‘There was the sound of Terence speaking at someone at the front door, footsteps in the hall and then Will appeared at the doorway. ‘I’m sorry, but I have rather burned my boats and I cannot stay at the Rectory any longer.’ He looked pale and strained and, Theo suspected, not far from tears. ‘I have resigned.’
‘From the ministry?’ Laura jumped up and put an arm around him. ‘Oh, Will. You are cold and tired. Come and have dinner and a glass of wine.’
‘No, not the ministry, but from my post here.’ He allowed himself to be led into the dining room. ‘When the Archdeacon had gone Mrs Finch demanded to know where the papers were that I had intended to study for information about the tomb.’
The others came in and he broke off in confusion, was introduced, blinked at the discovery that Flynn, who had taken the seat opposite him, was the Duke of Calderbrook’s valet and subsided into silence.
‘They know all about it,’ Theo said and brought Will up to date with the descent of the Swinburns, Pitkin’s masquerade, the reason the other two men were there and Laura’s adventures that afternoon.
By then Will had consumed a bowl of oxtail soup, a glass of wine and was making inroads into a crab savoury and his colour was returning to normal. ‘I’m sorry to arrive without any notice at all, but I didn’t have anywhere else to go,’ he apologised.
‘Where else would you come?’ Perry asked, clearly meaning it to be rhetorical. ‘We are all friends here.’
‘And now I can appoint you to one of the livings at my disposal,’ Theo said. ‘Welcome, Vicar Thwaite.’
‘I… Thank you. You are so kind. But the Bishop may not think me worthy, especially with all this.’ He waved a hand as though to encompass everything from false tombs to smugglers and French gold.
‘Bishop Bathurst seemed to feel you had nothing to feel guilty about and the bishop in question for those livings of mine is the Bishop of Bath and Wells who is a distant cousin. If he doesn’t trust my judgment we’ll have Cal to write a reference and smother it with ducal seals. That will do it.’
‘So you can stop worrying and tell us why you were driven to resign,’ Flynn said, reaching for the last of the crabs.
‘It was all very awkward, my arriving unannounced on the doorstep with the Archdeacon and having to explain why I had gone behind my Rector’s back and then there was the awful news to break to Mrs Finch about her uncle. And then we had to go up to the Manor and tell Sir Walter. And he was raving about scandal and interfering curates and why couldn’t the Reverend Finch keep me under control? And I thought Giles was going to hit me and Charles looked as dense and confused as he always does and kept asking for it all to be explained over and over until Lady Swinburn burst into tears.’
‘Aunt weeping?’ Laura looked as though she could not believe it.
‘It was temper mostly, I suspect,’ Will said, looking uncomfortable. ‘Then Mrs Finch became angry too – with her brother and sister-in-law, I think, and said several rather regrettable things in French. I suppose it sounds more, er, genteel than in English. Like menus,’ he added, looking confused by his own train of thought.
‘Anyway, we finally left to drive back to the Rectory and Mrs Finch asked what I had done with the documents that I said I was going to study when we were researching the tomb. She wanted to know where I had found them. And I suddenly felt, quite strongly, that I did not want to tell them, which was very wrong of me, but – ’
‘Instinct,’ said Jared.
‘That’s it!’ Laura exclaimed before Will could reply. ‘I knew there was something the other day – it was the fact that Will had the documents and was attacked whereas Theo, who didn’t, has been left alone.’
‘That could be it,’ Will said. ‘It was certainly instinct that made me say that I did not know where they were and pretended I was confused about finding them because of the knock to my head. And that was very wrong, because I did know. But I salved my conscience because I had left them in my bedchamber here and I wasn’t precisely sure where they might have been put.’
‘Laura’s right, they were probably what almost got you killed,’ Theo said. ‘I think you were very wise to say you didn’t know.’
‘Not wise,’ Perry contradicted. ‘Because if Finch is behind the attack then they’ll keep pursuing it.’
‘The Rector?’ Laura and Will said in chorus as Perry rang the bell for dessert.
‘I have always thought him ambitious, but here he is, stuck in rural Norfolk which, however charming, is hardly at the centre of affairs. I suspect that his wife did not bring a large dowry and he does not appear to have a great deal of family money, or influence, behind him. What if he has discovered a source of wealth that will help him to his ambitions?’
‘This has been going on for some time, this loss of agents and gold,’ Jared said. ‘Surely the Rector would be making his move before now?’
‘We had better locate the box of papers and look at what’s in it tonight,’ Perry said. ‘But we haven’t told you or Laura about what we found in the tomb this afternoon.’
‘You went back?’ Will said. ‘Wasn’t that a risk?’
‘We thought no-one would dare go there until at least the Archdeacon had left,’ Theo said. ‘And look what we found.’ He dug in his pocket and dropped six more gold coins on the table. ‘Just like the first one, marked by the London Mint.’
‘Where were they?’ Laura asked.
‘There was a pile of rubble in one corner, they’d rolled into the cracks. And the floor was…’
‘Was what?’
‘Stained,’ Jared said. ‘It might not have been blood, I suppose, but it looked very like it to me.’