Read Online Petty Treason by Madeleine E. Robins - Free Book Online

sheets, much bloodied. He wore his nightgown; the nightcap still clung about his head. I approached near enough to the bed to see that he was not alive. I then ran from the room and called to Peter Jacks, the underfootman, to fetch the officer of the watch. I summoned Mrs. Sadgett [the cook] to assist Pitt, who was still much affected by her discovery. When the officer of the watch arrived I brought him to Mr. d’Aubigny’s chamber. The doors were always kept locked at night, after Mr. d’Aubigny had returned for the evening. Most nights he returned before one in the morning. On the night before the murder he came home by eleven, and the house was locked up then. The doors were locked in the morning, which I know in consequence of Jacks having to throw the bolt in order to leave the house and fetch the watch.”

    The coroner was reported to have thanked all the witnesses for their time and cooperation in recalling an event so obviously distressing. The jury was charged and adjourned, and in short order had returned a verdict of willful murder against a person or persons unknown, the obvious conclusion under the circumstances. Still, the reports left Miss Tolerance with more questions than answers. The single most striking one, to her mind, was this: why, in the testimony of these witnesses, was there no mention at all of summoning to the site of the murder the person most closely connected to the chevalier: his wife, Anne d’Aubigny?

Four
    W illiam Colcannon called the next morning to escort Miss Tolerance to Half Moon Street personally. He apologized half a dozen times to her as they made their way to the d’Aubigny house, and wondered aloud who Mrs. Vose was. This struck Miss Tolerance as odd: the woman had seemed fully at home in the d’Aubigny household; the servants had evidently taken her word as law. How should the widow’s brother not know Mrs. Vose?
    “Were you not in the habit of visiting your sister, sir?”
    They walked along Duke Street, which at this hour was thick with tradesmen seeking out the service entries of the great houses to which they brought food, flowers, casks of ale, and cases of wine and sundries. Miss Tolerance let herself seem to be watching a pair of carters carry a pianoforte, but observed her companion closely.
    Mr. Colcannon flushed.
    “I did not—that is, I am so much in the country, Miss Tolerance. It was not always convenient to visit.”
    Miss Tolerance nodded. “But you and your sister are on comfortable terms?”
    “We are on most affectionate terms, ma’am.” His tone was just short of protest.

    “And you and your brother-at-law?”
    Colcannon colored yet more deeply. “He and I—were not friends, if that is what you mean.”
    “You will pardon me if I ask why, sir?”
    “I did not like his treatment of my sister,” Colcannon said. “I know one cannot interfere between a man and wife, but it made it damned uncomfortable to visit and see Anne—” He broke off, his eyes focused on some scene in his mind.
    “She was unhappy? What did the chevalier do to cause her unhappiness?”
    “What did he not?” Colcannon said with bitterness. “You know, at the first their marriage seemed promising. It took nearly a year for d’Aubigny to change—”
    “Change, or revert to previous behavior?”
    Colcannon looked blank. “I cannot say. I did not know him before he married my sister. My father had inquiries made—”
    “But they largely concerned his income and his prospects, I collect. Please go on.”
    “At first he seemed merely thoughtless, taking her for granted. Then he became discourteous, and in the last years, brutal. There is no other word for it. He humiliated her. He made fun of her country accent and how she ordered the household. If I took dinner with them he would mock what was served and what she wore and what she said—all in a tone which invited me to be scornful too. Anne told me if I tried to speak to him it would only make things worse.