Chapter Ten
Perry and Will exchanged glances as they heard the front door close. ‘Hogget has a wife.’
‘I gathered that. Lady Swinburn referred her in passing at the dinner party.’
‘A somewhat mysterious woman,’ Will said. ‘There have been rumours and Hogget is understandably sensitive about them. As a result he hits back in ways which are not always… wise.’
‘Hogget’s first wife died a while ago.’ Perry slumped back comfortably into his armchair. ‘The unfortunate woman was not right in her mind, he took her up to Town eighteen months ago and she never came back. Then he returned a year later with a new, young, Mrs Hogget who promptly fell out with the Swinburns who tried to patronise her. The trouble is, she is not gently-born and I suspect her father may be some tradesman, or a small merchant perhaps. She has good manners which are almost too perfect, if you know what I mean, and her accent slips from time to time.’
‘Not like you to turn up your nose at the smell of trade, Perry,’ Theo said mildly. ‘Not unless the lady is not quite respectable. An actress, was she?’
‘I don’t turn my nose up at her,’ Perry protested. ‘She appears perfectly virtuous and decent, if somewhat strong willed, from what little I’ve seen of her. But I’m hardly on such terms with Hogget that I’d be inviting him and his lady to dinner by themselves – he’s a good ten years older than I am. If I meet her I’m perfectly amiable, I assure you.’
‘And she is very intelligent,’ Will put in. ‘But after her falling-out with Lady Swinburn she refuses invitations when the Swinburns are also expected to be guests which must be a trifle limiting in close country society. The lady behaves with perfect circumspection, but it cannot be easy for her.’
‘Makes you wonder why Hogget stays around here,’ Perry said. ‘Let alone accepts dinner invitations from the Swinburns,’ Theo said. ‘I’d have thought it would be much easier to make a fresh start somewhere else and avoid all this unpleasantness.’
‘Yes, odd that. Perhaps he is too attached to the family home. I suppose he tolerates the Swinburns or he’d have no social life at all.’
‘Not very loyal to his wife.’ Theo gazed into the mesmerising depths of his brandy. He’d had one too many, trying to drown out the thoughts of Laura, and now he felt his lids begin to droop as he tried to chase the tails of two or three wisps of thought that vanished like the fumes of the spirit even as he reached for them. ‘Rotten for Mrs Hogget. She must be lonely.’
‘She does not appear to let it lower her spirits – a very independent lady, that one,’ Will said. He too looked as though he should be in bed. ‘I often see her riding about, usually without a groom. Or she drives herself. She doesn’t attend church and she always seems to be not at home when I call, but apparently she does much good amongst the poorer families – shoes for children, that kind of thing.’ He smothered an enormous yawn.
‘We have kept you up too late – and you look ready to drop as well, Theo, which is what you get for late night dinners with respectable widows.’
‘Your appetite is improving, Will.’ Laura smiled at the curate as he accepted a plate of bacon and eggs and began to spread butter on a slice of toast with a lavish hand.
‘I feel very much better in myself,’ he explained. ‘My head and my back still hurt, of course, and I certainly do not feel up to walking far or even standing for long – but my brain appears to be functioning a lot better, my body feels as though it needs the food to heal faster and I’m impatient to be up and about.’
‘If not delivering a lengthy sermon,’ Perry said with a grin.
‘Who was that who called last night after I had retired?’ Laura asked. She had pulled the blankets over her head and refused to let herself be curious when she had heard the door knocker. The men had wanted to talk together without female interference, she’s suspected. Theo certainly no longer seemed so anxious to involve her, to be with her. Which was for the best, of course. If it was anything urgent someone would tell her soon enough.
Now she listened attentively as the men recounted as much of the previous evening’s visit as they could recall through the lingering brandy fumes. ‘So Mr Hogget changed the subject and attacked Will verbally immediately after you started asking questions about his father’s death?’
‘Damn it, so he did,’ Perry said. ‘Er, sorry, Laura.’
She flapped a hand, dismissing his swearing. ‘So was his father murdered, do you think? And had he suspected it, or was it your questioning that made it occur to him for the first time? If it was your questions, then he could have tried to divert you all from the subject while he thought it over – It would be a dreadful shock to suddenly suspect something like that.’
‘And if he was murdered then, from what Hogget was saying, it was because of a local secret that he knew,’ Theo said. He smiled at her and suddenly that warm feeling of a shared puzzle, of two minds working together, was back. ‘But if this secret was so dangerous, why the devil didn’t Hogget senior tell his son, or write it down or act on it?’
‘Because it was so dangerous?’ Will suggested. ‘Or he enjoyed the power of hugging the knowledge to himself.’
‘Could well be the case, but I don’t know if it gets us any further forward,’ Perry said. ‘When are we going to look at the tomb and who is coming with us?’
‘You, me, Jed and Tom Waggett,’ Theo said. ‘Hopefully that’s enough to raise the top if we take crowbars and ropes. I don’t want to use servants of yours, Perry. If there’s trouble as a result, they are local parishioners and shouldn’t have to be involved.’
‘And me,’ Will said firmly. ‘I am not going to have you disturbing tombs in my churchyard in my absence. If there is nothing wrong with it and someone is buried inside, then I want to ensure it is resealed reverently.’
‘And me,’ Laura said. The men all turned to look at her as though she had declared the intention of flying. ‘I will go mad if I’m cooped up here much longer. I’ll wear male clothing then if anyone sees me from a distance they won’t recognise me.’
‘Male clothing?’ Perry said faintly.
‘I’m sure Pitkin can find me something to fit.’
‘You will reduce him to hysterics,’ Theo said with a grin that said quite clearly that he supported her, that she should be involved, whereas Perry, bless his conventional soul, was shocked. ‘He gets embarrassed when I don’t wear a nightshirt. Er, sorry, shouldn’t mention such things to a lady.’
In the end, they set out with Laura, in a hastily-modified suit of Pitkin’s own clothing, sitting on the floor of the curricle under the rug that was draped over Will’s knees. Two crowbars, several coils of rope, some wooden blocks and two lanterns were wedged uncomfortably around her.