The Marquess Tames His Bride

‘Makes no difference who anyone claims to be. The old girl won’t let anyone in to see her these days apart from my granddaughter, to read her the latest rubbishy novels that come into the circulating library, and the vicar, to give her communion    .’

‘Is that so?’

‘Just said so, didn’t I?’ The Colonel took a deep breath, as though wrestling with his temper. ‘Anyway, back to your chaplain, or whatever he was.’

‘He was my chaplain,’ said Rawcliffe, defensively.

‘Be that as it may, he had no business throwing himself off the cliff under my watch!’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Don’t hold with suicide,’ said the Colonel with a scowl. ‘Especially not over a woman. Can understand a man taking a pistol to his head if it is a matter of honour, or—’

‘He did not commit suicide,’ said Rawcliffe firmly.

‘Hmmph,’ grunted the Colonel. ‘Well, of course, I didn’t put that down in my report. Thought it would be too upsetting for the family. Wouldn’t have been able to give him a decent burial. Slur on his memory and so forth. Did I do wrong? Jeavons seems to think so. And I would have thought he’d rather the place didn’t get a reputation for accidental drownings, when he wants to make his fortune turning Peacombe into a fashionable watering hole. Not that anyone could bathe here anyway, couldn’t get the bathing machines down that beach—’

Rawcliffe cut in. ‘Would you mind telling me your reasons for suspecting it was a suicide, rather than an accident?’

‘Well, what else was I to make of it? He comes down here, asking questions about his young lady, not six months after she threw herself off a cliff…’

‘I beg your pardon? Young lady?’

‘Yes. Dreadful business that. Breaking her heart the way he did. Wouldn’t think he had it in him to seduce and abandon a woman to look at him, would you?’

‘Definitely not.’ Archie could barely string two sentences together at the best of times, unless it was something to do with science. The notion of him suddenly becoming eloquent enough to seduce a young woman, let alone behave so contrary to his gentle nature as to abandon her, was utterly preposterous.

‘Wouldn’t have believed it myself,’ said the Colonel, ‘if I hadn’t got it from Cottam.’

‘Cottam?’ Rawcliffe’s hackles rose.

‘Yes. Our latest vicar. Crusading sort of chap. Thinks he can tame the local smugglers by living cheek by jowl with them and holding regular prayer meetings, or some such rot,’ he said scornfully. ‘From your neck of the woods, by all accounts, so I dare say you know all about him.’

‘Yes,’ said Rawcliffe. Though it was beginning to look as though he’d underestimated him. ‘You say the Reverend Cottam informed you as to Mr Kellet’s state of mind? They…spent some time together, then?’

‘Oh, yes, they were thick as thieves. Terribly upset, Cottam was, after the drowning. Presented himself to me, almost as soon as we found the body, to tell me all about it.’

‘I see.’ Though what he saw was that he should have warned Archie to be on his guard around Cottam. That he should have listened to his instinct to prevent Archie from coming down here at all. But then, everyone had urged him to let Archie undertake the quest as an aid to his flagging self-esteem. Nobody had thought there would be any danger attached to visiting an elderly lady, to find out what she might have to do with the theft of several sets of jewels. Nobody had thought it would have ended in murder.

But…Cottam had been upset. Perhaps it was the smugglers with whom he was now involved who had so brutally disposed of Archie. ‘What, precisely,’ he said, hoping that he might be able to exonerate Cottam from the charge of murder, if not the rest of it, for Clare’s sake, ‘did Cottam tell you?’

‘Well, firstly, it was on account of his work with fallen women that he knew the girl at all. He thought he’d put her back on the straight and narrow, but I could have told him how it would be. A leopard doesn’t change its spots, eh? Anyway, she came running to Cottam when this young Kellet feller broke her heart. And in spite of all his counselling, she gave way to despair. Threw herself off the cliffs. I suppose Kellet did show some remorse in the end, coming looking for her the way he did. And, when he heard what happened, followed her, in a fit of despair.’