She glanced over her shoulder and gave Mr. Edkins a dazzling smile. “It appears you have another caller.”
“Odd that. Normally I have none and now it is two in one day.” Mr. Edkins, a man of middle years and closely cropped brown hair, adjusted his spectacles and gave Chase a good examination.
“I have indeed called,” Chase said. “I hope that you will receive me even if you have already been intruded upon.”
“I suppose I can spare a bit more time.”
“Give me a few minutes with your last guest, please, before I ask that of you.”
Mr. Edkins closed the door. With nary a greeting, Minerva walked toward the gig. Chase followed.
“What are you doing here?”
“Bringing this good man greetings from Mrs. Fowler. They shared the same household for years.” She untied the horse’s ribbons and moved to the gig’s side.
Chase looked back at the cottage. Mr. Edkins could be seen watching from a window. He turned back to Minerva. “Do not move this gig until I come out.”
She pursed her lips. “I hope that was not the command it sounded to be.”
Damnation, the woman was infuriating at times. “Just. Don’t. Move.”
She climbed onto the gig and took the ribbons in her hands. “I think it will look very odd to Mr. Edkins if I sit in this gig for however long you are in there. There was a nice, sunny spot near the last crossroad, beside a pretty stream. If you ask nicely and do not dare command, I may wait for you there.”
He gritted his teeth. “Would you be kind enough to wait so I may have a few words with you?”
She began to turn the horse. “Perhaps. Now you should attend to Mr. Edkins. He intends to go fishing soon.”
She moved the gig down the lane. With one more curse under his breath, he presented himself at the door with card in hand.
* * *
What did you tell that woman? Chase could not ask outright, much as he wanted to. Instead he asked his own questions and looked for signs that Mr. Edkins had heard them already, recently.
They settled into a pleasant sitting room with good light from handsome windows on the front of the house. The entire cottage had an appealing if spare appearance. This chamber held good proportions and a distinctive, carved mantel on the fireplace. The furniture, such as it held, showed quality. Mr. Edkins had spent wisely and well, and not been especially frugal. Of course with the pension he received in the will, he did not have to stint.
The man was younger than Uncle Frederick had been, perhaps fifty years old. The large pension he received had surprised the solicitor, and angered the family. He’s another fifteen years of service in him before a settlement like that, Dolores had complained. Uncle Frederick had thought differently, and now Mr. Edkins lived like a gentleman on a nice spot of land on a lake.
“I picked this cottage because I can fish whenever I want to.” Mr. Edkins waxed eloquent about his property when Chase complimented him on it. “Never could all those years. Missed it. Now I go out there whenever I fancy.” His thumb jabbed toward the back of the house.
“I am glad my uncle afforded you that ability,” Chase said. “Have you had much contact with his family or the servants from the houses?”
Edkins shook his head. “It is an odd thing. Hard to explain. When it is over, it is over. The people that filled your days—the family are employers, and the other servants are . . . like other monks in their cells, laboring in the monastery beside you.” He grinned at the analogy. “The friendships are all very formal.”
“I would have expected the longest serving of you to remain in contact. Letters and such.”
“I’ve sent a few and received a few. It was all so sudden and recent, wasn’t it? I expect in a few years we will write when something of interest leads us to.”
Chase resettled himself in the upholstered chair. “I have come to ask you some questions. I hope that you will share some information with me.”
Did he imagine that Mr. Edkins glanced to the window and out to the yard where Minerva had so recently been?
“Has anyone else already quizzed you about that night?” Chase asked. Damnation, what did you tell that woman?
“There was a man at the house, soon after His Grace died, before I left. He came for only a day and asked questions of many of us.”
“The magistrate?”
“I think so. I was so in shock that I did not much pay attention to his name and such. I didn’t care for his manner with us. He did not ask questions so much as bark them, if you understand me.”
“Did you answer his questions?”
Mr. Edkins assumed the bland expression that all servants knew how to wear. “Of course. Such as they were. He wanted to know what I knew about my master’s death. The answer was nothing at all. I was asleep at the time. He also wanted to know my master’s movements that day. I told him what I knew for certain because I had seen it. When he rose from bed, when he went below. I did not think it wise to report what I was told he would do, such as ride out or such as that. If I did not witness it, I did not tell this man it had happened.”
“Wise of you. What you heard would happen or did happen may not have happened, and including that could complicate the information.”
“Thank you, sir. Although I confess that I did it out of pique at this man’s manner. I admit that my goal was to give him as little as required.”
Chase stood. “Will you show me the lake? If you want to fish, you can. My questions will not take long, but they may be more specific than the magistrate’s.”
Mr. Edkins led the way through the house. He removed a rod and some equipment from a tall holder near the garden door. Together they exited the garden through a back portal and walked the fifty feet to the lake. Edkins set about preparing his rod while Chase took in the peaceful scene.
The valet cast his line. Chase sat on a large tree stump.
“Mr. Edkins, were any family members at Melton Park that day, or during the three days before?”
“I saw none and heard none. The butler would know better than I.”
“The duke may have mentioned it while you tended to him, however.”
Edkins moved his lure in a long, deep circle. “He mentioned no relative’s name to me.”
The man was answering the way he had answered the magistrate. Guarded. That alone piqued Chase’s curiosity. Had Minerva received more forthright answers? She had no standing to ask, which alone may have garnered her more.
“Did anyone visit? Anyone at all? A neighbor, perhaps. A business associate. Even if you did not know the name and did not serve them in any way, were you aware of anyone like that being on the property?” He could find no other way to cover all eventualities.
Edkins studied his line. He made the lure bob. He appeared not to have heard the question.
“One,” he finally said. “That afternoon. I looked out into the garden and saw His Grace with someone. A woman.”
“One of his sisters?”
“I can’t say. I don’t think she entered through the house. I think perhaps she came in the garden from the back. I could not see her well. I only know it was a woman from the bonnet and such. They were among the trees in back, strolling.”
“Do you think he expected her?”